1. “Introduction to Poetry” By Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.

2. An Introduction to Poetry
6th Grade P.A.
May 8th & 10th
Miss Hoffman

3. Poet of the Day
Billy Collins

4. What is a Poem? Poems have meaning Poems have sound Poems have images
Poems have lines
Poems have patterns

5. Structure Refers to a poems form Lines=poems are divided into lines
I ask them to take a poem
Stanza=a group of lines
I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide

6. Imagery
Words that the poet uses to appeal to the 5 senses

7. Imagery “The sun was shining on the sea, Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright -
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.”
-Lewis Carroll   

8. Imagery “A mouse found a beautiful piece of plum cake,
The richest and sweetest that mortal could make:
'Twas heavy with citron and fragrant with spice,
And covered with sugar all sparkling as
ice.”
-Iona and Peter Opie

9. Imagery
“Boom! Went the food trays. Clap! Clap! Goes the teacher. Rip! Went the plastic bag. Munch! Munch! Go the students. Slurp!!! Went the straws. Whisper Is what half the kids in the room are doing. Crunch! Crunch! go the candy bars.”
-Rachel

10. Imagery Preludes “The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o'clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.”
-T.S. Eliot

11. Imagery “Through the green twilight of a hedge,
“Through the green twilight of a hedge,
I peered with cheek on the cool leaves pressed”
-Walter de la Mare

12. Rhythm a poem’s pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
Meter= a pattern of stressed or unstressed syllables in a line of poetry
Shall I com PARE thee TO a SUM mer’s DAY? •
Shall.I..|..com.PARE..|..thee.TO..|..a.SUM..|..mer’s DAY?

13. Rhyme the repetition of the same or similar sounds
End Rhyme= stressed syllables at the end of lines
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King's horses, And all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again!
Internal Rhyme=occurs in the line
"Once upon a midnight DREARY, while I pondered weak and WEARY"
"While I nodded, nearly NAPPING, suddenly there came a TAPPING"
-Poe
Rhyme Scheme=pattern formed by a poem’s end rhyme

14. Sound Devices
techniques that create a sense of rhythm or that emphasize particular sounds
Alliteration= repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words
Don't delay dawns disarming display. Dusk demands daylight. Dewdrops dwell delicately drawing dazzling delight. Dewdrops dilute daisies domain. Distinguished debutantes . Diamonds defray delivered daylights distilled daisy dance.

15. Sound Devices
Onomatopoeia=words or phrases that reflect the sound they are describing
What other words can you think of?

16. "My love is like a red, red rose"
Figurative Language
used by poets for descriptive effect
Metaphor= words that compare unlike things
In the morning the city
Spreads its wings
Making a song
In stone that sings.
    (Langston Hughes)
Simile= uses “like” or as”
"My love is like a red, red rose"
    (Robert Burn)

17. Figurative Language
Personification= giving an animal, object, or idea human form or characteristics
"The Night was creeping on the ground!
She crept and did not make a sound"
    (James Stephens)
Idioms= expressions that are particular to a region, language, or group of people
"Bite off more than you can chew
"In a pickle"
“In the nick of time”

18. Name That Element...
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

19. Name that Element... “Now, Jenny and me were engaged, you see
On the eve of a fancy ball
So a kiss or two is nothing to you
Or anyone else at all.”

20. Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room.
Name that Element...
Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room.
"Ah, William, we're weary of weather," said the sunflowers, shining with dew. "Our traveling habits have tired us. Can you give us a room with a view?"
They arranged themselves at the window and counted the steps of the sun, and they both took root in the carpet where the topaz tortoises run William Blake

21. Name that Element... Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
-Robert Frost

22. Name that Element... Flint
An emerald is as green as grass, A ruby red as blood; A sapphire shines as blue as heaven; A flint lies in the mud.
A diamond is a brilliant stone, To catch the world's desire; An opal holds a fiery spark; But a flint holds a fire.
-Christina Rossetti

23. Name that Element... The rusty spigot Sputters, Utters A splutter,
Spatters a smattering of drops,
Gashes wider;
Slash,
Splatters,
Scatters,
Spurts,
Finally stops sputtering
And plash!
Gushes rushes splashes
Clear water dashes.
-Eve Merriam

24. Poetry Stations Get into 5 groups of 4
5 minutes at each station to explore
Record your thoughts/favorites/least favorites

25. Works Cited *http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/001.html
* poetry html * * * * * *
*Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., and Douglas Fisher. Glencoe literature. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, Print.
*Google images