Module 11 - Definitions of Poetry
Module 11 - Definitions of Poetry
Module 11 - Definitions of Poetry
LESSON TIMETABLE
MODULE : WRITING POETRY
Sub-Module : Definitions of Poetry
Elements of Poetry
Application
Reinforcement
Recap of Recitation Venn Diagram /
1 hour Learning insights Laptop / PPT 10 – Items
Assessment lecture Enumeration
Closing Prayer
(Optional)
SESSION PLAN
Program/Year Level : HUMSS/TVHE/TVIA/ABM/STEM
I. INTRODUCTION
Preparatory Activities
Opening Prayer
Leveling/Motivation
Developmental Activities
Compose an acrostic poem for the word POETRY.
P
O
E
T
R
Y
Acrostic Composition
JANZEL D. CUADRO Page 2
CREATIVE WRITING Revised: 07/22/20
- An acrostic is a composition usually in verse in which sets of letters (as the initial or
final letters of the lines) are taken in order to form a word or phrase or a regular
sequence of letters of the alphabet (http:/www.merriam-webster.com). It is a fun poetic
form that anyone can write. Many children, in fact, are fond of writing acrostics.
Acrostics can be about anything. Names are a common topic. Some use their friend's
name and give it to him or her as a gift. Single words, phrases, or even full sentences
may be used in an acrostic poem.
However, writing other forms of poetry is not as simple as writing acrostics, hence, the
discussions that follow.
A. Definition of Poetry
Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks, said Plutarch
(in http://www.brainyquote.com).
Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and that thought has found words,
wrote Frost, a famous poet (in http:// www.quotehd.com).
Similar to Frost's is T. S. Eliot's (in Abelos, et al., 2007): The fusion of two poles of mind:
emotion and thought.
Similarly, Abelos, et al. (2007) quoted William Wordsworth who defined poetry as the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility.
Edgar Allan Poe's definition is as rhythmic and beautiful as his poems. He said, [i]t is the
rhythmic creation of beauty.
Poetry is highly imagistic, and it is written in condensed language, stylized syntax, and
figures of speech not found in ordinary communication. Poetry usually creates a strong
rhythm or metical feet and a sense of crystallized experience (Abelos, et al., 2007).
Almario (1985) clarified that [p]oetry is not just a collection of rhyming letters and
meaningful words. It must be a complete sentence; the letters and words must be
so, arranged that a significant structure of thoughts, emotions, events, images and
impressions are conveyed.
B. Element of Poetry
- Some elements are exclusive to a specific type of poetry. These elements are
discussed in succeeding parts.
Theme
- The theme is the central idea or message in a poem (or in other work of literature).
Theme should not be confused with subject, or what the work is about. Rather, theme is
a perception about life or human nature shared with the reader.
For example, the subject of Birches by Robert Frost is a man birches, bent-over at
looking
wondering if a snow storm has bent them or if a young boy was Swinging on the birch
trees because he was too far away from town to play with friends. The subject is like the
topic of the poem, or what it is about. The theme goes much deeper. The poem
insinuates that swinging up and swinging down are reciprocal aspects of reality, like
heaven and earth. The poem's theme also expresses the desire to stay on earth a
while, rather than the to succumb to life's reciprocal element, death
(Bradesca, in http://clasroom.synonym.com).
Tone
- Tone is the attitude a write takes toward a subject. The language and details a writer
choose help to create the tone, which might be playful, serious, bitter angry, detached,
among other possibilities. Unlike mood, which refers to the emotional response of the
reader to a work, tone reflects the feelings of the writer.
For example, The Happy Grass by Brendan Kennelly has a hopeful tone toward the
prospect of peace that the grass represents, tempered by an awareness that there will
be graves on which the grass will grow. Tone can shift through a poem. A Barred Owl
by Richard Willbur has a first stanza with a comforting, domestic tone. and a second
that insists this kind of comfort plays a vicious world false. This shift in tone is part of
what is quatrains enjoyable about the poem (http://www.poetryarchive.org).
Voice
- Voice is a word people use to talk about the way poems talk to the reader.
Lyric poems and narrative poems are the ones students see most. Lyric poems
express the feelings of the writer. A narrative poem tells a story.
Some other types of voice are mask, apostrophe, and conversation. A mask puts on the
identity of someone or something else, and speaks for it. Apostrophe talks to something
that cannot answer (i.e., a bee, the moon, a tree) and is good for wondering, asking, or
offering advice. Conversation is a dialogue between two voices and often asks readers
to guess who the voices are (http://www.dmturner.org).
Stanza
- A stanza is a group of lines that form a unit of poetry. The stanza is roughly
comparable to the paragraph in prose. In traditional poems, the stanzas have the same
number of lines and often have the same rhyme scheme and meter as well. In the 20th
century, poets have experimented more freely with stanza form than did earlier poets,
sometimes writing poems that have no stanza break at all (Applebee, et al. 2000).
The most commonly used stanza forms are the following: couplets (consisting of two
successive lines), terza rima (a three-line stanza), quatrains (consisting of lines of four),
cinquains (quatrains with an additional line), rhyme royal (a seven-line stanza, also
called septet), ottava rima (an eight-line stanza, also called octave), and a Spenserian
stanza (a nine-line poem).
Sound
- One of the most important things poems do is play with sound. That doesn't just mean
rhyme. It means many other things. The earliest poems were memorized and recited,
not written down, so sound is very important in poetry (http://Www.dmturner.org )
Poets use a variety of techniques to produce special qualities of sound. One of these
techniques is the use of figures of speech that create sounds and melody like
alliteration, assonance, consonance and onomatopoeia. These have been previously
discussed.
Rhythm
- This refers to the pattern or beat of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of
poetry. Poets use rhythm to bring out the musical quality of language, to emphasize
ideas, to create mood, and to reinforce subject matter.
Figures of Speech
- Also called figurative language, a figure of speech is a language that communicates
ideas beyond the literal meanings of the words. It stimulates vivid pictures or concepts
in the mind of the reader. Figures of speech appear not only in poetry, but in prose as
well, and even in spoken language (Applebee,et al., 2000).
REINFORCEMENT ACTIVITY
JANZEL D. CUADRO Page 5
CREATIVE WRITING Revised: 07/22/20
Definitions of Poetry
Elements of Poetry
II. ASSESSMENT
Prepared by:
Mr. Janzel D. Cuadro
Teacher
Reviewed by:
Mr. Richard John W. Hernandez
Academic Coordinator, SHS
Approved by:
Dr. Vilma V. Esparrago
Principal, Basic Education