7.1: Classroom Lecture and Activity By Ukaisha Al-Amin

Poetry

You can find poetry everywhere and a couple of modules is no where near enough information to cover all of this. We will be focusing mostly on is how to write poetry, and there are some basics that beginner writers should learn. However, if you are interested in becoming a poet, I would recommend taking the full poetry course.

When you write a poem, you can start with an emotion, theme, or issue. Maybe the only thing you know is that you want to write about a certain thing. This is okay.

Another way to approach writing poetry is to start with a form. When you do this, you already know the criteria for the poem, which can make writing more organized and recognizable.

You can even mix things up when writing a long poem.

Basic Parts to a Poem

• Poems are written in verse.
• They can follow a specific scheme, meter, or pattern.
• Parts of a poem are called stanzas.

Reminder: All of this also depends on the type of poem. Prose poems are told in verse while free verse poems may not follow a specific pattern.

Poetry uses a ‘speaker’ instead of a narrator. The ‘speaker’ does not have to be the author. Keep this in mind as your read and write poems.

When you write poetry, it also important to learn about using literary devices.

Here are the literary devices that you should learn:

Alliteration: The repetition of initial consonant sounds used especially in poetry to emphasize and link words as well as to create pleasing, musical sounds. Example—the fair breeze blew, the white foam flew.

Allusion: A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art to enrich the reading experience by adding meaning.

Characterization: Techniques a writer uses to create and develop a character by what:

• he/she does or says,

• other characters say about him/her, or how they react to him/her

• the author reveals directly or through a narrator.

Dialect: Speech that reflects pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar typical of a geographical region.

Flashback: Interruption of the chronological (time) order to present something that occurred before the beginning of the story.

Figurative Language: Language that has meaning beyond the literal meaning; also known as “figures of speech.”

• Simile: comparison of two things using the words “like” or “as,” e.g. “Her smile was as cold as ice.”

• Metaphor comparison of two things essentially different but with some commonalities; does not use “like” or “as,” e.g. “Her smile was ice.”

• Hyperbole: a purposeful exaggeration for emphasis or humor.

• Personification: human qualities attributed to an animal, object, or idea, e.g. “The wind exhaled.”

Free Verse: Poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme. Poets who write in free verse try to reproduce the natural rhythms of spoken language.

Foreshadowing: Important hints that an author drops to prepare the reader for what is to come, and help the reader anticipate the outcome.

Imagery: Words or phrases that appeal to the reader’s senses.

Humor: The quality of a literary or informative work that makes the character and/or situations seem funny, amusing, or ludicrous.

Irony: A technique that involves surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions or contrasts. Verbal irony occurs when words are used to suggest the opposite of their usual meaning. An irony of situation is when an event occurs that directly contradicts expectations.

Onomatopoeia: The use of words that imitate sounds. Examples would be hiss, buzz, swish, and crunch.

Point of View: Perspective from which the story is told

• First-person: narrator is a character in the story; uses “I,” “we,” etc.

• Third-person: narrator outside the story; uses “he,” “she,” “they”

• Third-person limited: narrator tells only what one character perceives

• Third-person omniscient: narrator can see into the minds of all characters.

Satire: Writing that comments humorously on human flaws, ideas, social customs, or institutions in order to change them.

Style: The distinctive way that a writer uses language including such factors as word choice, sentence length, arrangement, and complexity, and the use of figurative language and imagery.

Suspense: A feeling of excitement, curiosity, or expectation about what will happen.

Symbol: Person, place, or thing that represents something beyond itself, most often something concrete or tangible that represents an abstract idea.

The great thing about poetry is that there are so many options to express your ideas.

Classroom Activity \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Let’s start with a type of poem that most people are familiar with, the acrostic poem. An acrostic poem is where the first letter in each line spells out a word, writes a phrase or a sentence. Usually the first letters create their own word. This type of poem can be witty, funny, or full of other emotions.

Using your name, write an acrostic poem about a friend or family member.