Poetry Exercises
Overview
 Answer comprehension questions.
 Research information regarding the writers.
 Identify figurative language & grammar.
 Expand your vocabulary through the ABC chart.
 Complete a rhyme scheme & write a poem to a rhyme
scheme of ABAB
 Be able to classify a particular type poem-lyric, ballad,
haiku, rhyme, free verse
 Be successful on a quiz with vocabulary, identification of
poetry, and authors.
FREE VERSE POETRY
• Unlike metered poetry,
free verse poetry does
NOT have any
repeating patterns of
stressed and unstressed
syllables.
• Does NOT have rhyme.
• Free verse poetry is
very conversational sounds like someone
talking with you.
• A more modern type of
poetry.
SYMBOLISM
• When a person, place,
thing, or event that has
meaning in itself also
represents, or stands
for, something else.
=
Innocence
=
America
=
Peace
Exercise 1
Diameter of the Bomb
• Q &A
1. What is the diameter of the bomb?
2. Where is one woman buried?
3. How many people were killed?
4. How do the 2 hospitals create a larger circle around
the bomb?
5. How do you know that some of those killed were
parents?
Graded Activity 1:
Write an example of Free Verse:
Example:
Peace
Basking in the sun
Without a thing to do
But think of zero
And feel the warmth of the sun.
As the wind brushes my face
Oh, I am at peace with one.
SIMILE
• A comparison of two things using “like, as than,” or
“resembles.”
• “She is as beautiful as a sunrise.”
Exercise 2
Taking Leave of a Friend
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Q&A
What color are the mountains?
What do the horses do?
Is the title the main idea?
How far apart will the friends be?
Identify the line that contains a simile.
What mood is this poem?
Graded Activity 2:
• Write a poem that contains 2 similes and must be at
least 5 lines.
• ex: Erosion
We are like erosion
We show age over time
However that time is like an hourglass,
we do not know exactly when it will stop.
PERSONIFICATION
• An animal given
human-like
qualities or an
object given lifelike qualities.
Example:
1. The paper screamed as the child
opened the gift.
2. Her fingernails called the
manicurist to say, please paint me.
3. The bird sang a cheerful song.
Imagery
• Image-a picture made from words
• Imagery-collection of sense images in
•
•
a poem-can you see, hear, feel, smell,
taste, touch it through the writer’s
descriptive words
Imagery chart
http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/readingliterature/literary_ele
ments_devices/imagery_chart.pdf
Example:
Sunset
The fire in the sky is dying
The mountains are tall and dark
The spirit of the day is flying
Sunset leaves its mark
The colors up on high are lovely
The air is clear and cool
An ending approaches mildly
Day and night begin a duel
But the light must give way sometime
And who will win, I'll bet
Is dark, mysterious nighttime
As day gives way to sunset
- Mary O. Fumento, 1981
Exercise 3
Thoughts of Hanoi
Q&A
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What does the poet remember
about the city?
What is the setting?
How are they traveling? What
were the clues?
What was the conflict? What
type of conflict is this? Which
side did the poet take?
How does the poet know the
other person?
6. What image does the
poet use for the
villages?
7. Look at the picture,
what sense does this
image appeal to?
Graded Activity 3:
With a sheet of paper
1. Divide
the paper into six squares.
2. Each square will be filled with either a drawing, a word, or phrase that will be an
answer to prompts given .
a. Draw one item from a backpack.
B. Draw one item you would find in a car.
c. Draw one thing that you would find in a jungle.
d. Write a word/phrase that describes extreme heat.
e. Write a word/phrase that describes music.
f. Write a word/phrase that describes yourself.
You will write a poem using all ideas
that you drew or wrote down.
• Example:
I have a planner to keep me on track
My round sterling wheel is black
I like colorful flowers that attract
My toes burn as I walk across the beach
Mozart is soothing and sweet
I have hazel eyes and I think that is neat.
Figurative language
A. Simile
• Primarily uses like/as in
A. Tom is like the willow
B. Metaphor
• Does not use like/as
B. Bre’s music is similar
its comparison of 2
unlike items
when comparing 2 unlike
items
tree, he sways to the
wind.
to Mozart.
Exercise 4
Ode to a Pair of Socks
• Q&A
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
How does Neruda get the socks?
What material is the socks made of ?
What happens to the socks?
Why does the feet feel unloved?
Why does the poet think about putting the socks
away?
6. Identify the metaphor(feet).
7. Identify the metaphor for socks.
Graded Activity 4:
• You are to write a metaphor poem.
Metaphor-comparing 2 unlike things by finding similarities in
objects that we would not consider alike.
Ex metaphor poem:
Painting
Painting is an untamed bird.
You're free to show how you feel
without consequence.
There's nothing holding you back.
Your emotions fly wildly.
Haiku invented by Basho
Haiku

3 lines (total 17 syllables)
5 syllables,

7 syllables, 5 syllables
Subject is nature being used as a metaphor
By Basho:
• An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again
Breece ex
Sun
With lots of sunshine (5)
Brings forth energy and fun (7)
To land and water (5)
• Autumn moonlight—
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.
Exercise 5
Three Haiku
• Q&A
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
List the 3 animals.
What does the rooster compare itself to?
Identify the setting in poem #1.
Identify the onomatopoeia.
What is the small bird asked to do?
Identify the nature in all 3.
Graded Activity 5
• You are to write a Haiku
•
•
•
•
3 lines
(1st line) 5 syllables
(2nd line) 7 syllables
(3rd line) 5 syllables
Exercise 6
Onomatopoeia
Define:
It’s a word that describes a sound.
Identify the sound.
1.
During first class I was so krupped.
2.
I have just finished lunch now I am so
boom.
3.
I am ready for a long zzzzzhhh.
4.
I just finish P.E. so now I am wide tang.
5.
My friend is zoork.
6.
I am szzzhh.
7.
My favorite subject is zing zong.
8.
But my least favorite is bloom, bloom.
9.
I now must dripple dapple this poem.
10. As my bus ride has just skirk.
11.
By heehee
Used where?
•
•
•
•
Commercials
Newspapers
Comic Books
Cartoons
• Remember road runner
& coyote beep beep
• When Batman hit Robin
bang
Iambic Pentameter
Examples:
•
Iambic refers to the type of foot that is used, which is one
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable and
pentameter refers to the fact that a line of the verse has
five feet.
 Has ten syllables with five pairs of alternating stressed and
unstressed syllables.
 The rhythm of the meter is written as:
daDum
A verse that has an iambic pentameter with five iambic
meter will have a rhythm pattern as follows:
daDumdaDumdaDumdaDumdaDum
A very good use of iambic pentameter rhyme scheme can
be seen in the poem, Ode to Autumn by John Keats.
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
daDumdaDumdaDumdaDumdaDum
•
Sonnet XVIII - William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's
day?
Thou art more lovely and more
temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling
buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short
a date.
Romeo and Juliet - William
Shakespeare
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our
scene
Graded Activity 6:
• You are to create a poem using Iambic pentameter
Exercise 7
Scheme + Stanza types
Stanza- - a group of lines arranged together
Examples:
• Rhyme scheme-a pattern of end
rhymes in a poem
• Rhyme-sounds are the same
•
Types
Couplet=a two line stanza
Triplet (Tercet)=a three line stanza
Quatrain =a four line stanza
•
Approximate {final sounds similar}
Quintet =a five line stanza
•
End {rhyming occurs at the end}
•
Internal {rhyming within the line}
Sestet (Sextet) =a six line stanza
•
Example next slide
Septet =a seven line stanza
Octave=an eight line stanza
SAMPLE RHYME SCHEME
The Germ by Ogden Nash
A mighty creature is the germ,
Though smaller than the pachyderm.
His customary dwelling place
Is deep within the human race.
His childish pride he often pleases
By giving people strange diseases.
Do you, my poppet, feel infirm?
You probably contain a germ.
a
a
b
b
c
c
a
a
One Art
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979)
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
• Villanelle-19 line poem with
repeating rhymes
Lose something every day.
Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel.
None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or next-to-last, of three
loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones.
And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like a disaster.
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night-Dylan
Thomas
Q&A
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
How should people behave when death is near?
List the 4 kinds of men the author names.
Who is the receiver of this poem?
What do wise men know at the end?
Identify the main idea.
Serious people will regret what?
Identify the rhyme.
What regrets did both type of men have?