Prose, Free Verse, Shape Prose Poetry A prose poem is written as prose, but has a subtitle rhythm of figurative language (similes, metaphors, symbols) and vividly captures a scene or creates an effect as poems do. Prose poetry looks like normal writing, but it is the figurative language that makes it poetry. (13 lines minimum) Free Verse Free verse provides the freedoms to work without specific form, syllable counts, or rhyme patterns, but it should still feature figurative language and musical devices. This one looks like a normal poem, but don t be bound by syllables or rhyming. (14 lines minimum) Shape Poetry Sometimes called concrete poetry, shape poetry is choosing and forming your words for a visual effect. You will be forming a shape with your words. The words and phrases you choose will need to be related to the shape that you choose. There is no minimum, but it should have a pleasing effect.
Example of Prose Poetry The Port A Port is a delightful place of rest for a soul weary of life's battles. The vastness of the sky, the mobile architecture of the clouds, the changing coloration of the sea, the twinkling of the lights, are a prism marvelously fit to amuse the eyes without ever tiring them. The slender shapes of the ships with their complicated rigging, to which the surge lends harmonious oscillations, serve to sustain within the soul the taste for rhythm and beauty. Also, and above all, for the man who of mysterious and aristocratic pleasure in contemplating, while lying on the belvedere or resting his elbows on the jetty-head, all these movements of men who are leaving and men who are returning, of those who still have the strength to will, the desire to travel or to enrich themselves. --Charles Baudelaire
Examples of Free Verse Winter Poem Nikki Giovanni once a snowflake fell on my brow and i loved it so much and i kissed it and it was happy and called its cousins and brothers and a web of snow engulfed me then i reached to love them all and i squeezed them and they became a spring rain and i stood perfectly still and was a flower When I heard the learn'd astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room, How soon unaccountably I became tired and sick. -Walt Whitman
Example of Shape Poem A big wish of many children through the country is to finally see Santa Claus when he delivers toys to their homes this Christmas Eve. Many other kids just wish that they could have some food to eat, a safe place to lay, and a warm place to wish that they were like these other kids. Remember these other kids this year. If you have not already done so, you should consider giving to many of the deserving charities you see in our area. Even if you can t give a lot right now, whatever you can give will light up a child s holiday.
Prose, Free Verse, Shape Prose Poetry A prose poem is written as prose, but has a subtitle rhythm of figurative language (similes, metaphors, symbols) and vividly captures a scene or creates an effect as poems do. Prose poetry looks like normal writing, but it is the figurative language that makes it poetry. (13 lines minimum) Free Verse Free verse provides the freedoms to work without specific form, syllable counts, or rhyme patterns, but it should still feature figurative language and musical devices. This one looks like a normal poem, but don t be bound by syllables or rhyming. (14 lines minimum) Shape Poetry Sometimes called concrete poetry, shape poetry is choosing and forming your words for a visual effect. You will be forming a shape with your words. The words and phrases you choose will need to be related to the shape that you choose. There is no minimum, but it should have a pleasing effect.