Based on Resource Books by Nancy Atwell FreeVerse ONE DEFINITION OF FREEVERSE POETRY Free verse is poetry that doesnt have a regular rhythm line length or rhyme scheme It relies on the natural rhythms of speech Today it is the form of poetry that most American poets prefer Freeverse p ID: 393666
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Slide1
Writing Free-Verse
Based on Resource Books by Nancy AtwellSlide2
Free-Verse
ONE DEFINITION OF FREE-VERSE POETRY
Free verse is poetry that doesn’t have a regular rhythm, line length, or rhyme scheme. It relies on the natural rhythms of speech. Today it is the form of poetry that most American poets prefer. Free-verse poetry invents and follows its own forms, patterns and rules.
Free-Verse poets use the conventions of the genre to create voice, power, and meaning.Slide3
The Power of I
First person experiences need a first person. Make sure your
I
is present and is thinking, feeling, seeing,
acting
. Give your readers someone to be with. Find your voice as a poet. Wave your
I
flag in your poetry. Slide4
1st
draft- The Power of
I
Wind
The wind rustles the trees
Like it does the long grasses of the meadow, commands the water to move in ripples
Like tiny mountains and rests in the sails
Of a small boat on its way home.
Then the wind leaves to rustle other trees
Blow through other meadows,
Move other tiny mountains
a
nd send other small boats home.
_Ceysa McKechineSlide5
Wind- 3rd
Draft-Wave your
I
Flag
I listen to the wind rustle through the trees
As it does the long grasses in the meadows.
I watch as it commands the water to move in ripples
Like tiny mountains and rest in the sails of a small boat,
Pushing it home.
Then the wind abandons the small boat to rustle other trees,
Blow through other meadows,
command other tiny mountains to move,
Send other small boats home.
As I watch night begin to settle,
I wonder, will I ever find myself in the small boat,
Watching the same wind fly over the green landscape,
Longing for it to land in my sails and send me home?Slide6
Beware the Participle
What is a participle?
A verb in disguise-a verb that functions as an adjective
-
Participles
Participles are
-
ed
and
-
ing
verbs that function as adjectives—for example:
The
sleeping
cat is brown.
The freshly
picked
tomatoes look delicious.
I am
going
to the store.
The kids were
dropped
off at school.
http://grammarist.com/grammar/nonfinite-verbs/Slide7
Perched on a tree stump
Trying to admire
the lobster pound woods
Looking at the gun metal
Grey ashes dancing above
Like skeletons rubbing shoulders
Watching birch trees surrender their whites
Snow sticking in shady spots
And tired ancestors of fern waving goodbye
Hearing no birds call
Except for three gulls circling the pond
And screaming at the wind
Smelling old air,
Not even smelling the balsams,
And noticing no signs of what’s to come.
But, deep inside, knowing
And saying a prayer of thanks
For the gifts of imagination and memory-
The twin blessings of the human condition
That each spring survive
The dismal days of march in Maine.Slide8
Leads Begin Inside
In the words of Horace, one of the greatest lyric poets of all time (65 B.C.E. – 8 B.C.E.), begin poems “in the midst of things.” Start your poems inside
]
“ an experience, feeling, observation, or memorySlide9
Abstract Vs. Imagery
An abstraction is anything that is not tangible and does not bring a picture directly to mind. Love, future, grief, and time are all abstractions.
Images are anything that are universally seen similarly in our minds. Apples, ladders, and canes are all images – we all see them in a similar way. Slide10
Conclude Strongly
The conclusion often conveys a poem’s deepest meaning. It needs to be strong – to resonate after the reader has finished the poem.
The conclusion should leave a reader with a feeling, idea, image, or question.
Experiment: try different endings until you find the one that best conveys your meaning.
Maybe try an echo structure: repeat significant lines from the lead, or elsewhere, in the conclusion. Give your poem the time it needs for the right conclusion. Slide11
Breaking lines and Stanzas and Punctuating
Poetry is written to be spoken.
Break lines to emphasize pauses or silences.
Break on nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
Try to draft your poem in lines. When you revise, insert // between lines to indicate a new line break, and ----------------- between lines to indicate a new stanza break. Experiment with the size, shape, and length of lines and stanzas. In general, you may want to punctuate and capitalize the lines of your poems as if they’re prose, but don’t be afraid to experiment with/without caps and punctuation, either. Slide12
Rain Lullaby
I listen to the rain
as it drizzles on our roof
And snuggle even deeper
Under the warm weight of my covers.
My hands open my book,
And I begin to read.
In a moment I’m lost
As the story unfolds.
Slowly, slowly, I feel
My eyelids turn to lead.
I shut my book
And turn off the light.
Already adrift
I close my eyes,
So glad to be where I am-
Half asleep
In the warmth
Of my bed
With the rain as my lullaby
-Molly JordanSlide13
About Lines
“ I cannot say too many times how powerful the techniques of line length and line breaks are. You cannot swing the lines around, or fling strong-sounding words, or scatter soft ones, to no purpose.”
- Mary OliverSlide14
The Meet
Step up.
Take your mark.
Go.
I burst off the starting block,
f
ly through the air,
s
lice into the water,
a
nd glide.
I stroke,
gasp for air
until I’m at the end of the pool,
where I flip
and push off
as hard as I can.
The screams of the crowd
fill my ears
as I take one more breath,
reach the wall,
hit it,
WIN.
- David MacDonaldSlide15
Stanzas
Comes from the Latin word
stantia
, which means “standing” or “stopping”
Later became stanza = “stopping place” or “room”
“The stanza-break almost always indicates a pause, however slight, just as you have to slow down to go through a door.”
– Ron PadgettSlide16
The Storm
Under gloomy gray skies hanging low
I pulled on my oilskins and climbed into the wooden skiff.
I was skeptical;
you were not.
It’ll clear up,
you assured me.
So off we set.
Before even the first trap was hauled,
rain began to trickle down our cheeks
and onto the orange rubber of the oilskins.
Within a few traps
it was streaming from the sky,
lashing onto our bowed heads.
.
Slide17
The Storm (continued)
Trap after trap we hauled,
and I did my jobs mechanically as we collected our booty;
mottled brown and green lobsters.
The dog bounded along the
seaweedy
rocks, trying to keep up with us.
I shivered beneath my hood.
We pulled into the dock
with numbed faces and frozen fingers.
I met my black dog under the trees on the shore
and with stiff hands tried to unbuckle my soaked life vest
as we walked to the boat shop at the top of the hill,
as the rain poured down on the blue-gray
ocean
-
Annie
KassSlide18
About Stanzas
“The main thing is to
make rooms that are
big enough to be useful,
shapely enough to be
attractive, and not so empty
as to be disappointing.”
-Rod PadgettSlide19
“ Poetry is
especially
the art of
c
ompression.”
- Robert WallaceSlide20
“I know a poem
is finished
when I can’t
find another
word to cut.”
-Bobbi KatzSlide21
A Little Friendship (cut)
We met on an airplane.
She was from Germany
and on her way to visit
her grandmother in the States.
We had finished our vacation
in Germany and were headed home to Maine.
First we exchanged visits in our airplane neighborhoods.
We listened to music
and watched Bugs Bunny videos.
Then we crawled under seats,
poked people’s feet,
and scurried away,
trying to suppress our giggles.
Near the back of the plane, two brothers
played with Batman toys.
We despised Batman
and chanted an anti-Batman song
to the tune of “Jingle Bells.”
We wrote our addresses
on slips of paper
and exchanged them.
We said good-bye as we collected our baggage.
But never saw her again.
I lost my slip of paper.
I think she lost hers too.
We never wrote to each other.
So I consider her a brief friend,
one who helped pass the time on a six-hour flight
and made a memory.
- Lucas MayerSlide22
Cut to the Bone
When the poet can’t find another word to cut, a poem is done.
Weigh every line and every word: does it do anything for your poem? Does a smart reader need it? And, is it elegant shorthand yet?Slide23
Use Repetition
Beware of ineffective repetition: a word repeated in too close proximity to no purpose or effect and that sounds awkward.
Use effective repetition to stress an important word, phrase, idea or theme; to move a poem; to build a poem’s momentum; to create cadence.
When you revise, read your poem with your ears and listen for its rhythms.
Is this clear? Can you do it? What are your observations?Slide24
Figurative Language, or Two Things at Once
Literal: Language is true to fact. It uses words in accordance with their actual meanings.
Eg
. My dog is a carnivore
Figurative: Language makes comparisons between unrelated things or ideas, in order to show something about a subject.
Eg
. In the kitchen, when I cook, my dog is a tap dancer. Slide25
Figurative Language, or Two Things at Once (continued)
Three kinds of figurative language:
Metaphor: (Greek) means literally transference. The writer transfers qualities of one thing to another thing. A metaphor has two parts: A = B: something
is
something else. The B part, the
something else
, shows how the poet feels about or perceives the A part.
Eg
. Thumb
The odd, friendless boy raised by four aunts.
- Philip
DaseySlide26
Figurative Language, or Two Things at Once (continued)
Simile (from the Latin
similes
: similar) : A kind of metaphor that uses like or as to compare two things: A is like B
Eg
. Thunder threatens
Like a sound that rolls around and around
in a mean dog’s throat
- Martha Sherwood
Personification (from the Greek
prosopa
, meaning “face” or “mask”) : a metaphor that gives human or physical qualities to an object, animal, or an idea.
Eg
. The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes.
- T.S. Eliot