Introduction to Poetry

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Introduction to Poetry

• Grade 9

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How to Read a Poem

• Look at the title
• What might the poem be about?

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Read the poem silently

• First reading Let the poem come to you
• Second reading Let yourself come to the poem
• Third reading Listen to the poem as it is meant
  to be read

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Start with what you know

• Vocabulary, etc.
• Look for words you do not understand, use context
  clues, use a dictionary

5
Check for understanding

• What is your impression?
• Do you like it/dislike it?
• Why?

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Look for patterns

• Rhyme scheme, stanzas, image, organization,
  repetition, etc.

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Identify author and speaker

• What do you know about author?
• Who is the speaker?
• When was the poem written?
• authors tone?

8
Critical moments/changes

• When do they happen?
• Are they effective?

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Form and function

• What type of poem is it? (ode, ballad, lyric,
  elegy, haiku, limerick, free verse, etc.)
• Why is the form effective for the subject?

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Check your feelings

• What are the mood and tone of the poem?
• How does the poem make you feel as you read it?
• Do you make any connections to your own life and
  experiences?

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Check for understanding again

• History, what you now know, etc.
• Go back to the title were your predictions
  correct?

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After Reading

• Pause and reflect
• Do I feel comfortable explaining what the poem
  is about?
• Do I have a clear picture of the poem in my
  head?
• What particular words or images come to mind?
• What is the big idea of the poem?

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Poetic Terms to know

• Copy and save these terms in your binders. You
  will need to refer to them as we work through the
  poems in this unit.

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denotation

• The meaning of the word you will find in the
  dictionary
• Example
• squander to spend wastefully or extravagantly

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connotation

• The emotional response or suggestions that a word
  triggers within you
• Example
• squander to be careless with what you have to
  not appreciate somethings value

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alliteration

• The repetition of the same consonant sound at the
  beginnings of several words of a line of poetry
  or a sentence
• Example
• There will come soft rains and the smell of the
  ground,
• And swallows calling with their shimmering
  sound
• (Sara Teasdale There Will Come Soft Rains)

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assonance

• Repetition of similar vowel sounds that are
  followed by different consonant sounds,
  especially in words that are close together in a
  poem
• Example
• Moses supposes his toeses are roses.

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allusion

• A reference to something with which the reader is
  likely to be familiar, such as a person, place,
  or event from history or literature
• Example
• She drank from a bottle called DRINK ME
• And up she grew so tall,
• She ate from a plate called TASTE ME
• And down she shrank so small
• And so she changed, while other folks
• Never tried nothin at all. (Alice by Shel
  Silverstein)

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figurative language

• Made up of all the tools that a poet uses to
  create a special effect or feeling.
• It includes metaphor, simile, alliteration,
  personification, onomatopoeia, and hyperbole.

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metaphor

• A comparison of two unlike things in which one
  thing becomes another thing without the use of
  the word(s) like, as, than, or resembles.
• Example
• My love is a red, red rose

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simile

• A comparison between two unlike things, using a
  word such as like, as, resembles, or than.
• Example
• Your eyes sparkle as brightly as the stars.

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personification

• A metaphor in which a nonhuman thing or quality
  is talked about as if it were human
• Example
• This poetry gets bored of being alone,
• it wants to go outdoors and chew on the winds,
• to fill its commas with the keels of rowboats
• (Hugo Margenat, from Living Poetry)

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onomatopoeia

• Use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests
  its meaning (comic book words)
• Example
• boom crash swoosh

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couplet

• Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme
• Example
• I am his Highness dog at Kew
• Pray tell me, Sir, whose dog are you?
• (Alexander Pope)

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diction

• A writers or speakers choice of words.
• Diction is an essential element of a writers
  style.
• Connotations of words are an important aspect of
  diction.

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hyperbole

• Exaggeration for effect often humorous
• Example
• He was as big as a house!

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imagery

• The use of words that appeal to your five senses
• Example
• I peeled my orange
• That was so bright against
• The gray of December
• That, from some distance,
• Someone might have thought
• I was making a fire in my hands.
• (from Oranges by Gary Soto)

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ballad

• A poem that tells a story similar to a folktale
  or legend. Often has a repeated refrain.
• Example
• The Ballad of Davy Crockett

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free verse

• Poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme,
  meter, or form
• The early 20th-century poets were the first to
  write what they called "free verse" which allowed
  them to break from the formula and rigidity of
  traditional poetry.

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mood

• the feeling created in the reader by the poem or
  story
• ExampleStark naked flower stalksStand
  shivering in the wind.The cheerless sun hides
  its black lightBehind bleak, angry clouds,While
  trees vainly tryTo catch their escaping
  leaves.Carpets of grass turn brown,Blending
  morosely with the dreary day.Winter seems the
  death of life forever. (from Winter Garden)

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symbol

• When something stands for or represents an idea
  or emotion
• Example
• Did you hear about the rose that grew from a
  crack in the concrete? Proving nature's law is
  wrong it learned to walk with out having feet.
  Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it
  learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose
  that grew from concrete when no one else ever
  cared.
• (The Rose that Grew from Concrete by Tupak
  Shakur)

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tone

• The attitude taken by the author or speaker
  toward the subject of the work
• Example
• I hoped that he would love me,
• And he has kissed my mouth
• But I am like a stricken bird
• That cannot reach the south.
• For though I know he loves me,
• Tonight my heart is sad
• His kiss was not so wonderful
• As all the dreams I had.
• (The Kiss by Sara Teasdale)
•  

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rhyme

• The repetition of similar sounds
• Example
• Teddy said it was a hat,
• And so I put it on.
• Now dad is saying,
• Where the hecks the toilet plunger gone?
• (Hat by Shel Silverstein)

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internal rhyme

• Rhyme that occurs in the middle of a line
• Example
• Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered,
  weak and weary
• (EAP The Raven)

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end rhyme

• Rhymes that occur at the ends of lines
• Example
• My last defense
• Is the present tense.
• It hurts me now to know
• I shall not go
• Cathedral-hunting in Spain
• Nor cherrying in Michigan or Maine. (Old Mary
  Gwendolyn Brooks)

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rhyme scheme

• The pattern of rhymes formed by the end rhyme in
  a poem
• Example
• My last defense
• Is the present tense.
• It hurts me now to know
• I shall not go
• Cathedral-hunting in Spain
• Nor cherrying in Michigan or Maine. (Old Mary
  Gwendolyn Brooks)
• Rhyme Scheme of this poem is aabbcc

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speaker

• Voice that is talking to the reader in a poem
• Sometimes the speaker is identical with the poet,
  but often the speaker and the poet are not the
  same.

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lyric poem

• Poetry that does not tell a story but is aimed
  only at expressing a speakers emotions or
  thoughts
• Example
• The dead are always looking down on us, they
  say.while we are putting on our shoes or eating
  a steak,they are looking down through the glass
  bottom boats of heavenas they row themselves
  slowly through eternity.
• They watch the tops of our heads moving below on
  earth,and when we lie down in a field or on a
  couch,drugged perhaps by the hum of a long
  afternoon,they think we are looking back at
  them,which makes them lift their oars and fall
  silentand wait, like parents, for us to close
  our eyes. (The Dead by Billy Collins)

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sonnet

• Fourteen-line lyric poem that has one of several
  rhyme schemes
• Shakespeare wrote 154 Shakespearean sonnets
  rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg

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theme

• The main idea, or meaning, behind a poem

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narrative poem

• A poem that tells a story and usually contains
  all of the elements of fiction
• Example
• Listen my children and you shall hearOf the
  midnight ride of Paul Revere,On the eighteenth
  of April, in Seventy-fiveHardly a man is now
  aliveWho remembers that famous day and year.
• (Paul Reveres Ride by Henry Wadsworth
  Longfellow)

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repetition

• Repeating of sounds and words for effect
• Example
• And miles to go before I sleep,
• And miles to go before I sleep.
• (from Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening
  by Robert Frost)

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ode

• A lyric poem that is serious and thoughtful in
  tone and has a very precise, formal structure. A
  tribute.
• Example
• Ode to Joy

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elegy

• a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem,
  especially a funeral song or a lament for the
  dead.
• Example
• O Captain, My Captain by Walt Whitman