1. RIDDLES

2. What is a riddle?
A riddle describes something common, but in a way that is confusing.
Do you know any famous riddles?

3. Why are riddles poetry?
Riddles were made into a popular poetic form by the Anglo-Saxons, especially in the Exeter Book, a collection of poetry that was published in the 10th Century (around 950 AD).
Since they have a specific form and are laid out as poems, they are considered poetry.
An Example:
When I am alive I do not speak.  Anyone who wants to takes me captive and cuts off my head.  They bite my bare body  I do no harm to anyone unless they cut me first.  Then I soon make them cry.
AN ONION!!!

4. Features of riddles
Take a look at this riddle again. What are some of the features you notice?
When I am alive I do not speak.  Anyone who wants to takes me captive and cuts off my head.  They bite my bare body  I do no harm to anyone unless they cut me first.  Then I soon make them cry.
Did you get them all?
First person
Topic is speaker
Figurative language: Personification, metaphor, simile
Focus on function, habitat, sensory details

5. More riddles… Did you guess? A door
We are a crystal zoo, Wielders of fortunes, The top of our professions. Like hard silver nails Hammered into the dark We make charts for mariners.
John Cotton
I do not have a body
yet I grow constantly.
Everyone wants to visit
yet no one wants to live with me.
Nobody can find me
yet in the end,
like the stuff between the stars
I shall be everywhere.
Bill Herbert
A door
in homes
I have no hole for
Those who flash through me
I am way out
For the night-watchers,
but not a door
but not for humans
for a key, nor a handle,
having no fingers.
and way in
the long-whiskered.
U. A. Fanthorpe
Did you guess?
Stars
The past
A cat door

6. Your turn! Write your own riddle, following this format:
A direct comparison with something unusual
Something it is and something it isn't
What it is used for/what people do with it
Something descriptive (e.g. its colour, feel, sound, smell, shape etc.)
When choosing your topic, remember that usually the most common objects work the best. Think about food, body parts, objects in your house or school, things you use on a daily basis…