free write essential question: what is poetry? consider: what form does poetry take, what rules does...
TRANSCRIPT
FREE WRITE
Essential Question: What is poetry?
Consider: What form does poetry take, what rules does it have to follow, what purpose does it serve, who writes it, who reads it, who performs it, etc.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: WHAT IS POETRY?
“If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”
-Emily Dickinson, 19th Century American Poet
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: WHAT IS POETRY?
“A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.”
-Robert Frost, author of “The Road Not Taken”
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: WHAT IS POETRY?
“A poet’s work is to name the un-nameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, to start arguments, shape the world, and stop it from going to sleep.”
-Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses
POETRY & ITS FORMS
There is no one right type of poem! Its all about the way that you read it!
The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. WeLeft school. We
Lurk late. WeStrike straight. We
Sing sin. WeThin gin. We
Jazz June. WeDie soon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBpxJb24O8A
WHAT MAKES POETRY DIFFERENT FROM PROSE?
Poetry Prose
Words Syllables
Phrases Feet
Sentences Lines
Paragraph Stanzas
Chapters Cantos
The FOOT is the basic building block of poetry. It is composed of a pattern of syllables. These patterns create what is called the METER of poem.
METER is a pattern of beats or accents.
Study these sonnets.What do you notice about the meter, the rhyme scheme, etc.?
Let’s see if you can solve the puzzle of Shakespeare’s sonnet structure!
SONNET 73
That time of year thou mayst in me beholdWhen yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hangUpon those boughs which shake against the cold,Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.In me thou seest the twilight of such dayAs after sunset fadeth in the west,Which by and by black night doth take awayDeath’s second self, that seals up all the rest.In me thou see’st the glowing of such fireThat on the ashes of his youth doe lieAs the death-bed whereon it must expireConsumed with that which it was nourish’d by.This thou perceives, which makes thy love more strongTo love that well which thou must leave ere long.
SONNET 116
Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:O no; it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.If this be error and upon me proved,I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
SHAKESPEARE AND IAMBIC PENTAMETER
Shakespeare’s sonnets are written primarily in IAMBIC PENTAMETER. Some of the qualities of iambic pentameter are:
• Each sonnet line consists of ten syllables.
• The syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs or iambic feet.
• An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.
Example: baBOOM/baBOOM/baBOOM/baBOOM/baBOOM
“When I/ do COUNT/ the CLOCK/ that TELLS/ the TIME” (Sonnet 12)
“I ALL/ a-LONE/ be-WEEP/ my OUT/ cast STATE” (Sonnet 29)
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET STRUCTURE
• Sonnets have 14 lines
• The first 12 lines are divided into three QUATRAINS (groups of 4 lines).
(These four lines typically establish a problem. )
• The final 2 lines are called a COUPLET.
(These two lines typically resolve the problem.)
• The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET STRUCTURE
• Sonnets have 14 lines
• The first 12 lines are divided into three QUATRAINS (groups of 4 lines).
(These four lines typically establish a problem. )
• The final 2 lines are called a COUPLET.
(These two lines typically resolve the problem.)
• The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Sonnet 18
A Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?B Thou art more lovely and more temperate:A Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,B And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
C Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,D And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;C And every fair from fair sometime declines,D By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
E But thy eternal summer shall not fadeF Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;E Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,F When in eternal lines to time thou growst:
G So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,G So long lives this and this gives life to thee. B
1st Quatrain
2nd Quatrain
3rd Quatrain
Couplet
THE RAVEN’S POETIC STRUCTURE
The first stanza:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping.
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door.
Only this and nothing more.”
What do we notice about this poetic structure?
THE RAVEN’S POETIC STRUCTURE
RHYME SCHEME:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping.
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door.
Only this and nothing more.”
What do we notice about this poetic structure?
A
C
B
B
B
B
THE RAVEN’S POETIC STRUCTURE
INTERNAL RHYMES:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping.
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door.
Only this and nothing more.”
What do we notice about this poetic structure?
A
C
B
B
B
B
THE RAVEN’S POETIC STRUCTURE
METER & SYLLABLES:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping.
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door.
Only this and nothing more.”
What do we notice about this poetic structure?
A
C
B
B
B
B
Syllable
Count
16
16
15
15
15
7