Poetry

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Poetry
A poem is created by putting words together in an
interesting way to express a feeling, create a
mental picture, tell a story, or make a sound.
Poetry entertains the ears and the eyes.
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Poems Everywhere
Poems can be found in many places. They are in
your reading book and in lots of places in and
out of school.
You might have a collection of poems in one book
all written by the same author, like this book by
Shel Silverstein
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Or you might find a collection of poems, written
by various authors, but printed in the same book.
This is called an anthology.
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Poetry Parts Verse and Stanza
Verse usually means a line of poetry, but
sometimes means a whole poem
Dust of Snow by Robert Frost The way a crow Shook
down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock
tree Has given my heart A change of mood And
saved some part Of a day I rued.
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Stanza

• A stanza in a poem is like a paragraph in an
  essay.
• Each stanza is usually separated by some blank
  space.
• Common stanza lengths are two, three, four, six
  or eight lines.

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How Many Stanzas Does This Poem Have?

• Snevington Snee by Jack Prelutsky
• Im Snevington Snee
• And from seven till three
• I hang by my toes
• From a coconut tree.
• Ive plenty of time
• And its hardly a crime,
• And no one seems willing
• To do it for me.

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Rhyme
Repetition of end sounds is called rhyme.
My dog chewed up my homework. He slobbered on it,
too. So now my homeworks ripped to shreds, And
full of slimy goo. (Bruce Lansky)
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Rhyme Scheme

• Rhyme scheme can be determined by marking
  similarly rhyming lines of the poem with a letter
  of the alphabet.

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Rhyme Scheme

• Here is a poem by Jack Prelutsky with an A-B-C-B
  rhyme scheme
• Grizelda Gratz kept sixty cats A
• She fed them very well B
• On angel cakes and raisin flakes C
• And acorns in a shell. B

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Now Its Your Turn

• Can you identify the rhyme scheme of this poem by
  Mary ONeill?

Green is the grass And the leaves of trees Green
is the smell Of a country breeze.
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Consonance

• The repetition of consonant sounds in nearby
  words, especially at the ends of words, as in
• blank and think
• or
• strong and string

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Free Verse or Unrhymed Verse
Free verse or unrhymed poems do not rhyme or have
regular rhythm.
American Walt Whitman was one of the first poets
to publish free verse poems.
I hear America singing, the varied carols I
hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as
it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter
singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The
mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or
leaves off work (From I Hear America Singing
by Walt Whitman)
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Rhythm

• Rhythm is a regular, patterned repetition of
  sounds in a poem (the beat).
• Rhythm and rhyme can give poetry a musical
  quality.

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Figurative Language

• Poets and other writers often use figurative
  language and other poetic devices to make their
  writing more interesting and expressive.

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Examples of Figurative Language

• Alliteration
• Onomatopoeia
• Simile
• Metaphor
• Idiom

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Alliteration
Alliteration is when almost all of the words in
the line have the same beginning sound.

• Down the slippery slide they slid
• Sitting slightly sideways
• Slipping swiftly see them skid
• On holidays and Fridays.
• by Michael Rosen

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Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is fun to say and easy to remember!
It is the imitation of sounds in word form.

• The rusty spigotsputters,uttersa
  splutter,spatters a smattering of drops,gashes
  widerslash,splatters,scatters,spurts,finally
  stops sputteringand plash!gushes rushes
  splashesclear water dashes.by Eve Merriam

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Combination

• Sometimes a poet will combine two or more
  literary devices. Can you tell what two devices
  are used in the verse below?

ice cubes clinking clatter clink, crazily
inside my drink from Ice Cubes by Joan Graham
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Simile
A simile is a comparison using _____ or _____.
Can you fill in the blanks?

• Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in
  and out of your head. from Arithmetic by Carl
  Sandburg

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Metaphor

• On the first snowfall there is a pinhole in the
  pillow of the sky
• a feather from a white dove is falling from the
  sky
• (from On the First Snowfall by Eve Merriam)

What makes this an example of a metaphor?
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Idiom

• An idiom is a phrase whose words have a different
  meaning other than its original meaning.

Dont worry. The math test on fractions is a
piece of cake!
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Enjoy Poetry!

• Poetry opens up a whole new world that is
  different from prose. Try these things

Check out a poetry book from the Learning Center.
Start a collection of poetry by copying your
favorites into a poetry journal.
Try your hand at writing some of your own poetry.