© boardworks ltd 2003 1 of 17 writing poetry for more detailed instructions, see the getting...

© Boardworks Ltd 20031 of 17

Writing Poetry

For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation.

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Reading poetry

How much poetry do you read?

Do you enjoy writing poetry?

What kinds of poems do you find most interesting to read?

Who are your favourite poets? What is it about their writing you like so much?


Selling poetry

Poetry no longer sells the way it used to and poets are rarely very wealthy people.

Why do poets continue to write?


I’m sure that no one in his (or her) right mind writes poetry for money, fame or any

other such factitious return. When a Seamus Heaney or Czeslaw Milosz wins

the Nobel Prize, and the substantial purse and additional celebrity that go with it, these are individual achievements that constitute

exceptions, not the rule. My own experience of wanting to write poetry, an experience I’ve seen mirrored in the practice of other

poets I respect, is based entirely on love of the art.

Michael Hulse


Are there any issues or feelings which you

would wish to commit to writing?

Poets often write because they feel they have to – they have a burning desire to express a feeling or view or to describe an experience.

Occasionally, poets choose not to publish some of their work because it is too personal.

Writing poetry


There are several common and popular ways of constructing a poem so that it conforms to a particular form. Poets use form as a scaffolding for their words.

Common forms of poetry include:

Sonnet Haiku

Limerick

Ballad/Narrative

Free Verse

Forms of poetry

Elegy

Lyric


Narrative poetry

Narrative poems tell a story.

Narrative poems are often referred to as ballads.

Narrative poems are generally (although not always) serious in tone.

Narrative poems are often poems of greater length than other forms of poetry (although epic poems are longer).


Ballad


First Love – John Clare

I ne’er was struck before that hour With love so sudden and so sweet Her face it bloomed like a sweet flowerAnd stole my heart away complete.My face turned pale as deadly pale, My legs refused to walk away,And when she looked, what could I ail?My life and all seemed turned to clay…

In what ways does this poem conform to the ‘rules’ of narrative poetry?


Narrative poetry always tells a story. Could you tell a story through a poem?

Using one or more of the pictures below to prompt your imagination, write a narrative poem.

Narrative poetry


Lyric poems have a variety of rhyme and rhythms.

They don’t resemble one another in the same way that limericks and ballads do. Lyric poetry is a type of poetry that includes many different forms, such as the sonnet and elegy.

What makes them lyrics is the way they take some incident in the poet’s life and write about it in a way which shows the importance it had for the author.

It can refer to any short poem which has one speaker telling us about his or her feelings or thoughts. Sometimes the poet is speaking directly to us, but sometimes poets invent a speaker.

Lyric poetry


Lyric poetry


Elegy


Free verse

Free verse, also known as ‘open verse’, has no fixed form and therefore does not need to follow any particular rules.

Many modern poets choose free verse as it gives them freedom to experiment.

Often free verse avoids adopting a particular rhyme scheme or rhythm and the line lengths are irregular.


Medallion – Sylvia Plath

By the gate with star and moon

Worked into the peeled orange wood

The bronze snake lay in the sun

Inert as a shoelace; dead

But pliable still, his jaw

Unhinged and his grin crooked…

What are the benefits of writing in free verse?


Write a poem in free verse using one of the lines below as the first line of your poem.

1. Behind him the hotdogs split and drizzled…

2. Now this particular girl…

3. What a thrill -…

4. This is the city where men are mended…

4. What is this, behind this veil, is it ugly, is it beautiful?...

Free verse


Which poetic form did you most enjoy writing in? Why?

Writing poetry

Imagine that you have been commissioned by a publisher to write your own collection of 5 poems.

Use a variety of poetic forms in your collection, but most of all, write about subjects which you are interested in and which inspire you.

© boardworks ltd 2003 1 of 17 writing poetry for more detailed instructions, see the getting...

Documents

narrative poetry slide

selling poetry poetry

writing poetry

lyric poetry

type of poetry

reading poetry

rules of narrative poetry

common forms of poetry