Creative Writing

Give it a tryGreat job on the quiz!Now that we have finished learning about poems, try it for yourself!Choose any of the forms discussed and try your hand at your own poem. Remember to have fun with it!

The endSummary for PoetryPoetry has an infinite amount of forms and the poet doesnt even have to follow one. Poetry is a form of free expression.There are no constraints to the subject of a poem.ReviewNext

Important Vocab to RememberLine- a sting of words, similar to a sentence, but does not need punctuation. Most poems will use punctuation at some point, be it a period at the end or a comma here and there. Lines end in poems to add emphasis or a pause on certain words to give meaning, similar to commas in a regular sentence.NextPrevious

Important Vocab to RememberStanza- a group of lines that form a meaning, equivalent to a verse in a song.NextPrevious

Important Vocab to RememberTitle- an extra line to add clarity to the poem. A title does not have to be what the poem is about, most will instead use it to clarify the true meaning of their poem. Since Most poems tend to be metaphorical, so this is a very common technique. Metaphorical poems can be read differently by every reader, titles help the author communicate the intended meaning to the reader.OnwardPrevious

Check it out!RhymingNon RhymingFree-VerseSummaryRhyming An endless amount of different forms, if the author chooses to follow a form.If there is no specific form, like in a Limerick or Sonnet, then the poem is called Free-Verse.Poems can also rely on the flow of words like in Syllabic poems, which can rhyme, but do not have to.

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LimerickThe limerick packs laughs anatomicalInto space that is quite economical.But the good ones I've seenSo seldom are cleanAnd the clean ones so seldom are comical.Unknown AuthorClear Pattern, the last word in each line rhymes like this, ABAABThe pattern of a Limerick is A,A,B,B,ABACKNew Example

LimerickThere Once was a Man called RegWho Went with a Girl in a HedgeAlong came his wifeWith a big Carving KnifeAnd cut off his meat and two veg~ Matt Barton

ABNotice the pattern is the same, A,A,B,B,A.AABPrevious Ex.Back to RhymingAlso notice that the topic of this poem is not the same as the last example

SonnetLet me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments, love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no, it is an ever fixd mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand'ring 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. ~William ShakespeareABCDEFGABCDEFGNew ExampleBACK

SonnetThe Oven BirdThere is a singer everyone has heard,Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.He says that leaves are old and that for flowersMid-summer is to spring as one to ten.He says the early petal-fall is pastWhen pear and cherry bloom went down in the showersOn sunny days a moment overcast;And comes that other fall we name the fall.He says the highway dust is over all.The bird would cease and be as other birdsBut that he knows in singing not to sing.The question that he frames in all but wordsIs what to make of a diminished thing. ~Robert Frost

AABBCCDDEEFFGGPrevious Ex.Back to Rhyming

SyllabicRoses are red, Violets are blue,Sugar is sweet And so are you~Unknown Author2111221Notice, even though the last line does not match the syllabic pattern completely; all words only have 1 syllable the last word rhymes with a previous line to make it fit still.BACKNew Example

Syllabic"No Swan So Fine""No water so still as thedead fountains of Versailles." No swan,with swart blind look askanceand gondoliering legs, so fineas the chintz china one with fawn-brown eyes and toothed goldcollar on to show whose bird it was.

Lodged in the Louis FifteenthCandelabrum-tree of cockscomb-tinted buttons, dahlias,sea urchins, and everlastings,it perches on the branching foamof polished sculpturedflowers at ease and tall. The king is dead.~Marianne Moore78888886599567She used a pattern of syllable line by line and did not use rhymes. Previous Ex.Moving on

Non RhymingStory/NarrativeParagraphFree-versePrevious Ex.BackNext FormStory/NarrativeBe With MeThis is a ballad for the good timesSo put a battery in your legPut a rock beat over anythingGet it stuck there in your headYou can be with me

I got nothing to rely onI've broken every boneEverybody's stop believingBut you know you're not aloneYou can be with me

This is a ballad for the good timesAnd all the dignity we hadDon't get het up on the evil thingsYou ain't coming backYou can be with meIf you want to be You can be with me.... ~James DickensonPrevious Ex.This one does rhyme. As I mentioned, narratives typically use more than one element of poetry. This one uses rhymes and is in the form of a ballad.Back to Non Rhyming

ParagraphThe List of Many Famous HatsNapoleon's hat is an obvious choice I guess to list as a famoushat, but that's not the hat I have in mind. That was his hat forshow. I am thinking of his private bathing cap, which in all hon-esty wasn't much different than the one any jerk might buy at acorner drugstore now, except for two minor eccentricities. Thefirst one isn't even funny: Simply it was a white rubber bathingcap, but too small. Napoleon led such a hectic life ever since his~James TateFull Poem athttp://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15578Also note the subject of this poem is famous hats; nothing real serious. BACKBack to NON Rhyming

Free verseThese poems are the easiest to do because the lack of rules binding them.They can sometimes be in a block of text like a paragraph or ballad, however there is a distinct difference. Free-verse poems do not care how their lines end. All paragraph form and ballads end their lines specifically to give extra meaning and emphasis on certain words. Free-verse does not take this into consideration.BACKExample

Free verseFogThe fog comeson little cat feet.

It sits lookingover harbor and cityon silent haunchesand then moves on.~Carl Sandburge

There are two stanzas, but non of the two have a specific form and no set pattern is found.BACKNew Example

Free verseWashed AwayNothing's changed except me and the factsAnd the sadness I didn't mean to start.But it feels different now you've saidIt's wrong, and I still can't see your point.And I think as water runs over my hands thatThat's really all there is or can be.The gold is wearing off the infamous ringAnd something wears away from around my heart.~Katherine ForemanPrevious Ex.This example seems to be a narrative, just one with no set structure.Back to forms

Summary for PoetryPoems can be about anything and be as long or short as the poet wants.Some are two lines, some are four or five pages long.Poetry doesn't even have to make sense to the reader since it is the poets self-expression.Lets test what you have learned!BackQuiz

Question 1What is poetry?The art of expressing ones self and the things around them.Rhymes and fancy language.Mushes stuff about love and dying.Good Job!Poetry is essentially whatever the poet wants it to be.Be it yetis, hats, love, death, a bird, anything and everything. Sometimes poets write poems about nothing and they make no sense, because they are not supposed to.ReviewNext

Right!Poetry doe not have to follow a form, this is called Free-Verse.ReviewNext

Good Job!Not all poems have to be fiction.Some are based on real people and or real events.A lot of poems are metaphorical views on how a poets sees something, thus expressing themselves.ReviewNext

Yes!Stanza- A group of lines that form a meaning, equivalent to a verse in a song.

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