Figurative Language, Conflict, Characterization. What do you already know? What are your own ideas...
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Romeo and Juliet Figurative Language, Conflict, Characterization
Figurative Language, Conflict, Characterization. What do you already know? What are your own ideas and assumptions about poetry? What are your favorite
What do you already know? What are your own ideas and
assumptions about poetry? What are your favorite poems or
poets?
Slide 3
Is poetry dead? You can tell that a medium is still vital by
posing the question: Can it change anything? Can a poem still
change anything? We know, we think, from high school, the sort of
thing a poem is. It is generally in free verse, although it could
be a sonnet, if it wanted. It describes something very carefully,
or it makes a sound we did not expect, and it has deep layers that
we need to analyze. We analyze it. We analyze the heck out of it.
How quaint, we think, that people express themselves in this way.
Then we put it back in the drawer and go about our lives.
Slide 4
All the prestige of poetry dates back to when it was the way
you got the most vital news there is your peoples stories. The
Iliad. The Odyssey. Gilgamesh. All literature used to be poetry.
But then fiction splintered off. Then the sort of tale you sung
could be recorded and the words did not have to spend any time
outside the company of their music if they did not want to. We have
movies now that are capable of presenting images to us with a
precision that would have made Ezra Pound keel over. All the things
that poetry used to do, other things do much better
Slide 5
And there is a similar hunger for poetry that persists. We get
it in diluted doses in song lyrics. Song lyrics are incomplete
poems, as Sondheim notes in the book of his own. If it is complete
on the page, it makes a shoddy lyric. But there is still wonderful
music to be found in those words. We get it in rap. If we really
want to read it, it is everywhere. Poetry, taken back to its roots,
is just the process of making and making you listen.
Slide 6
What is Poetry? Defined in the dictionary as; A Literary work
in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings
and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm. Defined by
Poets as; "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings- William
Wordsworth "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what
makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or
nothing.-Dylan Thomas
Slide 7
Defining Poetry Even though poetry can be defined it seems like
the characteristic most central to the definition of poetry is its
unwillingness to be defined, labeled, or nailed down. To use
figurative language, you could say that poetry is a paint
splattered canvas but instead of paint the poet uses words to
create an image.
Slide 8
What we think poetry is Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats
(Excerpt) O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede Of marble men
and maidens overwrought, With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought As doth eternity:
Cold Pastoral! When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt
remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom
thou say'st, 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,that is all Ye know on
earth, and all ye need to know. There is another sky by Emily
Dickinson There is another sky, Ever serene and fair, And there is
another sunshine, Though it be darkness there; Never mind faded
forests, Austin, Never mind silent fields - Here is a little
forest, Whose leaf is ever green; Here is a brighter garden, Where
not a frost has been; In its unfading flowers I hear the bright bee
hum: Prithee, my brother, Into my garden come!
Slide 9
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein There is a place
where the sidewalk ends And before the street begins, And there the
grass grows soft and white, And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight To cool in the
peppermint wind. Let us leave this place where the smoke blows
black And the dark street winds and bends. Past the pits where the
asphalt flowers grow We shall walk with a walk that is measured and
slow, And watch where the chalk-white arrows go To the place where
the sidewalk ends. Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and
slow, And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go, For the
children, they mark, and the children, they know The place where
the sidewalk ends.
Slide 10
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a
yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler,
long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent
in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And
having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted
wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really
about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step
had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet
knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come
back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages
hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less
traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Slide 11
We normally think of poetry as something that rhymes, is
traditional, and long, and it is that, but it is also much more.
Poetry can be short, long, serious, humorous, light or dark. It can
be what we think of when we imagine a poem or it could be
different.
Slide 12
What poetry can be Seeker Of Truth by E. E. Cummings seeker of
truth follow no path all paths lead where truth is here This is
Just to Say, William Carlos Williams I have eaten the plums that
were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast
Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold
Slide 13
Anis Mojgani- Shake the Dust
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qDtHdloK44 Spoken word poet Winner
of multiple poetry slam contests
Slide 14
Introduction to Poetry By Billy Collins I ask them to take a
poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear
against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him
probe his way out, or walk inside the poems room and feel the walls
for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a
poem waving at the authors name on the shore. But all they want to
do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession
out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it
really means.
Slide 15
Introduction to Poetry-Billy Collins Eating Poetry-Mark
Strand
Slide 16
Analyzing poetry Identify one key question you have about the
poem and one moment with a strong visual.
Slide 17
Poetry Defined? So, in reality, it is difficult to truly define
poetry because in defining it you take away the depth, beauty and
creativity that is poetry!
Slide 18
Our Generation A poem by 14 year old Jordan Nichols
Slide 19
Our Generation What comes to your mind when you see these
words? Are there certain words, ideas, actions, etc that are
closely related with what your generation is, could be or could
do?
Slide 20
Our Generation Adding to your first response; What do you think
after having heard this poem? Do you agree with the ideas from the
poem? Do you disagree?
Slide 21
When you finish your response, share what you though with the
person sitting next to you. What did you think
Slide 22
Our Generation Now take a look at the poem in a different way.
Read the poem from bottom to top. Now what is it saying? What do
you think? Do you agree now? Disagree? What do you think about how
this poem was put together? Were you surprised by how the poem
changed when viewed/read in a new way?
Slide 23
Is poetry dead? Still I think there is a question to be asked.
You can tell that a medium is still vital by posing the question:
Can it change anything? Can a poem still change anything? Poetry,
taken back to its roots, is just the process of making and making
you listen.
Slide 24
Figurative language Reminder Language used to help readers
visualize and experience what is occurring in a piece of writing
Theres a lot of examples in Romeo and Juliet
Slide 25
Imagery Imagery is a word or phrase that refers to a sensory
experience (sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste) that helps create
a physical experience for the reader and helps the reader
understand. Examples: I heard the shrill cry of the kittens screams
in contrast with the clanking of the ceramic mugs even before I
entered the kitchen. Their eyes were only squinting as they popped
their velvety-soft heads out of the hand-crafted mugs; the
silhouette of whiskers could be seen in contrast with the ivory
tint of the mugs.
Slide 26
Simile A comparison of two things that at first seem quite
different but are shown to have significant resemblance. Similes
employ connective words, usually like, as, than, or a verb such as
resembles. Examples: The panda cub slept like a newborn baby. The
panda cub resembled a half-eaten Oreo cookie.
Slide 27
Metaphor A statement that one thing is something else that, in
a literal sense, it is not. By asserting that a thing is something
else, a metaphor creates a close association that underscores an
important similarity between these two things. Example: The Mclaren
P1 is the cheetah of the car world. It is a monster that cannot be
stopped.
Slide 28
Personification Applying human-like qualities to non-human
beings/inanimate objects. The wind howled through the trees The
toys came alive when no one was around.
Slide 29
Sonnets Sonnet- little song Italian origin In a traditional
Shakespearean Sonnet: There are 14 lines. Contains three quatrains,
each with an independent pair of alternating rhymes, and a couplet
at the end. The poet introduces at least one volta (or a jump or
shift in direction of the emotions or thought), before the couplet
at the end.
Slide 30
Sonnet Form a b a b - End words of first quatrain in
alternating rhyme. c d c d - End words of second quatrain in
alternating rhyme. - Shift. e f e f - End words of third quatrain
in alternating rhyme. - Turn. g g - Final couplet.
Slide 31
Written in Iambic Pentameter The English sonnet is a form
consisting of 14 lines that follow iambic pentameter. Iambic
pentameter means that a line of verse consists of five sets of
syllable groups, with the first syllable unstressed and second
syllable stressed. Here is an example: ba Dum, ba Dum, ba Dum, ba
Dum, ba Dum. (stress on the syllable dum). The English sonnet
consists of three quatrains and a closing couplet. (A couplet is a
pair of lines that rhyme; a quatrain is four lines of verse with a
rhyme scheme of a b a b.)