1. Learning about poetry to write a critical essay on a poem.
S1 Poetry Unit
Learning about poetry to write a critical essay on a poem.

2. Poetry V Prose
What makes poetry different from prose (stories and articles)?
Write down as many things you can think of that makes poetry different from prose.

3. Poem 1: The Seagull
Seagull, seagull, sit on the sand, It’s never good weather when you’re on the land. Anon.

4. What did you notice?
After reading the poem the Seagull what did you think of it?
What did you notice about the end of each line?
They Rhyme!
Rhyme is when the end of two words sound the same. E.g. Dog and log, house and mouse.

5. Poem 2: The Porcupine
Although they rarely show their features Porcupines are far from spineless creatures. J.F Hendry

6. What do you notice? What do you make of this poem?
Does this poem rhyme?
The correct name for two lines of poetry that rhyme is a Rhyming Couplet.

7. Do all poems have to rhyme?
So far we have looked at poems that rhyme, but not all poems rhyme.
If a poem is trying to tell a story it could make the poem sound silly if it always had to rhyme.
The next poem rhymes in some places and in others – where it might sound silly- it merely tells the story.

8. Poem 3: The Dinner Lady
Today at school I cut my knee. The dinner lady looked after me. She washed away the blood and dirt, then put a plaster Where it hurt. by David Harmer

9. What Now? What did you make of the poem The Dinner Lady?
Have you had a school experience like that one?
So far we have discovered that not all poems rhyme, though some do.
We have also seen that some poems describe things and that some tell a story.
Now we have to listen to some more sounds.

10. Sounds: Alliteration Look at these headlines below:
1. Rangers Run Riot at Raith Rovers
2. Celtic Score Six in Semi Shock
When you make a number of words begin with the same consonant sound you are using Alliteration.

11. Alliteration Continued
Can you continue this poem up to ten?
You must write about a different animal in each line.
Each line of the poem must use alliteration.
One wicked walrus was woefully wet.
Two torpid tortoises told terrible tales.
Three
Four

12. Comparisons -1
One of the main things that a poem often does is compare one thing to another thing.
Look at the poem Robin.
What is the Robin being compared to in the first four lines?

13. Poem 4 – The Robin
If on a frosty morning the robin redbreast calls, his waistcoat red and burning like a beggar at your walls. Throw bread crumbs on the grass for him when the ground is hard and still, for in his breast there is still a flame that winter cannot kill. By Iain Crichton Smith

14. Comparisons – The Simile
When we say something is like something else we are using a simile.
Here are some other examples;
1.The ball flew through the air like a meteor.
2.The lake was like a polished mirror.
3.The night was as dark as coal.
4.Straws like tame lightening lie about the grass
Try to explain why these examples are effective.

15. Poem 5 - Frogs
Frogs sit more solid than anything sits. In mid-leap they are parachutists falling in a free fall. They die on roads with arms across their chests and Heads high.

16. Frogs Continued
I love frogs that sit Like Buddha, that fall without Parachutes, that die Like Italian tenors.

17. Frogs Continued
Above all, I love them because, pursued in water, they never panic so much that they fail to make stylish triangles with their ballet dancer’s legs. By Norman MacCaig

18. Comparisons 2 - Metaphors
A metaphor states that one thing is the other.
After reading the poem Frogs did you notice any metaphors?
Explain the metaphor being used to describe frogs in the first six lines.
Can you work out what the similes in lines 7-10 are saying about the frogs? (You may use a dictionary.)
Do you remember what Alliteration is?
Write down all the examples of it in the poem.

19. Poem 6- Catfish
The leopard eye of a murderer And the body of an eel Combine to form a velvet glove That has a grip like steel. By J.F. Hendry

20. Metaphors Continued.
If you can remember that a simile is when you say that something is like something else. However sometimes a poet wants an even more powerful comparison and they will say that one thing is something else.
So instead of your teacher saying:
You are like a tortoise doing your work.
She might say:
You are a tortoise doing your work.
In the poem the Catfish two metaphors are used in the first two lines – what two things is the fish being compared to?
What does the simile in the last line suggest about the nature of the fish?