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Writing P o etry
Session 4 Sharing Revision Strategies Poem factory Idea generators Publishing Sources
4 Dimensions of Poetry: • Intellect • Emotions • Imagination • Senses
Our winning bids Transformed
Revision Strategies
Revision Strategies CONSIDERATIONS Voice : Who is speaking/narrating? What’s the point of view? Does the voice & perspective of the speaker reveal what world the poem is in? Mood, tone : how evocative is the piece? What qualities make it so? Key statements : direct or indirect statements of great import… Imagery : level and quality of descriptive detail. Linguistic Value : flow & rhythm of language—assonance, alliteration, repetition, syntax, etc. Diction : Word choice. Do some words have double meanings…..connotations, puns, ambiguities…. Allusion : Does the poem refer to other works, history, culture, etc? Abstract and concrete imagery: balance between the two. Capacity to surprise : wonderment! Ideology : What values and ideals are expressed? Typographical Elements : Line breaks, punctuation, spellings, etc. Tension : Presence or lack of tension & risk Setting : What type of 'world' is the poem set in? Is the setting concrete, tonal, connotative, symbolic, allegorical? Sonics : elements of rhythm and rhyme. Structure : Consider on the poem’s formal structure (number of meters, stanzas, etc.) Thesis : What’s the poem about? What are the obvious and less obvious conflicts?
Revision Strategies “Love Calls Us to the Things of This World” Richard Wilbur Draft One: My eyes came open to the squeak of pulleys My spirit, shocked from the brothel of itself Hangs for a moment bodiless and simple Draft Two: My eyes came open to the shriek of pulleys, And the soul, spirited from its proper wallow, Draft Three: My eyes came open to the pulleys’ cry. The soul, spirited from its proper wallow, Draft Four: The eyes open to a cry of pulleys, And the soul, so suddenly spirited from sleep, Draft Five: The eyes open to a cry of pulleys, And spirited from sleep, the astounded soul,
Revision Strategies Anthem for Dead Youth What passing bells for you who die in herds? - Only the monstrous anger of the guns! - Only the stuttering rifles' rattled words Can patter out your hasty orisons No chants for you, nor balms, nor wreaths, nor bells, Nor any voice of mourning, save the choirs, And long-drawn sighs of wailing shells; The shrill, demented choirs And bugles calling for you from sad shires. Anthem for Doomed Youth What passing bells for these who die as cattle? - Only the monstrous anger of the guns. - Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons No mockeries now for them; nor prayers nor bells, Nor any voice of mourning, save the choirs, The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
Revision Strategies Design In White Robert Frost Robert Frost I found a dimpled spider, fat and white, A dented spider like a snow drop white On a white heal-all, holding up a moth On a white heal-all, holding up a moth Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth— Like a white piece of lifeless satin cloth— Assorted characters of death and blight Saw ever curious eye so strange a sight?— Mixed ready to begin the morning right, Portent in little, assorted death and blight Like the ingredients of a witches' broth— Like the ingredients of a witches' broth?— A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth, The beady spider, the flower like a froth, And dead wings carried like a paper kite. And the moth carried like a paper kite. What had that flower to do with being white, What had that flower to do with being white, The wayside blue and innocent heal-all? The blue prunella every child's delight. What brought the kindred spider to that height, What brought the kindred spider to that height? Then steered the white moth thither in the night? (Make we no thesis of the miller's plight.) What but design of darkness to appall?— What but design of darkness and of night? If design govern in a thing so small. Design, design! Do I use the word aright?
The Poem factory let’s make some thing worthwhile
The Poem factory Day Shift Swing Shift Graveyard Shift
The Poem factory • Craft a creative name for your shift (with an interesting rhythmic pattern) • Build 2 unique similes from common actions, objects or appearances.... • Manufacture a metaphor from a common action, object or appearance....
Cardinal Ideograms 0 A mouth. Can blow or breathe, 7 A step, be a funnel, or Hello. detached from its stair. 1 A grass blade or a cut. 8 The universe in diagram: A cosmic hourglass. 2 A question seated. And a proud (Note enigmatic shape, bird's neck. absence of any value of origin, how end overlaps beginning.) 3 Shallow mitten for two-fingered hand. Unknotted like a shoelace and whipped back and forth, 4 Three-cornered hut can serve as a model of time. on one stilt. Sometimes built so the roof gapes. 9 Lorgnette for the right eye. In England or if you are Alice 5 A policeman. Polite. the stem is on the left. Wearing visored cap. 10 A grass blade or a cut 6 O unrolling, companioned by a mouth. tape of ambiguous length Open? Open. Shut? Shut. on which is written the mystery of everything curl -May Swenson
The Poem factory • Build a stanza with an anapestic beat The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; I SPRANG to the stirrup, and Joris, and he: I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three; • Build a stanza with an iambic beat He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls: He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Poem Generators Choose an item from your Object Poem (or any other object you treasure). Meditate on it: just what are its qualities, its history, its voice? Write a poem that explores and defines the inner nature of the object.
The Unwritten Inside this pencil crouch words that have never been written never been spoken never been taught they’re hiding they’re awake in there dark in the dark hearing us but they won’t come out not for love not for time not for fire even when the dark has worn away they’ll still be there hiding in the air multitudes in days to come may walk through them breathe them be none the wiser what script can it be that they won’t unroll in what language would I recognize it would I be able to follow it to make out the real names of everything maybe there aren’t many it could be that there’s only one word and it’s all we need it’s here in this pencil every pencil in the world is like this -W.S. Merwin
Poem Generators Write a poem that wildly exaggerates your relationship with something you love or loathe. With an ending, however, that is authentic, realistic…
Poem Generators List 5 questions that are critically important to you, questions that have not yet been answered. Write a poem in which a fairy tale character responds to one of your questions.
Poem Generators List 5 things that you are deathly afraid of, or which induce a mortal dread. Write a poem addressed to that thing, in the language of complete defiance.
Poem Generators Descriptor, Non-Descriptor Dream Swap
Poem Generators Choose two poems you have written, perhaps one you are very happy with and one you are not so satisfied with. Remove all the modifiers from the piece; that is, go through your poem and cross out every adjective and adverb. Note how many strikethroughs you have. Rewrite the poems by revisiting your verbs and nouns to see if they can’t be replaced with alternatives that strengthen the piece and better reflect the feelings & images you meant to convey.
Poem Generators An Ode to Any Old Thing
Erasure Poem I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced, but they Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee; A poet could not be but gay, In such a jocund
Erasure Poem I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced, but they Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee; A poet could not be but gay, In such a jocund
Publishing Sources
Week 4 is History V n ujm! n fyu!ujnf; Lffq! W sjuj n h b n e Tubz!tbgf""
Class Exercise
Now, Close Your Eyes
Track Class these! Enlarge Exercise: the frame Idea to Image amusement wretchedness velocity angel deception authority insufficiency mercy HW: Objects > Ideas
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