1. Poetry
A poem is created by putting words together in an interesting way to express a feeling, create a mental picture, tell a story, or make a sound.
Poetry entertains the ears and the eyes.

2. Basic Poetry Vocabulary
Verse
Stanza
Rhyme
Rhyme Scheme
Rhythm

3. Poetry Parts: Verse and Stanza
Verse or Line ~ usually means a line of poetry, but sometimes means a whole poem:
Dust of Snow by Robert Frost
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I rued.

4. Stanza A stanza in a poem is like a paragraph in an essay.
Each stanza is usually separated by some blank space.
Common stanza lengths are two, three, four, six or eight lines.

5. How Many Stanzas Does This Poem Have?
Snevington Snee by Jack Prelutsky
I’m Snevington Snee
And from seven till three
I hang by my toes
From a coconut tree.
I’ve plenty of time
And it’s hardly a crime,
And no one seems willing
To do it for me.

6. Rhyme Repetition of end sounds is called rhyme.
My dog chewed up my homework.
He slobbered on it, too.
So now my homework’s ripped to shreds,
And full of slimy goo. (~Bruce Lansky)

7. Rhyme Scheme
Rhyme scheme- the ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse.
Rhyme Scheme can be determined by marking similarly rhyming lines of the poem with a letter of the alphabet.

8. Rhyme Scheme
Here is a poem by Jack Prelutsky with an A-B-C-B rhyme scheme:
Grizelda Gratz kept sixty cats A
She fed them very well B
On angel cakes and raisin flakes C
And acorns in a shell. B

9. Now It’s Your Turn Green is the grass And the leaves of trees
Can you identify the rhyme scheme of this poem by Mary O’Neill?
Green is the grass
And the leaves of trees
Green is the smell
Of a country breeze.

10. Rhythm
Rhythm is a regular, patterned repetition of sounds in a poem (the beat).
Rhythm and rhyme can give poetry a musical quality.

11. Now It’s Your Turn
Can you feel the rhythm of this poem by Shel Silverstein?
“There is a place where the sidewalk ends And before the street begins, And there the grass grows soft and white, And there the sun burns crimson bright, And there the moon-bird rests from his flight To cool in the peppermint wind.”