Free-Verse Poetry

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Free-Verse Poetry
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What is Free-Verse?

• A definition Verse composed of variable,
  usually unrhymed lines having no fixed metrical
  pattern
• First used in the Bible

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Elements of Free-Verse

• Assonance
• Alliteration
• Parallel Structure
• Imagery
• Onomatopoeia
• Cadence

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Assonance

• The repetition of identical or similar vowel
  sounds
• My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from
  this soil

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Practice assonance

• Examine the picture on the right. Write a few
  lines describing what you see, using assonance

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Alliteration

• The repetition of the same sounds or of the same
  kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in
  stressed syllables
• I too am not a bit tamed, I too am
  untranslatable

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Practice alliteration

• Last names ending in A-M
• Write a short description of a small child eating
  a melting ice cream cone, using alliteration.

• Last names ending in N-Z
• Write a short description of a bull rider getting
  ready to come out of the chute, using
  alliteration.

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Share your work with a partner!
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Parallel Structure

• The repetition of single words or phrases
• Born here of parents born here from parents the
  same, and their parents the same

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Practice parallel structure

• Use the words tightly woven, ugly, hammer,
  over, and I think to myself to write a few
  lines using parallel structure.

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Imagery

• The use of vivid or figurative language to
  represent objects, actions, or ideas
• Using sensory language to create mental images
• I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs,
  thinnd with the ooze of my skin

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Practice imagery

• You have thirty seconds to view the picture on
  the following slide. Then, use imagery to
  re-create the scene in your own free-verse poem.

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(No Transcript)
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Onomatopoeia

• The formation or use of words such as buzz or
  bang that imitate the sounds associated with the
  objects or actions they refer to.

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Practice onomatopoeia

• A poem titled When Carly Eats Spaghetti is on
  the following slide. As you read it, write down
  words that are examples of onomatopoeia.

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When Carly Eats Spaghetti When Carly eats
spaghetti, She chomps and gobbles and slurps, The
spaghetti disappears with a whoosh Sauce slapping
and smacking Round her chops. She scrapes the
toast round the plate Crunching, grinding every
mouthful. She burps, gurgles and leaves the table!
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Cadence

• The rhythmic rising and falling of the voice when
  speaking or reading poetry.

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Cadence

• Beat! Beat! Drums!
• 18191892 Walt Whitman
• Beat! beat! drums!blow! bugles! blow!
• Through the windowsthrough doorsburst like a
  ruthless force,
• Into the solemn church, and scatter the
  congregation,
• Into the school where the scholar is studying,
• Leave not the bridegroom quietno happiness must
  he have now with his bride,
• Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his
  field or gathering his grain,
• So fierce you whirr and pound you drumsso shrill
  you bugles blow.

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Cadence

• from Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
• By T.S. Eliot

I grow old . . . I grow old . . .                
              I shall wear the bottoms of my
trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind?
Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white
flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I
have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
  I do not think they will sing to me.
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Examples of Free-Verse

• Dylan Thomas- Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good
  Night

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Examples of Free-Verse

• Marianne Moore- The Fish

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Examples of Free-Verse

• Langston Hughes- I, Too, Sing America