Writing Free-Verse - PowerPoint Presentation

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