Introduction to PoetryPre-AP Language

Arts/Language Arts - 8

Poetry is a creative use of words which, like all art, is intended to stir an emotion in the audience.

Poetry generally has some structure that separates it from prose.

The basic unit of poetry is the line. It serves the same function as the sentence in prose, although most poetry maintains the use of grammar within the structure of the poem.

Most poems have a structure in which each line contains a set amount of syllables; this is called meter.

Lines are also often grouped into stanzas.

The stanza in poetry is equivalent or equal to the paragraph in prose. Often the lines in a stanza will have a specific rhyme scheme. Some of the more common stanzas are: Couplet: a two line stanza

Triplet: a three line stanza

Quatrain: a four line stanza

Cinquain: a five line stanza

Example of a Couplet

PUMPKINS ON GUARDLook at all the pumpkin facesLighting up so many places.

On the porch and in the yard,Pumpkin faces standing guard.

Looking friendly, looking mean,With a smile or with a scream.

Orange faces burning brightIn the cool October night.

WITCH WAYWith warts on her noseAnd sharp pointy toes,She flies through the night on her broom.

With covers pulled tightIn the shadows of night,I hide in the dark of my room. 

Example of a Triplet

Write a couplet or triplet about Halloween

(Couplets must have at least four lines; Triplets must have at least

six lines)

Classwork/Practice

These will be displayed in class!

Meter is the measured arrangement of words in poetry, the rhythmic pattern of a stanza, determined by the kind and number of lines. Meter is an organized way to arrange stressed/accented syllables and unstressed/unaccented syllables.

Whose woods / these are / I think /I know

Rhyme is when the endings of the words sound the same. Read the poem with me out loud.

Dust of Snow

by Robert Frost

The way a crowShook down on meThe dust of snowFrom a hemlock treeHas given my heartA change of moodAnd save some partOf a day I had rued.

Rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming words at the end of each line. Not all poetry has a rhyme scheme. They are not hard to identify, but you must look carefully at which words rhyme and which do not.Dust of Snow

by Robert Frost

The way a crowShook down on meThe dust of snowFrom a hemlock treeHas given my heartA change of moodAnd save some partOf a day I had rued.

ABABCDCD

Poems of more than one stanza often repeat the same rhyme scheme in each stanza.

Let’s practice rhyme schemeDetermine the rhyme scheme of the following poem:

HALLOWEEN

A gentle breeze rustling the dry cornstalks.

A sound is heard, a goblin walks.A harvest moon suffers a black cat's cry.

Oh' do the witches fly!Bonfire catches a pumpkins gleem.

Rejoice, it's Halloween!

-Richard Anderson © Copyright 1998

HALLOWEEN

Identify the rhyme scheme in the poems provided on the worksheet.

Classwork/Practice

Repetition is the repeating of a sound, word, or phrase for emphasis.

Inside

Inside the house (I get ready)

Inside the car (I go to school)

Inside the school(I wait for the bell to ring)

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☺

☺

Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else, you are using figurative language.

Figurative language is any language that goes beyond the literal meaning of words in order to furnish new effects or fresh insights into an idea or a subject.

The most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, and alliteration.

Figurative language is used in poetry to compare two things that are usually not thought of as being alike.

 

A simile is a figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as.

The clouds looked like cotton candy.

Grandpa was as stubborn as a mule

Tom's head is as hard as a rock.

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.

 

Clouds are cotton candy.

Grandpa was a mule.

Tom is a rock.

They are fluffy.

They are stubborn.

They are hard.

Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables, as in "on scrolls of silver snowy sentences" (Hart Crane). Modern alliteration is predominantly consonantal. To find an alliteration, you must look the repetitions of the same consonant sound through out a line.

Silvery snowflakes fall silently

Softly sheathing all with moonlight

Until sunrise slowly shows

Snow softening swiftly.

_ _ _

_ _

_ _ _

_ _ _

Imagery is an appeal to the senses. The poet describes something to help you to see, hear, touch, taste, or smell the topic of the poem.

Fog

The fog comes on little cat feet.

It sits looking over harbor and city

on silent haunches and then moves on.

 

SEE, HEAR

SEE

HEAR, SEE, FEEL