POETS ARE INSPIRED BY THE WORLD AROUND THEM.
Poets are inspired by the world around them. We discussed memories with have with water - playing in sprinklers, listening to rain in bed, swimming in the ocean, getting wrinkly fingers in the bath tub, the list goes on and on. We used these memories of water in our worlds to as inspiration for our cinequean poems. We also read "There is a Wading Pool in Our Park" by Arnold Adoff as an example of a poem that is inspired by water in the world around us.
POETS USE REPETITION.
Poets use repetition. We read and listened to "What is Earth?" by Patrick J. Lewis and noticed that he repeated the question "What is Earth?" every other line. You commented that the repetition of this question made the poem musical by adding a rhythm. You also commented that the repetition really made those three words stand out in our head and made us think about what the earth is like for other creatures. You used repetition in your own poems "What is Water?" to create rhythm and to make the reader think carefully about water water is.
POETS READ WITH EXPRESSION.
Poets read with expression. We listened to a reading of "What is Earth?" and decided that poets read with expression by:
You practiced reading with expression and then recorded your "What is Water?" poems. Listen to the poems again under "Our Poetry' and think about one way that you read your poem with expression and one way thing that you could do to improve to read with more expression next time.
- Reading slowly and clearly
- Changing pitch
- Changing pitch
- Emphasizing words
- Showing emotion
- Pausing at the end of lines
- Breathing together (group poem)
You practiced reading with expression and then recorded your "What is Water?" poems. Listen to the poems again under "Our Poetry' and think about one way that you read your poem with expression and one way thing that you could do to improve to read with more expression next time.
POETS "CRACK OPEN" WORDS TO SHOW US THE PICTURE IN THEIR HEAD.
Poets crack open words to show us the picture in their heads. We read "Long Trip" by Langston Hughes and discussed how Langston Hughes wrote "The sea is a wilderness of waves/A desert of water" instead of just saying "The water is beautiful." We talked about how this comparison of the sea and desert really helped us to see the picture in his head.
Click below to hear our class read "Long Trip."
Click below to hear our class read "Long Trip."
POETS USE PERSONIFICATION.
Poets use personification to help us look at the world in new ways. Personification is when a poet gives human characteristics to a non-human object. We read "City Jungle" by Pie Corbett and you voted on your favorite example of personification. The class favorite was "a motorbike snarls." Can you find the other examples we discussed?
POETS USE METAPHORS AND SIMILES
TO HELP READERS SEE THE WORLD IN NEW WAYS.
Poets use figurative language to describe the world in new and interesting ways. We closed our eyes and thought about how we would describe hope to a friend and discovered it was difficult to explain our thinking! Then we read "Hope" by Langston Hughes and noticed how he compared hope to things in our everyday lives to show us what he was thinking. We also read "Harlem." We discussed the difference between metaphors and similes. Do you remember what the difference is? Hint: Similes use specific words that metaphors do not!
POETS USE WHITE SPACE.
POETS USE ONLY THE MOST IMPORTANT WORDS.
We read the poem "Ocean Wave" by Constance Levy written as a long paragraph and using complete sentences. Then we read the poem written with white space and only using the most important words. Why do you think that poets use white space and incomplete sentences when they write?
POETS WRITE FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
We read the first and last stanza of Wallace Steven's "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." You noticed that Stevens writes about the same thing (a blackbird) from many different perspectives using the tools we have learned about as poets. You also noticed that the stanzas look similar to haikus. Many people do think that Wallace Stevens was inspired by the Japanese haiku poetry.