Mrs. Smith’s Journey through Verse
How Poetry Becomes Art
 Poetry,
essentially, is not prose. In prose,
information is given with little thought to
form. In poetry, however, the visual
aspect, the sound, and the words are all
equally of importance.
 The word poet comes from the Greek
work poiētēs, meaning “one who makes
or fashions”. So, keeping this in mind,
think of poetry as fashioning language
into art. It’s an experience of all of the
senses.

“Form” refers to the
physical arrangement of the
poem on the page. There
are many different types of
form, some to be discussed
later, and generally form
and content go hand in
hand. Sometimes poems are
arranged into little poetry
paragraphs called stanzas.
A break in stanzas always
has a purpose, be it to
change to a different train
of thought or to physically
separate two ideas from
each other. EVERYTHING in
poetry is there for a reason.
FORM

Sound devices are all of
those poetic terms you
have learned throughout
school, including
alliteration, assonance,
consonance, and rhyme.
These devices, which we
will explore more in-depth
later, are what makes
poetry beautiful to listen
to. Remember, as a work of
art, poetry is meant to be
read aloud just as much as
it is to be looked at!
SOUND
 Not
only is poetry sometimes visually
appealing in form, but it appeals to the sense
of sight by using figurative language to paint
pictures in our minds as we read. These
literary devices, to be discussed in more
detail later, include such language as
imagery, personification, similes, and
metaphors. Poets use these so the reader can
hopefully get the idea exactly of what the
poet is speaking.
 First
off, notice how we write titles of poems
– using quotation marks!
 Look at line 4 – that’s consonance (in
“tingling strings”)! Now, what is consonance?
 Point out some instances of imagery in this
poem. Remember, imagery is anything that
appeals to the senses and brings the words
alive.
 What sort of mental images does this poem
bring to your mind? Why do we create
different images?
What are some of the
images you get here?
Write down a few on a
spare piece of paper and
connect them with a
memory or image from
your life.
Do you see any other
figurative language at
work here?
It’s like a ruler for words!
 Poems
are measured in meters and poetic
feet.
 Meter is the repetitive use of a rhythm in a
poem. Meter is measured by how many feet
are in each line.
 A poetic foot is a combination of two or
three syllables. Feet are combined in a line
to create meter. The type of foot in a line is
called the scansion.
 Meter
is fairly simple to figure out. It is the
amount of feet in a line. So, if most feet are
two syllables, what do you think you do to
find meter? That’s right, count the syllables
and divide by two!
 For example, if there are six syllables in each
line, what is the meter? Trimeter!
 Meter is named for how many feet there are:
dimeter has two feet, trimeter has three,
tetrameter has four, pentameter has five,
and so on.
An iamb, the most commonly used foot, is a
combination of one unstressed and one stressed,
such as in the word “require”.
 A trochee is a combination of one stressed and
one unstressed, such as in the word “poet”.
 A dactyl is a combination of one stressed and
two unstressed, such as in the word “heavenly”.
 A anapest is a combination of two unstressed
and one stressed, such as in the phrase “to the
wall”.
 A spondee is a combination of two stressed
syllables, as in the word “home-made”.
Spondees are generally used in repetition.

Write your name on a sheet of paper. You can
write your entire name if you choose, but just
your first name will suffice.
 Figure out how many syllables are in your name.
This will have an impact on what your scansion
is.
 Which syllables are stressed and which are
unstressed? Sometimes it’s easier to be emphatic
and sound silly when you say it to figure out
where the stresses are.
 Look back to your notes from the previous slide.
What scansion is your name? What scansion is
your neighbor’s name?






Remember when I mentioned form? Well, sonnets are
one of those forms.
There are two kinds of sonnets: English or
Shakespearean and Plutarchan.
There are two things all sonnets have no matter
what: 14 lines and a specific rhyme scheme.
You can generally spot a sonnet by its shape, a
rectangle. If you see a poem in the shape of a
rectangle, count the lines, it’s most likely a sonnet!
Sonnets are generally about love, so when you see a
sonnet, you know it will be some sort of mushy poem.
This is what we call “form matching content”. If ever
someone wrote a sonnet about severe hatred of
someone else, what do you think that would mean?
 Shakespearean
sonnets are written in three
quatrains, or groups of four lines, and one
couplet, a group of two lines.
 Shakespearean sonnets have a specific rhyme
scheme: abab cdcd efef gg. All
Shakespearean sonnets will have this rhyme
scheme.
 Shakespearean sonnets are written in
Shakespeare’s meter of choice: iambic
pentameter, which means how many feet are
in each line??
 Does
the form match the content?
 Break the poem up by quatrains and the
couplet to see the progression of the reader’s
thoughts.
 What sort of literary devices does
Shakespeare use to describe his feelings?
What is the extended metaphor?
 Is
this a Shakespearean sonnet? How do you
know? Does it adhere to the form as closely
as Shakespeare?
 What is the meter and scansion of the poem?
 Does the form match the content?
 Point out some figurative language. How
does she use it in comparison or contrast to
Shakespeare?
 Now
that you know how sonnets work, try
writing one on your own. Remember, sonnets
have 14 lines and specific rhyme scheme!
They are generally about love for a person,
but for our purposes you may write about
anyone or anything you love. Share your
poem with a friend when you are finished!
How to use poetry when you don’t want it to be like poetry
 Free
Verse is a form of poetry that is quite
common in modern poetry because it is the
quintessential opposite of form, it has no
form. Free verse does not rhyme, generally
does not have stanzas, and quite often does
not fit anyone’s idea of what a poem should
look like. Words can be scattered around the
page and still be a poem! What sort of point
could someone be trying to get across by
using free verse?
 Why
would Hughes use free verse for this
poem? How does form match content?
 How does Hughes use punctuation?
Remember, words are not the only thing in
poems, poets use all facets of language to
illustrate their purpose!
 What images does Hughes use? How are these
images reflective of his purpose?
 How
does Levertov’s form match her
purpose?
 What major literary device does she use
throughout her poem?
 Why does she choose grain?
 Ravikovitch
uses blank verse, poetry that
does not rhyme, rather than free verse. Why
would she choose blank verse over free
verse?
 How does she make use of extended
metaphor? At what point is the metaphor
explained? Why do you think she would do
this?
 Why is this poem called “Pride”? (Can rocks
have pride? What literary device is this?) How
do you relate this poem to the human
condition?
 What
does it mean if you have a “ghost of a
chance”? How does that relate to the
purpose of the poem?
 Why a fish? What does the image of a fish
have to do with the purpose of the poem?
 Water imagery is oftentimes used as a symbol
for life. How does that ring true (or not, for
that matter) in this poem?
 How does Rich use free verse? Is her purpose
similar to others we have read? Does form
match content?
 E.E.
Cummings is the quintessential free
verse poet. Anytime one is speaking of free
verse, E.E. Cummings comes into play.
 Not only does Cummings use words, but he
makes visual images with punctuation. What
are some examples from this poem and what
purpose do you think they have?
 Is there purpose to where Cummings breaks
his lines and stanzas?
 What images does Cummings portray? How
does the lack of form effect these images?
 Does form match content?
That’s not all, folks!




A villanelle is a poem form with a rigid rhyme
scheme and repetition pattern.
Villanelles often have a pastoral, or rustic, feel to
them. Whatever the content is, it is described in a
pastoral manner.
Villanelles consist of five tercets (three line stanzas)
and one quatrain. The first and third line of the
opening tercet alternate as the last lines of the
following tercets and then appear again together as
the last two lines of the quatrain. Because of the
repetition of these lines, they are called the refrain.
In the following, the capital letters are the lines of
the refrain while the lowercase serve as the rhyme
scheme:

A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
“Do Not Go
Gentle Into
That Good
Night”
by Dylan
Thomas
 Remember
I said before that villanelles used
pastoral images. Does the form of “Do Not
Go Gentle Into That Good Night” match the
content? Why would Dylan choose to use such
common images?
 Why are those particular two lines the
refrain? What significance do they hold to
the poem?
 What other uses of figurative language can
you find? Do they hold any purpose?
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead,
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head)
The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary darkness gallops in.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head).
God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:
Exit seraphim and enter Satan’s men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I fancied you’d return the way you said.
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head).
I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head).
“Mad Girl’s
Love Song”
by Sylvia
Plath
 Does
this poem have pastoral images? Why
would Plath choose this path?
 Describe some of the images Plath uses. How
do they relate to a love song? How do they
relate to someone who is mad (as in crazy)?
 What do you think of the refrain? How is it
the theme of sorts for the poem?
 Odes,
unlike the other types of poems we
have discussed, do not have a particular
form. And ode is an ode because it is a
tribute of sorts. Odes can be written for
particular occasions or on a particular
subject. Odes denote some sort of adoration
by the poet for its subject. This type of poem
was used very seriously in the past, but has
become to be about more light-hearted
subjects and meant fairly sarcastically. Even
though there is no set form, one thing every
ode has is a rhyme scheme!
From “Ode to the West Wind”
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,
Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-striken multitudes! O thou
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odors plain and hill:
Wild Spirit which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!
Of what is
Shelley in
adoration? Why?
Does this fit the
purpose of an
ode?
“Ode to a
Vegetable”
by anonymous
Humble southern vegetable,
your stem stubbed,
your tail curved and oh-so-thin,
your skin fuzzy like the Peach, your garden neighbor;
your seeds slick my knife with their sludge.
Fried up golden brown and crisp, or
thrown in a pot of gumbo.
Okra! How I love thee!
When I was a child, only you,
of all the vegetables,
ever merited seconds (and, when Mom made enough,
thirds.) At Grandma's, you arrived in a paper bag,
top crumpled to hide
its precious cargo,
fresh and dirty still from being pick'd.
Though you are a stranger still to some,
I greedily steal you from grocery shelves,
piling you in bag after bag to take home
and fry up.
I can never get enough.
 Now
that you have seen a serious ode and a
silly one, it’s time for you to write an ode of
your own! Remember, it needs to rhyme
(even though “Ode to a Vegetable” did not)
and be about something for which you have a
certain level of adoration. The sky is the
limit!
 Share your odes with your neighbors!
A Day of Poetry Appreciation and Writing
 How
much time do you think has passed in
this poem?
 What sort of literary devices does Dove use
to help create the scene?
 How do our senses help us remember specific
times in our lives?
 Why is poetry the perfect medium to
recreate those senses?
Think of three events in your life (before the age
of 10) that are of some importance. Your
memory should not be comprised of anymore
than one minute of time.
 Write a description of no more than five words of
the event (such as “my brother’s birth).
 Choose two of the events to continue the
activity.
 Make a comparison chart (side by side) for the
two events. For each event, describe the
memories your senses have. Tell everything and
be descriptive!






Smell: the girl’s bathroom
at school (the normal
smells of icky)
Taste: sweat from my
face, school lunch
Touch: my heart pounding
in my chest, the walls of
the stall
See: the institutional
yellow of the walls, the
brown tile of the floor
Hear: the door slam as
people enter the restroom
When I cut class in 4th grade





Smell: freshly cut grass,
metallic of my instrument
Taste: metallic of my
instrument, Gatorade and
water
Touch: my instrument, the
grass, dirt, sweat
See: drill charts, t-shirts
and shorts, hats and
sunglasses, rows of people
at attention
Hear: commands of the
drum major, Wild, Wild
West, the grass crunching
underneath my feet
My first day of band camp






Choose one of your two remaining memories and
write a poem about it.
Use as many adjectives as you possibly can to create
the imagery of the moment.
Your poem can be blank verse, free verse, or fit a
form, but remember to have your form match your
content!
Use at 5 of the following literary devices:
alliteration, consonance, assonance, personification,
simile, metaphor, extended metaphor, metonymy,
synecdoche, refrain, symbol. If you aren’t sure what
one means, look it up!
Feel free to illustrate your final poem with drawn
scenes from your memory!
Look at page 277 in your lit text for a list of things to
keep in mind while writing your poetry.
I can’t figure out how to describe it, so I’ll just use
someone else’s ideas…
An allusion is a reference to an existing body of
work, most commonly either the Bible or Greek
or Roman mythology.
 Poets oftentimes use allusions as examples for
ideas in their poetry.
 The trick with allusions is they only hold
importance if the reader recognizes them!
 Read the story of Daedalus and Icarus. We will
need this to analyze the following poems!
 After reading the story, we will break up into
groups to analyze poems with Icarus allusions.

 Follow
the directions on the handout for your
group. Everyone in the group is expected to
participate!
 After 30 minutes of group work, we will
reassemble to read the poems out loud and
begin on our class-wide compare/contrast
paper.
 Answer the guided questions on the paper,
but come up with some questions on your
own and answer them as well. In order to
write the paper successfully, each of you
needs to be an expert on one of the poems!
 Each
group needs to choose a speaker that
can comment on what the group wants to
offer as far as support for our
compare/contrast essay.
 Together we are composing an essay. You will
have to do one on your own in a few days, so
I suggest you write down EVERYTHING, as you
will surely need it when you write your own
paper! This IS your guided practice, if you
think you’ll need help on the next one, you
need to take notes!
O Simile, Simile, Wherefore Art Thou Simile?
 What
examples of figurative language can
you find? (Here’s a hint, there’s one in the
first line!)
 How does the use of figurative language lend
itself to (or, take away from, if you so
interpret) the purpose of the poem?
 What do you make of the names the speaker
calls the moon? Do they fit? Can you think of
better (or, rather, more poetic) ways to name
the moon?
 What do you make of the last three lines?
Aside from the obvious choice, what other
figurative language can you find in this poem?
 What is the simile? What impact does it have on
the purpose of the poem?
 Let’s pretend Momaday decided to entitle this
poem “Metaphor” and changed the second line.
How would it change the tone of the poem, if at
all?
 In the last line, Momaday says there is “latent
flight” in the limbs of the deer. What is that all
about? Deer I’ve seen can’t fly, so what does he
mean? What literary device is being used here?

 As
we read this poem aloud, make a note of
each line that includes an example of
figurative language.
 Who is the speaker? (Note that the speaker
and the poet are not necessarily the same!)
 What are the two things he mentions that
bend birches? What is the speaker’s tone
towards them? Why do you think that is?
 What is the general overall tone of this
poem? What words indicate that to you?
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.
 What
metaphors
is Frost using?
 Why do you think
Frost used fire
and ice? What
purpose do they
have in life? What
purpose do they
have in death?
 Rich
is a modern-day poet, so I doubt she has
seen any real knights like the one described
in the poem. Where do you think the knight
is, then?
 How many eyes does the knight have? Why?
 What is the tone of the poem? What does the
speaker think of the knight?
 What could the knight’s armor symbolize in
the poem? What if it was not a knight, what
if it was a woman? How would the symbol
change or stay the same?
Oooh, look at the pretty pictures!
Shape poetry is a poem that literally
takes the shape of the content.
Sometimes the poet does this on purpose,
sometimes it is a fluke, but every time it
makes for interesting poetry!
What sort of figurative language does this
poet use?
How does the shape match the content?
Is this poem about snails?
Why does the poet call it “Snail Speed”?
What importance does the snail have?
What is the purpose of this poem?
How does the shape match the purpose?
What is the purpose of this
poem?
Why do you think the pyramids
become smaller as the poem
progresses?
Why do you think the poet has
chosen pyramids as a shape for
this poem?
 Your
first shape poem is going to be about
one of three general subjects: football,
books, or gifts. You can make it literal (a
poem about football) or symbolic (think of
the snail poem).
 Choose your template and write your poem.
If I were you, I would pre-write on a sheet of
paper before I put it on the template. Color
or otherwise decorate your poem however
you choose.
 Tonight,
create another shape poem that
includes at least 2 examples of figurative
language and 2 sound devices. You can make
it about whatever you choose (let’s keep it
G-rated) so long as it is a shape poem. This
one needs to be metaphorical, like “Snail
Speed” and “Thoughts”, so no hokey “I Like
Trees” poems. Really put some thought into
this! You may begin on it if you finish your
template shape poem before class is over.
This is due tomorrow in class, no exceptions!
These are alike, but they’re different, too…
 What
kind of poem is this? (free verse, ode,
sonnet, etc.)
 What instances of figurative language do you
see? Make note of as many as possible.
 Does the form match the content?
 What do you believe is the poet’s purpose?
 What is the tone of the poem? What does the
poet think of women?
 Jot down any other notes that are indicative
of the purpose of the poem.
 What
kind of poem is this? (free verse, ode,
sonnet, etc.)
 What instances of figurative language do you
see? Make note of as many as possible.
 Does the form match the content?
 What do you believe is the poet’s purpose?
 What is the tone of the poem? What does the
poet think of the woman?
 Jot down any other notes that are indicative
of the purpose of the poem.
Based on these two poems, “Women” and
“Woman”, you are to compose a compare/contrast
essay. Remember how we compared/contrasted
the two Icarus and Daedalus poems? You need to
follow the same processes and format that we used
then. If you ask me a question, I’ll answer, “what
do your notes say we did on the Icarus poems?”
This is why I told you to take notes!
 Your essay must be as long as it takes to cover the
subject, and I would suspect at least four
paragraphs, if not five or more. You have the
remainder of class today and tomorrow to finish
your essay. It is due before you leave tomorrow.

Let’s see what you’ve learned…
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent, which is death to hide,
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He, returning, chide:
“Doth God exact day labor, light denied?”
I fondly ask; but Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work, or His own gifts; who best
Bear His mind yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly. Thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
By John
Milton
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent, which is death to hide,
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He, returning, chide:
“Doth God exact day labor, light denied?”
I fondly ask; but Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work, or His own gifts; who best
Bear His mind yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly. Thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
By John
Milton
“The Bells” by
Hear the sledges with the bells Edgar Allan Poe
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody
foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.