8th Grade Poetry Project

By: Megan

Marcinkowska

• Definition: The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words.

• Example: Summer sea

Gulls and BuoysBy: Anne LeMieux

  Gulls swoop, gulls soar,

  Flocking, flying, gulls galore.

Gulls wheel, gulls wing,

  Clamorous chorus, gulls sing.

  Gulls squawk, gulls screech

  By the buoys, on the beach.

  Gulls gather, gulls together,

  Raucous caucus, birds of a feather.

 

Anthem for Doomed Youth

By: Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, ―

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.

The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

 

• Definition: The repetition of a vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end with different consonant sounds.

• Example: snow and road – snow and road

Snow Country

By: Dave Etter only

a little

yellow 

school bus

creeping along

a thin 

ribbon

of snow road

splashed color 

on the white

winter canvas

that was 

Wyoming

from the train

yesterday

Swift Things are Beautiful

By: Elizabeth Coatsworth

 

Slow things are beautiful:

The closing of the day,

The pause of the wave

That curves downward to spray.

• Definition: The repetition of sounds at the ends of words.

• Example: fight and light

space and place

Is Your Head on Nice and Tight?

By: Kalli Dakos

Is your head on nice and tight,

Do your kneecaps fit just right,

Did you shine up all your skin,

And bring your belly button in?

Have you lost a toe or two

And could your brain be overdue?

Please look in the Lost and Found,

If your ears are not around.

Hiding in the Bathroom

By: Kalli Dakos

I’m hiding in the bathroom,

There’s no one here to see,

I’m tired of my classroom,

And I wish they’d set me free.

Free of all those noisy kids

Rattling round the room,

And calling me such awful names –

I’ll never last till June!

Free of that darn substitute

Who screeches and who yells…

The bathroom is the nicest place

To sit and wait for bells

• Definition: Uses like or as to compare two unlike things.

• Example: I breathe fire as hot as the sun.

A Red, Red Rose

By: Robert Burns

O My Luve's like a red, red rose,That's newly sprung in June;O My Luve's like the melodieThat's sweetly play’d in tune.

Flint

By: Christina Rossetti  

An emerald is as green as grass,A ruby red as blood;

A sapphire shines as blue as heaven;A flint lies in the mud.

• Definition: Describes one thing as if it were something else.

• Example: My brother is a killer whale.

The Wave Of Love

By: Gavin T. Hewitson

We are all one, we are all unique and beautiful

Each one of us a star, shining beauty bright

Love is inside our hearts and our hearts are full

Once you open your heart love shines it's light

• Definition: The use of words that imitate sounds.

• Example: boom, crunch, bang

Slurp!

By: Melissa KerkOh no!

I hear something

Crash ahhhhhh

Something’s near

I have a lot of fear

Clink, clink, clink

It’s here, it’s here

It’s black in the room

It’s on my bed!

SLURP!

Oh it’s just my cat!

MEOW!

Rattle Snake

By: Kenny Mack

Rattle, rattle a snake goes through the desert

Hiss, hiss, rattle, rattle

He’s sees an egg, snatch, crunch, crunch, gulp.

Then he slithers down the hill of the desert

Slither, slither.

• Definition: Gives human qualities to something nonhuman.

• Example: The clarinet sang.

The Cat and the Fiddle

By: Mother Goose 

Hey diddle, diddle,

The cat and the fiddle,

The cow jumped over the moon;

The little dog laughed

To see such a sport,

And the dish ran away with the spoon.

• Definition: A figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used to create

emphasis.

• Example: I had so much homework, I needed a pickup truck to carry all my books

home!

Longmobile

By: Shel Silverstein

It’s the world’s longest car, I swear,

It reaches from Beale Street to Washington Square.

And once you get in it

To go where you’re going,

You simply get out, ‘cause you’re there.

• Definition: Poetry that takes the shape of the subject it describes.

• Example:

Star

Light

Star bright,

Star shining

In the dark of

night, over a cavern deep and dark, Inside the cave

a baby’s born, who shall die on the cross, But

Do not mourn, for he is the one to save

our race, for we have fallen

from grace, Three kings

and three shepherds have

Come by your light, through

this cold, dark, and

Winter y nig

h t.

By: Stephen Neville

Poe's                  raven told         him nothing nevermore                  and Vincent's circling                    crows were a threat to destroy                      sunlight. Now I saw a bird, black with a yellow                        beak, orange rubber legs                           pecking to kill the                             lawn, storm bird                              hates with claw,                                  evil beak,                                        s                                        u                                        n                                    and eye

By: Don Carlson

• Definition: Humorous five-line poems with a specific rhythm pattern and rhyme

scheme.

• Example: There once was a fellow named Tim

whose dad never taught him to swim.

He fell off a dock

and sunk like a rock.

and that was the end of him.

Title: unknown

By: Edward Lear

There was a young lady whose bonnet,

Came untied when the birds sat upon it;

But she said: “I don’t care!

All the birds in the air

Are welcome to sit on my bonnet!”

Title: unknown

By: Edward Lear

There was an Old Man of Kilkenny,

Who never had more than a penny;

He spent all that money,

In onions and honey,

That wayward Old Man of Kilkenny.

• Definition: Three-line Japanese verse form.

First & third lines each have five syllables & the second line has seven.

• Example: Birds fly overhead

I see shadows on the ground

Flying south to warmth

FlowersBy: Kay Pravda

Stately skyscrapersAbove ant roads through the dirt

Shade busy workers

•Definition: Typically unrhymed poem.

Twenty-two syllables distributed in 2, 4, 6, 8, & 2 in five lines.

•Example: Line 1: Noun Megan

Line 2: Description of Noun dirty blonde hair

Line 3: Action basketball, volleyball

Line 4: Feeling or Effect helpful, caring, outgoing, fun

Line 5: Synonym of the initial noun Marie

Shade Tree

By: Jeanne Cassler

The oak (2)

in my backyard (4)

holds twisted rope and wood (6)knows the name of every child (8)

that swings. (2)

First Visit to the OceanBy: Jeanne Cassler

She's lost (2)inside her laugh (4)before the rising tide (6)that reaches out to tickle her (8)bare toes. (2)

Warning – Rewritten By: Megan Marcinkowska

When I am an old woman.

With a cane which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on a Ferrari and spinners

And a GPS system, and say we’ve no money for bills.

I shall sit down on the hammock when I’m tired

And gobble up samples of fudge and press alarm bells

And run my stick along the sidewalk

And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my swimming suit in the rain

And pick tulips in other people’s gardens

And learn to do the splits.

You can wear outdated shirts shirts and grow gray hair

And eat three pounds of candy at a go

Or only peanut butter and jelly for a week

And hoard scrapbooks and pictures and newspapers and things in boxes.

(continued on next page)

But now we must have clothes that keep us warm

And pay our rent and not dance in the street

And set a good example for the children.

We must have the grand children to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and grossed out

When suddenly I am old, and grumpy.

Turkeys

By: Megan Marcinkowska

Turkeys (2)

Red, blue, and brown (4)

Move through the wilderness (6)

Gracefully, silently, timid (8)

A jake (2)

Spring Time

By: Megan Marcinkowska

Roses are red

rubys are blue

apples from Fred’s

are juicy and taste good too.

Easter lilies will

come up soon,

while the lemon trees

are in full bloom.

The blue jay makes his long trip North,

while Iris’ and blue berries sprout forth.

This is a very good sign

that spring has arrived.

3 stanza poem

Clowns

By: Megan Marcinkowska

The clown (2)

Crazy red hair (4)

Graceful in his outfit(6)

Makes kids excited and happy (8)

Bozo (2)

My poem of choice