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INTRODUCTION - create an ANTHOLOGY for the Poetry Unit.
You will explore many styles of poetry and the main task is to create a collection or an anthology.
Include your own poems as well as those you collect.
USE http://www.rhymezone.com/ throughout this unit to help you find words that rhyme.
ACTIVITY 1 - ADD your own stanza to a familiar nursery rhyme.
Rhyme – syllables
and rhyming couplets
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall (8)
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall (8)
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men (10)
Couldn’t put Humpty together again. (10)
Count the syllables in each line.
What is a stanza?
Add a stanza – be funny, imaginative, cynical or silly!
It is not so easy to get the right number of syllables in a line and have rhyming couplets.
Sample 1 :
All his friends were terribly sad (8)]
And angry too and even mad (8)
That Humpty had been such a silly fool (10)
He could have sat on a safe, sturdy stool! (10)
ADD your own stanza or more - see what you can create.
It is much harder than it looks because of :
1. rhyming couplets
2. number of syllables allowed in each couplet
Add more than one stanza and create a serious ending to the poem/nursery rhyme.
Use correct number of syllables and rhyming couplets in the stanzas.
Sample - 2 stanzas
Soon after Humpty's fall from grace
Many said he was a disgrace
And so a ban on climbing any wall
Was made to ensure no more trip or fall.
Yet, some daring folk, so they say,
Do still climb both night time and day,
Agile and swiftly, they slither and slide
A triumph poor Humpty was so denied.
ACTIVITY 2
HAIKU
Dates from 9th century Japan to the present day. Haiku is more than a type of poem; it is a way of looking at the physical world and seeing something deeper.
Natsume Soseki
Natsume Soseki lived from 1867 - 1916. He was a novelist and master of the haiku. Here are a couple of examples of his poems:
Over the wintry (5)
forest, winds howling in rage (7)
with no leaves to blow. (5)
The crow flies away: (5)
sways in the evening sun, (7)
a lone, leafless tree. (5)
Modern examples :
Walking across sand
and find myself blistering
in the searing heat
I hear the crackling
Crunch, of today’s new found day
And know it won’t last.
blaring horns cars rush
leave the grey city slowly
rush to the country
Topics to try in the haiku style :
traffic jam
hoon driver
surfing
summer/autumn/winter/spring
on the trampoline
dancing
the countryside
a storm
the dog (or any animal)
butterfly (or any insect)
LIMERICKS - see resource below for examples.
What are these? Can you find an example and try one for yourself?
REFLECTION
At the end of this class you should know what the following are :
syllables
stanza
rhyming couplet
rhythm
haiku
limericks (if students choose to explore this style)