Poetry response to Billy Collins

AGENDA:

Continue working on your poetry responses to Billy Collins.

Animated poetry:

Go to www.loc.gov/poetry/180


Select a poem to "animate" (shorter poems work best).

Billy Collins/More Poems

AGENDA:

READ:

"The Lanyard"   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EjB7rB3sWc

Response Poems:
http://faculty.gvsu.edu/kanekot/coursedocs/responsepoem.htm 

Responding to poetry

1. A Framework for Responding to Poetry

Introduction:

• Briefly introduce the title of the poem and name of the poet.
• Try to classify the type of poem it is e.g. sonnet, ballad, haiku, acrostic, shape, lyric, ode, limerick, elegy, dramatic monologue etc. 
• Briefly explain the subject of the poem.

Point One: Explore the Themes of the Poem

• Try to group the ideas in the poem is there a story that the poem tells?
• What do you think the poem is about?

Point Two: Imagery used to express themes

• What are the pictures in the poem?
• Are metaphors/similes used to explain ideas?
• Are the five senses used to evoke certain reactions in the reader?

Point Three: Form and Structure

• How is the poem organised e.g. lines, verses, layout and shape.
• Why has the poet decided to structure the ideas in this way e.g. the sequence of ideas, length of lines, patterns etc.

Point Four: Rhyme and Rhythm

• How does the poem rhyme? E.g. abab or aabb etc.
• What is the rhythm of the poem when read aloud?
• Why has the poet chosen this rhyme and rhythm to express these ideas?

Point Five: Language Patterns

• Think about the sound of the poem and choice of words
• The poet uses specific words because they have a certain association in the reader's mind.
• Look out for alliteration, onomatopoeia, assonance, personification, symbolism. How has the poet grouped words to achieve a desired effect?

Conclusion: Poet's message

• What is the poet trying to communicate to the reader?
• How effective are the devices/language that he uses?
• What is your response to the poem?

This poetry handout was found  at www.englishresources.co.uk

                        
                                   2 .  Writing About Poetry

What is the poem about? Summarise what the poem is about in two or three sentences.
Write about the verse form of the poem. If the poem is rhymed verse, what is the rhyme scheme? Why do you think the poet chose this verse form?
Choose three or four interesting descriptive words or phrases in the poem. Say what they mean and why you found them interesting.
Choose a comparison (for example, simile, metaphor or personification) from the poem. Explain why you liked it.
Write about the tone and mood of the poem. Is it funny, sad, happy, angry, bitter, peaceful, serious? Use quotes to prove your point.
What did the poem make you think of, or feel? Try and give reasons for your opinion and quote from the poem to show what you mean.
Did you like the poem? Give reasons for your answer.
                              
                         
                             3. How to analyse a poem.
1. Brief summary of poem - What is the story?
2. Diction - language/words/vocabulary poet uses
3. Theme -  the ideas the poetry expresses/what seems to be important to the poet.
4. Imagery - language used to convey sense impressions
        (create the experience in our imagination)
5. Figurative language - has the poet used any  similes, metaphors or personification and why?
6. Rhyme -   Is there a rhyme scheme and does it help with structure?
7. Tone   -    What tone of voice is used?

IMAGERY -

This term covers all the various types of image in a piece of writing. An image is a mental picture created by the words that a writer chooses for effect. Images create “a picture in the mind.” Images are usually either metaphors or similes. In Ogun the carpenter’s knuckles are described as “silver knobs of nails”. This suggests the work-worn hands of the carpenter and the polished highlights of his skin.

TONE -

This tells us the attitude of the poet to the subject. Tone may change. Not necessarily the same all the way through the poem.
e.g.     What is the tone?
 I have had playmates, I have had companions
 In my childhood days, in my joyful school days.
 All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
       (Charles Lamb)
 A thousand years you said
 As our hearts melted.
 I look at the hand you held
 And the ache is hard to bear.
From T. Wells

Billy Collins

AGENDA:


Billy Collins website:

http://www.billy-collins.com/

TED talk:

http://blog.ted.com/2012/02/28/poems-in-motion-billy-collins-at-ted2012/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BXZjTETLQM  

Everyday Moments Caught in Time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddw1_3ZVjTE 

WRITING:
Select 3 poems by Billy Collins.  Write a poem modeled on and in response to Billy Collins.


Here's an example of mine in response to poet William Stafford:

Traveling Through The Dark

Traveling through the dark I found a deer
dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.
It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.

By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car
and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.

My fingers touching her side brought me the reason--
her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.

The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;
under the hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.

I thought hard for us all--my only swerving--,
then pushed her over the edge into the river.

William Stafford



Intrusion
for William Stafford

Traveling through the dark along the Seaway Trail,
we sense a family of deer, frozen at the edge
of the highway, staring back
at the headlights of our jeep--
their eyes wakeful, wary.

And so I must think of your poem,
of how the road we travel narrows and ends,
and why I, too, must question my swerving.

Later that evening back at home,
phantom deer appear.  Dreamlike,
they lurk at the very edge of consciousness,
silently watching a procession of ghostly vehicles
hurtle through the wilderness.

They wait and watch, bewildered
by these hardened shells
encasing our fragile hearts.

Marcy Gamzon

FINISH YOUR POETRY CYCLES--All cycles due today!

Quiz Thomas and Beulah/Work on Poetry CYCLES!

Agenda:
'
Quiz on Thomas and Beulah

Continue work on Poetry Cycles (most of you have not completed them!)

For Friday: Reading and discussion of Billy Collins' poetry/ Writer responses poems

Billy Collins

AGENDA:

EQ: How are the two sections of the cycle interrelated?  What do the poems show about the relationship between Thomas and Beulah?

READING:  Get Billy Collins poems and read over the long weekend.

SPEAKING and LISTENING: Review Thomas and Beulah.  Test on Wednesday.

WRITING:  Work on poetry cycles.

Poetry Cycles

AGENDA:

Rita Dove's home page
http://people.virginia.edu/~rfd4b/


READING: Read and discuss key poems in Beulah section

Writing: continue work on Poetry Cycles