Poetry’s Powers

SWBAT explain the characteristics that make poetry both powerful and unique.

SWBAT identify these characteristics in poems.

SWBAT write collaborative poems.

Objectives

Today we are learning about the power of poetry. We’ve come across poetry many times in our lives. But, for some unfortunate reason, we sometimes don’t take poetry very seriously. This is probably because we are thinking too narrowly about what poetry is. Let’s reexamine this idea!

Poetry’s Power!

Poetry is powerful and unique because it is language that has 3 characteristics:

(1) Intensity (2) Precision (3) Concision (Milner & Milner, p. 178)

KEY POINTS on Poetry’s Power!

Poetry’s INTENSITY brings out the most powerful of human emotions about even the simplest of things.

(1) Intensity

A dull description of what a teacher does (from About.com):

“Teachers…prepare lectures; prepare activities; grade exams and papers; hold parent-teacher conferences; attend school meetings; lead extracurricular activities; mentor students; teach life skills…”

Now, Taylor Mali’s intense description (“What Teachers Make”):

Intensity Examined

Poetry’s PRECISION makes crystal clear what one is talking about.

(2) Precision

“There is no doubt that the presence of a net makes good tennis players more precise in their shots than they otherwise would be.”

(Milner & Milner, page 192)

A prose description of how I’m feeling right now:◦ “I’m mellow because I had a relaxing weekend at home.”

And a poetic description (Jimmy O’Daniel):◦ I’m mellow

Not a go lay in a sunny field smoking a cigarette mellow Not mellow enough to give a bum all my money Not mellow enough to sit on an ocean yacht and drink

lemonade◦ But just a sit in the air-conditioned living room watching

reruns mellow Mellow like a nothing to do Saturday morning Mellow like watching your cork from the banks of a cool

country pond A do what I want mellow that takes no effort or planning.

Precision Examined

To express love, I could say something like “I love you!”◦ The response might be dull

OR—if I had recently quit smoking—I could say this: “Giving Up Smoking”

◦ There’s not a Shakespeare sonnet◦ Or a Beethoven quartet◦ That’s easier to like than you◦ Or harder to forget.

◦ You think that sounds extravagant?◦ I haven’t finished yet –◦ I like you more than I would like◦ To have a cigarette.

-Wendy Cope

Precision Examined Again

Poetry displays CONCISION—it expresses much in a few words.

(3) Concision

“The entire literary canon may be smaller than what comes out of particle accelerators or models of the human brain, but the meaning coded into words can't be measured in bytes. It's deeply compressed. Twelve words from [Shakespeare] can hold a lifetime of experience.”

Martin Wattenberg, mathematician and computer scientist

Concision Examined First Fig

◦ My candle burns at both ends;It will not last the night;But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—It gives a lovely light. -Edna St. Vincent Millay

"My candle burns at both ends" symbolizes her "carpe diem" lifestyle and philosophy. 

“The dual-sided candle is her own dual personality that is set upon by both friends and enemies. ”

It's like the idea of living fast, dying fun.

The fig has much immediate symbolism. It recalls the fig tree of the Garden of Eden from which Adam and Eve fashioned their first garments after eating the fruit of the tree of wisdom. The fig tree has been associated with sexuality for this reason, and also due to its pendulous fruit and its milky nectar.

EVM is a good writer and she expresses the 1920s and how people waste there money and party every night and are wasting time and her friends and foes aren't paying attention to her and what she has to say so she expresses it in a poem

She is truly connected to her soul and recognizes the light that does come from within. 

Turn to a partner and explain what each of the 3 characteristics means.

You will receive a bonus if you can give an example of a poem that exceptionally shows one or more of the characteristics.

Check For Understanding!

Let’s work together to identify and analyze the 3 characteristics that make poetry powerful in selected “poems”!

Your task is to determine which of the 3 characteristics of powerful poetry are evident in the following poems:◦ “Doing Laundry in Our Building”◦ “Smoke & Mirrors”◦ “Happy the Man”

Guided Practice

Doing Laundry in Our Building

Monday, November 16, 2009

Unfortunately I hardly looked up, but I'm pretty sure you were beautiful. Hope to see you again. - m4w - 26

Tonight my dreams left,    swept far and wide from me,    leaving darkened halls and    pungent decay in their exodus.

The nightmares called my name,    in shrill voices filled with disdain,    while twisted images all around    melted like deeply colored wax.

At last I saw you, beautiful and true, and    breathed a sigh of sweet relief,    a smile dancing upon my lips and    joyful tears glistened upon my cheeks.

So sudden it happened, the deed was done,    you turned your back on me and    part of me died a pauper’s death,    abandoned, without hope nor dignity.

As I called to you, my tongue swelled,    words could not come in time,    for suddenly I saw you lifted,    ripped from me through the heavens.

        Clutched tightly by my dreams,                which have faded away forever.◦ -Elizabeth Anne Easter

Smoke & Mirrors

Happy the man, and happy he alone,◦ He who can call today his own:◦ He who, secure within, can say,

Tomorrow do they worst, for I have lived today.◦ Be fair or foul or rain or shine

The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.

Not Heaven itself upon the past has power, But what has been, has been, and I have

had my hour. - John Dryden

Happy the Man

Now that we have a collective idea of what makes poetry powerful, we are going to collectively write poetry!

Directions:◦ Take one poetry card from your teacher. ◦ Form a group of 4.◦ Write one—and only one—line on your topic (be as

intense, precise and concise as you can!). ◦ Pass the card to the right when your teacher says

to. ◦ Continue this process until you have written 3 lines

(first, middle, last).

Independent Practice

Today we learned about the power of poetry to shape us. But what were the three characteristics that make poetry powerful, again? Shout them out loud! Hopefully you’ve learned that poetic language—language that is intense, precise and concise—is everywhere! On your way home from school today I challenge you to identify and analyze poetic language in the commonplace…

Poetry is everywhere…