Language and Composition Original Poetry Unit
The purpose of this unit is to give you a chance to experience, enjoy, and deepen your understanding of
poetry by writing original poetry. You will write two pieces of original poetry and incorporate DIDLS and
rhetorical devices to enrich the meaning of your poems.
Each poem must include the following:
1. A title
2. At least 14 lines
3. Thoughtful incorporation of diction, imagery, details, language, and syntax.
4. A distinct tone
5. A clear subject and purpose
6. At least 4 poetic devices
7. A DIDLS analysis of the poem
Poem #1: Memory Poem
As we have seen in “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those Winter Sundays”, many poems draw from the vast
ocean of personal memory. You will write a poem inspired by a memorable time or an important person
in your life for your first original poem. The most common way we physically store memories is through
photographs. For this first poem, you will write a poem inspired by a photograph that captures an
important time/and or person.
Poem #2: Point of View Poem
Your second poem will require you to consider point of view. Remember a time when you had a conflict
with someone (boyfriend, girlfriend, mom, sister, friend, etc.) and retell the conflict from that other
person’s point of view. What diction, imagery, details, language, and syntax would be appropriate to
express that person’s attitude during the conflict?
Poem #1 Examples
Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year
October. Here in this dank, unfamiliar kitchen
I study my father’s embarrassed young man’s face.
Sheepish grin, he holds in one hand a string
of spiny yellow perch, in the other
a bottle of Carlsbad beer.
In jeans and denim shirt, he leans
Against the front fender of a 1934 Ford.
He would like to pose bluff and hearty for his posterity,
All his life my father wanted to be bold.
But the eyes give him away, and the hands
that limply offer the string of dead perch
and the bottle of beer. Father, I love you,
yet how can I say thank you, I who can’t hold my liquor either
and don’t even know the places to fish?
by Raymond Carver
Poetic Device (s)
Example from the poem
How does this device contribute to the meaning AND/OR
tone of the poem?
DICTION:
IMAGERY:
DETAILS:
LANGUAGE
SYNTAX
OTHER DEVICES?
TONE/ATTITUDE? (Consider speaker’s attitude toward self, other characters
and subject; attitudes of characters other than poem’s speaker; and poet’s
attitude toward other characters, subject, and finally, toward the reader)
THEME? (Recognize the human experience, motivation,
or condition suggested by the poem. Remember, theme
must be expressed as a complete sentence!)
Holiday
Even on holidays
We’re not
All together.
My dad and I sit in a BIG red armchair
He looking dead
At the camera;
I look down
At my new Minnie Mouse slippers.
My father puts the slippers on my feet,
He holds me,
Calls me his
Little girl.
I am safe
In my daddy’s arms.
My fake mother is taking the picture.
My real Mom sits at her house
All alone.
Another X-mas divided by the two
Of you
by Ashleigh, grade 10
Poetic Device (s)
Example from the poem
How does this device contribute to the meaning AND/OR
tone of the poem?
DICTION:
IMAGERY:
DETAILS:
LANGUAGE
SYNTAX
OTHER DEVICES?
TONE/ATTITUDE? (Consider speaker’s attitude toward self, other characters and
subject; attitudes of characters other than poem’s speaker; and poet’s attitude
toward other characters, subject, and finally, toward the reader)
THEME? (Recognize the human experience, motivation,
or condition suggested by the poem. Remember, theme
must be expressed as a complete sentence!)
Name:_____________________________
Pd:______
Date:__________________________
Poem #1: Memory Poem Graphic Organizer
What do you see in the photo? (Remember to use
rich, descriptive language.) Assume that the
reader cannot see the photo. Use words that will
paint the picture in the reader’s mind.
Details:
What can’t you see? What is the story behind the
picture? How were you feeling? How were others
in the photo feeling? Write about what is not in
the frame: the photographer, the occasion, an
important person who is not pictured. Your poem
should reconcile/explain why the contents of the
frame do not contain all the information
necessary to understand the event fully.
Imagery (Step back into the photo. What can you
see, smell, hear, taste, feel?):
Who will be speaker of your poem? What information will you reveal about him or her?
What will be the subject?
Who will be the audience?
What is the attitude of the speaker toward the subject and/or audience (tone)?
What will be the purpose?