Form Poems

Form Poetry BookPoetry

Acrostic Name Poem• A Name Poem describes a person (not you, but someone

important to you)—his or her trait(s) or characteristic(s) that define him or her. – Use his or her full name (First Middle Last)– The letters of the name are used as the first letter of the word in

each line– Each line contains at least three words– Lines are either enjambed or end-stopped and flow together to

create the poem

William Thomas MilltenWonders if beingIntelligent in Math and Loving me makes him Lose his mind.

If this is the case, then

Alphabet Poem• An Alphabet Poem uses letters of the alphabet as points of departure for lines or

entire poems.– Method 1: Select a single letter of the alphabet (upper OR lower case), look at

it, and brainstorm what images and ideas its appearance suggests. Write these down and create a poem of at least eight lines. The following is an example written by e.e. cummings.

who are you, little i

(five or six years old)peering from some high

window at the gold of november sunset

and feeling: that if day has to become night

that is a beautiful way

Alphabet Poem (continued)– Method 2: Use all of the letters of the alphabet (a – z OR z – a) as the first

letters of the twenty-six words of the poem. Your poem will have at least eight lines. The example below was created by fourth-grader Kismani Andrade.

Zachary yelled x-rayswhile Valerie unkindly tore sweatsocks, running quicklypassing objectionable nitwit moneylaughing & killing;Janet’s illness hastily got funny.especially deliriouscausing beautiful amnesia.

Alphabet Poem (continued)– Method 3: Use all the letters of the alphabet to make almost every word in a

line begin with the same letter. You must use at least 8 consecutive letters of the alphabet to write an eight-line minimum poem. The following is a example created by Joomi Park, another fourth-grader.

Ann announced an aardvark accidentally ate another awkward aardvark.Barry banned Beaker Bean’s banker bat.Cats courageously cooked canned, cut dogs.Debonair Darcy danced delightfully to death.…and so forth

NOTE: Of course, you can create your own alphabet poem form…the point is to play with the letters. These poems should be silly!

Elizabethan SonnetWrite an Elizabethan sonnet. Remember: your sonnet must contain• 14 lines • A specific (end) rhyme scheme (words at the ends of lines who rhyme perfectly--or almost;

an Elizabethan sonnet’s rhyme scheme is ABABCDCDEFEFGG)• Iambic pentameter (each line having 10 syllables with every even-numbered syllable

containing the beat or stress)• A comment on or expression of love as the central theme (NOTE: It can be love of

anything...just so it’s love.)

Sonnet 18 by William ShakespeareShall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate.Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date.Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmed;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Chance or Cut-Up Poems• This is a method with Dadaist roots, an artistic philosophy honoring the random

and absurd. Dadaist literature was a style of poetry that revolted against a world that man's intelligence had failed to control.

• You may capitalize or lowercase letters, add small words (such as conjunctions, articles, or “be” verbs) and punctuation, and prefixes and suffixes.

• Give the poem a title.• When you put it into your book, you may write the poem by hand or type it.• Your poem must be at least 16 lines long.• You must try both forms.

• Chance Poem #1: Pick 25 words from the bucket and keep them in the same order that you picked them. You may arrange the line breaks any way you want to as long as the words remain in the same order that you picked them from the bucket.

• Chance Poem #2: Using the same 25 words, write another poem. You may rearrange the words and use them in any order this time.

Limerick• A Limerick has five lines.• Lines 1, 2, and 5 has 9 syllables, with each 3rd syllable

stressed, and rhyme with one another. • Lines 3 and 4 has 6 syllables, with each 3rd syllable

stressed, and also rhyme with each other.

There was once a small seed in the sky,That did ride on the wind way up high.The big wind did die down,Dropped the seed on the ground,And never did to the seed said, “Goodbye.”

Imagine a skunk who proposes, To his true love, surrounded by roses. It may turn out just fine, When she falls for his line, But I wonder if flowers have noses?

An old moose of a hundred and two,

Decided at last what he wanted to do.

He would learn how to hula,

And make lots of moolah,

To teach others all that he knew. There once was a mouse who would eat, With never his hands but his feet. He had such awful manners, The townsfolk made banners, Saying, "Please take your meals down the street!"

Double Dactyl or Higgledy-piggledy • A dactylic foot contains an accented syllable followed by two unaccented ones.

– The word higgledy is a dactyl. DAdada.– Higgledy-piggledy is a double dactyl (/u u /u u).

• A double-dactyl or higgledy-piggledy is made up of two quatrains (four-line stanzas).– Each line contains two dactyls has six syllables, the accents falling on the first and

fourth. – Structure: The first three lines of each quatrain contains two dactyls.

• The first line is a nonsense phrase-which can easily be rhymed with the second line.

• The second line must be a proper name or at least a proper noun. • The final line of each stanza is a single dactyl followed by a single accented

syllable: DAdadaDA (/u u/).

• The second line of the second stanza must be made up of a single word. That means you have to find a six-syllable word that is accented on the first and fourth syllables!

• The final rule is that the last line of each stanza must rhyme.

Otherwise Represented As

Line 1: DA-da-da DA-da-da (nonsense phrase) ALine 2: DA-da-da DA-da-da (proper noun) ALine 3: DA-da-da DA-da-da BLine 4: DA-da-da DA C

Line 5: DA-da-da DA-da-da DLine 6: DA-da-da-DA-da-da (six-syllable word) ELine 7: DA-da-da DA-da-da FLine 8: DA-da-da DA C

Helliot SmelliotThomas Stearns Eliotsays that the twentiethcentury sucks. Miniver Cheevy's frayedPsychopathologycloaked in propriety'stop hat and tux

Arrogance Shmarrogance,Cheney & Rummy prance,Death's own prime ministerscloaking in God. "We'll make the world free,"psychopathologywearing a righteous mask,Bushmen of fraud.

Imitation Poem• Using the poem you brought in, write a poem that

imitates it.– Repeat words or phrases the poet repeats– Use the same form (if it is written in a form)—i.e.,

employ the same rhyme scheme, syllable count, and/or meter.

– Your poem should suggest the other poem through its imitation of the form.

Original: SONG by Quincy Troupe

words & sounds that build bridges toward a new tonguewithin the vortex of cadences, magic weaves therea mystery, syncopating music rising from breath of the young,

the syllables spraying forward like some cloud or mist hungaround the day, evening, under street lamps, yeasting air, wherewords & sounds that build bridges toward a new tongue

gather, lace the language like fireflies stitching the night's lungs,rhythms of new speech reinventing themselves with a flair,a mystery, syncopating music, rising from breath of the young,

where the need for invention at the tongue's edge, high-strung,at the edge of the cliff, becomes a risk-taking poet who shareswords & sounds that build bridges toward a new tongue,

full of wind & sun, breath feeds poetry from art's aqualungs,under a blue sea that is sky language threads itself through aira mystery, syncopating music, rising from breath of the young,

is a solo snatched from the throat of pure utterance, sung,or wordsmiths bluesing cadences, weaving lines into prayers,words & sounds that build bridges toward a new tongue—a mystery, syncopating music, rising from breath of the young

Rendition: Eye Saw You by Kate McClurefor Quincy Troupe

six-foot monolith steady soaring, dreadlocks swingingthrough pinetops, voice blowing hard like Miles bopsAurora’s palette, sketching on canvas clouds stretching across sky, painting Monk’s blue moods & stompingalternating tender strokes of ivory with crashing syllableslike a six-foot monolith steady soaring, dreadlocks swinging hip bop sounds & erecting ecstatic bridges arching towards a new tongue to praise Davis & Jordan withAurora’s palette, sketching on canvas clouds stretching syllabic limits towards mad heights with an axe grindingstone shining, worn smooth with rants against the man as a six-foot monolith steady soaring, dreadlocks swinging like hydras hissing, poised for a venomous bite fightingmonochromatic calculations, adding chiaroscuro hues toAurora’s palette, sketching on canvas clouds stretching all those blue notes to open ears & eyes in understandingof what it is to howl like Miles & jump like Michael & jazzAurora’s palette when you sketch on canvas clouds stretchinglike a six-foot monolith steady soaring, dreadlocks swinging

Cluster Poems• A cluster is a vowel or consonant cluster that appears as part of a word, such as rt, ft, rst, lm, ai, ou, ow.

– A cluster is never a mix or consonants and vowels (est, or).• This type of poem has four or more stanzas with a quatrain (four lines) in each stanza.

• Each line contains about 4-7 words; at least three of the words will have the cluster in it.• Each stanza of the poem should feature a different cluster. • Using a dictionary or thesaurus makes thinking of words easier.

Examples: Trains trip along the tracks (stanza features tr)Trying to transport Transylvanian travelers toTranquil, traditional traipses, notTreacherous or tremulous transepts, but Outlandish soup, outgrow croutons, where sounds (stanza features ou)Outcast, cry out loud, pour from the spoutOurselves who put down the sour groups--theOunces and pints and pounds heaped upon you Challenge One: Your stanzas alternate between consonant clusters and vowel clusters (1=st, 2=ou, 3=rt, 4=ai) Challenge Two: All of your clusters are three letters in length. Challenge Three: Your clusters spell out a word when lined up from the first stanza one to the last stanza (1=ch,

2=oo, 3=ch, 4=oo, 5=tr, 6=ai, 7=ns).

Children’s Animal PoemJournal in class:

1. Pick a favorite animal. Write down one behavioral characteristic that defines that animal. Describe the setting wherein you would normally find that animal. Write for two minutes while making up a story where something unexpected happens to that animal.

2. Pick what you believe is the opposite of that animal. Write down one behavioral characteristic that defines that animal. Describe the setting wherein you would normally find that animal. Write for two minutes about what would happen if these two animals met.

Pre-Writing

1. Make a chart and list the characteristics of two different animals. Make one row about behaviors; make one about appearance; make one about language/sounds that the animal makes. Then, “cross” or “mix” the two animals and combine their characteristics and appearance. Make a sketch of the animal in your notebook.

2. Come up with 3-5 possible names for your new animal, derived from combining the two animal names. For example, a rabbit and an alligator might be named a ralligator, a rabbigator, an alligabbit, a rabbitalligator, or something similar.

Creating your PoemWrite a poem about it that meets these requirements:* 24 lines total, broken into stanzas (2x12, 3x8, 4x6, 6x4)* use some type of repeated rhyming pattern* place the animal into some kind of “unexpected” event, at least from the point of view of a kid—maybe the “rabbitgator” is going golfing or singing in a band* describe the animal so well that readers can see the animal in their minds* use the same entire last line for every stanza, and in this line, the animal should say the same thing or make a certain “rabbigator” sound. Other recommended elements:* assonance, consonance, or alliteration makes the poem sound better* personification: kids can hear the animal’s words and thoughts as it reacts to the

unexpected in a human way (kids can then relate more easily)* similes, metaphors, and other comparisons* use all five senses in your description

Children’s Question – Answer Poem• Work with a partner on this poem (groups of 2).• Come up with a list of ten questions and answers that are appropriate for children ages 3-8

years of age. – Every question should be in the form of "Why . . . ?" and it should ask questions about

the world that a kid might ask--example: “Why is there air?”– Your poem will have ten “WHY questions.

• Every answer should be in the form of "Because . . . !" and it should give creative, specific answers that parents might give to questions that children might ask. For the question above--a parent might answer "Because airplanes can't fly in water!"

• Each question should repeat a word or phrase from the answer right above it.

Below is an example. The poem should follow this format.

Why is there air in the sky?Because airplanes can't fly in water.

Why did the birds land on the water?Because water is softer than a church's roof.

Why do people go to church for weddings?Because people want God to attend the wedding.

Why does God have such a big beard?Because it keeps Him warm in the winter.

Why do birds fly south in winter?Because poets can write poems about them.

Why do people write poems?Because it makes them feel like flying in the sky.

Concrete Poem• In this form, the words in the poem dramatize their

meaning by their shape--the way they appear on the page. – Use different typefaces, colors, and symbols to make the

poem something you read AND see.

• The poem’s form can relate to the subject, the poem’s theme, or both.

• 2 types we’ll try:– Outline: Draw a shape and fill it with words and symbols – Shadow: Suggest the shape by the form of the words

Old Flame

howmanyvigils

will yousurvive before

your resolve becomesa thick puddle at your

wick’s end? will you evershine again? and how much

dust will coat your body untilyou become indecorously tacky

with disuse? will you christen wallswith shadows or shadow walls with

your trembling profile? will youshine again? will you always fuela flame until your paraffin grave

liberates you from use andretires you to uselessness?

will you shine then?will you?

Table of Contents Formatting

Table of Contents At the Age of 74 . . . . . . . Found Poem. . . . . . . 2Blue Man Group . . . . . . Color Poem . . . . . . . . 3Adfhslajfhasfas . . . . . . Favorite Poem . . . . . . . 4Zafalhfasfod . . . . . . Shadow Concrete Poem . . 5

Determine the order in which your poems will appear—put them in that order. Considerations: strength of poem, subject matter, theme, and logical progression.

Author Biography

• Partner with a classmate, read his or her work to be included in the book, and write an author bio.– Third-person (name, he/she, him/her, his/hers, etc.)– One complete paragraph (topic sentence, supporting

information, clincher)– Provide details related to the poems (subject matter,

theme, detail)– Include anything else you think is relevant to the work

that will appear in the book