Structured Form: has a pattern of rhyme or meter



Poetry Vocabulary

Form: The way a poem looks on paper

Line: a verse of poetry

Stanzas: lines of poem may be arranged in groups

Structured form: poem has a regular repeated pattern of rhyme and/or rhythm

Free Verse: poem has no pattern of rhyme or rhythm

Speaker: voice of poem; it may be the poet or a character he or she creates

Tone: writer’s attitude toward subject. Is he serious, sarcastic or playful? How does the writer feel about his subject? What is his purpose for the poem?

Mood: the feeling the writer creates for the reader. Setting/atmosphere is important to mood. How does the poem make the reader feel?

Theme: It is an abstract idea that is expressed through a work of art.  A landscape painting might express beauty.  A song might be about love.  The story "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" portrays the author's opinion about honesty.

Imagery and Figurative Language: similar to special effects in a movie, they grab attention and help create mental pictures and moods.

Simile: comparison between two unlike things, using the word like or as

Metaphor: a comparison between two unlike things that does not contain the word like or as.

Personification: a description of an object, animal, place or idea, as if it were human or had human qualities

Rhyme: repetition of identical or similar sounds

Rhyme Scheme: pattern of rhyme in a poem

Rhythm (meter): the pattern of sounds created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables

Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words

Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds

Onomatopoeia: the use of words whose sounds suggest their meaning like buzz, hiss, and clap

Structured form: poem has a regular repeated pattern of rhyme and/or rhythm

“If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking”

By Emily Dickinson

If I can stop one Heart from breaking

I shall not live in vain

If I can ease one Life the Aching

Or cool one Pain

Or help fainting Robin

Unto his Nest again

I shall not live in Vain

“In the Event of My Demise”

by Tupac Shakur

In the event of my Demise

when my heart can beat no more

I Hope I Die For A Principle

or A Belief that I had Lived 4

I will die Before My Time

Because I feel the shadow's Depth

so much I wanted 2 accomplish

before I reached my Death

I have come 2 grips with the possibility

and wiped the last tear from My eyes

I Loved All who were Positive

In the event of my Demise

 Principle: value

Demise: death

Discussion

1. What is Dickinson’s philosophy of life? How do you know?

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2. What is Tupac’s philosophy of life? How do you know?

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Writing:

Collins: Compare the two poems in a short notebook response. Cite and explain at least one piece of text evidence from each poem (10 lines). Be prepared to share!

Free Verse: poem has no pattern of rhyme or rhythm

Tone: writer’s attitude toward subject. Is he serious, sarcastic or playful? How does the writer feel about his subject? What is his purpose for the poem?

“In the Inner City”

By Lucille Clifton

in the inner city

or

like we call it

home

we think a lot about uptown

and the silent nights

and the houses straight as

dead men

and the pastel lights

and we hang on to our no place

happy to be alive

and in the inner city

or

like we call it

home

Discussion:

1. How does the speaker of “In the Inner City” feel about the inner city? How does the speaker feel about uptown? What is the tone? Find two examples to support your answer.

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“Little Sister”

by Nikki Grimes

little sister

holds on tight.

My hands hurt

from all that squeezing,

but I don’t mind.

She thinks no one will bother her

when I’m around,

and they won’t

if I can help it.

And even when I can’t

I try

‘cause she believes in me.

1. Writing:

Collins: What word would you use to describe the tone of this poem? Cite and explain two pieces of text evidence to support your claim (10 lines). Be prepared to share!

Tone: writer’s attitude toward subject. Is he serious, sarcastic or playful? How does the writer feel about his subject? What is his purpose for the poem?

“This is Just to Say”

By William Carlos William

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

Waltz: lighthearted dance

Romped: played

Countenance: facial expression

“My Papa’s Waltz”

by Theodore Roethke

The whiskey on your breath

Could make a small boy dizzy;

But I hung on like death:

Such waltzing is not easy.

We romped until the pans

Slid from the kitchen shelf

My mother’s countenance

Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist

Was battered on one knuckle;

At every step you missed

My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head

With a palm caked hard by dirt,

Then waltzed me off to bed

Still clinging to your shirt

Discussion:

1. In the poem “This is just to say,” is the writer really sorry? What is his tone? Focus on the last stanza for clues.

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2.In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” what is actually happening? Is the dad being abusive or playful? Find two examples to support your opinion.

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Writing:

Collins: What language leads to reader to be confused by the tone of “My Papa’s Waltz?” Cite and explain two examples from the text to support your answer (10 lines). Be prepared to share!

Speaker: voice of poem; it may be the poet or a character he or she creates

“Mother to Son”

by Langston Hughes

Well, son, I’ll tell you.

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor-

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now-

For I’se still goin’ honey,

I’se still climbin,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

Discussion:

1. How old is the speaker? How do you know?

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2. How educated is she? How do you know?

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3. What is her economic status? How do you know?

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4. Where does she live? How do you know?

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5. What is her attitude toward life? How do you know?

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“I Never Said I wasn’t Difficult”

By Sara Holbrook

I never said I wasn’t difficult,

I mostly want my way.

Sometimes I talk back or pout

and don’t have much to say.

I’ve been known to yell, “So what,”

when I’m stepping out of bounds.

I want you there for me and yet,

I don’t want you around.

I wish I had more privacy

and never had to be alone.

I want to run away.

I’s scared to leave me home.

I’m too tired to be responsible.

I wish I were boss.

I want to blaze new trails.

I’m terrified that I’ll get lost.

I wish an answer came

every time I asked you, “Why?”

I wish you weren’t a know-it-all

Why do you question when I’m bored?

I won’t be cross-examined.

I hate to be ignored.

I know,

I shuffle messages like cards,

some to show and some to hide.

But, if you think I’m hard to live with

you should try me inside.

Discussion:

1.What does the line 24 mean, “I shuffle messages like cards?” Given an example of a mixed message the speaker gives out?

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2.What is the tone of the speaker?

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Writing:

Collins: Use one word to describe the speaker of this poem and support your answer with two examples from the text (10 lines).

Theme: an abstract idea that is expressed through a work of art.  A landscape painting might express beauty.  A song might be about love.  The story "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" portrays the author's idea about honesty.

Possible literary topics to consider are listed below. 

Ambition

Death

Peace

War

Friendship

Jealousy

Beauty    

Loneliness

Betrayal

Love

Loss

Courage

Loyalty

Perseverance

Fear

Prejudice

Freedom

Suffering

Happiness

Truth

Duty

Patriotism

REMEMBER: THEME IS NOT JUST ONE WORD. IT IS A STATEMENT!

“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay. 

Discussion:

1.What happens in this poem to nature’s first green?

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2.What happens to the Garden of Eden?

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3. What happens to the day?

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4. Frost describes these events for a reason. What do they all have in common? What is the theme of this poem?

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To find theme:

• Look at language and imagery

• Look at events

• Make connections between them

• Ask yourself: what is the author trying to say with the pattern of language, imagery, and events?

“Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!

When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;

When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,

And the river flows like a stream of glass;

When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,

And the faint perfume from its chalice steals--

I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats its wing

Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;

For he must fly back to his perch and cling

When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;

And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars

And they pulse again with a keener sting--

I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,

When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,--

When he beats his bars and he would be free;

It is not a carol of joy or glee,

But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,

But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings--

I know why the caged bird sings!

Discussion:

1. What does the caged bird do in Dunbar’s poem?

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2.What type of song does the bird sing? Is it a happy song?

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3.What human experience is Dunbar describing using the metaphor of the caged bird? What is the theme of this poem?

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Imagery and Figurative Language: similar to special effects in a movie, they grab attention and help create mental pictures and moods. Poems rich in imagery appeal to the senses to help the reader experience the text.

“Preludes” excerpt

By T.S. Elliot

The winter evening settles down

With the smell of steaks in passageways.

Six o'clock.

The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

And now a gusty shower wraps

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet

And newspapers from vacant lots;

The showers beat

On broken blinds and chimneypots,

And at the corner of the street

A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.

And then the lighting of the lamps.

“A Dream Deferred”

By Langston Hughes

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?

Pick one of the above poems and list imagery.

1.What can you smell?

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2.What can you see?

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3.What can you hear?

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4.What can you taste?

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5.What can you feel?

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|“Identity” |

|by Julio Noboa Polanco |

| |

|Let them be as flowers, |

|always watered, fed, guarded, admired, |

|but harnessed to a pot of dirt. |

| |

|I'd rather be a tall, ugly weed, |

|clinging on cliffs, like an eagle |

|wind-wavering above high, jagged rocks. |

| |

|To have broken through the surface of stone, |

|to live, to feel exposed to the madness |

|of the vast, eternal sky. |

|To be swayed by the breezes of an ancient sea, |

|carrying my soul, my seed, |

|beyond the mountains of time or into the abyss of the bizarre. |

| |

|I'd rather be unseen, and if |

|then shunned by everyone, |

|than to be a pleasant-smelling flower, |

|growing in clusters in the fertile valley, |

|where they're praised, handled, and plucked |

|by greedy, human hands. |

| |

|I'd rather smell of musty, green stench |

|than of sweet, fragrant lilac. |

|If I could stand alone, strong and free, |

|I'd rather be a tall, ugly weed. |

Writing:

Collins: Describe the theme of “Identity.” How is imagery used to support this theme? Use three examples to support your answer and be sure to explain these examples (10 lines).

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