How to Write Poetry: the Art and Craft of Writing

Explore how to write various types of poetry.

1. Welcome to creative writing Summer Sessions: Multi-Genre Workshops 8 Weeks Week 4: Poetry Miss Sarah 2024

2. 8-Week Workshop: Week 4: Poetry

3. Today’s Agenda What is Poetry? Today, we will focus on the craft and the process How to Analyze Poetry Examples of Award-Winning Poetry

4. ASSIGNMENT: Write a poem this week that mirrors SONG OF MYSELF by Whitman. LITERAL meaning (surface) and then inferred FIGURATIVE MEANING Write about 1 aspect of the HUMAN CONDITION (celebrating yourself) that all people can relate to but one that YOU have some authority over (from personal experience) Use at least 1 internal rhyme and 1 end rhyme WRITE in VERSE, line form PRODUCE a SINGULAR emotion (any emotion you want) joyful, hopeful (celebratory) Use at least 5 figurative language devices (metaphor, simile, etc.) Produce SENSORY IMAGES throughout

5. ALL poetry has these two aspects:

6. All poetry has

7. Let’s try to produce a SINGULAR EMOTION

8. Let’s tap into…

9. WHAT IS the HUMAN CONDITION? The human condition is a complex term that refers to the unique characteristics, events, and situations that make up the human experience. It can include both positive and negative aspects of life, such as birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, morality, conflict, and death. The human condition can also include experiences like becoming attached to people, falling in love, experiencing loss, feeling lonely, and being flawed.

10. Poetry can help people understand and empathize with the human condition in many ways: Expressing feelings Poetry can be a way for people to express themselves and their feelings, especially if they have difficulty sharing them directly. Poetry's metaphors can make this easier, and it can also help people with neurological issues feel less alone. Exploring themes Poetry can explore universal themes and aspects of the human experience through the arrangement of carefully chosen words. For example, poems about life and death can help readers appreciate the people and things in their lives, and remind them that they are not so different from others.

11. Creating connection Poetry can help people feel connected and empathetic with others by sharing complex human experiences. It can also lead people away from hate and violence, and towards love, mercy, and pity. Intensifying emotions Poetry's rhyme and rhythm can intensify emotional responses, such as joy or sadness. One study found that reciting poetry can cause people to feel intense emotions and chills.

12. What is Poetry?

13. Poetry is an intimate act.

14. Writing & Knowing We’re told ALL THE TIME to write about what we know. But what if we think our lives our dull or too ordinary? That we don’t have lives worthy of poetry. What are the greatest poems about? –death, desire, the nature of existence They ask: who are we? Why are we here? We find it hard to believe that these BIG subjects can be explored in the ORDINARY of life like a poem about our best friend or about washing the wishes.

15. Walt Whitman wrote about everyday things like the stars, a live oak, a field

16. Look off your own shoulders Think about what you know We rarely start out poetry to write about death or desire But look OUTWARD first: at the blue bowl, those shoes, the three white clouds OR INWARD: I remember, I imagine, I wish, I wonder, I want

17. Trick is (for subject matter) To discover what we know, we must challenge it, own it, and then give it away in Language: I love my brother, I hate winter, and I always lose my keys. You have to know and DESCRIBE your brother so well he becomes everyone’s brother, to evoke the hatred of winter so passionately that we all begin to feel the chill, to lose your keys so memorably we begin to connect that action to all our losses, to our desires, to our fears of death. Good writing works from a simple premise: YOUR EXPERIENCES ARE NOT YOURS ALONE but, in some sense, a metaphor for everyone else’s.

18. Transform your Raw Material Our worlds will not be important to other people unless it reaches BEYOND the self-involvement of that person standing at the window so that what we know becomes shared knowledge, part of who we are as individuals, a culture, a species. What do we all know? What can we all write about? What is the shared human experience? VIDEO from Jason Silva – human condition

19. Pithy Ideas for Finding Subjects Make a list of the most memorable events in your life- some are large, or some are small but important in some way. When done, start a poem about one of the events, and every so often, go back to the list and pick another one. List the objects in your room – write a poem describing them and telling a little of their – and your- history What do you do every day? Shower, jog, cook? In a poem, try to express the particular way you perform this activity that might be different from someone else's. What do you love? What do you hate? List them in two columns. Now, write a poem that combines something you love with something you hate.

20. Activity: 1. Think of an object or thing you’d like to write about. It can be a thing, a toy, an object, a food, 2. Use your imagination. Write it down in the diamond in the middle. 3. Then, fill in each one of the squares around the diamond.

21. Let’s go deeper…what is a poem again? I like this definition.

22. STYLE What is important about the style of the poem? Style refers to the way a writer chooses suitable and effective language (diction) to produce a particular effect. Poets choose their words with precision and carefully place them so that they will have maximum effect. Some ways of recognizing important elements of style:  Diction: Look for the particular choices of words and phrases that the poet seems to have made to add to the overall effect of the poem; this must be something to do with the way they look, sound or with their actual meaning. Look at the specific words a poet has used and ask yourself:

23. Words!

24. Look at all of the pieces together to find theme!

25. What is an image? An image is a visual picture An image in poetry is language that calls up a physical sensation, appealing to us at the level of any of our five senses. Images can be literal: the red kitchen chair in a dim corner of the room; the gritty wet sand in our toes. OR it can be figurative, departing from the actual and stating or implying a comparison, the chair, red and shiny as fingernail polish; the armies of sand grains advancing across the wood floor of the beach house. What an image should do? Produce a bit of magic, a reality so real it is like being alive twice.

26. We all have our favorite sense. What is yours? Poets need to keep all five senses on continual alert, ready to translate the world through their bodies, to reinvent it in language. Images are a kind of energy, moving from outside to inside and back, over and over, a continual exchange. You take a walk outside after the first snowfall, fill your eyes with the dazzling surfaces of the fields, and your lungs with the sharp, pure air.

27. The Poet’s Craft

28. METAPHOR A direct comparison of two unlike things “All the world’s a stage, and we are merely players.” - William Shakespeare

29. EXTENDED METAPHOR A metaphor that goes several lines or possible the entire length of a work.

30. IMPLIED METAPHOR The comparison is hinted at but not clearly stated. “The poison sacs of the town began to manufacture venom, and the town swelled and puffed with the pressure of it.” The Pearl by John Steinbeck

31. PERSONIFICATION An animal given human-like qualities, or an object given life-like qualities. “ Ninki ” by Shirley Jackson “ Ninki was by this time irritated beyond belief by the general air of incompetence exhibited in the kitchen, and she went into the living room and got Shax , who is extraordinarily lazy and never catches his own chipmunks, but who is, at least, a cat, and preferable, Ninki saw clearly, to a man with a gun.

32. Other Poetic Devices

33. SYMBOLISM When a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself also represents, or stands for, something else. The use of a word or object that represents a deeper meaning than the words themselves. It can be a material object, or a written sign used to represent something invisible.

34. Allusion Allusion comes from the verb “allude,” which means “to refer to” An allusion is a reference to something famous. A tunnel walled and overlaid With dazzling crystal: we had read Of rare Aladdin’s wondrous cave, And to our own his name we gave. “Snowbound” John Greenleaf Whittier

35. Ideas for writing: What images obsess you? What do you think about when you are daydreaming? What kinds of images do you find yourself returning to or seeking out for comfort? What object, person, place, or picture could you look at for hours and not get bored? Look at one of your obsessions and describe it intimately. Do it in prose. Quickly, then contrast it with an image that you repress continually. That you really fight with. Describe that second image just as closely. Once you’ve done that, try joining the two images, mingle them, and see what happens. Describe a painting or photo as though the scene is really happening; animate it with movement, speech, or story.

36. We might describe a poem’s tone as irreverent, relaxed, sarcastic, solemn, jubilant, or desperate. Tone can be any emotion or state of mind; a single poem can include a combination of tones. In writing, we must approach tone with care, because it is often and easily misinterpreted.

37. In “ Elegy for a Gopher ,” Ellen Bass establishes a tone of reverence and regret for a creature the speaker must kill: “The pads of your paws scrabble as I drag you from the tunnel clamped to the shiny green trap, a baby, hell-bent on saving your twist of life, spun from the same cells as I am” The speaker describes the gopher as a baby, “spun / from the same cells,” implying a tenderness toward the gopher, and a feeling of commonality. “I hate that I can salvage nothing. I can’t skin and eat you, stuff or display your fur on the mantel. I won’t carve a needle from your bone. Bit of breath I bury under a stone.” In describing what she can’t do with the dead gopher, she cultivates a tone of regret and guilt. Example of Tone: Read the following poem, “ Elegy for a Gopher ,” by Ellen Bass. What tone does she establish?

38. Voice & Style When we listen to a person speaking, we hear a particular music unlike any other. The stamp of someone’s voice is as individual as a fingerprint; if we know someone well, we instantly recognize the tone, pitch, and resonance of that voice whenever we encounter it. In poetry, the term VOICE has been used to describe that sense of a unique presence on the page – an unmistakable something that becomes the mark of the writer, a way of saying things that is the writer’s own. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

39. Poetry Analysis This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

40. How to Analyze a Poem Observe the poem. Is it short or long? Does it have a picture? What stands out to you as you read it? Write out your thoughts on the poem as you navigate through it. Make connections to the title and poem. Text-to self, text-to-text, or text-to-world. What jumps out at you during the first read? Read it again. Going line by line, think about what the poet, speaker, or narrator of the poem is trying to communicate. Determine the main idea. Identify any poetic devices. Re-read as many times as you need in order to make sense of the poem.

41. Analyze the following poems:

42. What connections did you make to the title? How is the poem organized? Stanzas, lines, other? What is the tone of the poem? Cite evidence to support your response. List and explain what poetic devices you identified in the poem. What is the meaning of the poem? What does the poet want the reader to think about?

43. TWO TYPES OF RHYMES: Internal Rhymes: *assonance or consonance Sounds that exist inside words and inside one line of poetry Vowels sound Moon, spoon, croon = one line of poetry END RHYMES: WORDS that come at the end of lines RHYME SCHEME ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

44. YOUR ASSIGNMENT!

45. First let’s read!

46. Poetry Contests 2024

47. Let’s Take a look at Award Winning Poetry

48. 2023 Poetry Winner Observe the poem. Is it short or long? Does it have a picture? What stands out to you as you read it? Write out your thoughts on the poem as you navigate through it. Make connections to the title and poem. Text-to-self, text-to-text, or text-to-world. What jumps out at you during the first read? Read it again. Going line by line, think about what the poet, speaker, or narrator of the poem is trying to communicate. Determine the main idea. Identify any poetic devices. Re-read as many times as you need in order to make sense of the poem.

49. 2023 Poetry Winner Observe the poem. Is it short or long? Does it have a picture? What stands out to you as you read it? Write out your thoughts on the poem as you navigate through it. Make connections to the title and poem. Text-to-self, text-to-text, or text-to-world. What jumps out at you during the first read? Read it again. Going line by line, think about what the poet, speaker, or narrator of the poem is trying to communicate. Determine the main idea. Identify any poetic devices. Re-read as many times as you need in order to make sense of the poem.

50. Observe the poem. Is it short or long? Does it have a picture? What stands out to you as you read it? Write out your thoughts on the poem as you navigate through it. Make connections to the title and poem. Text-to-self, text-to-text, or text-to-world. What jumps out at you during the first read? Read it again. Going line by line, think about what the poet, speaker, or narrator of the poem is trying to communicate. Determine the main idea. Identify any poetic devices. Re-read as many times as you need in order to make sense of the poem.

51. 1 st Prize Winner

52. Analyze the Poem Observe the poem. Is it short or long? Does it have a picture? What stands out to you as you read it? Write out your thoughts on the poem as you navigate through it. Make connections to the title and poem. Text-to self, text-to-text, or text-to-world. What jumps out at you during the first read? Read it again. Going line by line, think about what the poet, speaker, or narrator of the poem is trying to communicate. Determine the main idea. Identify any poetic devices. Re-read as many times as you need in order to make sense of the poem.

53. Runner-up

54. Analyze the Poem Observe the poem. Is it short or long? Does it have a picture? What stands out to you as you read it? Write out your thoughts on the poem as you navigate through it. Make connections to the title and poem. Text-to self, text-to-text, or text-to-world. What jumps out at you during the first read? Read it again. Going line by line, think about what the poet, speaker, or narrator of the poem is trying to communicate. Determine the main idea. Identify any poetic devices. Re-read as many times as you need in order to make sense of the poem.

55. Analyze the Poem Observe the poem. Is it short or long? Does it have a picture? What stands out to you as you read it? Write out your thoughts on the poem as you navigate through it. Make connections to the title and poem. Text-to self, text-to-text, or text-to-world. What jumps out at you during the first read? Read it again. Going line by line, think about what the poet, speaker, or narrator of the poem is trying to communicate. Determine the main idea. Identify any poetic devices. Re-read as many times as you need in order to make sense of the poem.

56. Poem-a-Day: 365 Poems for Every Occasion , edited by Tamar Brazis 20th Century Pleasures , edited by Robert Hass The Best of the Best American Poetry , edited by Robert Pinsky READ POETRY! Here are some great recommendations.

57. Rubric

58. Important! WORKSHOP SERIES Follow the weekly instructions in each workshop session to write a review and submit it to a contest. Guidelines Provided on the Website

59. Any Questions?