When you heard that today's lesson was about poetry, did you think of the nursery rhymes of Mother Goose, sappy love poems that begin, "Roses are red, violets are blue," or a silly poem by Shel Silverstein about why Peggy Ann McKay can't go to school today? Maybe you thought of the lyrics to your favorite music. Or, maybe you groaned because you saw a writing assignment coming your way, and you just KNOW that you're not a poet. We should stop trying to turn you into one! If that's how you feel, try thinking of poetry as a game-a puzzle. Words are the puzzle pieces. Fit your words together according to the "rules," and you win! Find the right pieces, and you end up with an impressive word-picture of your own!
2 The tools we can use to craft a poem (other than pencil and paper) are rhyme, rhythm, meter, repetition, alliteration, assonance and consonance. How-and whether-any of these are used is the poet's choice.
3 The best-known poetic device is rhyme. When the words at the end of lines rhyme, they are called end rhymes. When the rhyme is arranged within the line itself, it is called internal rhyme. An example follows of internal and end rhyme: I enjoyed the shade in the hidden glade And spread out the picnic that I had made.
4 Alliteration, assonance, and consonance are more subtle ways to rhyme. Alliteration is the repetition of beginning sounds in two or more words. Tongue twisters often employ alliteration, such as "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds-not consonants-in nearby words. The words "hatch" and "stand" get assonance from the short "a" sound. Consonance is the repetition of consonant-but not vowel-sounds in nearby words. In the sentence, "The man in the orange cummerbund ended his bland speech with a bow," the words cummerbund, ended, and bland are related by the "nd" sound. To remember which is which, look at the letter beginning the word. Assonance begins with a vowel, and consonance begins with a consonant!
5 Rhythm is another useful tool in the puzzle-building craft of poetry. Poems often have a rhythmic pattern in the syllables, a pattern that says, "BOOM ba BOOM ba BOOM ba BOOM." (That pattern fits the rhyme, "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.") Certain syllables are stressed, while others are unstressed. Think of your name! If it is a one-syllable name like Ann or Jake, then it is stressed-BOOM! If it has two syllables, then it is either "BOOM ba" or "ba BOOM." Examples are David or Michelle. If it has three syllables, usually just one of them is stressed, while the others aren't. Valerie and Jonathan have a pattern that goes "BOOM ba ba," while the pattern for Marisa and Josiah is "ba BOOM ba."
6 The rhythm or repeating pattern, chosen for a particular poem is called a meter. (In music it's called the beat.) The sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables is represented by "/" for the stressed syllable and "U" for the unstressed syllable. Were we to write a poem and choose this pattern, "ba BOOM ba BOOM ba BOOM," we'd mark it "U / U / U /" and work to find words that fit that pattern. Look at our pattern, and you'll see that its meter is "U /" with three meters. Apply the pattern to the statement, "The queen has lost her cat," and you have "The QUEEN has LOST her CAT." There are specific names for different meters, but we'll leave that for a future lesson. For now, the idea to remember is that each line of poetry should agree by rhythm.