Poem

eng / April, World Book Week

We are going to work with poetry in English. Are you ready?
What is Poetry? I hope you can find the answer after reading the following poems.
Suggestion: A Martian Sends a Postcard Home by Craig Raine to start seeing things with different eyes.	Suggestion: We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks because poetry can depict teenagers in a few words. Suggestion: In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound because poetry can be intense.
Suggestion: Ode to my socks by Pablo Neruda because there is poetry in everything.
Who has seen the wind? https://librivox.org/ (Public Domain)	The Eagle https://librivox.org/ (Public Domain)


Potpourri https://librivox.org/ (Public Domain)
The Fly https://librivox.org/ (Public Domain)	The Crocodile https://librivox.org/ (Public Domain)
When I Read the Book https://librivox.org/ (Public Domain)

Discuss with other students what your impressions are after reading the poems. Do they depict reality as it is? Do they appeal to senses?
Read and listen to the poems. Can you find words that rhyme? Write them in your notebook.
The following words are related to stanzas or types of poems. Fill in the blanks with the right word. Use a dictionary or the Internet if you need some information.

COUPLET - TERCET - QUATRAIN - LIMERICK - ACROSTIC -

ODE - FREE VERSE POEM - EPIGRAM - DIAMANTE - PANTOUM

1. Espazos (1):

It is a type of poem in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line spells out a word or a message.

   Little maidens, when you look
   On this little story-book,
   Reading with attentive eye
   Its enticing history,
   Never think that hours of play
   Are your only HOLIDAY,
   And that in a HOUSE of joy
   Lessons serve but to annoy:
   If in any HOUSE you find
   Children of a gentle mind,
   Each the others pleasing ever—
   Each the others vexing never—
   Daily work and pastime daily
   In their order taking gaily—
   Then be very sure that they
   Have a life of HOLIDAY.

Lewis Carroll

2. Espazos (2):

It doesn't follow rhythm or metrical patterns and doesn't follow the structure of any stanza.

When I Heard The Learn'd Astronomer

When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

Walt Whitman

Read This is Just to Say by William Carlos William and I, too, Sing America by Langston Hughes.

3. Espazos (3):

It is often a short funny poem which consists of five lines with a rhyming scheme of AABBA. Lines 1, 2, 5 should have 7-10 syllables and lines 3, 4 should have 5-7 syllables.

There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man
And as for the bucket, Nantucket

4. Espazos (4):

It consists of three lines of verse that can be a stanza or a poem.

On Spies

Spies, you are lights in state, but of base stuff,

Who, when you've burnt yourselves down to the snuff,

Stink and are thrown away. End fair enough.

Ben Jonson

5. Espazos (5):

It is a type of poem in seven lines. There is a fixed structure and the words in the lines form a diamond.The beginning subject and the end subject are usually opposite ideas.

Line 1: Beginning subject
Line 2: Two describing words about line 1
Line 3: Three doing words about line 1
Line 4: A short phrase about line 1, a short phrase about line 7
Line 5: Three doing words about line 7
Line 6: Two describing words about line 7
Line 7: End subject

                         Bike
                   Shiny, quiet,
           Pedaling, spinning, weaving
Whizzing round corners, zooming along roads
           Racing, roaring, speeding
                   Fast, loud,
                        Car

6. Espazos (6): JXUwMDE3JXUwMDBiJXUwMDAx

It is a type of poem to praise a person, an object, an idea etc.

Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,

The earth, and every common sight

To me did seem

Apparelled in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.

It is not now as it hath been of yore;--

Turn wheresoe'er I may,

By night or day,

The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

William Wordsworth

https://librivox.org/ (Public Domain)

7. Espazos (7):

It is a stanza or poem of four lines. The rhyme is usually ABAB, ABBA, ABCB.

I had no thought of violets of late,

The wild, shy kind that spring beneath your feet

In wistful April days, when lovers mate

And wander through the fields in raptures sweet.

Alice Dunbar-Nelson

https://librivox.org/ (Public Domain)

8. Espazos (8):

It is a short poem, often satirical and ending with a witty remark.

What is an Epigram? A dwarfish whole,
Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

9. Espazos (9):

It consists of two successive lines of verse that rhyme and are the same length.

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."

A Midsummer night's dream, William Shakespeare

10. Espazos (10):

It is a type of poem which usually has three stanzas. Verses are repeated in the following way: 1234 2546 5361.

Read Lower Manhattan Pantoum by Elaine Sexton and Atomic Pantoum by Peter Meinke too.

And now, the time has come for you to write a poem... But if you don't feel confident enough, go to Extra Activities and have a look at the models you can find there.