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Poetry Slam - Mrs.

Richards 7th Grade ELA


OBSERVATIONS ABOUT POETRY
A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom. Robert Frost
the best words in the best order. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Poetry is the most direct and simple means of expressing oneself in word.
Northrup Frye
Poetry is the universal language William Hazlitt
Poetry is like making a joke. If you get one word wrong at the end of a joke,
you've lost the whole thing. William Stanley Merwin
Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry. Gustave Flaubert
Poetry is above all a concentration of the power of language, which is the power of
our ultimate relationship to everything in the universe. Adrienne Rich
Poetry is the doorway to the soul. Floria
Poetry is the silent voice that is heard everywhere inside of us Unknown
Words written in verse may speak volumes when those spoken do not. Caressia
Combs
Poetry is either something that lives like fire inside youlike music to the
musician or Marxism to the Communistor else it is nothing F. Scott Fitzgerald
Poetryisa speaking picture, with this end: to teach and delight. Sir Philip
Sydney
If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I
know it is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I
know this is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?
Emily Dickinson
Poetry is important. No less than science, it seeks a hold upon reality, and the
closeness of its approach is the test of its success. Babette Deutsch
Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the
measure can be acquired by art. Thomas Hardy

Poetry Slam - Mrs. Richards 7th Grade ELA

Line
#1. I am
#2. Three nouns about which you have strong feelings. Begin
each with a capital letter.
#3. A complete sentence about two things that you like.
#4. Three nouns that describe what you like to see in other
people; end with "are important to me."
Capitalize each noun.
#5. A sentence containing a positive thought or feeling. It can
tell what you find acceptable in yourself.
#6.-#7. Sentence in which you show something negative in
yourself or others, however the sentence must end by showing
that out of something BAD can come GOOD. Use the word "but"
to link the bad and good.
#8.-#9.-#10. Each line is a short sentence relating something
about which you have strong feelings--likes or dislikes. They do
not have to relate to each other or to the previous lines you have
written.
#11. End with "This is me" or "I am."
Student Examples:
I am
Life, Hope, Living
I care very much about the world and life on it.
Honesty is important to me.
Optimism is important to me.
Unselfishness is important to me.
Hospitality is a good thing.
Meanness is bad, but can be goot to get people
off your back.
The world is getting weaker.
The longer the days the more beautiful they are.
People are too negative.
I am.
--Liz Webster (Grade 9)

Poetry Slam - Mrs. Richards 7th Grade ELA

Do not go gentle into that good night


Dylan Thomas, 1914 - 1953

Do not go gentle into that good night,


Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,


Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright


Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,


And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight


Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Poetry Slam - Mrs. Richards 7th Grade ELA


I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.


I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed-I, too, am America.
Directions: Analyze the poem to understand the reason why we have
poetry; answer the following questions.
1. Where and when does the poem take place?
2. What happens in the poem?
3. Describe the narrator in the poem.
4. What is the message (theme) of the poem?

Poetic Device

Definition

Examples

Poetry Slam - Mrs. Richards 7th Grade ELA

Poetry Slam - Mrs. Richards 7th Grade ELA

Cadence
The Raven
BY EDGAR ALLAN POE

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,


Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
Tis some visitor, I muttered, tapping at my chamber door
Only this and nothing more.

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;


And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrowsorrow for the lost Lenore
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore
Nameless here for evermore.

Poetry Slam - Mrs. Richards 7th Grade ELA

Similes
A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

Metaphors
Mother to Son
BY LANGSTON HUGHES
Well, son, Ill tell you:
Life for me aint been no crystal stair.
Its had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor
Bare.
But all the time
Ise been a-climbin on,
And reachin landins,
And turnin corners,
And sometimes goin in the dark
Where there aint been no light.
So boy, dont you turn back.
Dont you set down on the steps
Cause you finds its kinder hard.
Dont you fall now
For Ise still goin, honey,
Ise still climbin,
And life for me aint been no crystal stair.

DIRECTIONS:

Poetry Slam - Mrs. Richards 7th Grade ELA

1. Choose a month -- or a season -- and picture how it would


arrive if it were a person OR an animal.
The list of MOTION WORDS below may help you, or you may use
another word to show how the month or season arrives.
2. Add a few words to make the picture seem more complete.
Tell how OR where it arrives. Use adverb or prepositional
phrases. If you wish, use a THESAURUS to find synonyms to
replace overworked words.
3. Tell something else the month or season does while it is here.
4. Tell how the month or season leaves.
NOTE: be sure you keep the same comparison (metaphor)
throughout the poem. Don't change to a different picture.
MOTION WORDS
march wobble
stagge sneak
r
zoom
skip
tramp
prance dance
float
shuffl
tiptoe
e
gallop scurry
hop
spring
limp
glide
hobble flutter
canter lurch

creep
stumbl
e
trot
totter
strut
skate
slide
leap
slink
skulk
crawl

Student Examples:

steal
bound
bounce
dart
lope
trudge
plod
advanc
e
drag
slip
saunte
r

JULY trudges
right in
with a bang.
It crawls around
on the hot ground,
leaps around
spreading warmth,

Poetry Slam - Mrs. Richards 7th Grade ELA

then glides right


out of the way.
---Tierra Jones (Grade 10)
SEPTEMBER
creeps in quietly
and unnoticed.
It just sits there
waiting,
watching for something
to happen.
Then, just a quickly
as before,
it creeps back out.
---Elia Miller (Grade 9)
NOVEMBER
slides in
on clouds of snow
and rain.
It blows away
the warmth,
and sneaks in
the cold,
then drags away.
---Liz Webster (Grade 9)

Alliteration
The Bicycle
In the babbling I broke my bike
In the deep end directly near the dyke
Biking is fun, you feel so free
Just dont sit on your cycle when you swim or ski

Poetry Slam - Mrs. Richards 7th Grade ELA

Personification
Violin
She sleeps in her rose wood bed,
under a blanket of velvet red;
old and alone and forgotten,
she dreams of the love she once had.
Once again she recalls his caress
on the curve of her hips
and her breast
as he moved his bow
on the strings of her soul,
playing her sound
'til his passion was spent.
~~~
They traveled the whole world over,
to every city and town;
the maestro, his bow and violin,
bringing each curtain down.
~~~
He died in a cry of sweet refrain,
clutching her strings to his heart;
as he fell to the floor in a final encore,
tearing her world apart.
~~~
So she sleeps in her rose wood bed,
under a blanket of velvet red;
her strings still filled
with the song of her soul,
etched by the maestro
that loved her
so long ago!
~~~~~
Author: Elaine George

Poetry Slam - Mrs. Richards 7th Grade ELA

The Classics - STAR 2 YOU WANT TO RESEARCH


Famous poet

Titles of poems I
enjoy and why

Poetic Devices
used

Poetry Slam - Mrs. Richards 7th Grade ELA

Writing and Revision - the rest of the unit will be in


your notebook

Choose your topic take your time, look for


inspiration. What do you see that encompasses
many of your poems? What is your story?
Look at examples of your favorite poets, writers,
and other research and imitate their style: not copy
their words
I will model this first.

I recently read a blog post by this teacher


named Chase and it inspired me. What students really
need to hear

One of my favorite poets is Walt Whitman,


who wrote, I am as bad as the worst, but thank God, I
am as good as the best.

I will imitate these examples and style, while


creating my own poem

Your first draft should never be your last draft


Work with this piece of you in class, at home, on
the bus
Put it next to your bed and when you wake up at
night with a thought, add it to your poem
This is a piece of you to share with us
This is not EASY
This is WORTHY of your time and effort

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