© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale Page 1
Dear class,
For the next three weeks we will be doing an intensive poetry unit study. We will examine contemporary music alongside classical poetry to learn more about poetic devices and figurative language. We will also write our own sonnets, create descriptive word banks to display in the classroom, and create riddles for everyone to solve just to name a few!
Everyone derives different meaning from different poems.
We will discover them together while also gaining knowledge of the writing and reading process.
Completed and polished pieces of poetry will be displayed around the room alongside your favorite poets. I invite you to find poetry outside of class to share with everyone. I can’t wait for us to learn together. I’m so excited to see what you all come up with!
After all, like Brendan Kennelly said, “poems come out of wonder, not out of knowing”.
Sincerely,
Ms. Cale
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale Page 2
Poetry is best absorbed when heard; for this reason, there must be silence when someone is reading.
Reading your poetry out loud takes a lot of courage.
Disrespect will not be tolerated and will result in a loss of participation points for the day and possibly detention.
Rely on personal experience and what you know! That is what poetry is about!
Be creative and ask questions when you get stuck!
Seek alternate meaning when reading; poetry means something different every time you read it!
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale Page 3
Term
Simile
Metaphor
Definition
Personification
Sonnet
Irony
Ballad
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale
Examples Found in Poetry
Page 4
Verse
Stanza
Quatrain
Couplet
Tercet
Narrative
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale Page 5
Analogy
Villanelle
Lyric
Hyperbole
Symbolism
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale Page 6
You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine...
-Jacques Crickillon
You are the bread and the knife, the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker, and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.
However, you are not the wind in the orchard, the plums on the counter, or the house of cards.
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.
It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge, maybe even the pigeon on the general's head, but you are not even close to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.
And a quick look in the mirror will show that you are neither the boots in the corner nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.
It might interest you to know, speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world, that I am the sound of rain on the roof.
I also happen to be the shooting star, the evening paper blowing down an alley and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.
I am also the moon in the trees and the blind woman's tea cup.
But don't worry, I'm not the bread and the knife.
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife, not to mention the crystal goblet and--somehow--the wine.
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale Page 7
“10 Things I Hate About You”
By Kat Strafford
I hate the way you talk to me
And the way you cut your hair
I hate the way you drive my car
I hate it when you stare
I hate your big dumb combat boots
And the way you read my mind
I hate you so much that it makes me sick
It even makes me ryhme
I hate the way you're always right
I hate it when you lie
I hate it when you make me laugh
Even worse when you make me cry
I hate the way you're not around
And the fact that you didn't call
But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you
Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.
“Metaphors” by Sylvia Plath
I'm a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.
Money's new-minted in this fat purse.
I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there's no getting off.
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale Page 8
“Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
I am silver and exact.
I have no preconceptions.
What I see I swallow immediately.
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful –
“I am Music” by Common
You can feel me all over alive,
I help culture survive, I opened the eyes of many
Styles ya’ll wrote in the skies, with your lows and highs,
Open your mind to hear me
In the streets I beat cops and obsolete
On every station it’s hot you can’ stop my beat
I taught Jay and Dre how to rock the belt
On what’s going on today yo, I gots to speak
I take the stand, yo you can feel me bam
Whether in Larry Graham or Steely Dan
Live I be killing it man For how long I survived yo I’m realer than man
Got a soft side but I’m still a man
For me women cry and children dance,
I’m trying to eat I could’a got a mil and ran
Homework! Oh, Homework!
I hate you! You stink!
But like sly for the fam I still stand
I am music.
“Homework” by Jack Prelutsky
I'd rather take baths with a man-eating shark,
Homework! Oh, homework! you're last on my list,
I wish I could wash you away in the sink, if only a bomb would explode you to bits.
Homework! Oh, homework!
You're giving me fits.
or wrestle a lion alone in the dark, eat spinach and liver, pet ten porcupines, than tackle the homework, my teacher assigns.
I simple can't see why you even exist, if you just disappeared it would tickle me pink.
Homework! Oh, homework!
I hate you! You stink!
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale Page 9
I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast
Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold
Neglect it
Criticise it to its face
Say how it kills the light
Traps all the rubbish
Bores you with its green
Continually
Harden your heart
Then
Cut it down close
To the root as possible
Forget it
For a week or a month
Return with an axe
Split it with one blow
Insert a stone
To keep the wound wide open.
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale
“This is Just to
Say” by William
Carlos Williams
“How to Kill a Living Thing” by
Eibhlin Nic Eochaidh
Page 10
Lil Wayne (Nurse):
Where's my coffee?
(Good Morning, Dr. Carter)
Hey Sweetie
(Looks like it’s going to be a long day.)
Uhhh, another one? What we got?
(Your first patient...) Yeah?
(Is suffering from a lack of concept...)
Uh-Huh.
(Originality...) Ugh...
(His flow is weak...) Another one...
(And he has no style) Ugh...
(What you got for him?)
Lil Wayne
OK. Let me put my gloves on and my scrubs on.
Dr. Carter to the rescue. Excuse me if
I'm late, but like a thief it takes time to be this great. honestly, just wait. Your style is a disgrace, your rhymes are fifth place and I’m just grace.
One, Uno, Ace and I'm tryin to make your heart beat like bass, but your sweet like cake and i come to fix whatever you shall break. Where is your originality?
You are so fake so picture me like a gallery.
Capture What I say. All i need is one mic. All i need is one take.
Like hey, brighter then the sun’s rays got pistols on the playground.
Watch the gunplay like
No kidding.
No kids in the way, but the kids do watch,
Gotta Watch what we say.
Gotta work every day.
Gotta not be Cliché.
Gotta stand out like Andre 3K.
Gotta kick it, kick it like a sensei.
You gotta have faith you gotta, gotta... Wait, wait, I think I...think I lost one...
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale
Page 11
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death”
By Emily Dickinson
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale
“Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night” by Dylan
Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Page 12
“Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Com Pare Thee To A Shall I
Thou Are More Love Ly
Sum
Mer’s Day?
And More Temp Er Ate:
Label the famous Shakespearean quote above according to iambic pentameter. Doesn’t that change the way you are supposed to say it?
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale Page 13
“Harlem: A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
“Juicy” by Biggie Small
It was all a dream
I used to read Word Up magazine
Salt n’ Peppa and Heavy D in the limousine
Hangin’ pictures on my wall
Every Saturday Rap Attack, Mr. Magic, Marley Marl…
Now honies play me close like butter played toast
From the Mississippi down to the east coast…
Sold out seats to hear Biggie Smalls speak
Livin life without fear
Puttin’ five karats in my baby girl’s ears
Lunches, brunches, interviews by the pool
Considered a fool when I dropped out of high school
Stereotypes of a black male misunderstood…
We used to fuss when the landlord dissed us
No heat, wonder why Christmas missed us
Birthdays was the worst days
Now we sip champagne when we thirsty
Uh, damn right I like the life I live
Cause I went from a negative from a positive
And it’s all good…
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale Page 14
“I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls” by Michael William Balfe
I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls
With vassels and serfs at my side,
And of all who assembled within those walls
That I was the hope and the pride.
I had riches all too great to count
And a high ancestral name.
But I also dreamt which pleased me most
That you loved me still the same,
That you loved me
You loved me still the same,
That you loved me
You loved me still the same.
I dreamt that suitors sought my hand,
That knights upon bended knee
And with vows no maidens heart could withstand,
They plesged their faith to me.
And I dreamt that one of that noble host
Came forth my hand to claim.
But I also dreamt which charmed me most
That you loved me still the same
That you loved me
You loved me still the same,
That you loved me
You loved me still the same.
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale Page 15
Possible
Points
Points
Earned
Pre-Test
Entrance Exit Slip
(11 total)
Parody Poem
15
55
25
5 Line Metaphor Poem
Riddle Poem
Paint Swatch Imagery Poem
Imagery Poem from Goody Bag
Sonnet Using Irony
25
25
25
25
25
How-To Poem
Partner/Group Work Points
(5 total)
Completed Study Guide
25
50
20
Post-Test
Poem for Coffee Shop Reading
75
10
Final Unit Grade 400
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale Page 16
© Anthology created by Jennifer Cale Page 17