MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 3, Lesson 1
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Focus of the lesson: using knowledge of poetic structures
to aid comprehension
WHAT IS POETRY?
ACTIVITY 3-1-1
Read the answer to the question (What is poetry?) at the following
website:
Mrs. Dowling's Poetry Points
Please read everything on the page. Then, without
looking back at the site, write at least five things that you
learned about poetry from this site.
Following are some famous poets’ definitions of poetry:
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"The best words in the best order." Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"The record of the best and happiest moments of the best and
happiest minds." Percy Shelley
"If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever
warm me, I know that it is poetry." Emily Dickinson
"A poem begins with a lump in the throat, a home-sickness or a lovesickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find
fulfillment. A complete poem is one where the emotion has found its
thought and the thought has found the words." Robert Frost
"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." William
Wordsworth
At the end of this unit, you will write your own definition of
poetry.
As we examine various aspects of poetry, you will be reading a
variety of poems. On the next page is a list of strategies to use
when reading poetry to increase your comprehension and
appreciation of the poems.
MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 3, Lesson 1
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How to Read a Poem
Poems can be read many ways. The following steps describe one approach. Of
course not all poems require close study and all should be read first for pleasure.
• Look at the poem’s title: What might this poem be about?
• Read the poem straight through without stopping to analyze it (aloud, if possible).
This will help you get a sense of how it sounds, how it works, what it
might be about.
• Start with what you know. If the poem is difficult, distinguish between what
you do and do not understand. If permissible, underline the parts you do not
immediately understand.
• Check for understanding: Write a quick “first-impression” of the poem by
answering the questions, “What do you notice about this poem so far?” and
“What is this poem about?”
• Look for patterns. Watch for repeated, interesting, or even unfamiliar use of
language, imagery, sound, color, or arrangement. Ask, “What is the poet trying
to show through this pattern?”
• Look for changes in tone, focus, narrator, structure, voice, patterns. Ask: “What
has changed and what does the change mean?”
• Identify the narrator. Ask: Who is speaking in the poem? What do you know
about them?
• Check for new understanding. Re-read the poem (aloud, if you can) from start
to finish, underlining (again) those portions you do not yet understand. Explain
the poem to yourself or someone else.
• Find the crucial moments. The pivotal moment might be as small as the word
but or yet. Such words often act like hinges within a poem to swing the poem
in a whole new direction. Also pay attention to breaks between stanzas or
between lines.
• Consider form and function. Now is a good time to look at some of the poet’s
more critical choices. Did the poet use a specific form, such as the sonnet?
How did this particular form---e.g., a sonnet---allow them to express their
ideas? Did the poet use other specific poetic devices which you should learn so
you can better understand the poem? Ask. “How is the poet using punctuation in
the poem?”
• Check for improved understanding. Read the poem through again, aloud if
possible. Return to the title and ask yourself what the poem is about and how
the poem relates to the title.
MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 3, Lesson 1
Poetic structures and elements that help to communicate its
message are:
1.
RHYME - identical or similar recurring final sounds in words within or at the
ends of lines of verse, e.g., farm, harm
When the last words in each line of a poem are arranged in a pattern, they
are labeled as follows to describe the RHYME SCHEME:
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
a
a
b
a
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
b
b
c
b
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
c
c
d
c
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
d
d
d
d
As you can see, a different letter is used to identify each end sound that is
rhymed.
ACTIVITY 3-1-2
COMPLETE THE ACTIVITY ON RHYME ON THE NEXT PAGE.
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MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 3, Lesson 1
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ACTIVITY ON RHYME
DIRECTIONS: Use the spaces provided at the ends of the lines in the
poem to label the rhyme scheme of the poem. You may wish to look
at Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods” (previous page) for an
example of how this is done.
Design
I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
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On a white heal-all1, holding up a moth
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Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth--
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Assorted characters of death and blight
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Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
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Like the ingredients of a witches' broth--
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A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
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And dead wings carried like a paper kite.
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What had that flower to do with being white, _____
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
_____
What brought the kindred spider to that height,_____
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?_____
What but design of darkness to appall2?-If design govern in a thing so small.
1heal-all
2appall
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_____
= a common herb of the mint family, thought to cure most diseases
= to shock; to fill with dismay
MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 3, Lesson 1
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RHYTHM - the pattern of recurring strong and weak syllabic stress
The simplest demonstration of rhythm can be found the silly poetic form
called a limerick. Strong syllables, which would be accented or stressed,
are printed in bold.
There was a young lady from Hyde,
Who ate a green apple and died.
While her lover lamented,
The apple fermented,
Making cider inside her insides.
Rhythm is also easy to hear in a nursery rhyme:
Hickory, dickory, dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
And down he run
Hickory, dickory, dock
ACTIVITY 3-1-3
COMPLETE THE ACTIVITY ON RHYTHM ON THE NEXT PAGE.
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MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 3, Lesson 1
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ACTIVITY ON RHYTHM
DIRECTIONS: Both poems that follow are written about love. Based
on the rhythm of each poem, which do you think has a more serious
and thoughtful tone and message?
Write your response in the space provided. Be sure to use specific
examples from the poems to support your ideas.
Poem 1 – LOVE IS A WORD
Love is a word that is constantly heard,
Hate is a word that is not.
Love, I’m told, is more precious than gold.
Love, I have read, is hot.
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But Hate is the verb that to me is superb,
And Love but a drug on the mart.
Any kiddie in school can Love like a fool,
But Hating, my boy, is an Art.
Poem 2 – BEAUTY AND LOVE
Beauty and love are all my dream;
They change not with the changing day;
Love stays forever like a stream
That flows but never flows away;
And beauty is the bright sun-bow
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That blossoms on the spray that showers
Where the loud water falls below,
Making a wind among the flowers.
- Andrew Young
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MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 3, Lesson 1
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3.
REPETITION – repeated used of sounds, words, or ideas for effect
and emphasis
A good example of repetition can be found in Rudyard Kipling’s famous
poem “If.” Notice in the last stanza of the poem how the word if introduces
each goal the father wants his young son to achieve.
from “If” by Rudyard Kipling
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
Repetition of the word if emphasizes the idea that many other choices are
possible that would not result in the father’s ideal of manhood.
ACTIVITY 3-1-4
COMPLETE THE ACTIVITY ON REPETITION ON THE FOLLOWING
PAGE.
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MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 3, Lesson 1
ACTIVITY ON REPETITION IN POETRY
DIRECTIONS: Read the poem “Forgotten Language” by Shel
Silverstein (found at http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/forgottenlanguage/ ). Then complete the activity that follows.
Forgotten Language
Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the
starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?
--Shel Silverstein
In this poem, a major poetic device is the repetition of the word once. In
the space provided, explain what you think the poet wants to accomplish
by repeating this word at the beginning of so many lines in the poem.
Think particularly about how this repetition affects the tone1 of the poem.
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tone1 - the writer’s attitude toward his/her subject
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MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION: Unit 3, Lesson 1
For additional information about each of these poetic elements, link
to the Holt online text, pp. 616-619. Notice particularly the advice
about how to read a poem, found at the bottom of page 618 and on
page 619.
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