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Friday, July 17, 2009
Let's Start at the Very Beginning
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Thursday, July 16, 2009
Great Poetry Sites
Poetry Daily
Poetry 180
Poetry Library
Poetry Foundation
Poetry Out Loud
Or you can check out the Poetry Foundation's extensive list of poetry-related websites!
To return to the table of contents click HERE.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Making a Poem "Tight"
* Show don't tell. You have probably heard this before and will hear it again. Good poets "show" you something, they don't just tell you about it.
* Does the poem use any of the five senses? When you read a good poem you should be able to see the object, taste it, smell it, feel it.
* Are you using concrete words or abstract word? Circle all words that might be vague or unclear and replace them with stronger concrete words.
* Remove all unnecessary words. Don't overwhelm your reader with nine adjectives, instead use one strong adjective. Get rid of all "the", "a", "of", "his" that aren't needed. Say "She sat near him" instead of "She sat near to him."
* Be creative! Good poems make you look at the world in ways you never noticed before. We've all heard love being described with clichés (burning, passionate, fiery), try something new ("You make my heart leap like salmon swimming upstream").
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Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Where to Begin
Look around your room and create a List poem from items you see. A list poem is exactly what it sounds like, a poem that is made up of items you see (a yellow pair of socks with a hole in the shape of a heart, a postcard from Aunt Irene signed "stay skinny!", a smooth rock that smells like motor oil). A list poem can reveal volumes about the speaker without the pressure of "sounding poetic" (a trap many poets fall into).
Another great idea is to write an Epistle poem. Epistle means "letter." Write a letter to someone, dead or alive, telling them about a specific memory you have.
Try a Persona poem. A Persona poem is a poem you write as someone else; they can be famous, a friend, a stranger you've passed on the street. Try putting yourself in someone else's shoes and see what kind of poems they would write about.
Write a Found poem. A found poem is writing you find in everyday life, it can be an advertisement, a post-it note, a postcard; you just discover it and turn it into a poem.
Watch this funny video of Found Poems!
HERE are some other poetry exercises you can try!
When you first start writing poems it can be difficult to know where to begin but the first step is to just try. Don't worry about whether it is good or bad, give yourself permission to be terrible! If you worried about being a failure you might never start. But once you start, you can always go back and revise your poems to make them stronger.
The best advice for becoming a good writer is to be a good reader. Poets read poetry. Poets are inspired by the poetry of others, they read poems and think "how can I learn from this?" If you want to be a good poet you MUST read poetry.
Check out this website and see what poems inspire you!
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Monday, July 13, 2009
Lightning or Lightning Bugs?
Good poets slave over their poems trying to find the "right" word. Whether it is changing a word, switching the perspective of the poem, experimenting with the form, or moving sentences around; a good poet revises a poem numerous times before it is finally read.
Let's look at an example from Robert Frost and see if we can spot the difference between lightning and lightning bugs.
Here is Robert Frost's poem "Fire and Ice":
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Now let's change some of the words to words with similar meanings...
Some say the world will conclude in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve known of desire
I hold with those who think fire.
But if it had to die twice,
I believe I know enough of hate
To say that for devastation ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what you've tasted of desire
You hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
You think you know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Sometimes writing poetry is just experimenting with combinations of words to create lightning.
Types of Poetry
Some other types of poems include:
Concrete Poems
Dramatic Monologue (also a theatre term)
Elegy
Epistle
Found Poem
Epigram
Limerick
Pantoum
Viallanelle
Terza Rima
Tanka
Ghazal
Cinquian
Persona Poem
Cento
Acrostic
List Poem
If you are interested in writing poetry, experimenting with these forms can be a fun place to start. Explore Shadow Poetry to learn about a number of different poetry types.
One fun type of poem is a Cento, a cento is a poem made up of lines from other poets, it is a "patchwork poem." To create this type of poem, just write some of your favorite lines from poems on paper and cut them into strips, then rearrange them to make a new poem. Let's give it a try!
Here's a cento I created from some of our examples:
My LoveAnother fun poem to experiment with is a concrete poem. A concrete poem is a type of poem that looks similar to the subject. Here is an example of a concrete poem from shadowpoetry.com
My love is like a thing with feathers
that perches in the soul.
It sits looking over harbor
and city on silent haunches
and then, as in uffish thought.
sings the tune without the words
that’s newly sprung in June.
Try creating your own concrete poem or make a concrete poem with this online tool!
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Saturday, July 11, 2009
If Music be the Food of Love, Play on!
The poet puts a lot of time and energy into rhyme, alliteration, assonance (the repetition of similar vowel sounds), consonance (the repetition of consonant sounds), tone, voice, diction, euphony (a group of words with a smooth, pleasing sound), and cacophony (a group of words that sounds harsh and grating) so you're not fully appreciating a poem until you hear it read aloud.
Some poems, like our example, may not even use real words! But even reading a poem full of imaginary words can still describe a mood just by the SOUND of the words being read aloud.
Read Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" and think of what emotions the author is trying to create with the words he uses.
Now, just for fun, here is the Muppet's version of "Jabberwocky"...remember what I said about poetry being similar to theatre? Here's a great example of poetry being performed!
If you would like to hear other poems read aloud, check out Poetry Out Loud!
Or listen to these podcasts from Poetry Off the Shelf!
To return to the table of contents click HERE or click NEXT to keep reading.