So you think you can Rhyme!

A basic introduction to poetry and poetic terms

By Carlos Garcia-Lara9th to 12th grade

The Lesson’s objectives are:• Students will learn about poetry.• Students will watch a power point presentation that talks

about poetry and poetic terms• Students will discuss their views and opinions about poetry

and share their personal experiences regarding poetry in their lives.

• Students will read famous poems to discuss their multiple meanings / perspectives and discuss their similarities and differences.

• Students will practice writing poetry via a poem word search worksheet to get them started.

• Students will write their own poems in paper, then type them using a computer and present them in class.

Poetic Terms & Elements

• alliteration repetition of initial sounds in a series of words, e.g.: note the repetition of the letters b, y, and s in this excerpt from Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Counting-Out Rhyme": Silver bark of beech, and sallow Bark of yellow birch and yellow

Poetic Terms & Elements cont.

• allusion reference, often to literature, history, mythology, or the Bible, that is unacknowledged in the text but that the author expects the reader to recognize. In the poem "On His Blindness" John Milton alludes to the parable of the talents (from the book of Matthew 25:14-30) when he writes: And that one talent which is death to hide Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent

Poetic Terms & Elements cont.

• blank verse lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter in no particular stanzaic form.

• enjambment enjambment occurs when the sense of a poetic line runs over to the succeeding line, e.g:In that blest moment from his oozy bed Old father Thames advanc'd his reverend head. --Alexander Pope

Poetic Terms & Elements cont.

• hyperbole figurative speech that depends on intentional overstatement or exaggeration. In the poem "To His Coy Mistress" Andrew Marvell uses hyperbole when he declares that "if there were world enough and time" he'd spend centuries adoring each part of his lover's body.

Poetic Terms & Elements cont.

• imagery words and phrases that describe the concrete experience of the five senses, e.g.: Nothing is so beautiful as spring-- When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush; Thrush's eggs look like low heavens . . . --"Spring" Gerard Manley Hopkins

Poetic Terms & Elements cont.

• metaphor concise form of comparison equating two things that may seem at first dissimilar, e.g.: Life the hound Equivocal Comes at a bound Either to rend me Or to befriend me. --Robert Francis

Poetic Terms & Elements cont.

• meter regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, each repeated unit of which is called a foot (iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, spondee, pyrrhic).

• personification attributing of human qualities to things that are not human', e.g.: In the following excerpt Sylvia Plath gives a "mirror" human qualities:I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately

Poetic Terms & Elements cont.

• stanza group of lines in a poem that forms a metrical or thematic unit.

• simile comparison of two seemingly unlike things using the words like or as. Toni Morrison uses a startling simile in The Bluest Eye when she writes: "Nuns go by as quiet as lust."

So what do you know about poetry?

• As an introductory writing assignment, please tell me what you know about poetry? When answering this, consider poems you might have heard or written before. Also think about songs and how rhyming affects the listeners. Write as much as possible and use a lot of details because remember how powerful words are and what they can do to the imagination!!

Let’s Share

Have you ever seen this kind of poem before? It’s called an acrostic poem

Let’s continue sharing

Just about everyone has heard of the famous Roses are Red, Violets are Blue poem right! It’s cute and popular because it rhymes and it’s nice.

Sharing is Caring

Imagery, Simile and Metaphor What’s their role?

• Song lyrics are often very poetical. In fact, a poem that is of average length is often called a lyrical poem. There is a strong relationship between poetry and song lyrics.

One important literary device that is often used in poetry (and song lyrics) is called imagery. Whenever the words of the poem/song help you to imagine something, it is probably "imagery" that is creating those images in your mind.

If you can imagine seeing something described in the poem, it is called visual imagery. If you can imagine hearing something, it is called auditory imagery. If you can imagine smelling something it is called olfactory imagery. If you can imagine tasting it, it is called gustatory imagery. Finally, if you can imagine feeling it (touching it), it is known as tactile imagery. As you may have noticed, these are the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

Imagery, does it help you enjoy the poem better?

Simile is a way to compare one thing with another using which words?

Can you guess what this Metaphor is?

So do you think you can Rhyme now!

• Your assignment is to write a poem!!• It could be as simple as a four line stanza.• Or as complex as a two or three stanza poem.• It could have a rhyming pattern.• Or it could be blank verse and anything that

flows to your mind.• Any way you want it but make sure you

include at least 3 poetic terms!!

Final Project• Once you have written and revised your rough

draft, I want you to use a computer and type it up using a word processor (microsoft word). If you want to use power point like this one please make sure you consider images and sounds to make your presentation stronger. You can also use poster board for this presentation. Any way you choose will be fine but the more “effects” you have will be better because you will have to read it outloud and “effects” usually helps the audience visualize things and enjoy the presentation better.

Popular Poems

• The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost• Still I Rise by Maya Angelou• Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by

Dylan Thomas• Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes

References’ Page

• The following are website I visited while creating this lesson plan. I highly recommend them!

• Websites • http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php • http://www.gigglepoetry.com/ • http://www.cnets.iste.org/currstands/ • http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/

top_poems.html •