POETRY Its a world all its own Write

POETRY It’s a world all its own

Write a definition of poetry. What makes a good poem? What should poetry be about? Are song lyrics poetry?

ARS POETICA BY ARCHIBALD MACLEISH A poem should be palpable and mute As a globed fruit, Dumb As old medallions to the thumb, Silent as the sleeve-worn stone Of casement ledges where the moss has grown— A poem should be wordless As the flight of birds. A poem should be motionless in time As the moon climbs, Leaving, as the moon releases Twig by twig the night-entangled trees, Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves, Memory by memory the mind— A poem should be motionless in time As the moon climbs. A poem should be equal to: Not true. For all the history of grief An empty doorway and a maple leaf. For love The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea — A poem should not mean But be

OF MODERN POETRY BY WALLACE STEVENS The poem of the mind in the act of finding What will suffice. It has not always had To find: the scene was set; it repeated what Was in the script. Then theatre was changed To something else. Its past was a souvenir. It has to be living, to learn the speech of the place. It has to face the men of the time and to meet The women of the time. It has to think about war And it has to find what will suffice. It has To construct a new stage. It has to be on that stage, And, like an insatiable actor, slowly and With meditation, speak words that in the ear, In the delicatest ear of the mind, repeat, Exactly, that which it wants to hear, at the sound Of which, an invisible audience listens, Not to the play, but to itself, expressed In an emotion as of two people, as of two Emotions becoming one. The actor is A metaphysician in the dark, twanging An instrument, twanging a wiry string that gives Sounds passing through sudden rightnesses, wholly Containing the mind, below which it cannot descend, Beyond which it has no will to rise. It must Be the finding of a satisfaction, and may Be of a man skating, a woman dancing, a woman Combing. The poem of the act of the mind.

SO YOU WANT TO BE A WRITER? BY CHARLES BUKOWSKI if it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don't do it. unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth if you're doing it for money or fame, don't do it. if you're doing it because you want women in your bed, and your gut, don't do it. if you have to sit there and if you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or hunched over your typewriter searching for words, don't do it. if you're doing it for money or fame, don't do it. rewrite it again and again, don't do it. if it's hard work just thinking about doing it, don't do it. if you're trying to write like somebody else, forget about it. if you have to wait for it to roar out of you, then wait patiently. if it never does roar out of you, do something else. if you first have to read it to your wife or your girlfriend or your boyfriend or your parents or to anybody at all, you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers, don't be like so many thousands of people who call themselves writers, when it is truly time, and if you have been chosen, it will do it by don't be dull and boring and itself and it will keep on doing it pretentious, don't be consumed with self- until you die or it dies in you. love. the libraries of the world have there is no other way. yawned themselves to sleep over your kind. don't add to that. don't do it. unless it comes out of your soul like a rocket, unless being still would drive you to madness or suicide or murder, don't do it. unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don't do it. and there never was

POETRY BY MARIANNE MOORE I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle. Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in it after all, a place for the genuine. Hands that can grasp, eyes that can dilate, hair that can rise if it must, these things are important not because a high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because they are useful. When they become so derivative as to become unintelligible, the same thing may be said for all of us, that we do not admire what we cannot understand: the bat holding on upside down or in quest of something to eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll, a tireless wolf under a tree, the immovable critic twitching his skin like a horse that feels a flea, the baseball fan, the statistician -nor is it valid to discriminate against "business documents and

school-books"; all these phenomena are important. One must make a distinction however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is not poetry, nor till the poets among us can be "literalists of the imagination"--above insolence and triviality and can present for inspection, "imaginary gardens with real toads in them, " shall we have it. In the meantime, if you demand on the one hand, the raw material of poetry in all its rawness and that which is on the other hand genuine, you are interested in poetry.

POETRY IS… A writing form that expresses powerful emotion and/or ideas to make the reader feel or think a certain way � It is concerned with: The precise (specific) meanings of words The sounds of words The overall look of the poem Often distinct styles and forms, but this does NOT mean poems always rhyme!

POETRY CAN … Follow a set pattern/form (existing or original) or be free form Be short or long Be old or new Be serious or funny Seem foreign to us Slow us down Be read by everyone Be written by everyone (yes, that includes you)

Suit ODE TO MY ____ BY PABLO NERUDA Suit Every morning, _____ you are waiting on a chair to be filled by my vanity, my love, my hope, my body. Still only half awake I leave the shower to shrug into your sleeves, my legs seek the hollow of your legs, and thus embraced by your unfailing loyalty I take my morning walk, work my way into my poetry; from my windows I see things, men, women, events and struggles constantly shaping me, constantly confronting me, setting my hands to the task, opening my eyes, creasing my lips, and in the same way, suit, I am shaping you, poking out your elbows, wearing you threadbare, and so your life grows in the image of my own.

READING POETRY Two important concepts 1. Pause Ø Ø Ø When do you normally pause in a sentence or paragraph? , . ; : ? !!!!!!! = PUNCTUATION The same thing applies to poetry. But, what if there is no punctuation at the end of a line? You don’t pause. 2. Enjambment Read poetry like you would a paragraph, pausing only at punctuation without regard to the end of lines.

TRY READING THIS POEM EXCERPT: “I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, From the seas and the streams; I bear light shade for the leaves when laid In their noonday dreams…”

HOW ABOUT THIS ONE? “Grey haunted eyes, absent-mindedly glaring From wide, uneven orbits; one brow drooping Somewhat over the eye Because of a missile fragment still inhering, Skin deep, as a foolish record of old-world fighting. ”

WHAT DO WE DO WITHPOETRY? Close Read: Reading closely Close read � First, read the entire poem � Look at the title: what does it tell you? � Identify the speaker: NOT the poet � Look at each line/sentence: what is it saying? � Look for poetic & literary devices and ask yourself why they are there. � Look especially for repetition � Put together the overall message/theme/plot � Decide for yourself: what is the significance? why is it important? Why should somebody care? What is my reaction?

TERMS YOU NEED TO KNOW Stanza: a group of lines in poetry, like a paragraph Couplet: two successive rhyming lines Free Verse: unrhymed lines that follow the natural rhythms of speech more than a structure Rhythm: a noticeable pattern established with accented syllables Accent: the emphasis in a word Enjambment: the running over of a sentence from one line to the next without punctuation

NOW FOR SOME LITERARY TERMS

WHY DO POETS USE POETIC DEVICES? Not to make things more confusing Helps understanding � Readers relate better � Interesting, engaging, and even entertaining � Adds more emotion � Helps with imagery But above all, they ALWAYS relate to and enhance the meaning of the poem. � Create moods or attitudes � Emphasis on important parts

METAPHOR & SIMILE An unstated, but directly implied comparison between two different things Simile: a stated comparison between two different things using like or as

ALLITERATION The repetition of initial consonant sounds in words

PERSONIFICATION Giving animals, ideas, and things human traits