Poetry is one of the four major genres, or categories, of literature. The four major genres are: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama.

Writing poetry is the ultimate exercise in descriptive writing and word choice.

◦ Play with language◦ Express feelings◦ Explore ideas◦ Discover the extraordinary in the ordinary

things around us.◦ In the end, poetry should make you feel and

think. To be a poet, you must see the world

around you differently. You must look beyond the literal and embrace figurative language.

Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of a society embracing a common humanity. Common language leads to common humanity.

Over the next few days POETRY will be our common language in our discovery of a common humanity.

Our class sessions throughout this unit will include active learning using the genre of poetry.

We will:◦ Read ◦ Listen◦ Respond◦ View◦ Connect◦ Develop◦ Find our own voice◦ Recite◦ Celebrate!

How might poetry change your life?

In addition, realize that good observation leads to good writing.

The skills you learn in this unit do not apply to poetry alone.

During this unit, we will move from poems that require specific structures to free verse.

Yes! You will think of poetry in new ways and you will:

analyze poetry using your poetry toolbox. author a free-verse Pulitzer poem.

The study of poetry improves your command of spoken and written language in FOUR ways:

1. Poetry study is a powerful way of mastering language - improving your command of spoken and written language. Poetry provides powerful images and ideas.

2. Poetry study is a way of training and developing our EMOTIONAL intelligence. Poetry reveals how language communicates feeling through images and associations – figurative language.

3. We realize that HOW something is said is an essential part of what is actually being said. Tone, inflection and rhythm carry real meaning.

4. Poetry study enlarges our humanity and give us the power to express it. Our experience is widened, allowing us to see the world through the eyes of other people and other ages.

The study of poetry will help us make those text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections!

Poetry will help us with an understanding of important life events like:

Love and Desire Earth and Death Loneliness and Loss

Literature prepares us imaginatively and spiritually for our journey through life.

Helps develop an inner life capable of facing, comprehending, and mastering our external life.

Mastering poetry will help you with: Language Perception Communication Compassion

Poetry is speech raised to its highest intensity; a way of using words in the most moving and memorable way possible.

Poetry is about memory and improvisation – just like a rap star! Shakespeare and Frost and 2Pac? -- yes!!

Poetry is about the wonder of our language through written word, speech and songs.

A word is deadWhen it is said,

Some say.

I say it justBegins to live

That day.#1212 By Emily Dickinson

Pick a word – any word Write the word in capital letters on the

first line. Find three to five synonyms in a

thesaurus. Write the synonyms on the second line. On the third line, write a descriptive

phrase about the word. The last two lines of the poem should

rhyme.

LOVEAttachment, warmth, adoreLove is pure, down to the core. 

By K. Brantley, Grade 10

DIAMONTE: a seven-lined, diamond-shaped poem that begins with one subject and ends with its opposite. Specific parts of speech are used to create the poem.

What are the eight parts of speech and what do they do?

◦ Noun: person, place, thing, or idea◦ Adjective: describes a noun◦ Verb: action word◦ Adverb: describes a verb or another adverb◦ Conjunction: combines words, phrases◦ Interjection: word or phrase that shows

excitement or emotion – ugh! Oh!◦ Preposition: indicates position or relationship

subject/noun

adjective adjective

-ing verb -ing verb -ing verb

noun noun noun noun

-ing verb -ing verb -ing verb

adjective adjective

subject/opposite of top subject

Winter

cold, icy

freezing, frosting, snowing

blizzards, flurries sunshine, sprinklers,

melting, sweltering, sweating,

warm, heat

Summer.

CINQUAIN: a five-line poem that follows the pattern of (1,2,3,4,1) words in each line.◦ Line 1: A subject/noun◦ Line 2: Two adjectives◦ Line 3: Three verbs◦ Line 4: Four-word phrase, statement, or feeling◦ Line 5: Repeated subject or synonym

HatredDeadly, destructiveStirs, simmers, scaldsMore fatal than flamesRancor

OceanSalty, immenseSprays, churns, movesDarker than any blackWater

By D. Mitchell, Grade 7

HAIKU: an ancient Japanese poetic form that contains 17 syllables in three lines of (5, 7, 5) syllables each. Nature’s wonder is often the haiku’s theme.

◦ Line 1: 5 syllables◦ Line 2: 7 syllables◦ Line 3: 5 syllables

It comes out afterall the rain has fallen down.Rainbow is its name.

By C. Brooks, Grade 8

Literary Devices

Candles cry wax tears. Cats tango in the streets I called out to the ocean, and she waved

back to me.

◦ Can these objects actually do these things?◦ Which literary device (figurative language)

type is used here?

PERSONIFICATION: a literary device used to give human traits to places, objects, animals, or ideas.

I know what I seeThe blue spruce outside my windowIs kneeling for morning prayers.Meanwhile, the oak across the streetScratches the back of the tired skyAnd a small bush next doorEmbraces the innocent sparrow.

--From “I Think I Shall Never See…”By Jim Heynen

The morns are meeker than they wereThe nuts are getting brown –The berry’s cheeks are plumper –The Rose is out of town.

The Maple wears a grayer scarf –The field a scarlet gown –Lest I should be old fashionedI’ll put a trinket on.

--#12 by Emily Dickinson

The short, thin body of the treeWith its long, tangled hairStands all aloneAgainst the forlorn, pale sky.

--“A Tangled Mess”By M. Visgilio, Grade 7

An ocean is as deep as our memories. The teacher’s voice is like sandpaper. The night is like a blanket.

◦ What two things are being compared in each of these sentences?

◦ Which literary device is used here?

SIMILE: A literary device used by writers to show that two unrelated things may have something in common.

A simile is a comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as” to make the comparison.

What happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry uplike a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore –And then run?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over –like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sagslike a heavy load.Or does it explode?

“ A Dream Deferred”By Langston Hughes

The light shade of purpleslowly fades into yellow.The end of many petalslooks like 100 hands reaching for you.The glowing petals feelas soft as a silk blanket.The petals lookas graceful as a ballerinaspinning in a tutu.The smell is as sweet and thickas a jar of honey.This is my beautiful flower.

“My Flower”By S. Doelger, Grade 7

What sound does a duck make? How about a dog? A cat? Lunchtime? Bedtime?

◦ There is a literary term for words like quack, woof, meow, munch, and snore. What is it?

ONOMATOPOEIA: a literary device that appeals to sound. It is the imitation of natural sounds. The word itself sounds like the actual sound.

Was there really a man’s squeaky voice?Or was it Thomas just making a noise?The dancers dancing: tap, tap, tap!Someone trying to come in: rap, rap, rap!The flashing lights,The dressed-up boys,Lots of commotion,And much noise.

“Party”By M. Li, Grade 7

Cats swing danceIn the middle of the alley,As the trumpet screamsAt the top of its lungs,Until it is red in the face.Beep-beep-boo-bop-bop the music goes.When it will stop,Nobody knows.

“Swing Music”By K. Smyth, Grade 7

The ocean is a memory. The teacher’s voice is sandpaper. The night is a blanket.

◦ What two things are being compared here?◦ How is the comparison different than the other

day?◦ What literary device is used here?

METAPHOR: a literary device used by writers. A metaphor is used to compare two unlike objects thought to be the same. A metaphor does not use “like” or “as” to compare the objects.

The sky is the ocean, an endless boundless sea,A stormy sea of white-capped waves.The front is an endless line sweeping across the sky.A low-flying plane is a seagull struggling against the wind.The waves froth back and forth, rocking the boat that is

me.The thunder is the song of whales calling in the distance.The lightning is a lighthouse calling me back.The classroom is a harbor where I am safe from the

waves.The storm comes.

“The Sky is an Ocean”By A. Schoell, Grade 8

Alliteration is the repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words. Sometime poets use alliteration as a substitute for rhyme.

And sings a solitary song that whistles in the wind. (Wordsworth)

Edwin Markham's "Lincoln, the Man of the People" is in unrhymed blank verse, but there are many lines of alliteration:

She left the Heaven of Heroes and came down To

make a man to meet the mortal need A man to match the mountains and the sea The friendly welcome of the wayside well

Robert Frost's "The Death of the Hired Man" begins: Mary sat musing on the lamp-flame at the table

Waiting for Warren. When she heard his step. . . . The eye immediately sees the alliteration in the

"m's" in "Mary sat musing" and the "w's" in "Waiting for Warren. When. . . .”

Rhyme is very simply the similarity between syllable sounds at the end of two or more lines.

Some kinds of rhyme include: Couplet: a pair of lines rhyming consecutively.

Eye rhyme: words whose spellings would lead one to think that they rhymed (slough, tough, cough, bough, though, hiccough. Or: love, move, prove. Or: daughter, laughter.)

Some say the world will end in fire,Some say in ice.From what I’ve tasted of desireI hold with those who favor fire.But if it had to perish twice,I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also greatAnd would suffice.

“Fire and Ice”By Robert Frost

The tears start rollingDown his dirty cheeks,Like a rainstorm sproutingIn the stark parched desert.His famished body weak and tired,He stands there, desperate for a better life.He is all alone, living in a country overcome bypoverty,Without the necessities for a complete life.

“A Tear Drop”By M. Visgilio, Grade 7

As she looks at me,With guilt in her eyes,There is no frown, no smile,Only a smirk highlights thepale skinThat the sun could not embrace.Looks as if she thinks of herself as a disgrace.

“Looking at Me”By A. Ross, Grade 7

The water is frigidLike an early winter’s dayMy limbs have lost all feelingAs if they were never thereThe rapids rush pastSomeone tries to helpLife passes in and out of meI cannot tell if I am aliveOr watching from aboveFear strikes me like lightningAnd then it is goneI am in a bedWaking from a dream, maybe.Or was it reality?

--“Drowning Life”By S. Conley, Grade 7

They are there,In our moments of dark,They are bright.In their uniforms they leave glorious,Always doing their jobs.The intense heat,Not all of them make itSome left behind.They always save us in time.They are there,In our moments of need,To make a difference.

“They are There”

By K. Galarza, Grade 8

SONNET: a 14-line poem that begins with three quatrains and ends with a couplet. The couplet usually contains a surprise ending or “turn.” Shakespeare is one of the most famous sonnet writers in history.

Quatrain – four line stanzas which may or may not rhyme; (abab is popular)

Couplet – a pair of lines which rhyme.

Shall 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. W. Shakespeare