Writing Good Poetry for High School.pptx

Concepts and Examples for writing poetry, a guide for young writers

1. Writing Good Poetry Jonell Segador Gregorio Fellow, San Agustin Writers Workshop Fellow, Peter Solis Nery Online Poem-a-thon Instructor III, Aklan State University

2. What is Poetry? It is an expression of a feeling, an insight, a discovery It has f o rm ; P a tt e r n s of s ou n d ; I m a g e r y; A n d f ig u r a t i v e la n g u a g e “it uses words to evoke high moments as well as simple joys of life”

3. A poem has particular form. Structure Word order Rhyme R hythm

4. Qualities of Poetry Precise diction Figurative language Subtlety Concentration of ideas Suggestiveness

5. The Red Wheelbarrow William Carlos Williams  - 1883-1963 so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens

6. Types of Poetry Narrative poems (ballads) Stanza forms (couplet, tercet , quatrain) Whole poems (sonnet, elegy, haiku)

7. The Span of Life Robert Frost The old dog barks backwards without getting up I can remember when he was a pup.

8. Old Pond Basho The old pond-- a frog jumps in, sound of water.

9. How do I love thee? BY  ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.  I love thee to the depth and breadth and height  My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight  For the ends of being and ideal grace.  I love thee to the level of every day’s  Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.  I love thee freely, as men strive for right;  I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.  I love thee with the passion put to use  In my old griefs , and with my childhood’s faith.  I love thee with a love I seemed to lose  With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,  Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,  I shall but love thee better after death.

10. Poem 40 The, bright, Centipede, Begins, his, stampede! O, celestial, Engine, from, What, celestial province! His, spiritual, might, Golding, the, night, -- His, spiritual, eyes, Foretelling, my, Size; His, spiritual, feel, Stamping, in, heat, The, radium, brain, To, spiritual, imagination. -- JOSE GARCIA VILLA (1908-1997)

11. LITERARY DEVICES Rhythm Rhyme Repetition Rhyme Scheme Alliteration Onomatopoeia Imagery

12. Imagery recreates reality, makes concrete the abstract Imagery is a picture in words It arouses the five senses Use of figurative language contributes to its subtle mode of expression Figures of speech should be as fresh and unique as possible

13. Controlling metaphor A  metaphor that is a dominating factor throughout an entire poem, often affecting the  diction   and flow of the poem.

14. When i first met poetry, it was raining outside room 103. i was young, and she was, too. she seemed different from the rest. i approached and noticed the phrases on her hair, blown to me by the flirty winds of august. there were rhymes on her nape that sang me folk songs when she let me lift aside her hair to give it a kiss.  the metaphors in her eyes were a new universe i wanted to breathe in. the similes in her lips were sweet to my mouth at the science garden.  the stanzas on her back arched when i began to lick the haikus on her breasts. there were lyrical lines on her hips like the outline of faraway hills, swaying gently as we walked in her landscapes,  hand in hand beneath a softened sky. commas separated her fingers to fit mine, colons and periods freckled her cheeks. i loved all of her.  every inch. and meter. i love all of her. still . -Sonny Tolentino

15. Pitch-dark I opened the window To throw out old clichès : empty words broken promises shattered dreams. There's not enough space for imagery in this room The newly-bought cabinet is full of metaphors, Similes are piled up neatly, one after the other. Outside, it's pitch-dark, only the crickets provide an interlude In this unfathomable darkness, I want to throw my heart, too.

16. Barely Breathing This poem is a heart in the throes of death; every word bleeds  for each line it toils to write, every rhythm is punctuated  with a sigh, the rhyme is lost and the meter is broken, and each stanza must, ultimately,  stop breathing  as it reaches the period.

17. Tension The  poem's tension  is the sum of all the  poetic  elements at play in the work: line breaks that create disjunction, or that reel it in, imagery, rhythm, subject matter, surprise, language.

18. The Golf Links Sarah Cleghorn The golf links lie so near the mill That almost every day  The laboring children can look out And see the men at play.

19. Compare this: Roses are red, Violets are blue, Sugar is sweet And so are you.

20. Surprise The work of  poetry  is to render things new. When we use language in ways that  surprise  we do just that. But what, exactly, is  surprise  and how

21. Distance You pressed my hand and whispered "I love you" in my ear. I hear the words fading in this damp room without curtains. I nodded, My mind is adrift in a sea of stars, my eyes gaze at the North Star . I yearn to hold his hands, not yours.

22. Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota James Wright Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,    Asleep on the black trunk, Blowing like a leaf in green shadow.    Down the ravine behind the empty house,    The cowbells follow one another    Into the distances of the afternoon.    To my right, In a field of sunlight between two pines,    The droppings of last year’s horses    Blaze up into golden stones. I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.    A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home. I have wasted my life.

23. Free verse Poet r y t h at doesn’t fol l ow any specific patter n s in rh y thm, r h yme scheme, or line lengt h ; f r ee verse may conta i n r h ymes, but they a r e not used in a p r escribed m anner

24. Being Blue in Switzerland – by Cirilo Bautista I walk along the shore of Lake Lucerne The sunlight glimmers on the water  and pigeons eat crumbs under the trees. The wind is cold, so I button my black jacket and tighten my woolen mufflers. Dew still clings to the red and yellow tulips. Lovers embrace on the wooden piers while slowly the boat from Gotthard sails into port. Two swans and a duck float near  the piers, seeking the bread a man has thrown into the water, there under the blue sky. I feel lonely by the shore of Lake Lucerne. I hold my head high and whistle a tune. 

25. What to avoid Archaic Language (ye, thyself, thee, methinks) Don’t force rhyme, focus on imagery Hodge- podge metaphors No title Bad grammar, cliché and trite language Very long poems Writing for yourself