Poetry Introduction
Poetry.. 1. Rhymes 2. Is boring and difficult 3. Is musical 4. Can be powerfully emotional 5. Is whatever you want it to be 6. Is a picture painted with words 7. Should be performed 8. Has a strong message
This Is Just To Say I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold
1. What is your favourite food? 2. Where is your favourite food stored? 3. If this food is meant for someone else, when are they planning on eating it? 4. The plums were delicious, sweet and cold. Which three adjectives would you use to describe your favourite food?
This Is Just To Say I have eaten the 1 that were in 2 and which you were probably saving for 3 Forgive me they were 4 so 4 and so 4
Imagery Poets often use imagery to create a clear picture for the reader. Similes and metaphors are the two most commonly used forms of imagery.
A Dream Deferred What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like 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 sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?
A Dream Deferred What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like 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 sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?
A Dream Deferred What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like 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 sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?
Metaphor I'm a riddle in nine syllables. An elephant, a ponderous house, A melon strolling on two tendrils. O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers! This loaf's big with its yeasty rising. Money's new-minted in this fat purse. I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf. I've eaten a bag of green apples, Boarded the train there's no getting off.
Alliteration Britain s Biggest Bingo Bonanza! Super Scots Shock Sorry Swedes I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet When far away an interrupted cry Came over houses from another street,
Rewrite the following headlines using alliteration 1. Prices cut at Slater s. 2. Motherwell triumph in the cup. 3. Celebrity disgraces himself. 4. Local school receives fantastic report.
Rhyme I know an old bloke his name is Lord Jim He had a wife who threw tomatoes at him. Now tomatoes are juicy- And don t injure the skin But these ones did They was inside a tin.
Roses are red Violets are blue Most poems rhyme This one doesn t.
Rhythm Fat black bucks in a wine-barrel room Barrel-house kings, with feet unstable, Sagged and reeled and pounded on the table, Pounded on the table, Beat an empty barrel with the handle of a broom, Hard as they were able Boom, boom, BOOM, With a silk umbrella and the handle of a broom, Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM.
Juxtaposition Putting one thing beside another. Poets often put images beside each other in an unexpected way.
A Child Is Singing A child is singing And nobody listening But the child who is singing:
Bulldozers grab the earth and shower it. The house is on fire. Gardeners wet the earth and flower it. The house is on fire, The houses are on fire.
Fetch the fire engine, the fire engine s on fire. We will have to hide in a hole. We will burn slow like coal. All the people are on fire.
And a child is singing And nobody listening But the child who is singing.
Personification To give human qualities to something which is not. The wind cried Mary. The camera loves me. The car engine coughed and spluttered. The tropical storm slept for two days.
Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room. "Ah, William, we're weary of weather," said the sunflowers, shining with dew. "Our traveling habits have tired us. Can you give us a room with a view?" They arranged themselves at the window and counted the steps of the sun, and they both took root in the carpet where the topaz tortoises run.
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. I am not cruel, only truthful--
Personify the following sentences. Change the words in parentheses to words that would describe a human's actions: 1.The puppy (barked) when I left for school. 2. The rain (fell) all night. 3.Hair (is) on my head. 4.The CD player (made a noise). 5.The player piano keys (moved up and down). 6.The space shuttle (took off). 7.The little arrow (moves) across the computer screen.
Punning A way of using words, so that more than one meaning comes over at the same time. He ate so much over the Christmas holidays that he decided to quit cold turkey. I couldn t quite remember how to throw a boomerang, but eventually it came back to me. Did you hear about the lonely prisoner? He was locked in his sel.
Oxymoron A figure of speech that contains two normally contradictory terms. A fine mess Alone in a crowd Bittersweet Living dead Healthy tan
Identify the following techniques 1. A comparison which uses like or as. 2. To give human qualities to something which is not. 3. Repetition of consonants at the beginning of words. 4. Placing unusual images beside each other. 5. A comparison which says one thing is another. 6. The musical beat of a poem. 7. A figure of speech that contains two normally contradictory terms.
Slow As a limping cow Or a mighty bull With its legs split in two.
Long dark night is the silence in front of me
Limbo Limbo like me Limbo Limbo like me
Louis he was King of France before the revolution Then he had his head chopped off Which spoiled his constitution
Brash with glass, name flaring like a flag, it squats in the grass and weeds, incipient Port Jackson trees:
The older of the two with grey iron hair and hunched back looking down like some gargoyle Quasimodo
Ah, sweet mystery; Come to break the frozen lake in me, Shaking the foundations of the very trees within me, That the earth is the earth is the earth.
A child is singing Bulldozers grab the earth and shower it. The house is on fire.
A police man says to the tramp asleep under a park bench: You re under a rest.
You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns When they all come down and did tricks for you You never understood that it ain't no good You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat Ain't it hard when you discover that He really wasn't where it's at After he took from you everything he could steal. How does it feel How does it feel To be on your own With no direction home Like a complete unknown Like a rolling stone?
I never saw so sweet a face As that I stood before: My heart has left its dwellingplace And can return no more