Preparing for the Exam & the Portfolio

On Thursday we will be taking our unit exam in poetry and the writing process. You should be familiar with the following terms and concepts (taken from your class readings, notes, and from the blog posts).

Test review: the complete writing process, techniques to avoid writers block, theme, the four common themes in literature, persona, moral or message, line breaks, stanza forms, sound devices, diction, tone, voice, caesura, enjambment, cadence groups, onomatopoeia, assonance, alliteration, consonance, euphony, cacophony, rhyme, diction, texture, imagery, figurative language, metaphor, simile, personification, allusion, symbol, allegory, meter, iamb (iambic), trochee (trochaic), dactyl (dactylic), anapest (anapestic), spondee (spondaic), couplet, tercet or triplet, quatrain, sestet, octave, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, Terza Rima, Shakespearean sonnet form, free verse, prose.

Today, please prepare your portfolio by doing the following:

1. Check that you have all the assignments done. If not, please complete them. A full list of required assignments and drafts can be found below.
2. Your portfolio should have a short 3-5 paragraph reflection. Talk about what is working for you in this class, what is easy in poetry for you, what is difficult for you, what you have learned about poetry, what you are still confused about poetry, and discuss your own work: are you happy or dissatisfied with it and why?
3. Remove any assignments that are not the baseline piece or the poetry assignments (i.e., tests, homework and chapters should be removed)
4. Complete second (or third) drafts of any first drafts you have written, using the skills or techniques you have learned: for example:

Using stanzas (change your stanza form)
Using enjambment (change your line breaks to include enjambment)
Using a caesura (change your line breaks to include caesura)
Using meter (change your meter)
Using free verse (change your structure or form by removing meter or pattern)
Using ordinary subject matter (if your work is too vague or abstract, go back to the drawing board; subjects for contemporary poems generally use ordinary subject matter)
Using alliteration (revise your poem specifically to use alliteration)
Using assonance (revise your poem specifically to use assonance)
Using consonance (revise your poem specifically to use consonance)
Using cadence groups (consider the flow and wording of cadence groups and phrases)
Using onomatopoeia (consider the shape and sound of your poem to match tone)

Using diction (consider the specific words you use in a poem)
Using texture (consider your word choice or diction to reflect tone or mood)
Using persona (consider WHO your poem's speaker is)
Using theme (there are four major themes in literature: love, life, death, nature--life can be divided into a myriad of themes...from apathy to yearning)
Using voice (your voice is unique. Revise your poem and consider your use of voice)
Using imagery (revise to appeal to the senses: most likely visual, but also tactile, auditory and olfactory)
Using metaphor or simile (compare one thing to another; revising for this helps visual imagery)
Using allusion (revise by adding an allusion)
Using personification (revise by adding personification)
Using symbol, allegory, or figurative language (revise to suggest larger meanings outside of the obvious)

Remember to spell check and proofread your work. Poems should be punctuated correctly. Review your grammar rules!

What's been due? Here you go:

• The baseline piece (fiction or poetry, your choice and style)
• The baseline poem
• The revision of the baseline poem (we did three versions involving line and meter)
• The sound poem
• The 6-20 line poem
• The Diction/Tone/Voice poem (homework draft)
• Five ordinary poem drafts (5 first drafts on ordinary subjects)
• A Lucille Clifton Style poem draft

All draft assignments should be present in your portfolio. Portfolio work is graded on 1. content, 2. quality 3. creativity and 4. revisions. I want to see you using the poetry techniques we have covered so far in class.

HOMEWORK: Please study for your exam on poetry. Please read the selection of poems by Mary Oliver and answer the questions on your homework/study sheet to turn in Thursday.