Poetry Project Honors Seminar Humanities 9

November 8, 2013

Format & Expectationsfor Poems

1. Write at least a total of 8 stanzas. 2. Choose at least 2 different styles of poetry writing. 3. Select topics for the poems that connection to Humanities 9 in some way. For example: Topics may include: power, control, culture clash, Africa, colonialism, resources, story telling and voice, things falling apart, etc. 4. Poems must include (8+ examples) figurative language or elements of poetry Alliteration Idiom Quatrain Allusion Limerick Repetition Assonance Metaphor Sensory Language Couplet Haiku Simile Assonance Onomatopoeia Symbolism Couplet Oxymoron Tanka Hyperbole Personification Tone Imagery Note: Type a list the 8 concepts you use in your written analysis. 5. Poems must be typed and of publishable quality

Significance & ReflectionPoem Response Paper

1. Write and type an explanation of a poem (or the poems). 2. Write at least 3 paragraphs to analyze and interpret the content, poetic devices, symbolism, messages, creative aspects, and deeper meanings. 3. Explanation should include: What the poem is about. If the speaker is identified, what does a reader know about the speaker? What sensory details or imagery is used to describe the content? How does the poet use figurative language? What are the (hidden and obvious) meanings in the poem(s)? What does the poem want the reader to know about? How important is the message? How do you feel or think about the poem?

Presentation: Orally present a dramatic reading of one poem. Deadlines:

Poems & Typed Interpretation Presentations Thursday November 14 TBA (To Be Announced)

Poetry Project Honors Seminar Humanities 9

HAIKU A haiku poem has three lines and 17 syllables. Haiku poetry began almost 1000 years ago in Japan. Haiku poetry does not have to rhyme. Titles are subtle, but the poem always describes something about nature. Sensory details are very important. Must be written in present tense. Line 1 has five syllables. Line 2 has seven syllables. Line 3 has five syllables QUATRAIN A quatrain has four lines. Lines 1 and 3 rhyme. OR Lines 2 and 4 rhyme. Rhyming lines should have about the same number of syllables. LIMERICK A limerick has five lines. The 3rd & 4th lines are shorter than the others. Lines 1, 2, and 5 have seven to ten syllables and rhyme with one another. Lines 3 and 4 have five to seven syllables and also rhyme with each other. COUPLET A couplet poem has rhyming stanzas, each made up of two lines. In a couplet poem, each stanza has only two lines and they rhyme with each other. TANKA Tanka is another form of Japanese poetry that consists of 31 syllables Lines 1 and 3 have five syllables. Lines 2, 4, and 5 have seven syllables. (5-7-5-7-7) The themes for Tanka are love, nature, seasons, and friendships, FREE VERSE Free verse is an open form that is free of any constraints or fixed forms. It does not use consistent meter patterns or rhyme. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Lines 1 and 2 rhyme. Lines 3 and 4 rhyme. Rhyming lines should still be about the same length.

Hanging around AuthorFriend of Solomon Mahlangu, freedom fighter in South Africa in late1970s as the wind blows south the poplar tree saps black blood soaked are roots with pride

The day they fell AuthorFriend of Solomon Mahlangu He stands before the great woods Arms stretched, bracing the storm of machines They roar and bark, trying to break his wall But he stays put, Save the Forests he screams The tress stand tall, lush and green Seedlings sprout, Flowers bloom Animals frolic in their wonderland Is the forest really meeting it's doom? He stands before the great woods Protecting everything it confides Many plants and animals are within Away from the human eye they hide Even if you have never seen them Just take a step inside The feeling of life the smell of grass Do u really want them all to die? The machines don't care Around the forest they continue to surround They have never seen the wind And never heard the sounds They never felt the wind against their faces Never heard the rustling of leaves Never seen the life in the forest Never understood that it brings relief Fire shoots up as the forest screams Roars and crackles follow too Animals run, plants sink to the floor As the machine consumes the forests full The trees spend decades growing up The animals spend years moving in But it only takes seconds to burn it down To burn the forest into the size of a pin What has the forest done he wonders As He stands in front of the orange blaze To deserve this kind of torturous pain With Heat and sorrow right in his face

Reality Erin K. The dreams in which I still incase myself in cease to exist in reality resulting in my insanity sitting in my chair, pulling my hair, screaming that lifes never fair. looking into the clouded mirror my reflection's distorted because of society Every mistake seems to evolve into more haste screaming no but its too late its either shes got me bruised and bloodied, or hes already creeped into the buttons of my crisp white blouse. Im constantly howlin angry, withering away inside myself Daddys got the belt Help me, someone please Im always nervous but Ive learned to conceal it cause once someone catches a glimpse I may as well take the leap, pop some pills, or hang the rope.

A Mother in a Refugee Camp Chinua Achebe No Madonna and Child could touch Her tenderness for a son She soon would have to forget. . . . The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea, Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs And dried-up bottoms waddling in labored steps Behind blown-empty bellies. Other mothers there Had long ceased to care, but not this one: She held a ghost-smile between her teeth, And in her eyes the memory Of a mother's pride. . . . She had bathed him And rubbed him down with bare palms. She took from their bundle of possessions A broken comb and combed The rust-colored hair left on his skull And then-humming in her eyes-began carefully to part it. In their former life this was perhaps A little daily act of no consequence Before his breakfast and school; now she did it Like putting flowers on a tiny grave.

Knowing Robs Us Chinua Achebe Knowing robs us of wonder. Had it not ripped apart the fearful robes of primordial Night to steal the force that crafted horns on doghead and sowed insurrection overnight in the homely beak of a hen; had reason not given us assurance that day will daily break and the sun's array return to disarm night's fantastic figurations-each daybreak would be garlanded at the city gate and escorted with royal drums to a stupendous festival of an amazed world. One day after the passage of a dark April storm ecstatic birds followed its furrows sowing songs of daybreak though the time was now past noon, their sparkling notes sprouting green incantations everywhere to free the world from harmattan death. But for me the celebration is make-believe; the clamorous change of season will darken the hills of Nsukka for an hour or two when it comes; no hurricane will hit my sky and no song of deliverance.

Benin Road Chinua Achebe Speed is violence Power is violence Weight is violence The butterfly seeks safety in lightness In weightless, undulating flight But at a crossroads where mottled light From trees falls on a brash new highway Our convergent territories meet I come power-packed enough for two And the gentle butterfly offers Itself in bright yellow sacrifice Upon my hard silicon shield.

Name:_______________________________ Humanities 9 Honors Seminar Block____________

Poetry Project Honors Seminar Humanities 9

November 14, 2013

______Alliteration ______Allusion ______Assonance ______Couplet ______Assonance ______Couplet ______Hyperbole ______Imagery ______Idiom ______Limerick ______Metaphor

______Haiku ______Onomatopoeia ______Oxymoron ______Personification ______Quatrain ______Repetition ______Sensory Language ______Simile ______Symbolism ______Tanka ______Tone