Literary Devices
In the Poet's Shoes
IN THE POET'S SHOES
Introduction
Welcome adventurers! You are about to step into the poet's shoes. But, like Cinderella's glass slipper, only one shoe is right for you. To find the right fit, you will be trying on many different shoes--exploring a variety of poets and their poems to find a poet whose writing has special meaning for you.
Then... slip into the poet's shoes and get ready for our annual Poet Shoe Slam. During our annual Poet Shoe Slam, you will perform both your favorite poem and one poem that you wrote during class.
What is a Poem?
Part I: During this activity, you will select a favorite poem and gather ideas for presenting that poem to the class. You will have the opportunity to listen to famous poets read their work, as well as to visit some more modern poetry "slams" and festivals. It is up to you to decide the best method for performing your poem for the class.
Once you have completed your research, you will be using the Thinking About Poetry handout, the Thinking About Poetry Notes handout, the links at the bottom of the Resources list, and the Preparing for Your Performance handout to help you prepare for your performance.
Part II: During this activity, you will write many poems of different forms and select your favorite poem to be presented to the class. Poems that we will learn to write include poems of repetition, alliteration, concrete poems, Cinquain, and Haiku.
ResourcesPart I: Poetry Links
Use the following links to research various poets and their poetry.
Part II: Your Poetry Collection
Diamante
Varnack and Lolly Varnack and Lolly Examples Varnack and Lolly Example
Animal Alliteration
Simile and Metaphor
Senses Poetry
Concrete
Cinquain
Haiku
Presentation Links
To prepare for your presentation, use the following links.
Shoe Slam Videos
Conclusion
Congratulations! You've found the right fit and now you're ready to successfully step into the poet's shoes. Be sure to use the Preparing for Your Performance handout to help you get ready for your presentation!
Introduction
Welcome adventurers! You are about to step into the poet's shoes. But, like Cinderella's glass slipper, only one shoe is right for you. To find the right fit, you will be trying on many different shoes--exploring a variety of poets and their poems to find a poet whose writing has special meaning for you.
Then... slip into the poet's shoes and get ready for our annual Poet Shoe Slam. During our annual Poet Shoe Slam, you will perform both your favorite poem and one poem that you wrote during class.
What is a Poem?
Part I: During this activity, you will select a favorite poem and gather ideas for presenting that poem to the class. You will have the opportunity to listen to famous poets read their work, as well as to visit some more modern poetry "slams" and festivals. It is up to you to decide the best method for performing your poem for the class.
Once you have completed your research, you will be using the Thinking About Poetry handout, the Thinking About Poetry Notes handout, the links at the bottom of the Resources list, and the Preparing for Your Performance handout to help you prepare for your performance.
Part II: During this activity, you will write many poems of different forms and select your favorite poem to be presented to the class. Poems that we will learn to write include poems of repetition, alliteration, concrete poems, Cinquain, and Haiku.
ResourcesPart I: Poetry Links
Use the following links to research various poets and their poetry.
- The Internet Poetry Archive: http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/ (Click on a poet to bring you to their page, then click on a link to select a poem and click on the title to hear it read.)
- Fooling With Words with Bill Moyers: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/foolingwithwords/main_poet.html
- Poets' Corner: http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/
- The Academy of American Poets: http://www.poets.org/
- Poetry Types
Part II: Your Poetry Collection
Diamante
Varnack and Lolly Varnack and Lolly Examples Varnack and Lolly Example
Animal Alliteration
Simile and Metaphor
Senses Poetry
Concrete
Cinquain
Haiku
Presentation Links
To prepare for your presentation, use the following links.
- How to Read a Poem Out Loud: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/
- Favorite Poem Project: http://www.favoritepoem.org/ (Click on the videos to view people reading their favorite poems. Note that the people at this site are notthe authors of the poems they read.)
The Process
- Begin by using the Thinking About Poetry handout and taking out a pen or pencil. Be sure your name is on the handout.
- You must visit at least four of the Poetry Links listed in Resources. At each website, select a poet and read and listen to several of their poems.
- As you read and listen to the poems, use the questions on your Thinking About Poetry Answer Sheet handout to complete your chart.
- Once you have explored at least four different websites, use the questions at the bottom of your handout to evaluate the poets' styles and make some choices about your performance.
- Select your favorite poet and one of his or her poems to use for your performance. All poems must be submitted to and approved by the teacher, and each student must perform a different poem so make sure that you have a back-up poem bookmarked. Poetry Shoe Slam Rubric
- Copy and paste your selection into Microsoft Word. Save your poem by the name of the poet and the title of the poem.
Shoe Slam Videos
Conclusion
Congratulations! You've found the right fit and now you're ready to successfully step into the poet's shoes. Be sure to use the Preparing for Your Performance handout to help you get ready for your presentation!
Top 100 Poems of all Time
by Poetry Soup
by Poetry Soup
Top 100 Famous Poems All-Time. These are the 100 all-time most popular famous poems on PoetrySoup, written by famous poets.
Comment
RankFamous PoemPoet
1Still I RiseMaya Angelou
2Im nobody! Who are you?Emily Dickinson
3A Red Red RoseRobert Burns
4Sonnet 29William Shakespeare
5When You are OldWilliam Butler Yeats
6The RavenEdgar Allan Poe
7Because I could not stop for DeathEmily Dickinson
8A Daughter of EveChristina Rossetti
9The Road Not TakenRobert Frost
10She Walks in BeautyGeorge (Lord) Byron
11The Tables TurnedWilliam Wordsworth
12White FlockAnna Akhmatova
13IfRudyard Kipling
14How Do I Love Thee?Elizabeth Barrett Browning
15i carry your heart with meEdward Estlin (E E) Cummings
16Annabel LeeEdgar Allan Poe
17Sonnet 71William Shakespeare
18Dickinson Poems by NumberEmily Dickinson
19O Captain! My Captain!Walt Whitman
20The City In the SeaEdgar Allan Poe
21Mending WallRobert Frost
22Cradle SongWilliam Blake
23Death Be Not ProudJohn Donne
24The HourglassBen Jonson
25Tears Idle TearsAlfred Lord Tennyson
26The TygerWilliam Blake
27Who will cry for the little boy?Antwone Fisher
28The Tide Rises the Tide FallsHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
29Sonnet 55William Shakespeare
30I Write My Mother a PoemFleda Brown
31Crossing the BarAlfred Lord Tennyson
32JabberwockyLewis Carroll
33The Childrens HourHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
34The Last LeafOliver Wendell Holmes
35To a MouseRobert Burns
36A Nocturnal ReverieAnne Kingsmill Finch
37Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern AbbeyWilliam Wordsworth
38for a rainy dayD A Levy
39Inaugural PoemMaya Angelou
40The FleaJohn Donne
41A Vision upon the Fairy QueenSir Walter Raleigh
42AN A.B.CGeoffrey Chaucer
43His Excuse for LovingBen Jonson
44The Walrus and the CarpenterLewis Carroll
45Paul Reveres RideHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
46THE ILIAD (excerpt)
47To Find GodRobert Herrick
48ManGeorge Herbert
49When We Two PartedGeorge (Lord) Byron
50Ode on SolitudeAlexander Pope
51Frost at MidnightSamuel Taylor Coleridge
52The Owl and the Pussy-CatEdward Lear
53Emblems of LoveLascelles Abercrombie
54BlightRalph Waldo Emerson
55In an Artists StudioChristina Rossetti
56I dreaded that first RobinEmily Dickinson
57Ode to Joy
58Ode on a Grecian UrnJohn Keats
59Burning Drift-WoodJohn Greenleaf Whittier
60I Hear America SingingWalt Whitman
61Get DrunkCharles Baudelaire
62Dover BeachMatthew Arnold
63HélasOscar Wilde
64Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young CharmsThomas Moore
65Casey At The BatErnest Lawrence Thayer
66A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous GeneralJonathan Swift
67The Lady of ShalottAlfred Lord Tennyson
68August 1968Wystan Hugh (W H) Auden
69RecessionalRudyard Kipling
70The Darkling ThrushThomas Hardy
71ChristabelSamuel Taylor Coleridge
72Gods GrandeurGerard Manley Hopkins
73The Charge of the Light BrigadeAlfred Lord Tennyson
74To a Lady on the Death of Her HusbandPhillis Wheatley
75The Lake Isle of InnisfreeWilliam Butler Yeats
76Adam PosedAnne Kingsmill Finch
77Concord HymnRalph Waldo Emerson
78Pied BeautyGerard Manley Hopkins
79from On the Equality of the Sexes Part IJudith Sargent Murray
80The New ColossusEmma Lazarus
81To His Coy MistressAndrew Marvell
82The GalleryAndrew Marvell
83Ichabod!John Greenleaf Whittier
84My Last DuchessRobert Browning
85The Women Who Loved Elvis All Their LivesFleda Brown
86HapThomas Hardy
87To Atthis
88To CeliaBen Jonson
89SpringEdward Estlin (E E) Cummings
90The Passionate Shepherd to His LoveChristopher Marlowe
91Ozymandias of EgyptPercy Bysshe Shelley
92The PrologueAnne Bradstreet
93The Fire of Drift-WoodHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
94On the Idle Hill of SummerA E Housman
95They Flee from MeSir Thomas Wyatt
96Doc HillEdgar Lee Masters
97The Author to Her BookAnne Bradstreet
98To the Memory of Mr. OldhamJohn Dryden
99To S. M. a young African Painter on seeing his WorksPhillis Wheatley
100The Magpie Evening: A PrayerGary Fincke
Comment
RankFamous PoemPoet
1Still I RiseMaya Angelou
2Im nobody! Who are you?Emily Dickinson
3A Red Red RoseRobert Burns
4Sonnet 29William Shakespeare
5When You are OldWilliam Butler Yeats
6The RavenEdgar Allan Poe
7Because I could not stop for DeathEmily Dickinson
8A Daughter of EveChristina Rossetti
9The Road Not TakenRobert Frost
10She Walks in BeautyGeorge (Lord) Byron
11The Tables TurnedWilliam Wordsworth
12White FlockAnna Akhmatova
13IfRudyard Kipling
14How Do I Love Thee?Elizabeth Barrett Browning
15i carry your heart with meEdward Estlin (E E) Cummings
16Annabel LeeEdgar Allan Poe
17Sonnet 71William Shakespeare
18Dickinson Poems by NumberEmily Dickinson
19O Captain! My Captain!Walt Whitman
20The City In the SeaEdgar Allan Poe
21Mending WallRobert Frost
22Cradle SongWilliam Blake
23Death Be Not ProudJohn Donne
24The HourglassBen Jonson
25Tears Idle TearsAlfred Lord Tennyson
26The TygerWilliam Blake
27Who will cry for the little boy?Antwone Fisher
28The Tide Rises the Tide FallsHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
29Sonnet 55William Shakespeare
30I Write My Mother a PoemFleda Brown
31Crossing the BarAlfred Lord Tennyson
32JabberwockyLewis Carroll
33The Childrens HourHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
34The Last LeafOliver Wendell Holmes
35To a MouseRobert Burns
36A Nocturnal ReverieAnne Kingsmill Finch
37Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern AbbeyWilliam Wordsworth
38for a rainy dayD A Levy
39Inaugural PoemMaya Angelou
40The FleaJohn Donne
41A Vision upon the Fairy QueenSir Walter Raleigh
42AN A.B.CGeoffrey Chaucer
43His Excuse for LovingBen Jonson
44The Walrus and the CarpenterLewis Carroll
45Paul Reveres RideHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
46THE ILIAD (excerpt)
47To Find GodRobert Herrick
48ManGeorge Herbert
49When We Two PartedGeorge (Lord) Byron
50Ode on SolitudeAlexander Pope
51Frost at MidnightSamuel Taylor Coleridge
52The Owl and the Pussy-CatEdward Lear
53Emblems of LoveLascelles Abercrombie
54BlightRalph Waldo Emerson
55In an Artists StudioChristina Rossetti
56I dreaded that first RobinEmily Dickinson
57Ode to Joy
58Ode on a Grecian UrnJohn Keats
59Burning Drift-WoodJohn Greenleaf Whittier
60I Hear America SingingWalt Whitman
61Get DrunkCharles Baudelaire
62Dover BeachMatthew Arnold
63HélasOscar Wilde
64Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young CharmsThomas Moore
65Casey At The BatErnest Lawrence Thayer
66A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous GeneralJonathan Swift
67The Lady of ShalottAlfred Lord Tennyson
68August 1968Wystan Hugh (W H) Auden
69RecessionalRudyard Kipling
70The Darkling ThrushThomas Hardy
71ChristabelSamuel Taylor Coleridge
72Gods GrandeurGerard Manley Hopkins
73The Charge of the Light BrigadeAlfred Lord Tennyson
74To a Lady on the Death of Her HusbandPhillis Wheatley
75The Lake Isle of InnisfreeWilliam Butler Yeats
76Adam PosedAnne Kingsmill Finch
77Concord HymnRalph Waldo Emerson
78Pied BeautyGerard Manley Hopkins
79from On the Equality of the Sexes Part IJudith Sargent Murray
80The New ColossusEmma Lazarus
81To His Coy MistressAndrew Marvell
82The GalleryAndrew Marvell
83Ichabod!John Greenleaf Whittier
84My Last DuchessRobert Browning
85The Women Who Loved Elvis All Their LivesFleda Brown
86HapThomas Hardy
87To Atthis
88To CeliaBen Jonson
89SpringEdward Estlin (E E) Cummings
90The Passionate Shepherd to His LoveChristopher Marlowe
91Ozymandias of EgyptPercy Bysshe Shelley
92The PrologueAnne Bradstreet
93The Fire of Drift-WoodHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
94On the Idle Hill of SummerA E Housman
95They Flee from MeSir Thomas Wyatt
96Doc HillEdgar Lee Masters
97The Author to Her BookAnne Bradstreet
98To the Memory of Mr. OldhamJohn Dryden
99To S. M. a young African Painter on seeing his WorksPhillis Wheatley
100The Magpie Evening: A PrayerGary Fincke
Recorded Poetry Collection
Rhyme Scheme
Definition of Rhyme SchemeRhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyme that comes at the end of each verse or line in poetry. In other words, it is the structure the end words of a verse or line that a poet needs to create when writing a poem. Several poems are written in free verse style. Some other poems follow non-rhyming structures, paying attention only to number of syllable. The Japanese genre of Haiku is a case in point. Thus, it shows that the poets write poems in a specific type of rhyme scheme or rhyming pattern. There are several types of rhyme schemes as given below.
Types of Rhyme SchemeThere are a number rhyme schemes used in poetry; however, some of the popular are:
Example #1The people along the sand (A)
All turn and look one way. (B)
They turn their back on the land. (A)
They look at the sea all day. (B)
As long as it takes to pass (C)
A ship keeps raising its hull; (C)
The wetter ground like glass (D)
Reflects a standing gull. (D)
(“Neither Out Far nor in Deep” by Robert Frost)
This is ABAB pattern of rhyme scheme in which each stanza applies this format. For instance, in the first stanza, “sand” rhymes with the word “land” and “way” rhymes with the word “day.”
Example #2Twinkle, twinkle, little star, (A)
How I wonder what you are. (A)
Up above the world so high, (B)
Like a diamond in the sky. (B)
(“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” by Jane Taylor)
The following example uses AABB rhyme scheme. Here, the first line ends in a word “star” that rhymes with ending word of the second line, which is “are.” Since both rhyme with each other, they are signified with letter “A.”
Example #3As I drew nearer to the end of all desire, (A)
I brought my longing’s ardor to a final height, (B)
Just as I ought. My vision, becoming pure, (A)
Entered more and more the beam of that high light (B)
That shines on its own truth. From then, my seeing (C)
Became too large for speech, which fails at a sight… (B)
(“Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri)
Dante has used terza rima tercet rhyming patterns (ABA, BCB, CDC …) in this poem, giving impression of irresistible movement as well as dynamism.
Example #4Lifting her arms to soap her hair (A)
Her pretty breasts respond – and there (A)
The movement of that buoyant pair (A)
Is like a spell to make me swear…(A)
(“A Monorhyme for the Shower” by Dick Davis)
Following poem presents a perfect example of monorhyme, in which you can notice every line ends in similar rhyme, “A,A,A,A” like these words, “hair, there, pair, swear…”
Function of Rhyme SchemeRhyme scheme is an integral part of the constitution of a poem like meter, length of phrase and rhythm. In fact, rhyme scheme, like other writing tools, is used to create balance and relieve tension, manage flow, rhythm and highlight important ideas. Its basic function is to form units of sound and suggest units of sense. It also communicates the idea in a more effective way.
Types of Rhyme SchemeThere are a number rhyme schemes used in poetry; however, some of the popular are:
- Alternate rhyme: It is also known as ABAB rhyme scheme, it rhymes as “ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH.”
- Ballade: It contains three stanzas with rhyme scheme of “ABABBCBC” followed by “BCBC.”
- Monorhyme: It is a poem in which every line uses the same rhyme scheme.
- Couplet: It contains two line stanzas with “A, A,” rhyme scheme that often appears as “A,A, B,B, C,C and D,D…”
- Triplet: It often repeats like a couplet, uses rhyme scheme of “AAA.”
- Enclosed rhyme: It uses rhyme scheme of “ABBA”
- Terza rima rhyme scheme: It uses tercets, three lines stanzas. Its interlocking pattern on end words follow: Aba bcb cdc ded and so on…
- Keats Odes rhyme scheme: In his famous odes, Keats has used a specific rhyme scheme, which is “ABABCDECDE.”
- Limerick: A poem uses five lines with rhyme scheme of “AABBA.”
- Villanelle: A nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets and a final quatrain is villanelle and uses rhyme scheme of “A1bA2, abA1, abA2, abA1, abA2, abA1A2.”
Example #1The people along the sand (A)
All turn and look one way. (B)
They turn their back on the land. (A)
They look at the sea all day. (B)
As long as it takes to pass (C)
A ship keeps raising its hull; (C)
The wetter ground like glass (D)
Reflects a standing gull. (D)
(“Neither Out Far nor in Deep” by Robert Frost)
This is ABAB pattern of rhyme scheme in which each stanza applies this format. For instance, in the first stanza, “sand” rhymes with the word “land” and “way” rhymes with the word “day.”
Example #2Twinkle, twinkle, little star, (A)
How I wonder what you are. (A)
Up above the world so high, (B)
Like a diamond in the sky. (B)
(“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” by Jane Taylor)
The following example uses AABB rhyme scheme. Here, the first line ends in a word “star” that rhymes with ending word of the second line, which is “are.” Since both rhyme with each other, they are signified with letter “A.”
Example #3As I drew nearer to the end of all desire, (A)
I brought my longing’s ardor to a final height, (B)
Just as I ought. My vision, becoming pure, (A)
Entered more and more the beam of that high light (B)
That shines on its own truth. From then, my seeing (C)
Became too large for speech, which fails at a sight… (B)
(“Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri)
Dante has used terza rima tercet rhyming patterns (ABA, BCB, CDC …) in this poem, giving impression of irresistible movement as well as dynamism.
Example #4Lifting her arms to soap her hair (A)
Her pretty breasts respond – and there (A)
The movement of that buoyant pair (A)
Is like a spell to make me swear…(A)
(“A Monorhyme for the Shower” by Dick Davis)
Following poem presents a perfect example of monorhyme, in which you can notice every line ends in similar rhyme, “A,A,A,A” like these words, “hair, there, pair, swear…”
Function of Rhyme SchemeRhyme scheme is an integral part of the constitution of a poem like meter, length of phrase and rhythm. In fact, rhyme scheme, like other writing tools, is used to create balance and relieve tension, manage flow, rhythm and highlight important ideas. Its basic function is to form units of sound and suggest units of sense. It also communicates the idea in a more effective way.
Meter
Meter Definition Meter is a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse or within the lines of a poem. Stressed syllables tend to be longer and unstressed shorter. In simple language, meter is a poetic device that serves as a linguistic sound pattern for the verses, as it gives poetry a rhythmical and melodious sound. For instance, if you read a poem loudly, and it produces regular sound patterns, then this poem would be a metered or measured poem. The study of different types of versification and meters is known as prosody.
Meter and Foot
A meter contains a sequence of several feet, where each foot has a number of syllables such as stressed/unstressed. Hence, a meter has an overall rhythmic pattern in a line of verse, which a foot cannot describe.
Types of MeterEnglish poetry employs five basic meters including; iambic meter (unstressed/stressed), trochaic meter (stressed/unstressed), spondaic meter, (stressed/stressed) anapestic meter (unstressed/unstressed/ stressed) and dactylic meter (stressed/unstressed/unstressed).
Meter has two subdivisions:
Qualitative MeterIt contains stressed syllables with regular intervals such as iambic pentameter containing even numbered syllables.
Quantitative MeterQuantitative meter, however, is based on syllabic weight, and not stressed patterns such as dactylic hexameters of classical Greek and classical Latin, however, classical Arabic and Sanskrit also have used this meter. Poets like Virgil used quantitative meter in Aeneid and Homer in Iliad.
Meter and Foot
A meter contains a sequence of several feet, where each foot has a number of syllables such as stressed/unstressed. Hence, a meter has an overall rhythmic pattern in a line of verse, which a foot cannot describe.
Types of MeterEnglish poetry employs five basic meters including; iambic meter (unstressed/stressed), trochaic meter (stressed/unstressed), spondaic meter, (stressed/stressed) anapestic meter (unstressed/unstressed/ stressed) and dactylic meter (stressed/unstressed/unstressed).
Meter has two subdivisions:
Qualitative MeterIt contains stressed syllables with regular intervals such as iambic pentameter containing even numbered syllables.
Quantitative MeterQuantitative meter, however, is based on syllabic weight, and not stressed patterns such as dactylic hexameters of classical Greek and classical Latin, however, classical Arabic and Sanskrit also have used this meter. Poets like Virgil used quantitative meter in Aeneid and Homer in Iliad.
Dead Poets Society
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