1. A Pretty Word for "Life." Page 742
Poetry
A Pretty Word for "Life."
Page 742

2. Ms. Levine's Two Cents on… Writing Poetry.
Nouns and verbs MOVE.
Get rid of articles.
Dig deep for a story, not a grocery list.
All art, (including poetry & writing), is purposed to communicate – if you intend another to read it.
It doesn't have to rhyme.
Have fun with line structure (unless we're learning specific line structures).
Title LAST.
Don't treat your readers like they're dumb.

3. I Say – Good Form, Old Chap!
Traditional Poetry
Organic Poetry
Epic: Long narrative
Ode: Commemorative lyric
Ballad: Sung or recited
Sonnet: 14 lines w/ set rhyme & rhythm
Haiku: Japanese; set lines & syllables
Limerick: Light & humorous w/ specific rhyme scheme
Free/Blank verse: Poetry with no regular meter
Concrete poetry: Conveys meaning visually through the arrangement of letters and words
Any poetry that deviates from a traditional form

4. Poetic Elements: Compared to songs & prose
Sound devices
Meter
Imagery & Figurative language

5. Sound Devices Sound Device Definition Example Repetition
A sound, word, phrase or line that is repeated for emphasis & unity
"back off from this poem
It has drawn in yr feet
Back off from this poem"
Alliteration
Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words
"Which circle slowly with a silken swish."
Assonance
Repetition of vowel sounds in words that don't end with the same consonant
"Words shy and dappled, deep-eyed deer
in herds."
Consonance
Repetition of consonant sounds within and at the ends of words
"Whose nest is in a watered shoot."

6. Meter! Types of feet: Number of feet: Iamb (reSIST) Trochee (Absent)
Spondee (GOAL LINE)
Number of feet:
Trimeter (3)
Tetrameter (4)
Pentameter (5)

7. Imagery & Figurative Language
Definition
Example
Simile
A comparison between two unlike things, containing the words like, as, or as if
"My heart is like a singing bird"
Metaphor
A comparison between two unlike things without the word like or as
"Poets make pets of pretty, docile words"
Personification
A description of an object, an animal, a place, or an idea in human terms
"It [this poem] has taken in many victims"
Hyperbole
An exaggeration for emphasis or humorous effect
"The hunger of this poem is legendary"

8. The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death;
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard with dirt
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.

9. My Papa's Waltz
How does the speaker feel about his bedtime waltz with his father?
Use details from the poem to help explain why you think the way you do.
Why do you think the scene in "My Papa's Waltz" was so vivid among the the poet's memories?
What is your impression of the characters depicted in the painting?
Cite details that create this impression.
What are some conclusions we can draw about these characters? Are they negative? Positive? Both?
Is poetry always black and white?

10. Group Discussion
In groups of four, discuss the following questions and be prepared to defend your answers in class discussion once the groups have finished:
1) In "My Papa's Waltz," why is the speaker's mother frowning? Does it lend anything to the mood of the poem? How?
2) In the poem, how do you judge the father's behavior toward the speaker? Consider the word choices used in the descriptions as you cite evidence to support your answer.
3) In writing about this poem, one critic remarked that Roethke reveals "something of his own joy, and bafflement, as the victim of his father's exuberant energy." Do you consider victim too harsh a word to describe the boy's part in the evening waltz? Why or why not?

11. Thinking Outside the Box.
Changing expectations

12. Diction In the museum of glass flowers Natures clock is still: forever
Flowers bud, arch, stretch, bloom
This year, next year, a hundred years
Inside their cases: airless, dustless
Colors unfading, leaves unwilted
Upturned pollen faces
Forever unkissed by sun.

13. Lines 1-9 of Spring is like Perhaps a Hand
Describe how something that you regularly observe in nature, such as a garden or a tree, changes from the last days of winter to the first days of spring.
According to the speaker, in what ways is spring like a hand?
Explain how Cummings arranges and rearranges his words to reinforce the idea of his comparison.
How does the line structure help the meaning of the poem?