Poetry

Unit 4 Part 1

What is a poem?

A poem is a piece of writing that uses a pattern of lines and sounds to express ideas, emotions, and personal thoughts.

The writer of the poem is called a poet.

A poem can:

tell a story make you visualize rhyme have rhythm have words that are symbols

Tell a story

FIFTEENSouth of the Bridge on Seventeenth

I found back of the willows one summerday a motorcycle with engine running

as it lay on its side, ticking overslowly in the high grass. I was fifteen.

I admired all that pulsing gleam, theshiny flanks, the demure headlights

fringed where it lay; I led it gentlyto the road and stood with that

companion, ready and friendly. I was fifteen.

(two stanzas from a poem by William Stafford)

Visualize

Make you visualize (picture in your mind) the characters, events, and places written about.

Think about:– What do you see as you read the first stanza?– How does the poet feel?

Dust of Snow by Robert Frost

The way a crowShook down on meThe dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heartA change in mood

And saved some partOf a day I rued*

*rued: felt sad about

Rhyme and Rhythm

A poem can rhyme. Words that rhyme end

with the same sound.– Example:

crow and snowme and tree

A poem can have rhythm, a regular repeated pattern of sounds; a distinct beat to a line.

– Example:

One, two,Buckle my shoe.

Three, four,Shut the door.

Symbols

Words in a poem can be symbols, which are words that represent themselves and at the same time have a larger meaning.– Example:

white is a color and also a

symbol of purity or innocence

What is the symbol that grass represents in the poem “Grass”?