poetry

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poetry
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Part I

• What is poetry?

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What is poetry anyway?

• Voltaire the music of the soul
• Carl Sandburg the synthesis of hyacinths and
  biscuits the establishment of a metaphorical
  link between white butterfly wings and the scraps
  of torn-up love letters

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What is the purpose of poetry?

• Joseph Brodsky within a very short space, a
  good poem covers enormous mental ground, and
  often, towards its finale, provides one with an
  epiphany or a revelation
• Adrienne Rich can break open locked chambers of
  possibility, restore numbed zones to feeling, and
  recharge desire

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Why is poetry not prose?

• Poems often have economy - more condensed and
  compressed than prose
• Each word contributes to a poems total impact
  and meaning

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Of what is poetry made?

• A place for the genuine
• Truth
• Passion
• Wisdom
• Love
• Wonder
• Creativity
• Everything that makes life worthwhile

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Final Thoughts

• Jewel a passage into those parts of our being
  where we understand who we have been and where we
  discover and decide who and what we will be
• It makes us intimate with ourselves and others
  and with the human experience
• Vital, creative, honest expression
• Allows word to be given to the things that
  otherwise have no voice

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Part II

• When you read a poem

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question

• What is the poem saying?
• What questions come to your mind as you are
  reading?
• Why does the writer include certain words and
  details?

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Use your senses

• What images is the poet creating?
• Let your imagination see the images the poem is
  creating.
• Let your senses respond to the poems language.

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listen

• Much poetry is musical.
• Read the poem aloud listen to the rhythm.
• Does the rhythm suggest a mood or a feeling?

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connect

• Bring your own experiences and knowledge to the
  poem.
• What images are familiar or new?

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paraphrase

• Put the poem in your own words.
• Understand its meaning better.

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respond

• How does the poem make your feel?
• What does the poem say to you?

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Part III

• Poetic Devices

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figurative language

• Language that is not literal but represents one
  thing in terms of another
• Simile Metaphor
• Extended metaphor
• Personification
• Symbol

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imagery

• The use of vivid descriptions or figures of
  speech to create a mental image
• Paints a picture in words

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Musical Devices

• Repetition
• Alliteration
• Meter
• Rhyme
• Assonance
• Onomatopoeia

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Part IV

• Types of Poetry

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Narrative Poetry

• Tells a story
• Usually longer than other types of poems
• The oldest form of poetry

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Dramatic Poetry

• One or more characters speak
• Creates the illusion that the reader is
  witnessing a dramatic event

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Lyric Poetry

• Express a speakers personal thoughts and
  feelings
• Songlike quality

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Free Verse

• More open
• No regular rhythm
• No regular line length
• Rarely has rhythm

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Forms

• Sonnet
• Haiku
• Concrete poetry
• Diamante, cinquiane, trizaine, etc.