DAY 1 Lesson Plan
Objectives:
 Introduce students to the Poetic Expression theme they will be studying over the
next three weeks: multicultural poetic expression, music lyrics and web page
development.
 Discuss various forms of TV show song lyrics and the ways in which they are
forms of poetic cultural expressions.
 Introduce students to several forms of African American poetry.
Standards: 1.1.11E
1.3.11E
1.6.11D
1.6.11F
1.7.11B
Materials:
 Sheet of Common Poetry Terms
 Song lyrics from TV shows:
The Brady Bunch, Frasier, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, The Jeffersons
 Edited tape with the TV show theme songs.
 Overhead Projector
 Three African American poems:
“On Being Brought from Africa to America”
“La Vie C’est la Vie”
“Is Truth Liberating?”
Methods:
 Begin by asking what students think about the definition of a poem.
-A group of words that rhyme?
-The same number of words in each line?
 Hand out sheet of common poetry terms. Go over this sheet with class.
 Discuss the subtle ways poetry is song has been incorporated through out TV
history. Teacher will hand out a sheet with song lyrics from TV shows.
-Show the students an edited tape of the TV show theme songs.
-Discuss how poetry is used as poetic cultural expression on popular TV shows.
 Introduce students to various forms/eras of African American poetry:
-Slave poets, Harlem Renaissance, and Contemporary poets.
 Using the projector, teacher will put one example of each of the African American
poetry eras and discuss the inspirations for their writings.
-Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)-Slave Poet
“On Being Brought from Africa to America”
-Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882-1961)-Harlem Renaissance Poet
“La Vie C’est la Vie”
-Haki R. Madhubuti (1942- )-Contemporary African American Poet
“Is Truth Liberating?”
Homework: Instruct the students to count off by 3’s. Assign each “number” a
specific African American poet just discussed to research. They will find one or two
more poems for the next day by their assigned poet.
ASSESSMENT:
Students will be informally assessed by teacher who will check to see that students are
following the lesson plan and participating as appropriate.
COMMON POETRY TERMS
Allegory
A story illustrating an idea or a moral principle in which objects take on symbolic
meanings. In Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy," Dante, symbolizing mankind, is
taken by Virgil the poet on a journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise in
order to teach him the nature of sin and its punishments, and the way to salvation.
Alliteration
Used for poetic effect, a repetition of the initial sounds of several words in a
group. The following line from Robert Frost's poem "Acquainted with the Night,"
provides us with an example of alliteration,": I have stood still and stopped the
sound of feet." The repetition of the s sound creates a sense of quiet, reinforcing
the meaning of the line.
Allusion
A reference in one literary work to a character or theme found in another literary
work. T. S. Eliot, in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" alludes (refers) to the
biblical figure John the Baptist in the line Though I have seen my head (grown
slightly bald) brought in upon a platter, . . . In the New Testament, John the
Baptist's head was presented to King Herod on a platter.
Aphorism
A brief statement which expresses an observation on life, usually intended as a
wise observation. Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanac" contains
numerous examples, one of which is Drive thy business; let it not drive thee.
which means that one should not allow the demands of business to take control of
one's moral or worldly commitments.
Ballad
A story in poetic form, often about tragic love and usually sung. Ballads were
passed down from generation to generation by singers. Two old Scottish ballads
are "Sir Patrick Spens" and "Bonnie Barbara Allan." Coleridges, "The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner" is a 19th century English ballad.
Blank Verse
A poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Consider the following from
"The Ball Poem" by John Berryman:
What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,
What, what is he to do? I saw
it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then
Merrily over-there it is in
the water!
Couplet
A stanza of two lines, usually rhyming. The following by Andrew Marvell is an
example of a rhymed couplet:
Had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady,
were no crime.
Dactyl
In poetry, a metrical pattern consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two
unstressed syllables as in the following example from "The Charge of the Light
Brigade" by Alfred Lord Tennyson:
Note that the metrical pattern in the fourth foot consists of one stressed and one
unstressed syllable, rather than the one stressed and two unstressed syllables
necessary to qualify the foot as dactyllic. A metrical pattern need not be consistent
throughout a line or poem for the work to be labeled as composed in an
identifiable meter. However, if enough of the work is written in an identifiable
metrical pattern for the reader to get a sense of a dominant pattern, then the reader
is justified in labeling the pattern.
Free Verse
Unrhymed Poetry with lines of varying lengths, and containing no specific
metrical pattern. The poetry of Walt Whitman provides us with many examples.
Consider the following lines from "Song of Myself."
I celebrate myself and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer
grass.
Hyperbole
A figure of speech in which an overstatement or exaggeration occurs as in the
following lines from Act 2, scene 2 of Shakespeare's "Macbeth." In this scene,
Macbeth has murdered King Duncan. Horrified at the blood on his hands, he asks:
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No. This my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
Literally, it does not require an ocean to wash blood from one's hand. Nor can the
blood on one's hand turn the green ocean red. The hyperbole works to illustrate
the guilt Macbeth feels at the brutal murder of his king and kinsman.
Iamb
A metrical pattern of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.
The following is an example:
Imagery
A word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more of the
senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell. The use of images serves to
intensify the impact of the work. The following example of imagery in T. S.
Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,"
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table.
uses images of pain and sickness to describe the evening, which as an image itself
represents society and the psychology of Prufrock, himself.
Lyric Poem
A short poem wherein the poet expresses an emotion or illuminates some life
principle. Emily Dickinson's "I Heard a Fly Buzz-When I Died" is a lyric poem
wherein the speaker, on a deathbed expecting death to appear in all its grandeur,
encounters a common housefly instead.
Meter
A regular pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables in a line or lines of poetry.
Narrative Poem
A poem which tells a story. Usually a long poem, sometimes even book length,
the narrative may take the form of a plotless dialogue as in Robert Frost's "The
Death of the Hired Man." In other instances the narrative may consist of a series
of incidents, as in Homer's "The Ilaid" and "The Odyssey," John Milton's
"Paradise Lost."
Quatrain
A four-line stanza which may be rhymed or unrhymed. A heroic quatrain is a
four line stanza rhymed abab. John Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding
Mourning" is a poem of nine heroic quatrains
Rhyme
In poetry, a pattern of repeated sounds. In end rhyme, the rhyme is at the end of
the line, as in these lines from "Ars Poetica" by Archibald MacLeish:
A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit
Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb
When one of the rhyming words occurs in a place in the line other than at the end,
it is called Internal rhyme.
Eye rhyme is a form of rhyme wherein the look rather than the sound is
important. "Cough" and "tough" do not sound enough alike to constitute a rhyme.
However, if these two words appeared at the ends of successive lines of poetry,
they would be considered eye rhyme.
Half rhymeoccurs when the final consonants rhyme, but the vowel sounds do not
(chill-Tulle; Day-Eternity).
Rhythm
Recurrences of stressed and unstressed syllables at equal intervals, similar to
meter. However, though two lines may be of the same meter, the rhythms of the
lines may be different. For example, if one were to read the last two lines of
Robert Frost's, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" with equal speed, the
lines would be the same in meter and rhythm. However, if one were to read the
last line more slowly (as it should be read), the meter would be the same but the
rhythm different. This is because while the meter of a line is identified by the
pattern within each foot, the rhythm is accounted for by larger units than
individual feet.
Simile
A figure of speech which takes the form of a comparison between two unlike
quantities for which a basis for comparison can be found, and which uses the
words "like" or "as" in the comparison, as in this line from Ezra Pound's "FanPiece, for Her Imperial Lord:"clear as frost on the grass-bade,In this line, a fan of
white silk is being compared to frost on a blade of grass. Not the use of the word
"as."
Sonnet
A lyric poem of fourteen lines whose ryhme scheme is fixed. The rhyme scheme
in the Italian form as typified in the sonnets of Petrarch is abbaabba cdecde. The
Petrarchian sonnet has two divisions: the first is of eight lines (the octave), and
the second is of six lines (the sestet). The rhyme scheme of the English, or
Shakespearean sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg. The change of rhyme in the English
sonnet is coincidental with a change of theme in the poem.
Stanza
A major subdivision in a poem. A stanza of two lines is called a couplet; a stanza
of three lines is called a tercet; a stanza of four lines is called a quatrain. Robert
Frost's "Acquainted with the Night," consists of four rhymed tercets followed by a
rhymed couplet.
Symbolism
A device in literature where an object represents an idea. In Willaim Blake's "The
Lamb," the speaker tells the lamb that the force that made him or her is also called
a lamb:
Little
Little
Little
Little
He is called
For he calls
lamb, who made thee?
lamb, who made thee?
lamb, I'll tell thee,
lamb, I'll tell thee!
by thy name,
himself a lamb;
The symbol of the lamb in the above lines corresponds to the symbolism of the
lamb in Christianity wherein Christ is referred to as The Lamb of God.
Synecdoche
A figure of speech wherein a part of something represents the whole thing. In this
figure, the head of a cow might substitute for the whole cow. Therefore, a herd of
fifty cows might be referred to as "fifty head of cattle." In Alfred Lord Tennyson's
"Ulysses" Ulysses refers to his former companions as free hearts, free foreheadsTone
Tone expressesthe author's attitude toward his or her subject. Since there are as
many tones in literature as there are tones of voice in real relationships, the tone
of a literary work may be one of anger or approval, pride or piety-the entire gamut
of attitudes toward life's phenomena. Here is one literary example: The tone of
John Steinbeck's short novel "Cannery Row" is nonjudgemental. Mr. Steinbeck
never expresses disapproval of the antics of Mack and his band of bums. Rather,
he treats them with unflagging kindness.
SONG LYRICS FROM TV SHOWS
“The Brady Bunch”
Here's the story of a lovely lady,
Who was bringing up three very lovely girls.
All of them had hair of gold, like their mother,
The youngest one in curls.
Here's the story, of a man named Brady,
Who was busy with three boys of his own.
They were four men, living all together,
Yet they were all alone.
Till the one day when the lady met this fellow,
And they knew that it was much more than a hunch.
That this group would somehow form a family.
That's the way we all became the Brady Bunch.
The Brady Bunch, The Brady Bunch.
That's the way we became the Brady Bunch.
“FRASIER”
Hey baby, I hear the blues a-callin',
Tossed salad and scrambled eggs
Oh My
Mercy (alt: Quite stylish.)
And maybe I seem a bit confused,
Yeah maybe, but I got you pegged!
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!
But I don't know what to do with those tossed salads and scrambled eggs.
They're callin' again.
(The following are alternate endings)
They're callin' again.
Good night, Seattle, we love you.
What is a boy to do. Good night.
Frasier has left the building.
Thank You!
Scambled eggs all over my face. What is a boy to do. Goodnight, everybody.
See you next year, we love ya.
“The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”
Now this is the story all about how,
My life got flipped, turned upside down,
And I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there,
I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air.
In West Philadelphia I was born and raised
On the playground is where I spent most of my days.
Chillin' out, maxin', relaxin all cool,
And all shootin' some b-ball outside of the school.
When a couple of guys who were up to no good,
Started makin' trouble in my neighborhood.
I got in one little fight and my mom got scared,
And said "You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in bel Air."
I whistled for a cab, and when it came near,
The license plate said "fresh" and it had dice in the mirror.
If anything I could say that this cat was rare,
But I thought "Nah forget it, Yo home to Bel Air."
I pulled up to the house about seven or eight,
and I yelled to the cabby "Yo homes, smell ya later."
Looked at my kingdom, I was finally there,
To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air.
“The Jeffersons”
Well we're movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.
Fish don't fry in the kitchen;
Beans don't burn on the grill.
Took a whole lotta tryin',
Just to get up that hill.
Now we're up in the big leagues,
Gettin' our turn at bat.
As long as we live, it's you and me baby,
There ain't nothin wrong with that.
Well we're movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.
AFRICAN AMERICAN POETRY ERAS
On Being Brought From Africa to America
Phillis Wheatley- (1753-1784)-Slave Poet
"Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin'd and join th'angelic train.
La Vie C'est la Vie
Jessie Redmon Fauset- Harlem Renaissance Poet
(1882-1961)
On summer afternoons I sit
Quiescent by you in the park,
And idly watch the sunbeams gild
And tint the ash-trees' bark.
Or else I watch the squirrels frisk
And chaffer in the grassy lane;
And all the while I mark your voice
Breaking with love and pain.
I know a woman who would give
Her chance of heaven to take my place;
To see the love-light in your eyes,
The love-glow on your face!
And there's a man whose lightest word
Can set my chilly blood afire;
Fulfillment of his least behest
Defines my life's desire.
But he will none of me, nor I
Of you. Nor you of her. 'Tis said
The world is full of jests like these-I wish that I were dead.
IS TRUTH LIBERATING?
Haki R. Madhubuti (b. 1942)-Contemporary African American Poet
If it is truth that binds
why are there so many lies
between lovers?
if it is truth that is liberating
why are people told:
they look good when they don't
they are loved when they aren't
everything is fine when it ain't
glad you're back when you're not.
Black people in america
may not be made for the truth
we wrap our lives in disco
and sunday sermons
while selling false dreams
to our children.
lies are refundable,
can be bought
on our revolving charge cards
as we all catch truth
on the next go round
if it doesn't hurt.