What Is Prose?

Any piece of literature writtenin sentences and paragraphs.

What Is Poetry

Any piece of literature written in verse!

Prose : He awoke suddenly with the snap of a fist smashing against his face, crunching painfully the right cheekbone.

How is poetry similar to prose?

Poetry:

She stands

In the quiet darkness,

This troubled woman

Bowed by

Weariness and pain

Like an

Autumn flower...

• Expression of an idea or experience

• Creates images

• Uses figurative language

• Expression of feelings to be remembered forever

• Narrates an event

How is poetry similar to prose?

Prose : He awoke with the snap of a fist smashing against his face, crunching painfully his right cheekbone.

How is poetry different from prose?

Poetry:

She stands

In the quiet darkness,

This troubled woman

Bowed by

Weariness and pain

Like an

Autumn flower...

• Reader must use imagination

• Uses more complex sentence structures

• Written in lines

• Plays with rhyme

• Plays with rhythm

• Plays with sound

• Compresses thoughts/few, exact words

How is poetry different from prose?

Dictionary Definition:

A poem is a composition designedto convey a vivid and imaginative

sense of experience characterized bythe use of condensed language chosen

for its sound and suggestive poweras well as its meaning, and by the use

of such literary techniques asstructured meter, natural cadences,

rhyme, or metaphor.

A CHRISTMAS TREE

A x-mas treeGawky and odd-lookingTransformed in a few minutesInto a beautiful creation.Lights, tinsel, garland, ornaments.Sitting alone in a darken room, the tree sheds itPink, green, blue red, proudly...

Prose or Poetry? How do you know?

A CHRISTMAS TREEA pine tree,

Gawky and odd-looking,

Transformed in a few minutes

Into a beautiful creation

A Christmas tree.

Lights, tinsel, garland, ornaments.

Sitting alone in a darkened room, the tree sheds its

Pink, green, blue, red, sparkling light

so proudly...

What subject can a poem be about?

SUICIDE

His smoky blue eyes were transfixing

And the vitality he radiated

Could heat a room.

My Jason was magnetic--

He drew people to him.

He was very vulnerable, though--

Too sensitive to the pressures

And fears of the world…

One day he made the decision

To no longer go on living.

AN EVENT

Walking into the arena

lining up to make the run

bolting off to the first barrel

a sharp turn is made

now heading for the second

sand flying in every direction

then, anxiously approaching the third barrel

making a clean run

while crossing the finish line

with the winning time...

T-ball Memories

Batter up!

I approach the plate,

butterflies busily dancing in my stomach.

Ten dirt-streaked faces focus on me,

attempting to drone out the merry tunes

drumming from passing ice-cream trucks.

With scorching rays of sun beating on my back,

I swing at the dingy white ball towering on the tee.

Connecting with a deafening ring,

my bat sends the ball sailing past third base.

Running with all my heart, the soft dirt parting under my feet,

I finally pounce onto home plate.

My first homerun!

Shilo, it’s finally over,Yippee...

But Ashley, I want to learn more aboutpoetry, don’t you?

I hope she tells us morenext time!

To be continued, by

popular demand!

History of Poetry

Ancient form of literature

Thousands of years old

Chants, songs, prayers/psalms

Professional story-tellers

Ancient Greece/Rome

Troubadours/Rhapsodes

Epics

Rhythm/rhyme

Shakespearean Drama

Rhapsodes

William Shakespeare

Form

She stands

In the quiet darkness,

This troubled woman

Bowed by

Weariness and pain

Like an

Autumn flower

In the frozen rain...

The old woman stood in the quiet darkness. Her body was bowed by the weariness and pain she had to endure in her lifetime. This troubled woman stood there like an autumn flower in a frozen rain.

End-stop lines? Run-on lines?

Stanza?

Sound

The Optileast

Is a cheerful beast;

The least little thing

Makes his joy-bells sing

The Pessimost

Is given to boast

That there’s always room

For more and more gloom.

Alliteration?

Assonance?

Onomatopoeia?

• Not necessarily the writer:

Grandma sleeps with

my sick

grand-

pa so she

can get him...

Speaker: The VOICE Saying the lines

Who is the speaker?

Rhyme: Repetition of sounds at the ends of words

Hands/understands

Lane/explain

Night/upright

External Rhyme:

The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine hat,

Tucson and Deadwood and lost Mule Flat.

Internal Rhyme:

The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast.

couplet

Rhyme

Life has loveliness to sell,

All beautiful and splendid things,

Blue waves whitened on a cliff,

Soaring fire that sways and sings,

And children’s faces looking up

Holding wonder like a cup.

Internal/External Rhyme?

Rhyme Scheme?

Imagery Figurative Language?

Traditional or free verse?

Couplet?

Rhythm

Strange Optileast and Pessimost,

Neither is guest, neither is host.

They couldn’t be brothers, they couldn’t be wed,

Yet they’ll live together until they’re dead.

For however peculiar it may be,

They’re both alive, alive in me.

How does the writer use punctuation to emphasize the differences in the Optileast/Pessimost?

Poetic foot? Stressed/unstressed syllables?

Grandma sleeps with

my sick

grand-

pa so she

can get him

during the night

medicine

to stop

the pain

Traditional verse or free verse?

Speaker?

Mood?

Hey Shilo, This time

I think it’s really over,

Yippee...

I don’t think so, Ashley. There’s a whole lot

more to learn aboutpoetry. I-- can’t--wait!

To be continued...

Structure and Meaning

Poetry

I loved you, my friend.

subject verb object

My friend, thee how I love

subject verbobject

Understanding long sentences...use punctuation clues

Who knows if the moon’s

a balloon, coming out of a keen city

in the sky--filled with pretty people?

(and if you and i should

get into it, if they

should take me and take you into their balloon,

why then

we’d go up higher with all the pretty people

than houses and steeples and clouds:

Stanza 1

Stanza 2

Stanza 3

Imagery

• Appeals to the senses– sight: black on white/crow in snow– taste: caramel cream filling– touch: silky pajamas, smooth and sleek– sound: hooting of owls in silent wood– smell: sweet, pungent smoldering embers , two

hours old

Creating Images

WordPictures

StrongFeelings

Where fog trailsand mist creeps

The whistle calls and cries like some lost child in tears and trouble

Creates Feelings in the Reader

Desolate and lone

All night long on the lake

Where fog trails and mist creeps

WhatFeeling?

WhatImages?

A figure if speech ...

...is based on a comparison

...is not literally true

...makes connections between two very different things that share one common quality

She’s no spring chicken anymore.

The moon shines like a fifty-cent piece

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does is dry up like a raisin in the sun?

They were women then

My mama’s generation

How they battered down

Doors...

to discover books.