WHY DO

PEOPLE WRITE
POEMS?

Any other ideas?

Why would you
write a poem?
• What type of poems do you
prefer?
HOW POEMS ARE
MADE, A
DISCREDITED
VIEW
B Y A L I C E WA L K E R
• TITLE: How ...
discredited view-
doubted, rejected or not taken seriously. Walker
= ironic

Letting go • Letting go of WHAT? WHO?

In order to hold on • Hold on to WHAT?
I gradually understand
• WHAT do you understand?
How poems are made.
There is a place the fear must go. • WHERE is this place?
• To WHAT do the
There is a place the choice must go. words fear, choice and
loss refer?
There is a place the loss must go. • WHY must these
things/emotions go
there?
• The leftover love. • WHY is it left over?
• The love that spills out • WHAT do the words: too
• Of the too full cup full and spills out imply
• And runs and hides about this love?
• Its too full self • WHY does it hide in
shame?
• In shame.
• I gradually comprehend
• how poems are made.
• To the upbeat flight of
memories.
• The flagged beats of the running
• Is the speaker closer to an
understanding of how poems
are made?
• WHAT emotion does upbeat
imply?

• Heart. • Flagged= noticed/pointed out

• WHEN does the heart beat
faster? WHY?
• Should poems also contain the
pleasant parts of a relationship
that did not work out?
• I understand how poems
are made.
• They are the tears
that season the smile.
• The stiff-necked laughter
that crowds the throat.
• The leftover love.
• I know how poems are
made.
• How do the words
understand and know differ
in meaning?
• WHAT is the meaning of
season in this stanza?
• stiff-necked laughter= fake
laughter
• HOW does laughter crowd
the throat?
• There is a place the loss must go. • WHAT does the
• There is a place the gain must go. word gain imply in
• The leftover love. this stanza?
Summarise this poem
in ONE sentence.
COULD YOU IDENTIFY ANY
POETIC DEVICES IN THE
POEM?
3 METAPHORS
1. Lines 20 -21 Definition:
“They are the tears • Directly compares two
that season the smile” things ( not like / as )
What is compared? • Usually two meanings :
Poems – tears=salty=seasoning literal, physical &
What qualities do these two things have in figurative or deeper.
common?
Poems are like salt/seasoning
What is the deeper meaning?
Poems are truthful = more valuable/add
value than a false smile
See if you can find the other
two metaphors…
REPETITION (
SAME WORDS/PHRASE
USED OVER AND OVER)
Can you find two examples?
1. “how poems are made”
– Is this phrase repeated exactly the same
way in the poem?
– What has she worked out by the end of the
poem?
2. “the leftover love”; “there is a place
the loss must go”
–What does this phrase emphasise?
• Find two in the poem OXYMORON
• “Letting go Places two
in order to hold on” opposite ideas
What is held onto and what is let close together to
go? tell a truth
• “Stiff-necked laughter”
Does this make any sense? How?
 LISTEN TO A
FAVOURITE
BREAK UP SONG
H T T P S : / / YO U T U . B E / O G F I B _ A P _ 3 I
AFTER LISTENING TO A BREAK UP SONG,
APPLY SOME OF THE IDEAS FROM THE
POEM TO SEE IF THE SPEAKER/POET IS
RIGHT.
• One idea from the poem that may help you when you need to get
over someone:
1. “Letting go
In order to hold on”
Can you find others?
IT MUST HAVE BEEN LOVE…
A FEW TIPS ON HOW TO GET OVER A
BREAK UP