1. LIBRARY BOOK Spirals Pen pencil Poetry handouts textbook

2. What do the words POEM OR POETRY MEAN TO YOU ?

3. Meet the Authors!! Emily Dickinson was born on 10 December 1830 in Amherst, in western Massachusetts, and died there on 15 May 1886. Emily had a strong secondary education and a year of college at South Hadley Female Seminary (later Mount Holyoke College). Though she wrote hundreds of poems, Dickinson never published a book of poetry. The few poems published during her lifetime were anonymous. The reasons why she never published are still unclear. Despite Emily’s seclusion and frail health, her poetry reveals that she did experience moments of great joy. Through nature and life she was able to glimpse into a mystic dimension beyond worldly distractions; although it is also clear this did not become a permanent feeling. For every ecstatic joy there seems to be a contrasting doubt and uncertainty. But she was able to offer a concise and direct revelation of thought provoking ideas through a powerful command of language. Even critics of her poetry, who point to inconsistencies in style and form, cannot deny the inherent power of her poetry and this explains the enduring popularity and success of her poetry.

4. Meet the Authors!! Robert Frost was a great poet. Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California. When Frost was two years old, his mother fled to Lawrence, Massachusetts, to get away from her husband, who was a drunkard. She stayed there until her second baby was born, Jeannie, Robert's sister. Then they went back to San Francisco on a train. A few years later, Robert's father died, so they took the body to Lawrence to be buried in the family cemetery. By the time he was 11, Robert Frost had crossed the U.S. three times. After this rough beginning, Robert went on to become a great poet. He married Elinor White and had 2 kids. Robert never in truth had any jobs, except being a poet, but he published many poems in his lifetime. Some of them are: The Road not Taken, The Raft of Flowers, The Pasture, and others. Robert also won four Pultizer awards and read The Gift Outright at the inauguration of John. F. Kennedy. He died on January 29, 1963 of a heart attack. He was 88 years old.

5. When does N O N s e n s e make sense?

7. Meet the Authors! LEWIS CARROLL- “Jabberwocky” He was an Oxford University Mathematician when he began making up children’s stories. Before Carroll published his books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, people believed children’s books should instruct, not entertain. Carroll, however, offers people pure delight. SHEL SILVERSTEIN- “Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out” He began his artistic career when he was a child. “ I would much rather have been a good baseball player,” he says. “But I couldn’t play ball… So I started to draw and write.” EDWARD LEAR- “Two Limericks” The limerick is a type of poem that first appeared in England in the mid-1700’s. Edward Lear became a master of the form and helped make limericks popular.

8. SOUN D DEVIC ES IN POETR Y RHYME: repetition of sounds at the end of words The big yellow light, Oh it was so bright REPETITION: the use of a word or phrase more than once Back porch, laughs, courage, my mother ONOMATOEPOEIA: use of words that sounds like their meanings Bang! Pow! Plop! ALLITERATION: repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words Twenty tame tigers

9. JABBERWO CKY http://www.teachertube.com/view Video.php?video_id=197287&title =Jabberwocky_reading&vpkey= 1.What do lines 5-6 tell you about the Jabberwock? 2. Which word in line 16 is an example of onomatopoeia? 3. Select four of the nonsense words in the poem and think of a word to replace it that makes sense.

10. SARAH SYLVIA CYNTHIA STOUT WOULD NOT TAKE THE GARBAGE OUT http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=92707 1.Find two examples of alliteration in Lines 1-10. What does this add to the disgusting description? 2.Why does Sarah finally take the garbage out? 3.Find an example of hyperbole, or exaggeration and explain its affect on the poem.

11. TWO LIMER ICKS 1.What is this poem’s rhyme scheme? 2.Why does the old man run around in his grandmother’s gown? 3.How many stressed syllables are in each line of the first limerick? How similar is the second limerick in this way to the first?