Text Connections. Text Connection 1. Circle Poems Take Many Forms. Comprehend It. Use the Clues A: Vocabulary Strategies

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1 Text Connections Text Connection Circle Poems Take Many Forms A poem begins with a lump in the throat, a home-sickness or a love-sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where the emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the words. Robert Frost, 20th century poet What Is Poetry? Poetry is a special kind of literature. A poem uses words sparingly 1 and imaginatively. Most poems are meant to be read out loud because the language of poetry combines the qualities of speech and song. Use the Clues A: Vocabulary Strategies Read lines Use meaning signals and context clues to answer the question in the bold heading, What Is Poetry? Circle the meaning signal. Highlight the context clues that helped you define poetry. Answer the questions below in the space provided. 1. What does Robert Frost think is the purpose of a poem? 2. Why is the sense of hearing important to poetry? 15 Poetry often includes six major elements: thought, form, imagery, melody, meter, and mood. In this unit, we will be learning about two elements: thought and form. The thought is the sum of the poet s ideas. One element of a poem s thought is its theme. A poem s theme may be stated as a universal truth, a truth that is not limited by time and space. 1 sparingly: in a limited manner Unit 25 Text Connection 1 C1

2 Text Connection 1 3. Circle the punctuation marks in Outwitted that the poet uses to help establish the meter, or rhythm, in the poem. Which line in the poem has two pauses? 4. Who or what helps the speaker take in the person who excluded him? 5. What initial consonant does the poet repeat in the third and fourth lines to add rhythm and music to the poem? 20 Poems come in many different forms as well. Let s look at two major forms of poetry: closed form and open form, or free verse. Closed form poetry is written in specific patterns, often with regular rhythm, line lengths, and line groupings called stanzas. Open form poetry does not use regular rhythmic patterns, has varying line lengths, and has no set line groups or stanzas. Use the Clues B: Vocabulary Strategies Read lines Use meaning signals and context clues to define the phrase closed form. Circle the meaning signal. Highlight the context clues that helped you define closed form. 25 Closed Form Our first experience of poetry is often nursery rhymes and songs, so we usually think that poetry rhymes. Rhyming poetry is one kind of poetry; it repeats the same or similar sounds of words in a defined pattern. For example, in the poem below, the word out rhymes with flout. Read the poem out loud. What other two words rhyme in the poem? Outwitted by Edwin Markham He drew a circle that shut me out Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout 2. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in! C2 Unit 25 Text Connection 1 2 flout: to scorn; disregard

3 Text Connection What are the thought and theme of this poem? What makes Outwitted a closed form poem? Haiku A Closed Form The haiku poetry form originated in Japan. A haiku consists of three lines with 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. Because there is a limit to the number of syllables in each line and the number of lines, it is considered a closed form. Even though haiku poems are very short, they are intended to convey 3 profound 4 emotion and insight. Read the poems out loud. Count the number of syllables in each line. From Haiku: This Other World by Richard Wright #745 In the summer lake, The moon gives a long shiver, Then swells round again. #716 With mouth gaping 5 wide, Swallowing strings of wild geese Hungry autumn moon. Identify It: Adjectives What adjective describes shiver? What adjective describes geese? 6. What do you think might have happened to make the image of the moon in the lake look like it was shivering? 7. How might the moon look like it was swallowing geese? 8. Draw a box around the words in each haiku that show the poet is describing a full or near full moon. 3 convey: to express; communicate 4 profound: very meaningful 5 gaping: opening wide Unit 25 Text Connection 1 C3

4 Text Connection A haiku is often about an individual experience with the environment that transcends everyday experience. Read the haiku poems out loud again. What are the thoughts or themes being expressed in these haiku poems? Open Form or Free Verse Another form of poetry is called free verse or open form. Free verse does not have regular rhyme. Free verse uses the natural rhythm of language to emphasize the thought and theme. Free verse is a form preferred by many modern and contemporary poets. Use the Clues C: Vocabulary Strategies Read lines Use meaning signals and context clues to define the phrase open form. Circle the meaning signal. Highlight the context clues that helped you define open form. C4 Unit 25 Text Connection 1

5 Text Connection Read the following poem out loud. Describe the poem s thought and theme. The Life of a Man Is a Circle by Black Elk, Lakota Sioux The life of a man is a circle From childhood to childhood, And so it is in everything Where power moves. Our teepees were round like the nests Of the birds, and these were always set In a circle, the nation s hoop, A nest of many nests, Where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children. Identify It: Prepositional Phrases and Predicate Adjectives 9. How is the line From childhood to childhood related to the idea of a circle? 10. What does the speaker compare the Lakota Sioux to in the second part of the poem? 11. Draw a slash after each word in the poem where punctuation indicates you should pause. Then read the poem aloud again. 1. What prepositional phrase modifies life? 2. What predicate adjective describes teepees? 3. What prepositional phrase modifies nests? Unit 25 Text Connection 1 C5

6 Text Connection What two words rhyme in the poem? 13. Mark where you should begin to read the poem with an X. Why should you begin at that point? Concrete Form An Open Form Concrete poetry is a unique kind of poetry. The concrete poem uses a visual image to create its meaning. Concrete poems often have few words. The way the words are arranged on the page is as important to the meaning of the poem as what the words say. Read the following poem out loud. What is the thought or theme of the poem when it is read out loud? Hearing a concrete poem read out loud may not give the listener the whole experience or appreciation of the poem. A reader must see the poem on the page to understand the poem. Read the poem again. What is the theme or thought of the poem when it is typed in a circle on the page? What makes this poem an open form poem? The Life of a Man Is a Circle, reprinted with permission from Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux by John G. Niehardt #716 and #745, reprinted with permission from Haiku: The Other World by Richard Wright I Was Walking in a Circle, used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers C6 Unit 25 Text Connection 1