OMG! So Much to Do! Poetry Unit End Looming!

You should work today in the lab to complete modules 0 & 1 of the poetry unit. Please use this time in the lab to complete your work. Many of you are very far behind. These modules are DUE by end of next class!

Additionally, save any of your poetry and print out copies for your portfolio.

HOMEWORK/CLASSWORK: We have a little more to cover in regards to poetry and the poetry unit. Please read the chapter by Mary Oliver on SOUND and SOUND DEVICES. As you read, note and be able to define the following key techniques of sound in poetry:

• vowels, consonants, semivowels, mutes, etc.
• Onomatopoeia
• The analysis of Robert Frost's poem
• Alliteration
• Assonance

I am pushing the unit test on poetry off a week so that we can complete the unit. Some of you may need to complete homework to get caught up with the rest of the class. Complete modules 0 and 1 by Friday.

Complete your reading of your poetry collection(s). 

eLearning: Module 1 Due Next Week

Module 1 is due next week. Please use this time in the lab to complete your work. Next class we will have a pre-assessment test for CW. 

During the last 1/2 of period 8, please select your new poetry book. The goal of reading all these poets and books is so that you have a variety of contemporary poets' work to use as models for your own understanding and crafting of poetry. 

As you read the poems in your new selection, consider and examine how the poet is using: line breaks, patterns/meter, syllables, tone, diction, voice, and so forth to create an effective poem. Notice style and themes. 

HOMEWORK: Read your poetry books. Read your poetry chapter assignments. Complete module 1.

Tone, Mood; eLearning & poetry collection activity

Please get into groups of 1-2. Take the first 15-20 minutes of this class to read and complete the handout on TONE & MOOD and An Introduction to Stress & Meter. Turn in your papers at the end of 15-20 minutes.

When you have completed your TONE/MOOD and Stress & Meter exercise, please select one poem from your poetry collection and read it quietly to your partner. If you have no partner, join another group for this part of the assignment today. 

After sharing discuss the poem by identifying the tone, mood, whether it is written in meter or is a free verse poem, and what the theme of the poem might be.

Then move to your own seat and read and complete the analysis of diction, tone, mood, and meter. Hand this sheet in by the end of class today. 

If you finish these assignments before period 8, please continue to work on your eLearning modules. During period 8, continue your eLearning assignments.

HOMEWORK: Continue to read your chosen poetry collection.

ELearning; Diction, Tone, Voice

Today, please select a new poet's work to read and work with. In the lab, please complete the following tasks:

1. Continue working on the eLearning module 1. If you haven't started this module yet, you are falling far behind. Please use the time in the lab to get caught up.
2. Read your poet's collection of poems.
3. Type up poems you have written in your journal. As you type up poems, consider the FORM and STRUCTURE of your lines (consider meter, rhythm, length of line, use of patterns or type of poem like lyric, narrative poems, or prose poem) as well as the diction, tone, and voice of your work. Avoid inversion and informational language. Check your own grammar and syntax.

Poetry Vocabulary: PLEASE STUDY THESE TERMS!

Diction: word choice. Select words in your poem carefully to carry the most meaning. All words have a denotative meaning and a connotative meaning. Understatement, euphemism, and other rhetorical strategies may be used to affect a poem's diction. Speaking to your elderly grandparents uses a different diction than speaking to your "homies".

Voice: The agent or "speaker" speaking through the poem. Also called the "persona".

Tone: Often the attitude of your speaker or the voice. Identified in a poem by diction.

• Tone can be formal or informal depending on the diction a poet uses.
• Tone can be ironic, sarcastic, serious, pedantic, or hyperbolic depending on the voice a poet selects.
• Tone can be positive or negative or neutral. Selecting one of these tones can or should affect your diction.

Metrical Feet: Two classifications of poetry: open forms; closed forms.

A closed form (traditional poetry), cadence groups form a pattern.
An open form (free verse, mainly), cadence groups do not form a set pattern.
Poetry in open forms tends to stress meaning over versification.

Syllables: individual units of rhythm in a word or line.
Stress: this class. Also, the emphasis placed on a syllable in a word.
Unstressed: lighter stress, not so heavy as the stress above.

Metrical feet:

1-foot = monometer
2-foot = dimeter
3-foot = trimeter
4-foot = tetrameter
5-foot = pentameter (the meter used in sonnets and blank verse lines; very common)
6-foot = hexameter
7-foot = heptameter
8-foot = octameter
9-foot = nonameter
10-foot = decameter

2 Syllable Feet:

Iambic: stress is on the second of two syllable words: ex. reTURN, beCAUSE, atTACK, etc.

Trochee: reverse of the Iambic, stress is on the first of two syllables: MOTHer, SISter, BORing.

Spondee: Both syllables are stressed.

3 Syllable Feet:

Anapest: stress is on the last syllable of a three syllabled word. Ex. Chevro-LET, rockandROLL

Dactyl: stress on first syllable followed by two non stressed. Ex. BU-da-pest, FOR-tu-nate

Caesura: (plural: caesurae) a pause separating cadence groups (however brief) within a line. If the pause is a result of the end of a line pause, then this is end-stopping.

Enjambement (enjambment): If a line has no punctuation at the end and runs over to the next line, it is called run-on or better yet, enjambement (enjambment).

HOMEWORK: Read your chosen poet's chapbook. Bring your book to next class to work with it. 

Poet Report; eLearning Module 1

This afternoon, please take 5 minutes to gather your notes from last class and prepare the following:

• A brief biography of your chosen poet
• Identify the poem you will be reciting/reading to the class from your chosen collection
• Print out or prepare a copy of your original poem draft

While you are preparing, I will assign you a color and a number group. After 5 minutes of prep time, please go next door to a238 and sit in your assigned grouping.

Example: Robert Bly: Best known for his book Iron John, Robert Bly lives in Minneapolis, MN, and grew up in the countryside. His poetry often includes images of nature. He is a poet laureate of the United States and has won many awards for his poetry. His most recent collection of poetry is "Talking into the Ear of a Donkey" published in 2011. He is now 86 years old. "After Long Busyness" was taken from the collection: Silence in the Snowy Fields.

After Long Busyness

I start out for a walk at last after weeks at the desk. 

Moon gone, plowing underfoot, no stars; not a trace of light!

Suppose a horse were galloping towards me in this open field?

Every day I did not spend in solitude was wasted.

In timed intervals, share your poet's biography, read aloud a sample poem, and share your own poem with your group. When the bell rings, two members of the group will move on to the next station and repeat the process. During the lesson, please listen for further instructions.

After the exercise today, please return to the lab to complete the following:

1. Continue your assignments on eLearning. 

2. Complete your reading of your poet's book. 

3. Write or type up poem drafts you have left in your notebook.

HOMEWORK: Read the article by Mary Oliver on "Diction, Tone, and Voice." Take notes on key important vocabulary and techniques in the chapter including: diction, tone, persona, negative capability, the lyric poem, narrative poetry, long poems, prose poems, poetic diction, cliche, inversion, informal language, syntax, and effective writing.

Poetry Report: Poets A-E

This afternoon, please go to the library and choose a book (or collection of books) by one of the appropriate poets.

Read one collection (or section/unit) for your chosen author. We will be going outside to read and write, as we have done in the past few classes.

• Outside, please stay away from each other. 
• Shut up. (Please be quiet!)
• Read.
• When you are tired of reading: write.

When we are INSIDE in the LAB: please research your chosen poet.

HOMEWORK/Classwork: Please complete the poetry book you selected; complete your research of your poet and be able to do the following next class:

1. Provide a background on that poet: who are they, what did they write, what awards or publications have they accomplished, etc.?
2. Select one poem to read ALOUD in class. Prepare and rehearse your reading so you don't bore us. Look up words you don't know, etc.
3. Write a poem draft IN THE STYLE of YOUR CHOSEN POET. This will be due next class.

A Note About Lines

In poetry, we don't just break a line wherever we want to, unless we are only writing free verse. Free verse allows us to write in any pattern or structure we would like, but we should know enough to make informed choices about the length of our lines.

Short lines, for example, can make a poem go faster.
Long lines, on the other hand, slow down a poem.

Thus, I can control the speed at which a reader reads my work by adjusting the length of a line.

Sometimes we want to break our poem into stanzas or create a rhythm for our poem (just like in music). Creating patterns based on syllables (beats), a poet can make their poem more musical, allowing it to flow better.

Information about Rhythm, Meter, and Scansion can be found here. And another one, just in case you need more explanation: Meter in Poetry and Verse. Read the chapter by Mary Oliver on "The Line", "Some Given Forms", and "Verse that is Free".

HOMEWORK: Read and save your iamb, trochee, spondee, dactyl, anapest example sheets.