POETRY UNIT
Unit Objectives:
- Determine the central meaning of a poem through close analysis.
- Learn appreciation of poets/poetry.
- Identify patterns in terms of sound, form, and ideas/content within a poem and analyze how the writer’s choices contribute to the poem’s overall meaning.
- Define and identify elements of poetry/Poetic Devices.
- Develop reading strategies to assist in interpretation of poems.
- Develop and deliver original poetry.
Handouts:
Dead Poet's Society Scenes for Poetry Packets:
1. O Captain! My Captain!
2. To the Virgins to Make Much of Time
3. Oh Me! O Life!
4. Ulysses
5. Leaves of Grass
6. The Road Not Taken
7. Sonnet #18
8. She Walks in Beauty
9. Midsummer Night's Dream
1. O Captain! My Captain!
2. To the Virgins to Make Much of Time
3. Oh Me! O Life!
4. Ulysses
5. Leaves of Grass
6. The Road Not Taken
7. Sonnet #18
8. She Walks in Beauty
9. Midsummer Night's Dream
A true sonnet is a balancing act of narrative, grammar, spelling, meter, word choice, rhyme, punctuation, rhythm, pacing, and plot. Some sonnets may have some small nuances or irregularities, but for the most part, follow the "rules" of composure.
Shakespeare's Sonnets are composed of:
EXAMPLE of IAMBIC PENTAMETER:
Shakespeare's Sonnets are composed of:
- 14 lines
- divided into three quatrains (sets of 4 lines)
- and a final concluding couplet (2 lines)
- rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
- includes metaphors & similes
- Written in: Iambic pentameter
EXAMPLE of IAMBIC PENTAMETER:
Watch the following Video:
Understanding Iambic Pentameter
CREATING YOUR SONNET
Note the similarities and differences between the two poems below:
- Same first two lines
- Same format, end rhyme, and meter (iambic pentameter)
- Different idea developed, topic, and ending
SONNET #18: William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.