PoetryUnit 9- Grade 7

Poetry Unit Objectives

• To develop skills of reading poetry.

• To recognize Literary Elements used in poetry.

• To increase vocabulary.

• To recognize specific poetry styles.

Reading Skills

• Identify the speaker.

• Using your senses while reading.

• Reading according to punctuation.

• Paraphrasing lines of a poem.

• Listen, as you read, to the rich patterns and sounds.

Literary Elements

• Alliteration

• Onomatopoeia

• Personification

• Rhyme

• Rhythm

• Stanza

• Imagery

• Verse

Poetry Styles

• Narrative Poetry

• Lyric Poetry

• Form

• Rhythm, Rhyme and Sound Devices

• Figurative Language

Sir Walter Scott

• 1771-1832/ Scotland

• Born into a wealthy family. Had a love for his country’s history while listening to elderly family members stories.

• Worked for his father briefly, but did not have much interest in being a lawyer.

• He traveled widely, collected antiques, and translated German poetry.

• In 1813, poetry no longer interested him and he began writing novels based on people and events in Scottish and English history. He created the classic, Ivanhoe.

Ballad

• A ballad is a song or songlike poem that tells a story, often dealing with adventure.

• Ballads usually have rhyming lines with strong, musical rhythm.

• They are usually divided into stanzas, or groups of four or six lines.

• Ballads usually have a refrain, which is a repeated line or set of lines. The refrain changes a little, each time it appears.

• “Lochinvar”, reflects his love for the Scottish ballad, or storytelling song.

Lyric

• In lyric poetry, nature is a common subject.

• Verse, lines that form a stanza in poetry, are express the poet’s personal thoughts and feelings.

• It was once sung to a stringed instrument called a lyre which gives the poetry its name.

• Lyric poetry sweeps you to the poet’s world with vivid, musical language.

• Most lyric poetry is filled with vivid imagery, which is created through the senses.

Meet the Authors

• James Stephens-1880-1950- grew up in Dublin. He read everything he could get his hands on. Washed in Silver captures the magical qualities of Irish legends.

• Sara Teasdale- 1884-1933- American lyric poet that led a sheltered childhood of carefully chosen schools and travel. She was successful quickly and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1918.

Authors

• Nikki Giovanni-1943- - Knoxville, TN/ Her poems share the major events in her life-working for civil rights, celebrating the birth of her son, and experiencing the joys of African American family life. In Winter, she writes about a universal subject: the changing of the season.

• William Butler Yeats-1865-1939- Dublin/ He was an Irish poet that was regarded as one of the finest poets the world has ever known. His poems offer evidence of his keen powers of observation, a talent sharpened by his study of painting. He received the Nobel Prize for poetry in 1923.

Authors

• William Jay Smith- (1918- ) He was born in Louisiana. He has led a busy life- teaching college students, writing poetry and essays, translating Russian and French poetry, and even serving in the Vermont State legislature for three years. His most successful writing has been his poetry for young people. “Seal” is an example of pure and simple fun.

• Robert Frost- (1875-1963) He was born in San Francisco but spent most of his life in New England. At different times, he worked as a farmer and as a part-time teacher. He was not well known as a writer until his first book of poetry. Then, almost overnight, he became famous for his poems about New England people and landscapes. Frost had a distinguished career as a poet, winning the Pulitzer Prize four times- more than any other poet. “The Pasture”

• Matsuo Basho- (1644-1694) He was born near Kyoto, Japan. In his three-line poems, he presents a scene in which a momentary feature stands out against an unchanging background. He evokes a whole landscape or an entire season by describing just a few details. “Three Haiku”

Sonnet

• From the Italian sonetto, which means “a little sound or song," the sonnet is a popular classical form that has compelled poets for centuries. Traditionally, the sonnet is a fourteen-line poem, which employs one of several rhyme schemes and adhere to a tightly structured thematic organization.

• Two sonnet forms provide the models from which all other sonnets are formed: the Petrachan and the Shakespearean.

Sonnet

• The second major type of sonnet, the Shakespearean, or English sonnet, follows a different set of rules. Here, three quatrains and a couplet follow this rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The couplet plays a pivotal role, usually arriving in the form of a conclusion, amplification, or even refutation of the previous three stanzas, often creating an epiphanic quality to the end.

Limerick

• A limerick is a silly poem with five lines.  They are often funny or nonsensical.  Limericks were made famous by Edward Lear, a famous author who wrote the "Book of Nonsense" in the 1800's.  This was an entire book of silly limericks.

Example

• STARby Kaitlyn Guenther

• There once was a wonderful starWho thought she would go very farUntil she fell down And looked like a clownShe knew she would never go far.

How to Write

• How to write a limerick:

• The first, second and fifth lines rhyme with each other and have the same number of syllables (typically 8 or 9).The third and fourth lines rhyme with each other and have the same number of syllables (typically 5 or 6)Limericks often start with the line "There once was a..." or "There was a..."

Form/Concrete Poem

• Poetry can take many different forms. Most traditional English poems are divided into stanzas.

• A concrete poem is one with a shape that suggests its subject. The poet arranges the letters and lines to create an image on the page.

• Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku always has 3 lines and 17 syllables.

Vocabulary-Unit 9 part 1

• Radiance- quality of shining brightly

• Strife- fighting; conflict

• Ecstasy- overpowering joy

• Burrow- to dig a tunnel or hole, especially for shelter

• Swerve –curving motion

• Utter- speak

• Pasture- in a field used by animals to graze

• Totters- rocks or shakes as if about to fall: is unsteady