Poems in the Center
Master List
© 2008 Delia M. Turner, Ph.D.
This list is a work in progress, organized by themes, annotated to show possible elements of poetry, grammatical aspects, and writing prompts for
each poem. The writing prompts are meant to be simple and easy, and serve as starters for a daily five-minute writing time. Poems with an asterisk (*)
are my students’ favorites.
Author
Ciardi, John
Title
The Shark*
Theme
Animals
Elements of Poetry
Rhyme
Repetition
Grammar
Predicate and
attributive adjectives
McLeod, Irene
Rutherford
Lone Dog
Animals
Rhyme
Rhythm
Repetition
Attributive adjectives
Nash, Ogden
The Tale of Custard
the Dragon
Animals
Ballad
Refrain
Compound sentences.
Hughes, Ted
Mooses
Animals
Personification
Different types of
adjectives
Dunbar, Paul
Laurence
Phillips, Robert
Sympathy
Animals
Adjectives
The Panic Bird*
Animals
Repetition
Rhyme scheme
Diction
Metaphor
Tennyson, Alfred,
Lord
The Kraken*
Animals
Imagery
Adjectives
Dickinson, Emily
XXIV (“A Narrow
Fellow”)
Animals
Ballad form
Abstract and concrete
nouns.
Mass nouns.
Verbals
Concrete nouns
Writing prompts
- List all the adjectives
- Use 2 lines of the poem as a
pattern to write about something
else
- Write a rhyming poem warning
someone about something.
- List all the adjectives and whether
they are predicate or attributive
- Write a poem from the point of
view of an unhappy animal.
- Write a rhyming poem in which
the end-words have been changed in
order to rhyme.
- Write a poem in which each stanza
is a sentence.
- Identify five different parts of
speech used as adjectives
- Write a poem about being lost.
- Write about someone whose inside
is different from his outside.
- List ten concrete nouns from this
poem.
- Describe an emotion as if it were
an animal or other thing.
- Choose five of Tennyson’s
adjectives to describe some
everyday event.
- Create your own monster in poem,
story, or list form
- Write about a time you
encountered something unexpected.
Author
Roethke, Theodore
Title
The Heron
Theme
Animals
Elements of Poetry
Imagery, Diction
Grammar
Nouns
Prepositional phrases
Hughes, Ted
Hawk Roosting*
Animals
Voice (Mask)
Abstract and concrete
nouns
Tennyson, Alfred,
Lord
The Eagle (a
fragment)
Animals
Metaphor and simile
Verbs
Hoban, Russell
The Sparrow Hawk
Animals
Metaphor
Nouns
Coleman, Mary Ann
If I Were a Hawk
Animals
Voice
Past subjunctive verb
mood
Stevens, Wallace
Thirteen Ways of
Looking at a
Blackbird
Animals
Variations
Verb person (1st and
3rd)
Angelou, Maya
I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings
Animals
Line length
Diction (short words)
(Compare with
“Sympathy” by
Dunbar)
Sentence subject
(“bird”)
Conjunctions
Hopkins, Gerard
Manley
The Windhover
Animals
Alliteration
Sentence fragments
Oliver, Mary
The Summer Day
Animals
Prayer (invocation)
Pronouns
Writing prompts
- Observe something closely and
write about it as if it were the most
important thing in the world.
- Name four concrete nouns and
four abstract nouns in this poem.
- Write a poem or story about some
animal or thing as if it were
speaking.
- Describe a wild animal using verbs
that normally are used for human
beings.
- Write a list of metaphors for
something, either using the pattern
“x is y” or using verbs to show the
comparison.
- Write an “If I Were” poem.
- Write a series of comparisons like
“an umbrella of stars” in the form “a
---- of -----”
- List 13 words connected with
some common thing, animal,
person, place, or idea
- Write as many stanzas as you can
about ways to look at a pencil or
other common object.
- write about any topic using only
one-syllable or only two-syllable
words.
- Argue in favor of or against
keeping animals in captivity.
- Use the poem as a pattern to
compare two different things.
- Choose a letter of the alphabet and
describe something (waking up,
walking the dog, going to school)
with as many words starting with
that letter as possible.
- Which two lines of this poem do
not have any pronouns in them?
- If you were going to write a
prayer, what would it be and why
would you write it?
Author
Yeats, William Butler
Title
The Cat and the
Moon
Theme
Animals
Elements of Poetry
Diction
Metaphor
Grammar
Nouns
Hughes, Ted
Crow’s Fall
Animals
Personal pronouns
Poe, Edgar Allan
The Raven
Animals
Belloc, Hilaire
Jim Who Ran Away Animals
from His Nurse and
Was Eaten by a
Lion
Possum Crossing
Animals
Denotation and
connotation
(Compare to “The Cat
and the Moon” by
Yeats)
Meter (trochaic
octameter)
Ballad
Tetrameter
Giovanni, Nikki
Writing prompts
- Compare something non-living to
an animal.
- Use ten nouns from this poem to
write a different poem.
- Write a list of connotations for the
words “white” and “black”
- Create a legend about the way
something first happened.
Verbals (participles)
- Write a poem in which all the lines
end in “-ing.”
Capitalization
- “My parents always warned me . . .
“
- Write a sentence that uses the rules
of capitalization backwards.
(Compare with “A
Metaphor Crosses the
Road” by McFerren
and “Traveling through
the Dark” by Stafford)
Adjectives
Ellipsis
Commas (there are
non)
- “out of the corner of his eye, he
saw . . .”
- write a poem or song about road
kill.
- should animals have the same right
to live as humans? Explain.
- describe your own heaven or the
heaven of some other thing or
person.
- use the words “forever,”
“desperately,” “silently,” and
“again” in a sentence.
- Use the pattern “Something told . .
.” as the base for a poem. Make it
clear what the “something” is
without saying so.
- Write a four-line puzzle poem like
this one, in which the poem reads
differently depending on where you
start in the line.
Dickey, James
The Heaven of
Animals*
Animals
Stanza length
Varying sentence
structure
Adverbs
Field, Rachel
Something Told the
Wild Geese
Animals
Personification
Indefinite pronouns
Anonymous
I Saw a Peacock
Animals
Enjambment
Revere, Jonathan
Gull Skeleton
Animals
Capitalization
Personal pronouns –
first person singular
subjective
Form, repetition, rhyme Verb tense – simple
present, present
perfect, simple past
- In a poem, rewrite reality to suit
you.
Writing prompts
- Write a poem about a father or
other male relative.
- Write as long a sentence as you
can, using relative pronouns to
create subordinate clauses
- What things would you want to fix
if you only had a little while to live?
- Find the two indefinite pronouns in
this poem
- Find one example each of four
types of pronouns in this poem
- What did you believe when you
were younger that you don’t believe
now?
- Compare school to heaven, a
factory, the Olympics, a shopping
mall, or any other complicated
place.
Author
Cisneros, Sandra
Title
Abuelito Who*
Theme
Family &
Childhood
Elements of Poetry
Metaphor and simile
Grammar
Relative pronouns
Complex sentences
Eady, Cornelius
One Kind Favor
Family &
Childhood
(Compare with
“Abuelito Who” by
Cisneros)
Personal and
indefinite pronouns
Collins, Billy
On Turning Ten
Family &
Childhood
Irony
(Compare with “Flash
Cards” by Dove)
Pronouns –
demonstrative,
relative, indefinite
Thiel, Diane
Memento Mori in
Middle School*
Family &
Childhood
Metaphor
Terza rima
Verb tense – use of
simple past, past
perfect
Dove, Rita
Flash Cards
Family &
Childhood
Prepositional phrases, - Write a poem about something a
parent makes you do.
personal pronouns
Wright, Judith
Legend*
Family &
Childhood
Roethke, Theodore
My Papa’s Waltz*
Family &
Childhood
Imagery
(Compare with “On
Turning Ten” by
Collins)
Myth
Ballad
(Compare with “I
started early, took my
dog” by Dickinson)
Iambic trimester
Kunitz, Stanley
The Portrait*
Those Winter
Sundays*
Metaphor
Imagery
Enjambment
Verb tense
Hayden, Robert
Family &
Childhood
Family &
Childhood
Comparative
adjectives
Personal and
indefinite pronouns
- Why doesn’t the author use
quotation marks to show when
someone is speaking?
- Write your own legend—what
great feat did someone achieve?
Pronoun antecedents
Irregular verbs
- Describe an peaceful event or
scene as if it were violent, or a
violent event as if it were calm. Use
verbs to achieve the effect.
- Write about a painful memory and
how it makes you feel right now.
Verbs – irregular
verbs, tense, modals
- Find one of each type of pronoun
in this poem: personal,
interrogative, relative, indefinite
- Make a list of things people in
your family do that aren’t
appreciated.
Author
Brooks, Gwendolyn
Theme
Family &
Childhood
Elements of Poetry
Enjambment
Rhyme and rhythm
Family &
Childhood
Perspective shift
Flynn, Nick
Cartoon Physics,
Part I*
Family &
Childhood
Enjambment
Hales, Corinne
Power
Family &
Childhood
Stevenson, Robert
Louis
Bed in Summer*
Family &
Childhood
Iambic pentameter
Verb infinitives
Ondaatje, Michael
Bearhug
- Give an emotion an animal’s name
Brandon Branson’s
Backpack
Pronoun antecedents
- What do you have in your
backpack, and why?
Hemans, Felicia
Casabianca*
Family &
Childhood
Enjambment
Simile
Rhyme scheme
List poem
Doggerel
Parody
Rhyme scheme
Questions
Nesbitt, Kenn
Family &
Childhood
Family &
Childhood
Irregular verbs
Walters, Ricky
Children’s Story*
Family &
Childhood
Pronoun antecedents
Graves, Robert
Warning to
Children
Family &
Childhood
Feminine rhyme
Rap as poetry
Use of slang
Recursive structures
- Write a parody of “Casabianca” –
“The boy stood on the burning deck
...“
- Tell a story about an event in your
life starting, “Once upon a time . .”
Duhamel, Denise
When You Forget
to Feed Your
Gerbil*
Family &
Childhood
Hayden, Robert
Grammar
Personal pronouns:
first person plural
subjective
Pronouns – shift from
third person to first
person
Punctuation: colon
and ellipsis
Pronoun choice
Writing prompts
- write a poem in which each line
ends with the subject of the next.
Title
We Real Cool:
Seven at the Golden
Shovel
The Whipping
Pronoun antecedents
Verb tense
Similes
Punctuation – ending
marks
Nouns of address
Suffixes
Pronouns – reflexive
case
- Describe together something that is
happening now, and something that
happened in the past.
- Should children be spanked? Why
or why not?
- What facts about the world did
your parents hide from you?
- Should parents hide things from
children?
- Describe a prank you or someone
you know played on someone.
- “Everything had gone terribly
wrong . . . “
- find an example of a first, second,
and third person pronoun in this
poem.
- “I untied the string . . . “
- Write a warning to children.
- How might a child have to take
care of a mother? List the possible
ways.
Author
Orr, Gregory
Title
Father’s Song
Theme
Family &
Childhood
Elements of Poetry
Grammar
Punctuation –
semicolons, colons,
periods, commas
Verbs: Tense shift,
modals, participles,
passive
Irwin, Mark
My Father’s Hat
Family &
Childhood
Compare to “The
Whipping”
Imagery
Hughes, Langston
Mother to Son
Family &
Childhood
Voice
Metaphor
Spelling, apostrophes
Kooser, Ted
Student
Family &
Childhood
Verb tense, personal
pronouns
Merwin, W.S.
Yesterday
Family &
Childhood
Heaney, Seamus
Digging
Family &
Childhood
Metaphor
Relate to “Brandon
Branson’s Backpack”
by Nesbitt
Enjambment
Relate to “Abuelito
Who” by Cisneros and
“The Portrait” by
Kunitz
Metaphor
Diction
Compare to “Budapest”
by Billy Collins
Enjambment
Gildner, Gary
First Practice
Family &
Childhood
Narrative
Verb tense
Herrick, Steven
Seeing the World
Family &
Childhood
Typography
Repetition
First person narrator
FitzPatrick, Kevin
Bicycle Spring
Family &
Childhood
Narrative
Second person
narrator
Present tense
Quotation marks
Personal pronouns
Adverbs
Adverbs
Prepositional phrases
Phrasal verbs
Writing prompts
- Write a poem about trying to teach
someone caution.
- Write a poem about someone’s
possession so as to describe the
person who owned it. Use sensory
images.
- Write a poem of metaphors,
starting with “Life for me ain’t been
no . . . “
- Make a list of things that a
backpack could represent.
- Describe some people you know
(without using names) as if they
were animals.
- Find four adverbs in this poem
- Write about a time you missed a
chance. What did you lose? What
did you gain?
- Write about a relative and his or
her tools
- Choose five prepositional phrases
from the poem and put them into
your own poem.
- Identify five phrasal verbs in the
poem
- How are sports different from the
rest of life? What is the same?
Make a poem or list or write a
paragraph.
- “Every _________ or so, when
________ and I are bored with
_______”
- Describe what you see from an
unusual place.
- Tell a story in the second person,
using the present tense.
Author
cummings, e.e.
Title
anyone lived in a
pretty how town
Theme
Family &
Childhood
Elements of Poetry
Meter
Grammar
Indefinite pronouns
Frost, Robert
“Out, Out--”
Narrative
Personal pronouns
Riley, James
Whitcomb
Nine Little
Goblins*
Family &
Childhood
Halloween
Rhyme scheme
Conjunctions
Contractions
Pronouns
De La Mare, Walter
The Listeners
Halloween
Narrative
Ambiguity
Irregular verbs
Conjunctions
Kipling, Rudyard
The Way Through
the Woods
Halloween
Second person
narration
Conjunctions
Dunbar, Paul
Laurence
We Wear the
Mask*
Halloween
Rhythm
Compare to “The Road
Not Taken” by Frost
and “The Listeners” by
De La Mare
Metaphor
Stevenson, Robert
Louis
Shadow March
Halloween
Personification
Anapestic rhythm
Verb participles
Bryan, Sharon
Sweater Weather:
A Love Song to
Language
Language
Nonsense poetry,
cliché, simile,
alliteration, Tercets,
Tetrameter, Internal
rhyme
Phrases and clauses
(only three clauses in
the poem)
First person plural
Writing prompts
- Identify the protagonists in this
poem and describe their lives.
- write a story in which “someone”
or “no one” or “everybody” is the
protagonist
- Look in the news for a story of an
accident, and write a poem about it.
- List the pronouns in the fourth
stanza of this poem
- Riley only describes four of the
Goblins. What do the other five
look like?
- Write a story or poem about a
conversation in which one person
does not speak.
- Who are the “listeners” in this
poem?
- What is the antecedent of “thy,”
“it,” and “his” in this poem?
- Write a poem in the second person,
starting “ If you . . .”
- What if, on Halloween, the trickor-treaters were really hiding their
true selves?
- How do people in the world wear
metaphorical masks?
- Make a list of things the night
does, and then write a poem based
on your list.
- Find one of the six similes in this
poem
- List as many clichés, slang
phrases, advertising slogans, and
overused sports phrases as you can
and make a poem out of them.
- Find one complete clause in this
poem
Elements of Poetry
Alliteration and
assonance
Mask
Personification
Quatrains
Rhyme (exact and
slant)
Line
length/Enjambment
Metaphor
Simile
Personification
Compare to “Digging”
by Heaney
Personification
Similes and Metaphors
Grammar
Sentence structure
Writing prompts
- How many sentences are there in
this poem?
- Write a short poem speaking from
the point of view of an object. Use
alliteration.
Questions
Prepositional phrases
Present participles
- Find three prepositional phrases in
this poem
- What does listening (or smelling or
touching or tasting or seeing) look
like?
- Which poem is better, this one or
“Digging”? Why?
- My ______ moves like the
_______ of a __________.
Language
Elegy
Sentence structure
Prepositional phrases
The Grammar
Lesson*
Language
Villanelle
Parts of speech
Pereira, Peter
Anagrammer
Language
Diction
“If” conditional
McKenzie, Duncan
“I” Before “E”
Except After “C”
Language
Doggerel
Spelling – shows that
the rule as given is
not correct for many
English words
Author
Updike, John
Title
Player Piano
Theme
Language
Grennan, Eamon
Cat Scat
Language
Collins, Billy
Budapest
Language
Collins, Billy
Winter Syntax
Language
Hirsch, Edward
Fast Break*
Kowit, Steve
Verbs
Prepositional phrases
Sentences
Prepositional phrases
- See how many prepositional
phrases you can find in this poem
(there are 30 of them)
- Are they functioning as adverbs or
as adjectives?
- How many sentences are in this
poem? (Answer: one)
- Write the longest sentence you
can, using conjunctions and
prepositional phrases
- Write a story using metaphors
from a game
- Write a sentence using the same
word as an adjective, a noun, and a
verb.
- Find three lines that play with
words.
- How many words can you make
from the letters in the word
“anagrammer”? (+40)
-What would the poem mean if you
changed (or removed) the
conjunction “if”?
- List five words that do work for
the rule “I before e except after c”
Author
Scannell, Vernon
Title
The Sentence
Theme
Language
Elements of Poetry
Analogy
Metaphor
Grammar
Sentences
Imperative Mood
Nesbitt, Kenn
I Have to Write a
Poem
Language
Poem writing
Verb tense – simple
future
Infinitive phrases
Carroll, Lewis
(Dodgson, Charles)
Jabberwocky*
Language
Nonsense poetry
Parts of speech
Sentence structure
Simpson, Louis
American Poetry
Language
Metaphor
Poem writing
Pronouns and
prepositional phrases
Herbert, Zbigniew
The Pebble
Language
Metaphor
Simile
Adverb “not”
Prepositional phrases
Krysl, Marilyn
Saying Things
Language
Sound
Nouns
Francis, Robert
Silent Poem
Language
Nouns
Fields, Kenneth
Passive Voice
Language
Diction
Rhythm
Alliteration
Assonance
Enjambment
Donne, John
Death Be Not
Proud*
Death
Personification
Apostrophe
Sonnet
Millay, Edna St.
Vincent
Dirge without
Music
Death
Synecdoche
Repetition
Case - 2nd person
singular personal
pronoun (archaic
thou/thee/thy)
Adverb “not”
Effect of starting
sentences with “but”
or “and”
Passive voice
Writing prompts
- Write “A sentence is . . .” and list
as many nouns as you can think of
that a sentence resembles.
- “I have to write a poem, but . . . “
- using a rhyming dictionary, find
four sets of rhyming words and
write a poem using them.
- Act out the nouns and verbs in this
poem. How do you know which
part of speech is which?
- What’s going on with this poem?
What does it mean? Why does the
author choose those things? What is
he comparing poetry to?
- The poet says the pebble can’t be
compared to anything else, but he is
comparing it to something. What is
it?
- Open a book, any book, from the
shelves, and copy out twenty nouns.
Arrange them into a poem.
- Is this a silent poem? Why or why
not? Why does it have this title?
- Find three examples of the passive
voice in this poem.
- Write a poem about something in
the news.
- Why does the author use the
passive voice in this poem?
- Write out this poem in modern
English
- Write a poem of your own using
Donne’s spelling (poore, sleepe,
doe, goe, poison, etc.)
- Write a poem or list of things you
are not or things you will not do.
Writing prompts
- In the first two lines of the poem,
find the adverb.
- Write a poem or story in which
something (school, hatred,
homework, boredom, or any other
such thing) is personified.
- Tell someone not to do something
(you can use the adverb “never” and
contractions if you want to)
Author
Dickinson, Emily
Title
XXVII (Because I
could not stop for
Death)*
Theme
Death
Elements of Poetry
Personification
Grammar
Adverbs
Thomas, Dylan
Death
Villanelle
Imperative mood
Hughes, Langston
Do not go gentle
into that good
night.*
Life is Fine
Death
Adverbs
- Write a song or a rap about
something you decided not to do.
MacNeice, Louis
Prayer before Birth
Death
Repetition
Refrain
Internal rhyme
Imperative mood
Swenson, May
Question
Death
Metaphor
Rhyme
Punctuation (question
mark)
Merwin, A.S.
For the Anniversary Death
of my Death
Simile
Metaphor
Appositives
Participles
Tennyson, Alfred,
Lord
Charge of the Light
Brigade*
War and Heroes
Narrative poetry
Sentence structure
Word order
Whitman, Walt
O Captain! My
Captain!
Heroes & War
Apostrophe
Typography
Interjections
Imperative mood
Punctuation
Longfellow, Henry
Wadsworth
Excelsior
Heroes & War
Refrain
Ballad Form
Word order
Nye, Naomi Shihab
Famous
Heroes & War
Refrain and variation
Linking Verbs
Sentence structure
pattern
Passive voice
Longfellow, Henry
Wadsworth
The Village
Blacksmith*
Heroes & War
Eulogy
Sentence Structure
Word order
- Who is the speaker? To whom is
he speaking? Why do you think so?
- Where should the missing
punctuation marks go in this poem,
and what kind are they? Why did
the author leave most of them out?
- In the first stanza, what are the
three subjects and the three verbs in
the three clauses?
- What anniversaries do you
celebrate in the cycle of the year?
- What are the subject and the verb
of the first stanza?
- Into the (noun) of (abstract noun)
rode the (number) . . .
- Find a line in which the poet uses
the imperative mood.
- Write a poem about the death of a
famous figure.
- What is the subject and verb of
“From his lips escaped a groan.”?
Put the sentence in normal order.
- We heard a cry from outside . . .
- How many things are famous in
the poem?
- Write a poem in the pattern (noun)
is (adjective) to the (noun)
- Choose a sentence from the poem
and list its simple subject and simple
verb
- Write a eulogy about someone in a
hard job
Author
Dickinson, Emily
Title
XXVII (I’m
Nobody! Who are
you?)
Christmas Bells
Theme
Heroes & War
Elements of Poetry
Iambic trimester
Heroes & War
Refrain
Arnold, Matthew
Dover Beach
Heroes & War
Stanza length
Tone (melancholy)
Owen, Wilfred
Dulce et Decorum
Est*
Heroes & War
Imagery
Iambic pentameter
Neruda, Pablo
Keeping Quiet
Heroes & War
Imagery
Verb tense: simple
future, future
conditional (would
be), simple present
Reed, Henry
Naming of Parts
Heroes & War
Voice
Hall, Jim
Maybe Dats Youwr
Pwoblem Too
Heroes & War
Persona
Voice
Dialect
Compare to
“Jabberwocky” by
Caroll.
Verbals – gerunds
and participles
Adverbs
Indefinite pronoun
“this”
Diction
Longfellow, Henry
Wadsworth
Grammar
Pronouns (personal,
indefinite,
interrogative)
Sentence structure
Subject-verb pattern
Intransitive verbs
Linking verbs
Correlative
conjunction
neither/nor
Compound predicate
Pronouns
Writing prompts
- Write a story or poem from the
point of view of Nobody
- Find a clause in this poem and list
the subject and predicate.
- Write a poem (anti-war, pro-war,
or other) using a common phrase as
a refrain.
- Compare a sound in nature to a
sound made by human beings, or
vice versa
- “Dulce et decorum est pro patria
mori” was a truism Owen rejected.
Think of a modern-day truistm and
give a strong example of a reason to
reject (or accept) it.
- Why twelve? What comes in
twelve? Make a list of ten things
that come in twelves.
- How many different kinds of
silence are there?
- If you had the power, what would
you make the world do?
- Name the parts of some complex
object – a machine, a room, a group,
a sport. – and make it into a poem.
- What do you think about when
other people are talking?
- Write about the downside of being
a hero.
- What parts of speech ar”extwa,”
“evwybody,” “booglar,” and
“acwoss?” How do you know?
Elements of Poetry
Rhyme Scheme
Metonymy or
Synecdoche
(Compare to “The face
that launch’d a
thousand ships” by
Marlowe)
Hyperbole
Simile (Compare to
“Helen” by H.D.)
Grammar
Sentence structure
Writing prompts
- What is the subject of the sentence
in each stanza?
- Write a poem describing someone
famous who is hated.
Interrogative,
imperative, and
declarative (or
indicative) sentences.
Verb tense
Heroes & War
Classical allusion
Noah
Heroes & War
Italian sonnet
“turn” or “verso”
First and second
person narrator
Punctuation – colon,
semicolon, comma,
period, dash
Coordinating
conjunction “and”
Compound sentences
Personal pronoun
antecedents
- In the poem, identify an indicative
sentence, a question, and an
imperative sentence in this poem
- Write a poem speaking to someone
in hyperbolic statements (for
instance, to a teacher trying to
convince him or her to give you a
better grade)
- Compare yourself to a famous
Trojan War character in some way.
How are you alike? How are you
different?
Merwin, A.S.
Odysseus
Heroes & War
Mythic Allusions
(Compare to “Ulysses”
by Tennyson)
Expletive “there”
Subjects of sentences
Tennyson, Alfred,
Lord
Ulysses
Heroes & War
Mythic Allusions
Dramatic monologue
(Compare to
“Odysseus” by
Merwin)
Prepositional phrases
Author
H.D. (Doolittle, Hilda)
Title
Helen
Theme
Heroes & War
Marlowe, Christopher
The face that
launch’d a thousand
ships
Heroes & War
Millay, Edna St.
Vincent
An Ancient Gesture
Daniells, Roy
- Tell the story of the end of the
world from the point of view of
the only survivor
- Write two compound sentences
ending with the same rhyme
- “They gathered around and told
him . . . “
- What is the subject of the sentence
“There were the islands”?
- What is the subject of the sentence
“Always the setting forth was the
same?
- He couldn’t remember . . .
- “How dull it is to pause, to make
an end,/To rust unburnishe’d, not
to shine in use!” Do you agree or
disagree? Why?
Author
Thayer, Ernest
Lawrence
Title
Casey at the Bat*
Theme
Heroes & War
Elements of Poetry
Hubris
Grammar
Expletive “there”
Verb tense
Browning, Robert
How They Brought
the Good News
from Ghent to Aix
Heroes & War
Verb tense – simple
past
Sandburg, Carl
Grass
Heroes & War
Stafford, William
Heroes & War
Lowell, Amy
At the Un-National
Monument Along
the Canadian
BorderThe Wind
Ballad
Anapestic tetrameter
(same as “Star
Spangled Banner” and
“The Night Before
Christmas”)
Mask
(Compare to “At the
Un-National
Monument Along the
Canadian Border” by
Stafford)
Rhyme scheme
Hughes, Ted
Wind
Weather
Christopher, Nicholas
Through the
Window of the AllNight Restaurant
Frost, Robert
Bereft
Writing prompts
- Write the description of a famous
recent sports loss, or the failure
of an athlete.
- What qualities of Casey were
heroic, and what qualities
weren’t?
- “I was the only one who knew—I
had to tell them before it was too
late . . .”
Verb mood –
imperative,
indicative,
interrogative
- What do Austerlitz, Waterloo,
Gettysburg, Ypres, and Verdun
have in common?
- What is the “work” some other
common thing has to do in war?
Relative adverb
“where”
- Write three sentences in the
pattern: “This is the _____
where the _________ did not
_________.”
Personification
Refrain
(Compare to “Wind”
by Ted Hughes)
Metaphor
Simile
Repeating clause
structure
Active voice
- What is the tone of this poem?
- Rewrite a stanza of the poem to
make it gloomy, angry, or
impatient
Compound-Complex
sentence structure
Weather
Narrative
Prepositional phrases
Weather
Rhyme scheme
Metaphor
Tone
Diction
Noun clauses
Transitive and
intransitive verbs
- Use ten of the specific words in
this poem in a poem of your own.
- Is this poem better or worse than
Lowell’s “The Wind”? Why?
- List three verbs in this poem that
have direct objects and three
verbs in this poem that do not
have direct objects.
- Describe a common setting in a
mysterious way.
- Imagine the weather intends you
harm, and tell a story about it
Weather
Author
Lampman, Archibald
Title
A Thunderstorm
Theme
Weather
Elements of Poetry
Sonnet
Simile
Metaphor
Grammar
Sentence structure
Frost, Robert
Desert Places
Weather
Sentence structure
Wilbur, Richard
Boy at the Window
Weather
Williams, William
Carlos
The Snowman
Weather
McGough, Roger
The Trouble with
Snowmen
Weather
Berman, David
Snow
Weather
Bridges, Robert
London Snow
Weather
Frost, Robert
Stopping by Woods
on a Snowy
Evening*
Weather
Rhyme scheme
Tetrameter
Personification
(Compare to “The
Snowman” by William
Carlos Williams)
Imagery
(Compare to “Boy at
the Window” by
Richard Wilbur)
Rhyme scheme
(compare to “Boy at
the Window” by
Wilbur and “The
Snowman” by
Williams)
Simile
Metaphor
Metaphor
Rhyme scheme
Imagery
Iambic tetrameter
Rhyme scheme
End-stopped lines
cummings, e.e.
In Just-
Weather
Repetition
Typography
Classical allusions
Conjunctions
Independent clauses
Hughes, Langston
Dream Deferred
Dreams
Rhyme Scheme
(Compare to “A Dream
Lies Dead” by Parker)
Auxiliary verb “to
do” for question
construction.
Writing prompts
- Write two sentences in which the
verb comes before the subject
- Describe the moment when
everything changed.
- How do you scare yourself? In
what way?
Verbals (gerund)
- What is the fear surrounding the
child? Is it the same fear as in
Frost’s “Desert Places”?
Impersonal pronoun
“one”
Sentence structure
- How many sentences are in this
poem? (one)
- Who is the person in the poem?
Punctuation (single
quotation marks)
- Which poem is the best—“Boy at
the Window,” “The Snowman,”
or “The Trouble with
Snowmen”? Why?
Verb tense
- Tell about a time when you tried to
frighten another person
Present participles
Adverbs
- Describe a war you have waged
with something not human
Nested clauses
Infinitives
Indirect object
- Write a poem in aaba rhyme
scheme
- Use ten different infinitives in a
rhythmic poem
- Write a poem or story with unusual
capitalization, punctuation,
spacing, and indentation. Have a
reason for doing it.
- Use this poem as a pattern – “What
happens to . . . .”
Author
Parker, Dorothy
Title
A Dream Lies Dead
Theme
Dreams
Elements of Poetry
Italian sonnet
Metaphor (conceit)
Grammar
Modal verbs may,
can, and must
Verb tense (present)
Hughes, Langston
Dream Variations
Dreams
Rhyme
Variations
Verb infinitives
Fragments
Poe, Edgar Allan
A Dream Within a
Dream
Dreams
Metaphor
Repetition
Verb tense (present
and present perfect)
Hughes, Langston
Dreams
Dreams
Norman, Peter
Awake
Dreams
Metaphor
Quatrains
Dimeter
Rhyme scheme
Quatrains
ABBA rhyme scheme
Verb tense (simple
present)
Conjunctions
Compound sentences
Verb tense (simple
past)
Meredith, William
The Fear of Beasts
Dreams
Sonnetina
Pinsky, Robert
Vessel
Dreams
Noyes, Alfred
The Highwayman
Outlaws, Pirates,
& the Sea
Slant rhyme
Rhyme scheme
Couplets
Metaphor
Alliteration and
assonance
Rhyme scheme
Simile
Verb tense (simple
present, simple
present, simple
future)
Modal verb must
Imperative mood
Verb tenses
Present participles
Rhetorical questions
Verb tense change
Writing prompts
- What is the difference between
“may” “must” and “can”?
- Describe a dream you have
surrendered or one you refuse to
surrender.
- List 4 infinitives and 2 present
tense verbs in this poem.
- Start a poem with an infinitive –
“To ____”
- Is all that we see or seem But a
dream within a dream? Why or
why not?
- How many clauses are in the first
stanza of this poem?
- Make a list of ten metaphors
starting “Life is . . . .”
- Where does this poem change verb
tense, and why?
- Use familiar machines as
metaphors in a story about
vacations, holidays, accidents,
injuries, or family arguments.
- Write a story in which a dream or
nightmare comes alive.
- Name two verb tenses in this
poem.
- Make a list of metaphors for your
body when it is asleep. Write a
poem extending one of those
metaphors.
- Make a list of rhetorical questions.
- Tell a very short story (ghost story,
adventure, or mystery) in the past
tense and then switch to the
present tense at the end.
Author
Masefield, John
Title
A Ballad of John
Silver
Theme
Outlaws, Pirates,
& the Sea
Elements of Poetry
Trochaic octometer
(Compare to Poe’s
“Raven”)
Rhyme scheme
Quatrains
Alliteration
End-stopped
Iambic trimester
Rhyme scheme ABAB
Internal Rhyme
Light verse
Diction
Alliteration
Rhyme scheme
Lee, Dennis
Bloody Bill
Outlaws, Pirates,
& the Sea
Masefield, John
Cargoes
Outlaws, Pirates,
& the Sea
Nesbitt, Kenn
My Excuse
Outlaws, Pirates,
& the Sea
Doggerel
Monotonous meter and
rhyme
Smith, Stevie
Not Waving but
Drowning*
Outlaws, Pirates,
& the Sea
Metaphor or analogy
Slant rhyme
Stevenson, Robert
Louis
Pirate Story
Outlaws, Pirates,
& the Sea
Quatrains
Trimester
Masefield, John
Sea-Fever
Outlaws, Pirates,
& the Sea
Falling and rising
rhymes
Alliteration
Grammar
Passive voice (“She
was boarded, she was
looted, she was
scuttled till she
sank”)
Writing prompts
- Describe something bad that you
or someone else did, but use the
passive voice. (“Mistakes were
made!”)
Verb tense: simple
past for narrative,
present imperative to
address the reader
Verbals – no actual
verbs in this poem,
only participial
phrases
Verbs – past
progressive, simple
past, present, passive
Compound and
complex sentences
Third person and first
person shift
Omission of
quotation marks –
showing speech
Indefinite pronouns
Prepositional phrases
Present participles
“Shall” and “will”
auxiliary verbs
Lists
Conjunctions
Compound object of
preposition
- Choose a public figure (an athlete,
a politician, an actor, a celebrity)
and imagine that person talking
the way the narrator does in this
poem. Write what he or she says.
- Describe lunch, recess, class
change, or class using only
participial phrases.
- Write an outrageous excuse for
forgetting your homework,
missing a test, or goofing off
during class.
- How do you know who is speaking
in this poem?
- “He was waving, and I thought . . .
“
- Did you pretend when you were
young? Describe what you did as
if it was real.
- List the verbs in this poem that are
in the present progressive tense.
- Find the gerund in this poem.
- The poet says “All I ask” but he
asks for a lot. How many things
does he ask for?
- Write a poem asking for what you
want.
Author
Wylie, Elinor
Title
Sea Lullaby
Theme
Outlaws, Pirates,
& the Sea
Parker, Dorothy
Song of Perfect
Propriety
Outlaws, Pirates,
& the Sea
Meigs, Mildred Plew
The Pirate Don
Durk of Dowdee
Outlaws, Pirates,
& the Sea
Dickinson, Emily
XIX (I Started
early, took my dog)
Outlaws, Pirates,
& the Sea
Poe, Edgar Allan
Annabel Lee
Outlaws, Pirates,
& the Sea
McFerren, Martha
A Metaphor
Crosses the Road
Decisions
Stafford, William
Traveling through
the Dark
Decisions
Elements of Poetry
Conceit (sea as
murderer)
Quatrains
2-syllable and 1syllable rhyme
Octets
Rhyme scheme
Alternating meter
(tetrameter and
trimester)
Refrain
Refrain
Light verse
Ballad
Alliteration and
repetation
Extended metaphor
Simile
Quatrains in ballad
stanza
Rhythm
Tone
Repetition
Rhyme (internal and
end)
Grammar
Appositves
Verb tense – shift
from present to past
to present
Writing prompts
- Find the passive voice verb in this
poem.
- Why is this poem creepy?
Repetitive structure
Infinitives
Modal verbs should
and would
- List eight infinitives in this poem.
- Why does the narrator describe
herself as a “little lady”? What is
the tone of the poem?
Prepositional phrases
- Use one of the stanzas in this poem
as a pattern for a funny poem
about a person, real or imaginary.
Simple past tense
- Choose a stanza, and identify the
subject and the verb.
- “I started early, took my _____ . . .
Relative clause
Compound sentences
- Choose a sentence from this poem.
How many clauses does it have?
Metaphor
(Compare to
“Traveling through the
Dark” by Stafford and
“Possum Crossing” by
Giovanni)
(Compare to “A
Metaphor Crosses the
Road” by McFerren
and “Possum Crossing”
by Giovanni)
Compound verbs,
compound objects
Verb tense and mood
- What is the metaphor in this
poem?
- Describe a time you or someone
you know hit something with a
car.
Verbals
Verb tense
- Of the six present participles (“ing”) in this poem, which two are
gerunds?
Author
Henley, William
Ernest
Title
Invictus*
Theme
Decisions
Elements of Poetry
Metaphor
Simile
Tetrameter
Grammar
Prepositional phrases
(starting sentences)
Frost, Robert
The Road Not
Taken*
Decisions
Iambic tetrameter
Sentence structure
Collins, Billy
Another Reason
Why I Don’t Keep
a Gun in the House
Decisions
Analogy
Modal verbs
Verb tense
Frost, Robert
The Armful
Decisions
Iambic pentameter
Verb tense
Infinitives
Pronouns (personal
and indefinite)
Atwood, Margaret
Provisions
Decisions
Line length
Enjambment
Modal verbs
(“should, could”)
Sentence structure
Pinsky, Robert
Shirt
Justice
Triplets
Enjambment
Imagery
Sentence fragments
Nye, Naomi Shihab
For Mohammed
Zeid, Age 15
Justice
Word play
Expletive “there”
Verb tense
Writing prompts
- Choose a sentence in this poem
and identify the subjects and
verbs.
- You are a mass murderer
condemned to death. What poem
do you choose to give to the
newspapers as your statement?
- Find a gerund in this poem
- Write a poem set in the future,
talking about a decision you
made in the past and how it
affected your life.
- How many lines long is the first
sentence in this poem?
- Find a verb in: simple future,
present progressive, simple
present, past perfect, simple past.
- “The _____ will not stop
_________ing . . .”
- List five infinitives in this poem
and identify whether they are
used as adverbs or nouns.
- Describe a situation in which you
are juggling a metaphorical
armful.
- When did the decision in the poem
take place?
- What would you take with you?
- How many sentences long is this
poem?
- Choose a common object—a paper
clip, a pencil, a phone, a dollar
bill—and write a poem about it.
(Note: This poem is worth a week)
- Write a poem about a victim
- To whom is the writer speaking in
this poem?
- Does it make a difference to you
that this poem is about an Israeli
army officer being convicted in
the killing of a Palestinian boy?
Author
Angelou, Maya
Title
Still I Rise
Theme
Justice
Elements of Poetry
Simile
Metaphor
Rhyme & Repetition
Grammar
Suffix –ness
Verb tense
Du Bois, W.E.B.
The Song of the
Smoke
Justice
Repetition (anaphora)
Rhyme scheme
Verb tense
Angelou, Maya
Alone
Justice
Brooks, Gwendolyn
The Bean Eaters
Justice
Metaphor
Rhyme
Rhythm
Variation
Sandburg, Carl
Chicago
Places
Different ways of
indicating future
using verb tense
Capitalization
Aspectual verb “to
keep"
Adjectives, present
participles,
capitalization
Assonance, repetition,
rhythm, imagery,
metaphor
Writing prompts
- Make five adjectives into nouns
using the suffixes –ness, -itude, ity, -ance, -ence, -ship, or –hood.
Use them to make a poem.
- Write a chant poem in which you
are declaring something.
- Write three sentences in the
present progressive with the same
subject. Use them as the start of
a poem.
- Declare all the things you are,
using this poem as a pattern.
- “Lying, thinking/Last night . . . “
- write a poem to your city, town, or
school using some of the patterns
of "Chicago."
- Make an epithet for yourself using
the pattern in the last two lines.