Focus on Genre
Poetry
Poems can create songs
without music,
pictures without paint,
and feelings with
just a few words.
A poem describes things, shares
a feeling, and tells a story.
A poem has a rhythm, or pattern
of beats, like a song.
A poem may by made of parts,
or stanzas. The words in a
poem may make a shape.
A poem’s words may rhyme----but not all the time.
Turn the page to see and hear
what poems do!
April Rain Song
Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter.
The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night---And I love the rain.
by Langston Hughes
Joe
We feed the birds in winter,
And outside in the snow
We have a tray of many seeds
For many birds of many breeds
And one gray squirrel named Joe.
But Joe comes early,
Joe comes late,
And all the birds
Must stand and wait.
And waiting there for Joe to go
Is pretty cold work in the snow.
by David McCord
There’s
sort of a
tickle
the size of a
nickel,
a bit like the
prickle
of sweet-sour
pickle;
Sneeze
it’s a
a kind of a
quivery
wiggle
shiver
that starts as a
the shape of a jiggle
sliver,
and joggles
like eels in a
its way to a
river;
tease,
which I
cannot
suppress
any longer
I guess,
so pardon me,
please,
while I
sneeze.
by Maxine Kumin
Cloud Dragons
What do you see
in the clouds so high?
What do you see in the sky?
Oh, I see dragons
that curl their tails
as they go slithering by.
What do you see
in the clouds so high?
What do you see? Tell me, do.
Oh, I see caballitos
that race the wind
high in the shimmering blue.
by Pat Mora
What do you SEE?
T
r
e
e – tall
giraffe
u
p
giraffe
t
o
h
i
s
n
e
c
k
in brown and yellow
patchwork quilts, turns t
and hobbles away a
on wooden
i
s s
s s
l
t
t
t
t
i
i
i
I
l
l
l
l
t t
t
t
s s
s
s
by J. Patrick Lewis
Spaghetti! Spaghetti!
Spaghetti! spaghetti!
You’re wonderful stuff,
I love you spaghetti,
I can’t get enough.
You’re covered with sauce
and you’re sprinkled with cheese,
spaghetti! spaghetti!
oh, give me some please.
Spaghetti! spaghetti!
piled high in a mound,
you wiggle, you wriggle,
you squiggle around.
There’s slurpy spaghetti
all over my plate,
spaghetti! spaghetti!
I think you are great.
Spaghetti! spaghetti!
I love you a lot,
you’re slishy, you’re sloshy
delicious and hot.
I gobble you down
oh, I can’t get enough,
spaghetti! spaghetti!
You’re wonderful stuff.
by Jack Prelutsky
ANDRE
I had a dream last night. I dreamed
I had to pick a Mother out.
I had to choose a Father too.
At first, I wondered what to do,
There were so many there, it seemed,
Short and tall and thin and stout.
But just before I sprang awake,
I knew what parents I would take.
And this surprised and made me glad:
They were the ones I always had!
By Gwendolyn Brooks
The Bat
The bat is batty as can be.
It sleeps all day in cave or tree,
And when the sun sets in the sky,
It rises from its rest to fly.
All night this mobile mammal mugs
A myriad of flying bugs.
And after its night out on the town,
The batty bat sleeps
Upside down.
by Douglas Florian
If I Were an Ant
Suppose I
were an ant__
I’d be lazy
for sure.
And
I wouldn’t save my food__
I’d eat lots.
by Hitomi Takeshi
Books
Los libros
oversized
passports
pasaportes
de talla mayor
that let us
travel
que nos
permiten viajar
anywhere
anytime
a dondequiera
cuandoquiera
and keep on
dreaming.
y no dejar
de soñar.
by Francisco X. Alarcón
SHOW FISH
I found a flounder and I thought, “Swell,
I’ll take it to school for show and tell.”
But I forgot, for quite a spell,
To take it to school for show and tell,
And now it’s two weeks later….Well….
I’ll take it to school for show and smell.
by Shel Silverstein
Websites: Scholastic
Listen to Jack Prelutsky read his
poetry.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/poetry_listen.htm
Websites: Shel Silverstein
http://www.shelsilverstein.com/indexSite.html
pulses that are the
basic units of rhythm,
used in both poetry
and music
beats
A poem can have
rhythm, or a
pattern of beats,
like music.
Synonym:
rhythm
rows of words
printed or
written across a
page or column
lines
A poem has
lines that
sometimes are
arranged to form
a shape.
Synonym:
verses
a combination of
features, actions, or
events that are
repeated in a
recognizable
arrangement
pattern
Poems, like songs,
have rhythm and a
beat. Poets
sometimes repeat
words or lines to help
make a pattern so you
can hear the rhythm.
Synonym:
sequence
to agree or
correspond in
sound
rhyme
Many poets use
rhyme in their
poems, like cat and
hat, show and flow,
and beach and
peach.
a series of pulses
that repeat in a
regular order
rhythm
A poem that
has a musical
rhythm is easy
to memorize
and recite.
Synonyms:
beat
pace
tempo
groups of lines
that make up
divisions of a
poem
stanzas
Many poems
have four lines in
each of the
stanzas.
Synonyms:
canto
words or phrases
that help readers
make pictures in
their mind
imagery
Imagery, word
pictures, is an element
of poetry that is very
powerful to the reader.
The reader should use
visualizing while
reading poetry.
Synonym:
descriptions
several words that
begin with the same
sound and are next to
each other or close
together
alliteration
The tongue twister
Peter Piper picked a
peck of pickled
peppers is difficult to
say due to
alliteration.
words that sound
like the noise they
stand for
onomatopoeia
Pop, fizz, hiss,
buzz, and
gargle are
examples of
onomatopoeia.
using the same
word more than
once in a poem
repetition
Rap and poetry are
closely related. Many
of the elements of a
good poem---repetition, rhyming
patterns, and rhythm
are important to rap.
Synonyms:
recurrence
duplication
the way a
poem makes
a person feel
mood
For a happy mood in
a poem, the author
would use words that
represent happiness,
like cheerful, sunshine,
lollipops, and puppy
dogs.
Synonyms:
tone
feeling
comparing one
thing to another
using like or as
simile
As fit as a fiddle
and as hungry as
a bear are
examples of
similes.