Year 7 English
POETRY BOOKLET
COMPARISON POETRY: SIMILE
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Simile: A figure of speech in which one thing is
compared to another.
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Uses the words ‘like’ or ‘as’
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E.g. He was driving like a bat out of hell.
SIMILE MATCH
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Leech
Rake
Bone
Sheet
Dog
Swan
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The ballerina moves like a graceful …
The river bed was a dry as a ….
After seeing the accident she was a
white as a …
Her frightened friend clung to her like a
…
The jogger was a thin as a ….
During the party he was a sick as a ….
SIMILE MATCH
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Snail
Cucumber
Peacock
Wind
Pancake
Diamonds
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The principal’s eyes gleamed like ….
During the argument she remained as
cool as a …
Desert country is often as flat as a …
In her new clothes she was as proud
as a …
The old bus was as slow as a …
The sprinter ran like the …
SIMILES: BLUEBACK EXAMPLES
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“… every pane of glass
looked like a little fire.”
p2
“… clinging to his skin
like pearls.” p3
“… round and silver like
shiny hubcaps.” p4
“… the sun melting like
butter on white dunes.”
p66
THE BOXER
The great iron figure crouches,
Scabs like flowers on his knees,
And his chest like a mountain
And his legs as thick as trees.
He spits blood like a cherub
In a fountain spouting foam.
Ringed around by swinging ropes
And punters going home.
Broken-knuckled, shiny-eyed,
Battered, bruised and wet
With droplets like cold rubies,
And laced with bitter sweat.
He crouches in a corner
In his pool of sparking red
And dreads the jeers which soon will fall
Like blows upon his head.
Emma Payne
SIMILE: BUSHFIRE
Roaring like a lion
 Racing like a cheetah
 Hot as the sun
 Crackling and blazing
 Bushfire
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Alison Reldas
SIMILE
From ‘Blueback’
 “Above them, on the rippling shiny surface, the
boat hung like a kite … “
WRITING YOUR OWN SIMILE POEMS…
TIGER
By Alison Reldas
BUSH RABBITS
By Alison Reldas
Quiet as a sea breeze
Striped like a crossing
Swift as an express train
Lying in ambush –
Tiger.
Ears like radars
Claws like knives
Stealthy as thieves
Searching, eating,
scratching –
Bush rabbits.
WRITING YOUR OWN SIMILE POEMS…
Formula Poems…
Title (the subject of the poem)
 Three similes about the subject
 A statement about the subject
 The title repeated
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METAPHOR
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A comparison technique where one thing is
said to be something else.
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Assists understanding by creating an image.
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It often appeals to the reader on a personal
level as it relates to the reader’s own
experiences.
METAPHOR
‘The wind was a torrent of darkness among the
gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon
cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the
purple moor.’
Alfred Noyes
EXTENDED METAPHOR
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A metaphor that
continues for several
lines.
Sometimes a whole
poem can be a single
metaphor…
The Crimson Serpent
Fire: a serpent, hissing and crackling
Now pacified, now demanding
Climbing and swirling through countless
grotesque forms –
Hungrily eying the next morsel of food in its
path to self-destruction.
Fire – now secluded, now rampant through
the charred ruins of its meal
Now friendly and warm, the next moment
fierce and hot
Desperately trying to escape an
inescapable fate –
A crimson serpent with an insatiable
appetite,
Doomed to death through its own
greediness.
EXTENDED METAPHOR
The Sea
The sea is a hungry dog.
Giant and grey.
He rolls on the beach all day.
With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws.
Hour upon hour he gnaws
The rumbling, tumbling stones.
And ‘Bones, bones, bones, bones!’
The giant sea-dog moans,
Licking his greasy paws.
And when the night wind roars
And the moon rocks in the stormy cloud,
He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs,
Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs,
And howls and hollows long and loud.
But on quiet days in May or June,
When even the grasses on the dune
Play no more their reedy tune,
With his head between his paws
He lies on the sandy shores,
So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snore.
James Reeves
PERSONIFICATION
PERSONIFICATION
PERSONIFICATION
PERSONIFICATION
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Human characters are given to non-human
things.
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It is used to help make an image more vivid by
having the audience associate human
characteristics with it.
PERSONIFICATION
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The wind shouted
through the trees.
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The old windmill
moaned.
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The leaves danced in
the breeze.
PERSONIFICATION
PERSONIFICATION
PERSONIFICATION
PERSONIFICATION
From ‘Blueback’
 “The school bus rattled along the Longboat Bay
road, spitting gravel and raising dust … “
 “Out at Robber’s Head the sea heaved itself at
the cliffs.”
 “High above him the wind groused in the
crowns of the karris.”
 “Surf hammered the shore and chewed it
away.”
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ONOMATOPOEIA
On – o – mat – uh – pee – u
‘Words that imitate sounds’
Makes the writing sound interesting or dramatic.
ONOMATOPOEIA
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‘... A huge blue shadow
twitched and quivered.”
p.7
CHAPTER ONE: BLUEBACK
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Purred
Skimmed
Cold rush
Cut the motor
Phhht!
Whooshed
Swirled
Glowed
Terrible rush
Spit
Darted
panting
ONOMATOPOEIA
From ‘Blueback’
 “Abel saw the flash of his mother’s screwdriver.”
 “She prised the abalone off the rock…”
 “His mother came gliding up …”
 “… another rush from the lurking shadow.”
 “They skimmed back … toward the jetty …”
 “… his mother clanking around in the shed.”
 “… trees jangled with bells …”
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ONOMATOPOEIA
From ‘Blueback’
 “ … a little puff of sediment …”
 “Her snorkle wooshed beside him…”
 “The muscle twitched in its shell.”
 “The school bus rattled along … “
 “The old fish scooted in circles … “
 “His fins vibrated.”
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ONOMATOPOEIA: EXAMPLE
Crack an Egg
Crack an egg.
Stir the butter.
Break the yolk.
Make it flutter.
Stoke the heat.
Hear it sizzle.
Shake the salt,
just a drizzle.
Flip it over,
just like that.
Press it down.
Squeeze it flat.
Pop the toast.
Spread jam thin.
Say the word.
Breakfast's in .
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by Denise Rodgers
ONOMATOPOEIA: EXAMPLE
Laundrette
Wishy, washy, there’s my shirt
Swirling, squirming round my vest.
Splashy, dashy, two red socks,
In a sandwich with the rest.
A football scarf, a bright-red hat
A pillow-slip, blue jeans a sheet.
Oh, my goodness, what was that?
A hand, a face, a pair of feet
Someone swirling round quite bare –
How did Granny get in there?
Gareth Owen
ALLITERATION
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The repetition of the
same consonant,
especially at the
beginning of words.
The Snake
“He sipped with his straight
mouth,
Softly drank through his
straight gums, into his
slack long body,
Silently.”
D.H.Lawrence
ALLITERATION
From ‘Blueback’
 “In a seam along the smooth granite rock, the
shellfish grew round and silver like shiny
hubcaps.”
 “It had fins like ping pong paddles.”
 “The mosaic of its scales shone in the morning
sun.”
ALLITERATION
…………….. witches
 …………….. sausages
 …………….. holidays
 ……………. mothers
 ……………. hamburgers
 ……………. bananas
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…………….. spiders
 ……………… footballers
 …………….. teachers
 …………….. Students
 ……………. fish
 …………….. groper
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ASSONANCE
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The repetition of similar
vowel sounds close
together to create a
musical effect.
The Lotus Eaters
And in the stream the long
leaved flowers weep,
And in the craggy ledge the
poppy hangs in sleep.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
FREE VERSE: DEFINITION
Free
verse is just what it
says it is - poetry that is
written without proper rules
about form, rhyme, rhythm,
etc.
FREE VERSE: DEFINITION
In
free verse the writer
makes his/her own rules.
 The writer decides how the
poem should look, feel, and
sound.
FREE VERSE: EXAMPLE
Winter Poem
Nikki Giovanni
once a snowflake fell
on my brow and i loved
it so much and i kissed
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me then
i reached to love them all
and i squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and i stood perfectly
still and was a flower
FREE VERSE: EXAMPLE
I May Be Dreaming, But Wouldn't It Be Great If...
…I were a genius who could get straight As in school without having to
do any homework.
…My parents let me eat dessert first and then anything else wanted.
…My little sister moved to an island off the coast of Madagascar and I
never heard from her
again, except on my birthdays, when she'd send me a card with money
in it.
…Instead of making me go to Sunday school, my parents would take me
and my girlfriend to the
amusement park, where I could practice the Golden Rule on the roller
coaster by holding her
hand whenever she got scared.
FREE VERSE: EXAMPLE
Sleepy Thoughts on a Cold Winter Night
I'm cold.
I pull my blanket over my head.
That's better.
I find a comfortable position
and start breathing slowly.
I wonder what it would be like
to be a bear and sleep all winter.
I guess you'd have to have a pretty big last supper,
or you'd have to wake up in January to find something to eat.
I wonder what it would be like
to be a fish and sleep at the bottom of a lake.
I guess you'd have to have gills,
or you'd have to come up to the surface every ten seconds or so
to get a breath of air.
FREE VERSE: ACTIVITY
Write a paragraph describing yourself.
 Break the sentences up into phrases
 Add words to the phrases for more depth
 Re-arrange the phrases
 Play around with the words until you are happy
with the final ‘look’ of the poem
 Publish this.
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FREE VERSE: ACTIVITY
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Mrs. Alexander is undoubtedly THE most
amazing and fantastic teacher in the world.
Not only is she a highly talented educator, but
is also extremely good looking and one of the
nicest people you would ever wish to meet. She
also has an extremely over-inflated opinion of
herself.
FREE VERSE: ACTIVITY
Mrs. Alexander
 amazing and fantastic teacher
 highly talented educator
 extremely good looking
 nicest people you would ever wish to meet
 unfortunately
 over-inflated opinion of herself
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CINQUAIN
An
unrhymed poem
consisting of 5 formatted
lines.
Written to a formula.
CINQUAIN
Cinquains do not have
titles. However, the first
line serves as the
announced topic.
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CINQUAIN: FORMAT
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
One word topic
Two describing words
Three action words
A four word phrase
One word relating to the
topic
CINQUAIN EXAMPLE
Rain
Heavy, awesome
Drenching, soaking,
penetrating
Renewing the earth’s
firmament
Soil-soaker
CINQUAIN EXAMPLE
Mantis
Stick Predator
Stalking, preening,
searching
Slenderly fashioned by
nature
Killer
CINQUAIN EXAMPLE
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Cat.
Fluffy, cuddly.
Purring, sleeping,
kneading.
Asleep on my pillow.
Kitten.
CINQUAIN EXAMPLE
Dalmation
Spotted, happy
Running, barking, jumping
Tail is always wagging
Dog.
HAIKU
Japanese
form of poetry.
Non-rhyming and written
to a formula
Usually about something
in nature.
HAIKU: FORMAT
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17 syllables in total
st
1
Line: 5 syllables
nd
2 Line: 7 syllables
rd
3 Line: 5 syllables
HAIKU: EXAMPLE
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Written by Basho (famous
Japanese poet)
This snowy morning
That black crow I hate
so much ....
But he's beautiful!
—Basho
HAIKU: EXAMPLE
 The
flower rises
 Sunshine on the
morning dew
 Birds begin to
chirp
HAIKU: EXAMPLE
 Orange,
yellow,
red
 Drifting slowly to
the ground
 Another leaf falls
LIMERICK: EXAMPLE
There was a huge dog from Tibet,
 Who was loved by a girl named Odette;
 Though large and hairy
 And sometimes quite scary,
 She thought him a marvellous pet.
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LIMERICK: EXAMPLE
There once was a man of Bengal
 Who was asked to a fancy dress ball;
 He murmured, “I’ll risk it
 And go as a biscuit...”
 But a dog ate him up in the hall.
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LIMERICK: EXAMPLE
I raised a great hullabaloo
 When I found a large mouse in my stew,
 Said the waiter, “Don’t shout
 And wave it about,
 Or the rest will be wanting one too.”
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LIMERICK: FORMAT
Set pattern poem of 5 lines.
 A nonsense verse.
 Rhythm pattern is set – syllables / line
 Rhyme pattern is set – aabba
 Line 5 is the ‘punch line’ – a humorous twist.
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LIMERICK: ACTIVITY
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Think of something funny.
 Who
was there?
 When did it happen?
 Where did it happen?
 What happened?
 What was the conclusion?
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Write some words that you might be able to use
to describe the event.