POETRY

1. POETRY

2. Poetry…is truth in its Sunday clothes. "A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it.A good poem helps to change the shape of the universe, helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him."-- Dylan Thomas

3. What does a poet look like?

4. A poet can look like anyone • A poet is just somebody who feels and expresses their feelings through words. • The life you are living is as meaningful to you as any famous poet’s life. • You’re a poet even though you didn’t know it

5. So why is this poem so famous? The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.

6. ...and this one? Hold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly. Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a barren fieldFrozen with snow.

7. The keys are: • A poet uses beautiful, colourful language to make the subject of the poem come alive to the reader. • A poet is thrifty with words and chooses them carefully • Poetry is… word painting • Poets create images in your mind’s eye

8. How do poets create images? • Poets uses literary forms also known as figures of speech or figurative language. • They are also found in the stories you read…you’ve probably just never noticed them before.

9. Figurative Language • Usually uses a comparison or an exaggeration to make a point. • For example: He is as sharp as a tack.

10. Literal Language • Means exactly what it says • He is as sharp as a tack would mean he has a very pointed head.

11. Figurative or literal language? • The airliner roared down the main runway. • The airliner took off from the main runway. • The crowd of students melted away from the principal. • The crowd of students dispersed when the principal came.

12. Figurative or literal language? • The yellow and brown leaves announced the arrival of fall. • The leaves turned yellow and brown at the beginning of fall. • The driving wind punished the plants. • The driving wind damaged the plants.

13. Your first literary weapon, the simile • Often when you’re trying to describe something it helps to compare it with something else • When you compare two things using the words LIKE or AS you are using a simile • Ex. She sings like a canary

14. Watch out!!!!!! For…the cliché • Some similes have been used so frequently they have become clichés • As red as a _______ • As green as the ______ • As quiet as a ________ • As brittle as _______

15. Some of my favourite similes: • A heart as cold as coal • The cold stabbed like a driven nail • Her face looked awful like a rained on waffle • The frog had feet like water lilies • As black as a Halloween night • Like coins between a dying miser's fingers.

16. Try it out • As sharp as… • As talkative as… • He has eyes like… • The ballerina dances like • As green as… • As white as…

17. Choose one and create your own example • Fog is as thick as… • I am as hungry as… • Mountains are like… • Skyscrapers are like… • The machine was as quick as… • Lions roar like…

18. And now, the simile’s big brother, the metaphor A winter's dayIn a deep and dark December;I am alone,Gazing from my window to the streets belowOn a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.I am a rock,I am an island.

19. The metaphor • A metaphor is a literary device that compares two unlike items but does not use like or as to compare them. • It is often a direct statement: “I am a rock” “Happiness is a warm bed” “The moon is the North Wind’s cookie” • Original metaphors can make language vivid and give us new insights. • “The desert is the devil’s furnace” • “The bullfrog’s croak was the tuba of the swamp band” (I never thought of the swamp in that way before).

20. Remember this poem? Hold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly. Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a barren fieldFrozen with snow

21. What is life being compared to in the first stanza? • In the second stanza? • How does this create a vivid image?

22. Remember this poem? The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.

23. What is the fog being compared to? • Why is the fog compared to it? What do they have in common? What do you know about fog?

24. Beware!! Metaphors can be clichés too. • He’s the backbone of our hockey team. • He’s a ______ in the grass • This place is a _____! • She’s a big fish in a small ______

25. Can you tell the difference? Metaphor or simile? • Your education is your ticket to the future. • The clouds were like puffs of cotton, floating in the summer sky. • Like a pendulum of a grandfather clock, the conductor’s arms swung in time to the music. • The road stretched ahead like silver ribbon in the moonlight • The old diary was a window to the past.

26. Mission Possible: • Use the poetry duotangs and poems within it to hunt for examples of similes and metaphors • Write the similes you find on one side of the page and the metaphors on the other • Pick one favourite simile and one metaphor and be prepared to explain why you chose it • If you don’t find any before the end of class your teacher will… EXPLODE!!!!!

27. End of lesson 1 Poetry sorting activity Cut and sort the lines into 4 piles: Simile, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole

28. Now that you are armed with two literary weapons, let’s see what other literary weapons poets have in their arsenal

29. Lesson 2

30. Personification • Personification is a literary device that gives human qualities such as emotions, intelligence, or personality to animals or objects.

31. There are two ways to create it: • You can give a human condition to a non-human object (the flowers danced in the wind) • Or you can compare parts of the non-human object to parts of the human body (the hands of the tree waved to each passerby)

32. Examples: Proud Words Look out how you use proud words. When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back. They wear long boots, hard boots, they walk off proud; they can’t hear you calling – Look out how you use proud words.

33. The Musical Lion Said the Lion, “On music I dote But something is wrong with my throat. When I practice a scale, The listeners quail, And flee at the very first note!”

34. Can you think of any stories that use personification? • Charlotte’s Web

35. Think of four objects or living things from nature and combine with a human action • The rock bounded down the mountain • The spring birds chattered • The desk swallowed the papers Combined with a simile: • …like a deer through the forest • …like ladies at a tea party • …like a fireman at a smorgasbord

36. Think of two things that can have human body parts substituted for their own. For example: • The face of Big Ben watches over the city of London • A tree • A daffodil • A stapler • A car

37. Alliteration • Alliteration is the repetition of sounds • Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds • Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds • For example: One by one the large leaves fell from the mighty maple tree

38. What sound is being repeated in each of these lines? • Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark innyard. • He clasps the crag with crooked hands • The snake slithered silently to the stream • The willows were whispering in the wind

39. Onomatopoeia • Screech • Crash • Burp

40. Onomatopoeia • Is a literary form in which words sound like their meaning. • When you want to use a word to imitate a sound, you use onomatopoeia. • Examples; snap, hiss, bang, clash, boom, thud, buzz, click, quack, and sizzle.

41. Classroom I hear the screech of chalk on the board. the grinding of a pencil in the sharpener. the tapping of fingers on the desk. the push of students taking a test.

42. Other examples: • Clang battleaxe, and clash brand! Let the king reign. • Rough wind, that moanest loud…

43. Hyperbole • A literary device that gives force or intensity to what we write. • An exaggeration. • Examples: I’m as hungry as a horse • There were a million people ahead of me in line • She’s older than the hills • I’m so big, sometimes I even scare myself

44. Yarns They have yarns Of a skyscraper so tall They had to put hinges On the two top stories So to let the moon go by.

45. The Ostrich Is a Silly Bird The ostrich is a silly bird, With scarcely any mind. He often runs so very fast, He leaves himself behind. And when he gets there has to stand, And hang about till night, Without a blessed thing to do Until he comes in sight.

46. Mission Possible: • Use the poetry duotangs and poems within it to hunt for examples of personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and hyperbole. • Write the examples you find on a separate page for each category • Pick one favourite from each category and be prepared to explain why you chose it • If you don’t find any before the end of class your teacher will… EXPLODE!!!!!

47. Poetry Mindmap Assignment • Use the examples of literary devices to create a mindmap • Remember to colour code it • It should be a collection of your favourite poetic language • See sample