Poetry – English 10 - Mt Greylock Regional High School



Poetry – English 10

Mr. Dils

1. What makes a good poem?

2. What are the devices and strategies writers use to create their poems?

3. How do writers use devices and strategies to develop ideas and themes within their poems?

Part I – Understanding and Analyzing Poetry

1. Literary Terms Handout

2. Poetry Quotations

3. Starting Poems: “We Real Cool”/Brooks; “Punk”/Burt; “The Lady Knife-Thrower”/ Halpern; “Gretel in Darkness”/ Gluck

5. Narrative Poems: “The Skater of Ghost Lake”/ Benét; “The Centaur”/ Swenson; “Louis B. Russell”/ Guernsey; “First Practice”/ Gildner;

6. Metaphor: “The White Man Pressed the Locks” “Metaphor”/ Plath; “When She Was Here Li Bo…”/ Williams; “The One Girl at the Boys Party”/ Olds

Poetry Forms: Villanelle, Pantoum, Sonnet

Part II – Writing Poetry

1. POEM-A-NIGHT 2005

W 1/5 read Starting Poems

Th 1/6 study for vocabulary #5 quiz

F 1/7 read “The Skater of Ghost Lake”

M 1/10 begin studying poetry terms for quiz on Friday

T 1/11 read the rest of Narrative Poems

W 1/12 look for contemporary poem & poet

Th 1/13 study for poetry terms quiz

F 1/14 read Metaphor Poems; decide on poem for paper/reading

M 1/17 no school

T 1/18 work on draft of poetry explication

W 1/19 read Poetry Forms poems

Th 1/20 work on draft of poetry explication—bring to class

F 1/21 finish poetry explication

M 1/24 prepare for dramatic reading of your poem

T 1/25 vocabulary #1 (quarter 3)

W 1/26 POEM-a-NIGHT #1

Th 1/27 POEM-a-NIGHT #2

F 1/28 study for vocab. quiz

M 1/31 POEM-a-NIGHT #3

T 2/1 POEM-a-NIGHT #4

W 2/2 draft #2

Th 2/3 draft #3

F 2/4 finish final draft

ASSIGNMENT #1 – DUE: Monday, January 24

Research a poet who has published new poetry within the last 35 years and choose a poem of your liking. Your poem should not pre-date 1970. The poem should be substantial enough to generate a three-page paper. You will be writing an EXPLICATION of the poem, which means you will explain all aspects of the poem, including LITERAL MEANING, SOUND (meter and devices), FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, TONE, and THEME. The important question to answer in this explication is: how do the devices of the poem (sound, figurative language) contribute to and develop the writer’s theme? More details will follow as we move closer to writing about poetry.

ASSIGNMENT #2 – DUE: Monday, February 7

You will write a new poem each night, spending at least 45 minutes on each poem. Each poem should be a completed draft. Here are a few ground rules:

All poems should be 12 lines or longer. Play with word combinations. Experiment with line breaks. Experiment with the visual presentation of your poem. Strive for originality. Keep it concrete. Take risks. ALWAYS read your poems out loud when writing and revising—poetry is rhythm and sound.

 

REMEMBER: Each day, one or more of your classmates will read your poem, and on one day all of your classmates will read your poem. Also, you may be asked to read your poem to your classmates. With this idea in mind, be sure the copy of the poem you bring to class is typed, or VERY NEATLY hand-written.

 

Topics for each poem are as follows:

NIGHT #1 -- ALTER EGO

Create an alter ego and put that person in action. Rely on strong verbs. PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO SOUND. Try to match the sound of your poem with the subject.

 

NIGHT #2 -- CHOICE NIGHT -- EMOTION

A. Capture an emotion (longing, pain, sorrow, elation, lust, etc.) in a situation or scene without mentioning the emotion in the poem or in its title.

OR…                                               

B. Write a poem to your real or imagined worst enemy.

 

NIGHT #3 – METAPHOR

Choose a subject and describe it in metaphors or similes. You may choose to use an extended metaphor (ex. “White Man Pressed the Locks”) or a series of metaphors (ex. Plath’s “Metaphors”).

 

NIGHT #4 – FIXED FORM

Write a pantoum, a villanelle, or a sonnet. Or, you may write a poem with a fixed meter and regular rhyme scheme. Remember, all poems should be twelve lines or longer! Avoid cheesy and predictable rhymes!

DRAFTS – Once you have completed all four drafts, you will decide which poem you are going to develop into your final poem. You will play with and work on three more versions of your poem in addition to the one you’ve already written. The fourth and final version of your poem will be the one that you will turn in and that I will grade. You will also turn in all of your other poems, for a grand total of 8 poems (4 originals, 2 drafts, 1 final product).

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