Fun With Poetry!
Literal Language
• Everyday writing and talking that
says exactly what you mean.
• The car is red.
• It is cold.
• I am hungry.
• See John run.
Poetry Vocabulary
 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: A form of
language use in which writers and
speakers mean something other than
the literal meaning of their words.
 Simile, Metaphor, Hyperbole,
Personification
Simile:
• A comparison of 2 UNLIKE things
using “like” or “as”
• The sun sat in the sky like a
dandelion in a pool of water.
Metaphor:
• A comparison of 2 UNLIKE things
without the words “like” or “as”
• The sun was a dandelion in a pool of
water.
Simile or Metaphor?
• I eat cheese like a mouse.
• simile
• He was an angry tiger ready to
pounce.
• Metaphor
• Her smile was as bright as the sun.
• Simile
• He went fishing and liked being out
on the lake.
• Neither
Hyperbole:
• An exaggeration of the truth.
• He had the strength of 1000 men.
Personification:
• Giving HUMAN qualities to something that
is NON-HUMAN
• The daisies danced in the wind.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7BTH
U6qjDg
Poetry Vocabulary
• Imagery: words that use any one of
the 5 senses to paint a picture for
the reader.
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Visual: twisted, tan, wrinkled
Auditory: thunder cracked, rumble
Smell: sweet, perfumed, putrid
Taste: bitter, salty, sour
Touch: smooth, rough, wet, sandy, slimy
Poetry Vocabulary
• Alliteration: repetition of the first
sound of a word.
• The slimy snake slithered slowly one
the ground.
Poetry Vocabulary
• Onomatopoeia: words that imitate a
sound
• Bang, swoosh, crackle, oink, hissed.
Poetry Vocabulary
• Rhyme: Multiple words having the
same sound.
• Internal Rhyme, End Rhyme, Rhyme
Scheme
• Cat & Hat
• Dog & Log
• Jackie & Wacky
Internal Rhyme
• Rhyme that occurs within the line of
poetry.
the cat in the hat went to bed,
as the girl found the pearl in the oyster.
End Rhyme
• Rhyme that occurs at the end of a line
of poetry
“it was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;”
Rhyme Scheme:
• The pattern that the end Rhymes follow
(we use different letters of the alphabet to
label the different rhymes, but use the
same letter to label all the rhymes that
sound the same)
“It was many and many a year ago, (a)
In a kingdom by the sea (b)
That a maiden there lived whom you may know (a)
By the name of Annabel Lee;” (b)
The Cat & The Fiddle
Hey diddle, Diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
• By Mother Goose
Once By The Pacific- Robert Frost
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5
10
The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
The cliff in being backed by continent;
It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God's last 'Put out the Light' was spoken.
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Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
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And miles to go before I sleep.
Meter:
• The length of a line of poetry
measured by syllables (stressed and
unstressed)
• The cat in the hat (5 syllables)
Types of Meter:
Iambic: and unstressed syllable followed
by a stressed syllable (foot)
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors note;
But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who in despite of view is pleased to dote
shakespeare
sonnet 141
Meter and Rhythm
Combined
• Iambic Pentameter: a line the is written
using only iambs and uses 5 feet per line.
• In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
• For they in thee a thousand errors note;
• But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise,
• Who in despite of view is pleased to dote;
Meter and Rhythm
Combined
• Iambic Tetrameter: a line the is written
using only iambs and uses 4 feet per line.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Langston Hughes
Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost
• If you were only one inch tall, you'd ride a worm to school.
The teardrop of a crying ant would be your swimming pool.
A crumb of cake would be a feast
And last you seven days at least,
A flea would be a frightening beast
If you were one inch tall.
If you were only one inch tall, you'd walk beneath the door,
And it would take about a month to get down to the store.
A bit of fluff would be your bed,
You'd swing upon a spider's thread,
And wear a thimble on your head
If you were one inch tall.
You'd surf across the kitchen sink upon a stick of gum.
You couldn't hug your mama, you'd just have to hug her thumb.
You'd run from people's feet in fright,
To move a pen would take all night,
(This poem took fourteen years to write-'Cause I'm just one inch tall).
One Inch Tall- Shel Silverstein
Television
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The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set -Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink -But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
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HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
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Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rate and Mr. MoleOh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticksFear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
Roald Dahl