In this dynamic creative writing course students build writing skills through interesting theme writing. This 144 page book can help almost anyone learn how to write and understand poetry. In this unique book, written for both beginning and experienced writers, the author defines 14 poetic elements in easy-to-understand terms.
The "Writing Poetry" book features:
- More than 100 examples and poems written by people of all ages illustrate each poetic element.
- 14 poetic elements defined and illustrated, including editing
- Ready-to-do exercises and writing ideas
- Tips for composing, changing, and reading your poetry
- Worksheets, exercises, and writing suggestions provide immediate practice.
Writing Poetry is clearly written so that beginning poets easily understand and apply the principles. The exercises and concepts in the book are so relevant and dynamic that experienced poets also greatly improve their poetry writing.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Metaphors
- Similes
- Personification
- Alliteration
- Onomatopoeia
- Repetition
- Derived Poems
- Inquiry
- Rhyme
- Meter
- Tone
- Synesthesia
- Symbol
- Glossary
- Bibliography
About the Author
Shelley Tucker has edited more than 25 volumes of poetry. She holds and M.Ed. from the University of Washington and currently teaches at Seattle Pacific University. Writing Poetry is the result of her teaching experiences at the elementary, secondary, and college levels.
Introduction
Many of us were taught that poetry must contain rhyme at the ends of lines of a poem. When writing poetry, we had to juggle both sound and meaning, and poems became more like puzzles than art forms for creative expression. As a result, poetry writing often seemed complicated or irrelevant.
Those of us who were taught that lines of poems must end in rhyme were not given complete information about available poetic styles. In many languages, poetry has always been composed in free verse, poetry without end rhyme, set structures, or meter (regular patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables).
In English, end rhyme was the predominant poetic form from the twelfth century through the middle of this century. In 1855, Walt Whitman published his first version of Leaves of Grass, and his collection of non-rhyming poetry became a masterpiece about the American experience. Whitman's work popularized the option of writing poetry without end rhyme, and, during the last fifty years, free verse has become the preferred poetic form in English. This is because free ' verse allows us to choose which poetic elements we use in our poetry.
If the main definition of a poem is not a series of lines that rhyme, what, then, is a poem? A poem is a compact piece of writing that contains one or more poetic elements. Rhyme is just one of the many poetic forms. We can easily learn and use a variety of poetic elements to give shape and structure to our poems.
Initially, though, writing poetry may seem like riding a bicycle for the first time. It is sometimes difficult to begin, at first some of the parts of the bike may seem a little confusing and hard to coordinate. Soon, though, with instruction and practice, we come to understand the process and find the balance easily within ourselves. Like bike riding, poetry writing can become second nature and provide us with clear views of new and familiar places.
We also have great freedom in choosing the appearance our poetry takes. A poem may contain one or two words per line, or many. Poets may use no punctuation at all or adhere to the conventions of standard punctuation. Writers can influence the content of their poems by starting each line with a capital letter or by capitalizing the beginning letter of each new thought. Other poets use no capitals at all.
Because the scope of poetry is so broad, some structure, of course, is needed. I developed the models in this book to facilitate the instruction of poetry by teaching a variety of poetic elements. As you work through this book, always feel free to modify the exercises or depart from them completely. The goal of these exercises is to support creativity by giving you some definitions and direction.
Once you are on the road, the choice of where to go is yours. 'The models and concepts in this book have been used extensively at every grade, preschool through university and graduate school levels.
Our poetry writing course books and writing resources can help anyone teaching the poetry writing process. This book includes poetry writing lesson plans showing how to teach poetry writing skills. |
