Absolutely astounding interpretatin of Lorna Crozier's poem today.... WOW. I think I will call her up and see if she can come and give us a reading. What do you think?
If you were absent today, be sure to get the notes from a friend as we filled in at least four boards full!
Next, we wrote down a terrific question which you will answer next week unless you choose to write about the Owen poem.
In a literary paragraph of 300+ words, evaluate the way that the poet uses literary techniques (such as enjambement, sound, image, simile, understatement, etc) to reveal household abuse, a tacit neighbour and . . .
Next, I returned the wonderful poetry anthologies (if you were absent, be sure to pick up your anthology tomorrow). Choose any one of the suggestions I made on your anthologies, and use it to create a wonderful poem. Type up the poem and edit as you do so. Hand in on Monday for further editing.
Modern poems as you know include the following:
1. images (appeal to the five senses)
2. surprise (they don't just describe a dead dog on the side of the road as motionless or bloody)--poets make us look i.e. He plummeted down the stairs like a wounded bird.
3. sound (assoanance, dissonance, alliteration, repetition, rhythm, internal rhyme (not on the ends of lines)
4. show don't tell (start in the middle of the action--get out of the poem but don't sum it up--they are open - ended--not necessarily a resolution more of a snapshot--a flash!
5. vision--poems make you feel--you laugh, cry, get angry, grieve, feel confused, guilty, exhilarated etc--the poems show you something in a new way--silence, November, love, war, abuse, peace, how it feels to be 16, losing innocence, craving freedom etc.
6. point of view is key
7. structure--line break, stanzas, titles, pauses, placement of words on a page, suspense, punctuation
8. tone--diction is absolutely key in poetry--don't say skinny if you mean thin, or anorexic, or twig-like, or skinny as a .... or just right, or starved! Use a FLIP dictionary or a thesaurus to ensure accuracy
Editing:
Cut out unnecessary words, make the verbs work for you, cut is, has, feels, use --slinks, slumbers, crafts, crawls,
Cut adjectives and adverbs and use strong, accurate words instead.
If a reader can predict the next line, cut it or change it--make your characters and settings unique
ie.
She turned to face him (what do you expect to come next???)
Exactly.
Sooooo, have her do something surprising--she takes her gum out of her mouth and puts it in his ....oooh
way better than a sloppy kiss, right?
Avoid cliches--if the language you are using has been said before--don't use it--hungry as a horse, tears rolled down her cheek, etc
Make sure we know who is speaking to whom, where we are, and why we should continue to read the poem--don't make the reader ask -- What is going on? That is a mistake.
Good luck. If you want to send me a draft before Monday, please do so.
Also, if you have a lot of time this weekend, feel free to write poems on all of the ones in your anthology that I marked. Also, if you write new poems this weekend you are welcome to hand those in.
You want to write and revise (2 to 3 times) at least 4 poems for your portfolio. We'll use these poems to send off to contests. Prepare to WIN!!
