Prose & Poetry—What’s the Difference? Read the samples of writing and then compare both versions. As you notice similarities and differences, write them on a Venn diagram. Use the clip art/graphics to guide you. Prose version: A woman stands on a mountain top with the cold seeping into her body. She looks on the valley below as the wind whips around her. She cannot leave to go to the peaceful beauty below. In the valley, the sun shines from behind the clouds causing flowers to bloom. A breeze sends quivers through the leaves of trees. The water gurgles in a brook. All the woman can do is cry. Poetry version The Woman on the Peak The woman stands upon the barren peak, Gazing down on the world beneath. The lonely chill seeps from the ground Into her feet, spreading, upward bound. The angry wind whistles ‘round her head, Whipping her hair into streaming snakes, While she watches, wishes, weakly wails. Beyond the mountain, sunshine peeks, Teasing flowers to survive and thrive. The breeze whispers through the leaves, Causing gentle quivers to sway the trees. Laughter gurgles as the splashing brook Playfully tumbles over rugged rocks, While the woman above can only grieve. It’s all about that bass space! How does each form of writing use the space on the page? Capitalization & Punctuation Consider how each form of writing uses these conventions. Eagles Excerpts from PBS.org Nature Their fierce portraits stare out from cave paintings crafted by long-forgotten Stone Age masters. Their hooked beaks and deadly claws have adorned flags that led armies from Rome to Germany into battle. The spot on which one landed dictated to the ancient Aztecs the place where they were to build a city. For centuries, these seemingly larger-than-life birds have fascinated and inspired us…Using their massive, sharp talons, these giants can kill and carry off prey as large as deer and monkeys. But not all eagles fit this stereotype: some are just small balls of feathers content to flap short distances, dining on insects or even fruit… The eleven sea eagles, which include America’s beloved Bald Eagle, tend to specialize in eating fish and water birds — some even hunt flamingoes and poisonous sea snakes… Usually, however, eagle eyes are too keen for the birds to fly blindly into danger. In fact, eagles’ vision is among the sharpest of any animal. Wedge-tailed Eagles, for instance, can see twice as far as people. Studies suggest that some eagles can spot an animal the size of a rabbit up to two miles away… The Eagle Lord Alfred Tennyson, 1809 - 1892 He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.