Grade 7
Poetry Unit
On Beyond Haiku…
There once were some students from Kings
Who were beginning to spread wide their wings.
Now very great news;
They write more than Haikus,
And ponder on much greater things.
Cinquains, HAIKUS, and Limericks are great but there is SO MUCH MORE!!
What is Poetry?
According to Wikipedia, poetry is:
a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities
in addition to, or instead of, its apparent meaning.
But what does that mean?

Literary means _______________________________________________________________________________

Art is _______________________________________________________________________________________

Aesthetic means ______________________________________________________________________________

Evocative means _____________________________________________________________________________
In other words:
Poetry is ________ which uses ________________ instead of lines, shapes, and colours.
Just like an Artist cares about how his/her art looks,
a Poet does not only care about what the Poem means
but he/she also cares that it ___________ __________________ or ___________________
or ______________ or __________________or ________________ or _________________.
Because of this poets will play around with words, and even make up NEW ONES!. For example:
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
From Lewis Carroll’s The Jabberwocky (Alice in Wonderland)
Poets also get to mess around with grammar and punctuation. (this type of poetry is called Free Verse) For example:
1
anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did
From E.E. Cummings’ anyone lived in a pretty how town
Poets will even play around with how they lay out the words of the poem. (this is called Concrete Poetry) For example:
From George Herbert’s Easter Wings (printed in 1633)
But maybe the best part is that Poets get to use their imaginations and create NEW IDEAS. For example:
FALLING UP – by Shel Silverstein
I tripped on my shoelace
And I fell up—
Up to the roof tops,
Up over the town,
Up past the tree tops
Up over the mountains,
Up where the colours
Blend into the sounds.
But it got me so dizzy
When I looked around,
I got sick to my stomach
And I threw down.
But the most important job for a poet is to
Paint Images in the Imagination
and
Coax out Emotions from the Heart…
…All with the use of ________________________________
2
.
Poetry and Music
SOUNDS,
much of poetry is put to music and these poems we call the _______________ to a SONG.
Because of the importance of how poetry
For example: From Switchfoot’s Dare You To Move
Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone's here, Everyone's here
Everybody's watching you now
Everybody waits for you now
What happens next? What happens next?
Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be
Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here
In fact it is possible that the first poems began as songs. Back in ancient times special men had the job of
travelling around the countryside with the sole purpose of telling stories. For many cultures, these stories
were often sung. Today we refer to these men who sung these stories as ________________________.
Possibly the most famous Ancient Bard was a man named HOMER. No, not that Homer
(Okay let’s go ahead and get all the Homer Simpson jokes out of the way…………….)
The famous bard, Homer, lived thousands of years before Homer Simpson.
Can you guess what Ancient civilization he came from? _____________________________________.
HINT: He was the man who wrote:
The Illiad:
'But when the other drove to his feet, resourceful Odysseus,
he would just stand and stare down, eyes fixed on the ground beneath him,
nor would he gesture with the staff backward and forward, but hold it
clutched hard in front of him, like any man who knows nothing.
Yes, you would call him a sullen man, and a fool likewise.
But when he let the great voice go from his chest, and the words came
drifting down like the winter snows, then no other mortal
man beside could stand up against Odysseus.'
A short quote from a speech in The Illiad
Antenor praises the speaking ability of Odysseus
and The Odyssey.
‘I should not have sorrowed so over his dying
if he had gone down among his companions in the land of the Trojans,
or in the arms of his friends, after he had wound up the fighting.
So all the Achaians would have heaped a grave mound over him,
and he would have won great fame for himself and his son hereafter.
But now ingloriously the stormwinds have caught and carried him away,
out of sight, out of knowledge, and he left pain and lamentation to me.
A short quote from a speech in The Odyssey
Telemachos speaks about the glory of dying
in battle rather than being taken prisoner.
It is possible that when the bards went around
and told these stories, they were often sung to the music of a lyre.
3
Ballads – Poetry of the Bards
As we already discussed, the first poems did not sound much like most of the poetry of today. They sounded more like
stories. In fact, probably the first poems were stories – like the story of Job. Today we still have poems that tell stories.
They are called Ballads. Below are a couple ballads. Read them and discuss them with a partner what you think is the
THEME of each ballad.
THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB
by: George Gordon (Lord) Byron (1788-1824)
The poem below is based on a fascinating story from 2 Kings 18 - 19
THE Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew
still!
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
Possible Theme: ____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
4
Casey at the Bat
by Ernest Lawrence Thayer (first published in San Francisco, June 3, 1888)
The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville Nine that day;
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play,
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.
And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped"That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one," the umpire said.
A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, if only Casey could get but a whack at that We'd put up even money, now, with Casey at the bat.
From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore.
"Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone on the stand;
And it's likely they'd a-killed him had not Casey raised his hand.
But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,
And the former was a lulu and the latter was a cake;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,
For there seemed but little chance of Casey's getting to the bat.
With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the spheroid flew;
But Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said, "Strike two."
But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Blake, the much despis-ed, tore the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and the men saw what had occurred,
There was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third.
"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered fraud;
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again.
Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.
The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.
There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile on Casey's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat.
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.
Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance gleamed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip.
Possible Theme: ____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Why?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
5
How to Understand Poetry
It is important that we begin to understand some things about Poetry, or else it will never make any sense to us and also
we will never experience the joy of writing beautiful, or profound, or exhilarating, or evocative, or sensational POETRY.
Each of us is a human being that is FILLED with ____________________________ and one of the most creative ways to
express those emotions is to let them __________________________________________________ with _____________.
It is very important that we as humans express our emotions because if we do not, then we are in danger of ____________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
As we have already discovered, Poetry is very closely related to another form of art which is _______________________
so you will notice that many of the words used to discuss music, are also used to discuss Poetry.
Words such as: Rhythm, Meter, Stanza, Verse, etc. The meanings of these terms are as follows:
Rhythm: __________________________________________________________________________________________
Meter: ____________________________________________________________________________________________
Verse or Stanza: ____________________________________________________________________________________
Rhythm and Meter
We know the Rhythm of a Poem because we can ____________________ but we can show the rhythm of a poem by
marking out the stressed and unstressed __________________________. They even give them cool names like:
Iambic, or Trochaic, or Anapestic, or Pyrrhic, or Spondaic, or Dactylic. But they look like this:
Stanza and Verse
Stanzas are distinguished by how many ____________________ are contained in that part of the poem. These also have
cool names like Couplet, or Triplet, or Quatrain, or Quintet, or Sestet, or Septet, or Octave. But they look like this:
To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog,
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.
6
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Verse refers to what happens in the Stanzas, like whether or not they rhyme.
For example the following poem is called Free Verse because it is not constrained by any rhythm or rhyme:
When I heard the learn'd astronomer
by Walt Whitman
1819–1892
When I heard the learn'd astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and
measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with
much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
Rhyme Scheme
Most poems also have a rhyming scheme. This is shown by using letters of the alphabet.
For instance an Italian Sonnet has a rhyme scheme as follows: ABBAABBA. This means the _____________________
verses all rhyme with each other and then the _____________________ also rhyme with each other but they may not
rhyme with the other 3. English Sonnets have a rhyme scheme as follows: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. This means that
the lines in the poem rhyme as follows: _________, _________, _________, __________, __________, ___________
The following poem is a contemporary Psalm written by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Analyze it according to:
Meter (draw the meter into the poem above each line),
Rhyme Scheme (write the corresponding letters behind each line) and
Stanza (write down what kind it is in front of each one).
Pied Beauty
Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
7
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Making Poetry “Aesthetically Pleasing”
Just like Artists use Principles of Design (Contrast, Balance, Movement, etc) to make their art look “Aesthetically
Pleasing” (remember what Aesthetically Pleasing means?), Poets also follow guidelines to make their poems sound
“Aesthetically Pleasing” . We call the guidelines “POETIC or LITERARY DEVICES”.
Below are the basic Poetic Devices:
Simile:
Metaphor:
O my Love's like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Love's like the melodie
That’s sweetly play'd in tune.
From My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose, by Robert Burns
THE wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
And the highwayman came riding—
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
Riding—riding—
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
From The Highwayman, by Alfred Noyes
Personification:
Alliteration:
I like to see it lap the miles,
And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks;
And then, prodigious, step
Around a pile of mountains,
And, supercilious, peer
In shanties by the sides of roads;
Luke Luck likes lakes.
Luke's duck likes lakes.
I can't blab such blibber blubber!
My tongue isn't make of rubber.
Luke Luck licks lakes.
From Fox in Sox, by Dr. Seuss
Luck's duck licks lakes.
Assonance:
Onomatopoeia:
Idiom:
From The Train, by Emily Dickenson
And round about the keel with faces pale,
Dark faces pale against that rosy flame,
The mild‐eyed melancholy Lotos‐eaters came
From The Lotus Eaters, by Alfred Lord Tennyson
The rusty spigot
Sputters,
Utters
A splutter,
Spatters a smattering of drops,
Gashes wider;
Slash,
Splatters, Scatters, Spurts,
Finally stops sputtering
And plash!
Gushes rushes splashes
Clear water dashes.
The Rusty Spigot, by Eve Merriam
Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
No man is an island entire of itself;
From Go and Catch a Falling Star by John Donne
every man is a piece of the continent,
From No Man is an Island by John Donne
8
Poetic or Literary Devices
Write down a definition in your own words for each of the Poetic or Literary Devices listed below:
Simile:
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Metaphor:
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Personification:
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Alliteration: _______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Assonance: _______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Onomatopoeia:
_______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
Idiom:
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
9
Go ahead and write notes all over this poem as we analyze it together as a group.
“The Road Not Taken” – by Robert Frost (1915)
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
“Enter through the narrow gate.
For wide is the gate and broad is the
road that leads to destruction, and
many enter through it.
But small is the gate and narrow the
road that leads to life and only a few
find it.”
– Jesus (in Matthew 7: 13, 14)
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
10
This is what the LORD says:
“Stand at the crossroads and
look; ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk
in it, and you will find rest for your
souls.
Jeremiah 6: 16
IN FLANDERS FIELDS
(Considered The World’s Most Famous WAR MEMORIAL POEM)
By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!
Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields
Composed at the battlefront on May 3, 1915
during the second battle of Ypres, Belgium
On May 2, 1915, John McCrae’s close friend and former student Alexis Helmer was killed by a German shell. That
evening, in the absence of a Chaplain, John McCrae recited from memory a few passages from the Church of England’s
“Order of the Burial of the Dead”. For security reasons Helmer’s burial in Essex Farm Cemetery was performed in
complete darkness.
The next day, May 3, 1915, Sergeant-Major Cyril Allinson was delivering mail. McCrae was sitting at the back of an
ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the YserCanal, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, Belgium.
As John McCrae was writing his In Flanders Fields poem, Allinson silently watched and later recalled, “His face was
very tired but calm as he wrote. He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."
Within moments, John McCrae had completed the “In Flanders Fields” poem and when he was done, without a word,
McCrae took his mail and handed the poem to Allinson.
Allinson was deeply moved:
“The (Flanders Fields) poem was an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that
line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that
time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."
11
Appreciating Poetry – Analyzing Your Own choice
Few people our ages read or listen to poetry anymore. Learning to how to understand the poetry will hopefully help you
to begin to enjoy it and appreciate it. But you will appreciate it more if you get to choose a poem that you like. So you
will now select a poem of your own choice. It may be any poem from the list or your own idea but it must be appropriate
for this class. (in other words, not nursery rhymes, short “Roses Are Red” type poems, or any offensive poems). If you
choose one that is not from the list, it must be a poem from an actual “professional” poet and you must have it approved
by the teacher. Your analysis assignment must meet the following criteria:
1. You must print out the entire poem on a blank sheet of paper. (You should be able to find any of them on-line)
2. You must write down the Rhyme Scheme behind the lines of the poem.
3. You must write down the Meter of the poem above the first stanza.
4. You must identify at least 1 example of each Poetic Device in the poem. If there are some Devices not present in the
poem, tell which ones.
5. You must choose 3 interesting or colourful words from the poem and write out why you like those words.
6. You must choose 2 phrases from the poem and say what you think the poet meant with those phrases.
7. You must choose 1 stanza (or verse) from the poem and say what you think the poet is expressing in that stanza.
8. You must say what you think the overall theme or meaning is behind the whole poem and explain why you think this.
LIST OF POSSIBLE POEMS
Cecil Francis Alexander – The Creation
A Visit From Mr. Fox – Anonymous
The Tyger – William Blake
My Heart’s in the Highlands – Robert Burns
Jabberwocky – Lewis Carroll
The Walrus and the Carpenter – Lewis Carroll
anyone lived a pretty how town – E.E. Cummings
I Met a King this Afternoon – Emily Dickenson
“Hope” is the thing with feathers – Emily Dickeson
Hold Fast Your Dreams – Louise Driscoll
Macavity: The Mystery Cat – T. S. Eliot
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost
The Oxen – Thomas Hardy
To an Athlete Dying Young – A.E. Housman
When I was One-and-Twenty – A.E. Housman
My Brother Bert – Ted Hughes
Hurt Hawks – Robinson Jeffers
The Song My Paddle Sings – E. Pauline Johnson
The Corn Husker – E. Pauline Johnson
Minnows – John Keats
The House with Nobody In It – Joyce Kilmer
The Way Through the Woods – Rudyard Kipling
If – Rudyard Kipling
Snake – D.H. Lawrence
The Owl and the Pussycat – Edward Lear
12
The Children’s Hour – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Village Blacksmith – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee – Mildred Plew Meigs
Adventures of Isabel – Ogden Nash
Daddy Fell into the Pond – Alfred Noyes
Snow is Falling – Boris Pasternak
The Man From Snowy River – Banjo Patterson
Waltzing Matilda – Banjo Patterson
Giraffe – Stanley Plumly
The Lady and the Bear – Theodore Roethke
The Meadow Mouse – Theodore Roethke
Remember – Christina Rossetti
Lochinvar – Sir Walter Scott
The Cremation of Sam McGee – Robert Service
The Land of Story Books – Robert Louis Stevenson
My Shadow – Robert Louis Stevenson
Charge of the Light Brigade – Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Brook – Alfred, Lord Tennyson
How Doth the Little Busy Bee – Isaac Watts
O Captain! My Captain! – Walt Whitman
When I Grow Up – William Wise
Daffodils – William Wordsworth
The Kitten At Play – Willaim Wordsworth
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death – William Butler
Yeats
Musical Poetry – the Lyrics of Songs
Sadly few people our age listen to or read CLASSICAL poetry anymore. However, most of you listen to poetry every
day. Your i-pods and MP3 players are filled with poetry, except you call it music. Sadly not all of the poetry in the music
we listen to is very good. In many cases, at the very least, it is not glorifying to God.
Sometimes we assume that if a song comes from a Christian band then it is good and if it comes from a Secular band then
it is bad. But if you take the time to analyze the poetry of your songs, you will find that this is not always so. God tells us
in Philippians 4: 8 that “…
whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” In order to do this, it is
necessary that we learn how to use DISCERNMENT when deciding what we will listen to “So whether we eat or drink
(or listen to music) or whatever we do, we do it all for the glory of God.” (Adaptation of 1 Corinthians 10: 31)
We will take the time to analyze a few songs and see if we can figure out just what these songs are talking about and what
message are they putting into our minds.
Imagine
by John Lennon
Imagine there's no Heaven
Imagine no possessions
It's easy if you try
I wonder if you can
No hell below us
No need for greed or hunger
Above us only sky
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Sharing all the world
Imagine there's no countries
You may say that I'm a dreamer
It isn't hard to do
But I'm not the only one
Nothing to kill or die for
I hope someday you'll join us
And no religion too
And the world will live as one
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
Possible Theme ____________________________________________________________________________________
or Message:
____________________________________________________________________________________
Why you think ____________________________________________________________________________________
this:
____________________________________________________________________________________
13
Spirit Of Radio by Rush
Begin the day with a friendly voice,
A companion unobtrusive
Plays that song that's so elusive
And the magic music makes your morning mood.
Off on your way, hit the open road,
There is magic at your fingers
For the Spirit ever lingers,
Undemanding contact in your happy solitude.
Invisible airwaves crackle with life
Bright antenna bristle with the energy
Emotional feedback on timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free
All this machinery making modern music
Can still be open-hearted.
Not so coldly charted, it's really just a question
Of your honesty, yeah, your honesty.
One likes to believe in the freedom of music,
But glittering prizes and endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity.
For the words of the prophets were written on the studio wall,
Concert hall
And echoes with the sounds of salesmen. Of salesmen.
Of salesmen
Possible Theme ____________________________________________________________________________________
or Message:
____________________________________________________________________________________
Why you think ____________________________________________________________________________________
this:
____________________________________________________________________________________
14
Spirit In The Sky
by Norman Greenbaum
When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that's the best
When I lay me down to die
Goin' up to the spirit in the sky
Gonna recommend you to the spirit in the sky
That's where you're gonna go when you die
When you die and they lay you to rest
You're gonna go to the place that's the best
Goin' up to the spirit in the sky
That's where I'm gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that's the best
Never been a sinner, I never sinned
I got a friend in Jesus
So you know that when I die
He's gonna set me up with the spirit in the sky
Prepare yourself, you know it's a must
Gotta have a friend in Jesus
So you know that when you die
He's gonna recommend you to the spirit in the
sky
Oh, set me up with the spirit in the sky
That's where I'm gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
I'm gonna go to the place that's the best
Go to the place that's the best
Possible Theme ____________________________________________________________________________________
or Message:
____________________________________________________________________________________
Why you think ____________________________________________________________________________________
this:
____________________________________________________________________________________
Musical Poetry – Analyzing Your Own Songs
For most of you, these samples of music are not what you listen to. Learning to how to understand the Poetry of music is
so that you can DISCERN whether or not the music you are listening to is glorifying to God or not. So you will now
choose a song that is either from your own CD collection or on your i-pod or MP3 player. Your analysis assignment must
meet the following criteria:
1. You must print out the entire lyrics of the song on a blank sheet of paper. (You should be able to find them on-line)
2. You must choose 3 separate lines (or couplets if the thought is expressed over 2 lines) from the song and say what you
think the songwriter meant with those lines.
3. If the song has a chorus, you must explain what you think the songwriter is expressing in the chorus. If there isn’t a
chorus, choose 1 stanza (or verse) from the song and say what you think the songwriter is expressing in that stanza.
4. You must say what you think the overall theme or meaning is behind the whole song and explain why you think this.
15