Senior Poetry Unit
For this unit you need:
1) A one inch three-ring binder
2) Eight dividers to be labeled
* Syllabus
* Renaissance Poetry / Elizabethan Poetry
* Metaphysical Poetry
* Romantic Poetry
* Victorian Poetry
* Modern Poetry
* Assignments
* Culminating Project
Within the assignments sections you should have:
1) Write a one page persuasive piece in which you defend or refute Shelley's statement in "A Defense of
Poetry". Make sure to employ the same techniques that Shelley does.
2) Write a poem that is your response to the shepherd's offer in The Passionate Shepard to his Love. You
can be accepting or sarcastic but not mean or gross.
3) Choose one of the sonnet formats and write your own sonnet. The theme has to be love but the tone
is up to you.
4) Using appropriate colours, shapes and images, create an abstract collage of the mood conveyed by
this piece. Use your imagination. It may not be all black. Put a colour copy of the collage in your binder.
5) For 10 points EC find out which American novelist used a line of Meditation 17 as the title for his novel.
Provide the author of the book, the title of the book and what the book is about.
6) Write a one-page speech in which you use hyperbole to convince your listeners to "Carpe Diem".
7) Bring in one quotation about the fleeting nature of time. This is going to be posted in the classroom so
make it big enough for people to read. Put s copy of the quote in your binder.
8) Write a poem, in any style, about a time when you lost something that was important to you.
9) Find two contemporary songs, one that you would consider a "Song of Innocence" and one a "Song of
Experience". Prepare a T-chart that lists the differences between the two songs. Be sure to bring in the
words of each of the songs.
10) Write a poem about a time when you were very sick. Try and remember what it felt like. Draw on
those memories and make the poem as powerful as possible.
11) How important is your name to you? Write a one-page paper in which you explain the meaning of
your name (first, last and middle names). Do you like your name? If you were to have a different name
what would it be and why?
Prewrites: Prewrites go in the section that they correlate to. If the poem is a Romantic poem, the prewrite
goes in the Romantic poetry section.