Reading and Writing

Poetry
At the end of the lesson, the students
should be able to:
1. Define theme and tone
2. Appreciate the importance of theme and tone
in writing poetry
3. Exercise the use of different themes and tones
in making a poem.
What is poetry?
According to Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
“Poetry consists of the
best words in the best
order.”
According to Robert Frost:
A complete poem is one where “an
emotion has found its thought and
the thought has found the words.”
According to Edgar Allan Poe:
“Poetry was the rhythmical
creation of beauty.”
According to Matthew Arnold:

“Poetry is simply the most

beautiful, the most impressive,
and the most effective mode of
saying things.”
 What is poetry?
Poetry is a combination of words in lines,
rhyme, tone, voice, theme, language, and
emotion which makes it a creative means to
liberate the poet’s thoughts and feelings.
What is poetry?
Poetry like a song is an expression of
feeling, an insight, a discovery, it is
about life.
Poetry is the language of the
imagination, almost entirely figurative,
and also a musical literary language.
Can anyone freely write a
poem?
Yes, anyone can freely write a poem.
But, it is still necessary to know the
different elements of poetry.
This is to create poem that will make a
huge impact on the reader.
What are the elements of
poetry that you know?
Essential Elements of Poetry
1. THEME
2. TONE
1. Theme
What a poem has to say is often called
theme.
It is the summarized statement containing
the main thought or meaning of the poem.
2. Tone
 Tone refers to the attitude and mood of
the poem.
 It is the overall atmosphere of the poem
which influences the emotional response
of the reader (mood).
2. Tone
 Tone may be ironic, playful, sincere,
straightforward, angry, apologetic,
regretful, grateful, etc.
If I can stop one heart
from breaking
BY EMILY DICKINSON
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain
What is the theme of the poem?

What is the tone of the poem?

Theme Tone

If we don’t help
others, our life
Regret
will be in vain.
..\..\..\Documents\How to find a theme.mp4
..\..\..\Documents\Mood and Tone.mp4
Activity
Write a short poem
about one thing in life
that you value most.
 What do you value in your life?

Person Place
Object Event
Elements for
Specific Forms
A. CONVENTIONAL FORMS
B. FREE-VERSE
Aside from theme and tone,
what are the other elements
of poetry?
Structure (stanzas)
Rhyme (external, internal)
Couplet
Traditional
Free-verse
 Specific Forms of Poetry
 CONVENTIONAL FORMS  FREE-VERSE
Rhyme and Meter The line and the
line break
Metaphor
Enjambments
Metaphor
Conventional Forms
RHYME (RHYTHM, REPETITION)
METER
Examples of Conventional Forms
Short Tagalog poems like
Tanaga and Diona
Haiku
Sonnet
Conventional
Forms

Haiku
- a brief Japanese
verse form of poem
consisting of 3 lines
and 17 syllables
Conventional
Forms
Conventional
Forms

Tanaga
-short tagalog
poems
Conventional Tanaga
Forms -short Tagalog poems
Conventional
Forms
Rhyme
The link between music and poetry
Adds music quality to the poem
which gives the readers reading
pleasure
Rhyme Schemes
A “rhyme scheme” is a way of
describing the pattern of end
rhymes in a poem.
Each new sound at the end of a line is given a letter,
starting with “A,” then “B,” and so on.
If an end sound repeats the end sound of an earlier
line, it gets the same letter as the earlier line.
Here are three slightly different cat poems, each
with a different rhyme scheme. The first is AABB,
the second is ABAB, and the third is ABCB):
My cat is nice. A
My cat likes mice. A
My cat is fat. B
I like my cat. B
My cat is nice. A
My cat is fat. B
My cat likes mice. A
I like my cat. B
My cat is gray. A
My cat is fat. B
My cat is cute. C
I like my cat. D
Exercise:
1. Read the following poems by Kenn
Nesbitt.
2. For each poem, identify the rhyme
scheme and write it below the poem.
 Mr. Brown the Circus Clown

Mr. Brown, the circus clown

Puts his clothes on upside down.
He wears his hat upon his toes
And socks and shoes upon his nose.
Rhyme scheme: _____________
 My Penmanship is Pretty Bad

My penmanship is pretty bad.

My printing’s plainly awful.
In truth, my writing looks so sad
it ought to be unlawful.
Rhyme scheme: _____________
ABAB
 All My Great Excuses

I started on my homework
But my pen ran out of ink.
My hamster ate my homework.
My computer’s on the blink.
Rhyme scheme: _____________
ABAB
Different Types of Rhymes
OFF-RHYME OR
TRUE RHYME INTERNAL RHYME
SLANT RHYME

- Not a true rhyme

- Rhyme that - Rhyme that
- The sound of the
occurs on occur within words are alike
the words the lines
TRUE RHYME
“Here Captain! Dear Father!,
This arm beneath your head,
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.”
Oh Captain, My Captain, Walt Whitman
INTERNAL RHYME
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while
I pondered, weak and weary.”

The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe

OFF-RHYME OR SLANT RHYME
“In the sun and in the snow,
Without pleasure, without pain,
On the dead oak tree bough.”

The Gallows, Edward Thomas

Purpose of rhyme:
Easy to memorize
Simple pleasure of hearing repetition of
familiar words
Gives special quality to poetry that
distinguish it from prose
Sense of harmony and order (early centuries)
 gives discipline for a poet
 to harness poetic talents and a
 keep a restriction on the imagination
 gives recognizable form to the poem
 THE MORE LOVING ONE
by W.H. Auden
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all thy care, I can go to hell
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man to beast
 How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be
Let the more loving one be me.
 Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Rhythm
 refers to the naturally occurring
pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables
 Twinkle, twinkle
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
..\Poems\Introduction to Poetry_ The 3 R's.mp4
LINE AND METER
The line is the “line of words” in
poetry.
The stanza is the “unit of poetic
lines”.
LINE AND METER

The meter is the poetry’s measured

accents and syllables arrangement.
 It is the systematic sound pattern of a
poem
 Different stanza forms:
FORMS NO. OF LINES FORMS NO. OF LINES

Couplet 2 Sestet 6
Tercet 3 Septet 7
Quatrain 4 Octave 8
Quintet 5
Couplet-
A couplet is a set of two lines that usually rhyme.
When the sunny skies turn from blue to gray,
I can't help but wonder just what you would say?

I wonder if you know how many lives you have touched,

Do you know that people here love you so much?
Tercet-
A tercet is a set of 3-lines that may or may not rhyme.
Every one young or old
Needs someone to listen
As their stories are told

The difference is yours to make

A minute from your busy day
Is all it would take
Quatrain-
A quatrain is a set of 4- lines that may or may not rhyme.
With a symphony of colors
Spread on her wings,
She strolls in the garden
With a light footprint.

She smile to the flowers,

She flew by the pond,
And freshen her breath
By kissing the rose.
Sestet BARTER
- 6-lines by Sara Teasdale
Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
Soaring fire that sways and sings
And children’s faces looking up
Holding wonder like a cup.
 Life has loveliness to sell,
Music like a curve of gold
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
Eyes that love you, arms that hold
And for your spirit’s still delight
Holy thoughts that star the night.
 Spend all you have for loveliness
Buy it and never count the cost,
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be.
-end-
 GENRE
The following are the 3-types of poetry:
1. Descriptive Poem- focuses on details
2.Narrative Poem – tells a story
3.Lyric Poem – expresses the feelings
and thoughts of the poet
At the end of the lesson, the students
should be able to:
1.Enumerate various experimental texts,
2.Discuss the different types of
experimental texts, and
3.Appreciate the poems under
experimental texts.
Free Verse Forms
LINE AND LINE BREAK
ENJAMBMENTS
LITERARY DEVICES USED IN POETRY
 (FREE VERSE)
WINTER POEM
by Nikki Giovanni
What do you notice?
Free Verse Doesn't rhyme
No meter
Use of metaphors, similes, personification
 Image driven
Concrete, not abstract
Heightened attention to sound
Might include alliteration or assonance or other
sound elements
Free Verse Form
- Poems without standard rhyme
patterns and line length
Free Verse Form
Free verse poems do not follow the rules, and have
no rhyme or rhythm;
But they are still an artistic expression.
They are sometimes thought to be a modern form
of poetry.
Free verse types of poem have been around for
hundreds of years.
MORE EXAMPLES OF FREE VERSE FORM
Fog by Carl Sandburg
The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
 Washed Away
by Katherine Foreman
Nothing's changed except me and the facts
And the sadness I didn't mean to start.
But it feels different now you've said
It's wrong, and I still can't see your point.
And I think as water runs over my hands that
That's really all there is or can be.
The gold is wearing off the infamous ring
And something wears away from around my heart.
 Disappointments
by Vivian Gilbert Zabel

Every life has a room But back in the shadows

where memories are stored: Lurks a trunk locked tight,
A box of special occasions here, Not to be opened and searched.
Shelves of shared laughter There hide disappointments
there. Which darken every heart.
 Fantasy or Life
by Vivian Gilbert Zabel
So often you say you love me, I need the clear, crisp light
Yet you seemingly don't know Found in reality 'Fantasy or Life by
I cannot live in fantasy's fog, Vivian Gilbert Zabel’s realm of day,
Always in the blurred drug of Not the darkness of mere
dreams. existence.
Free Verse Form
Enjambment
- It means moving over from one line to another
without a terminating punctuation mark.
- In simple words, it is the running on of a
sense from one couplet or line to the next
without a major pause or syntactical break.
Finding a Topic
Anything and everything can be the topic of a
free verse lyrical poem.
The poem can tell a story, describe a person,
animal, feeling or object.
They can serious, sad, funny or educational.
Whatever subject that appeals to the poet
can end up in free verse
Other Experimental Texts
TYPOGRAPHY
GENRE-CROSSING TEXTS
(PROSE POEM, PERFORMANCE POETRY, ETC)
 A. TYPOGRAPHY
- refers to the layout of a poem
 TYPOGRAPHY
Concrete Poetry / Shape Poetry
- a poem whose layout implies the
subject of the poem
◦Ex: Swan and Shadow by John Hollander
Concrete Poetry/
Shape Poetry

Swan and Shadow

by John Hollander
Concrete Poetry/
Shape Poetry
Concrete Poetry/
Shape Poetry
B. GENRE-CROSSING TEXTS
1. Prose Poem
2. GENRE-CROSSING TEXTS
 B. GENRE-CROSSING TEXTS
1. Prose Poem
- poems that are written in
paragraphs which contain language
play, images, and with instances of
poetic meter
◦Ex. A Seltzer Bottle by Gertrude Stein
Prose Poem A Seltzer Bottle
by Gertrude Stein
Any neglect of many particles to a cracking, any neglect of this makes
around it what is lead in color and certainly discolor in silver. The use
of this is manifold. Supposing a certain time selected is assured,
suppose it is even necessary, suppose no other extract is permitted
and no more handling is needed, suppose the rest of the message is
mixed with a very long slender needle and even if it could be any
black border, supposing all this altogether made a dress and suppose
it was actual, suppose the mean way to state it was occasional, if you
suppose this in August and even more melodiously, if you suppose
this even in the necessary incident of there certainly being no middle
in summer and winter, suppose this and an elegant settlement a very
elegant settlement is more than of consequence, it is not final and
sufficient and substituted. This which was so kindly a present was
constant.
 B. GENRE-CROSSING TEXTS
2. Performance Poetry / Spoken –Word Poetry
- being recited in-front of the audience in
public spaces
- makes use of vernacular language and
appealing oral elements like music, recordings, and
other elements of signification
Ex: Hands by Sarah Kay
 Hands
Sarah Kay

People used to tell me that i had beautiful hands. They

told me so often, in fact, that one day i started to believe
them until i asked my photographer father, “hey daddy
could i be a hand model” to which he said no way, i d’ont
remember the reason he gave me and i would’ve been
upset, but there were far too many stuffed animals to
hold, too many homework assignment to write, too
many boys to wave at, too many years to grow, we used
to have a game, my dad and i about holding hands cus
we held hands everywhere.
And every time either he or i would whisper a great big
number to the other, pretending that we were keeping
track of how many times we had held hands that we
were sure, this one had to be 8 million 2 thousand 7
hundred and fifty three hands learn more than minds do,
hands learn how to hold other hands, how to grip pencils
and mold poetry, how to tickle pianos and dribble a
basketball, and grip the handles of a bicycle how to hold
old people, and touch babies , i love hands like i love
people, theyre the maps and compasses in which we
navigate our way through life.
Some people read palms to tell your future, but i read hands to
tell your past, each scar marks the story worth telling, each
callased palm, each cracked knuckle is a missed punch or years
in a factory, now ive seen middle eastern hands clenched in
middle eastern fists pounding against each other like war
drums, each country sees theyre fists as warriors and others as
enemies even if fists alone are only hands. but this is not about
politics, no hands arent about politics, this is a poem about
love, and fingers. fingers interlock like a beautiful zipper of
prayer. one time i grabbed my dads hands so that our fingers
interlocked perfectly but he changed positions, saying no that
hand hold is for your mom. kids high five, but grown ups,
We learn how to shake hands, you need a firm hand
shake, but dont hold on too tight, but dont let go too
soon, but dont hold down for too long, but hands are not
about politics, when did it become so complicated. i
always thought its simple.
The other day my dad looked at my hands, as if seeing
them for the first time, and with laughter behind his eye
lids, with all the seriousness a man of his humor could
muster, he said you know you got nice hands, you
could’ve been a hand model, and before the laughter can
escape me, i shake my head at him, and squeeze his hand,
8 million 2 thousand 7 hundred and fifty four.
TECHNIQUES AND
LITERARY DEVICES
FROM WELL-KNOWN LOCAL AND FOREIGN AUTHORS
 Questions/Activity:

1. What is the theme of the poem?

2. What advice does the author give in the 3rd stanza?
3. What is the most precious quality that life has to offer
you?
4. Write a poem about one thing in life that you value most.
PREPARE FOR A QUIZ ON MONDAY
Creative Writing vs. Technical Writing
figures of speech, tone and dictions in
creative writing
sensory details in creative writing