Week 7: What is a poem?

Visual – stanza

rhythm – flow

moral

emotionally connected

Break down of McDonald’s slogan

“Two all-beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun”

• The passage itself has poetic qualities

Two all-beef patties,

special sauce,

lettuce,

cheese,

pickles n’ onions,

on a sesame seed bun

Poetic devices

Enjambment- Continuation from one line of verse into the next

alliteration- use of the same consonant at the beginning of each word

mood- a characteristic state of feeling

couplet- a stanza consisting of two successive lines of verses

foreshadowing- the act of providing vague advance indications

This exercise involves writing a poem in the style of Frank O’Hara’s “Ave Maria” and “Having a coke with you”.

Mothers of Britain

allow your kids out this summer

kick them out into the wide open world so you can have time to yourselves

its time to let them experience life to the full

you cant shelter them forever

for when the time comes that you are gone

and they have no one but themselves

they will be a victim of reality

They will learn to appreciate what you have done

be it now or in many years

you can rest easy knowing the experience you have provided

may save them from the future that awaits.

Opposites

In this poem I have written about myself, however everything is the opposite of me in real life.

Some might say I’m as tall as the mountains,

Head in the sky like the biggest of fountains,

Lazing about in my house all day,

Watching the night turn into day,

Playing sports is just not for me,

I’d much rather watch some TV

A poem containing exquisite, listen and glistens

life is good but not exquisite,

sometimes demons come and visit,

They bring bad thoughts but I don’t listen,

As I look to the skies and heaven glistens…

Bird shooting 

Bird shooting season the men make marriages, with their guns my father’s house turns macho as from the hunters gather All night countless women stir their brews: hot coffee chocolata, cerassie wrap pone and tie-leaf for tomorrow’s sport. Tonight the men drink white rum neat. In darkness shouldering their packs, their guns, they leave we stand quietly on the doorstep shivering. Little boys longing to grow up birdhunters too little girls whispering: Fly Birds Fly-

Greg made us change the structure of the above passage, and turn it into a poem:

Bird shooting season the men make marriages,

with their guns my father’s house turns macho as from the hunters gather,

All night countless women stir their brews:

hot coffee chocolata, cerassie wrap pone and tie-leaf for tomorrow’s sport,

Tonight the men drink white rum neat,

In darkness shouldering their packs, their guns,

they leave we stand quietly on the doorstep shivering. Little boys longing to grow up birdhunters too,

little girls whispering:

Fly Birds Fly-

In my poem I have split the passage into separate lines with coma’s at the end to help the flow of the poem. The coma’s allow a short pause at the end of each line and make the rhythm sound more poetic.