LGA 3102: SONGS AND POETRY

LECTURE

WEEK 2

Definition

A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same

once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change
the shape of the universe, helps to extend everyones knowledge of
himself and the world around him. (Dylan Thomas)

Poetry is the language in which man explores his own amazement.

(Christopher Fry)

Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words. (Edgar Allan Poe)

Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest
and best minds. (Percy Bysshe Shelley)

A poem begins with a lump in the throat, a home-sickness or a lovesickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find
fulfillment. A complete poem is one where the emotion has found its
thought and the thought has found the words. (Robert Frost)

Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior

and personal which the reader recognizes as his own. (Salvatore
Quasimodo)

Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its

origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity. (William Wordsworth)

The poem is a little myth of mans capacity of making life meaningful.

And in the end, the poem is not a thing we seeit is, rather, a light by
which we may seeand what we see is life. (Robert Penn Warren)

LGA 3102: SONGS AND POETRY

LECTURE

WEEK 2

Identify, analyse and compare the various forms of poetry suitable for
children.
1. Acrostic
o A poem, usually in verse, in which the first or the last letters of the lines,
or certain other letters, taken in order, form a name, word, phrase, or
motto.
o Example - Here is an example in English, an Edgar Allan Poe poem titled
simply An Acrostic:
Elizabeth it is in vain you say
"Love not" thou sayest it in so sweet a way:
In vain those words from thee or L.E.L.
Zantippe's talents had enforced so well:
Ah! if that language from thy heart arise,
Breath it less gently forth and veil thine eyes.
Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried
To cure his love was cured of all beside
His follie pride and passion for he died.
2. Cinquain

A cinquain consists of 5 unrhymed lines.

Each line has a set number of syllables see below:

Line 1 2 syllables - has one word (the title).
Line 2 4 Syllables - has two words that describe the title.
Line 3 6 Syllables - has three words that tell the action.
Line 4 8 syllables - has four words that express the feeling
Line 5 2 Syllables - has one word which recalls the title.

An example of a cinquain poem

My mum
Is so caring
She is always helpful
She is so beautiful and kind
Love you.

2
4
6
8
2

LGA 3102: SONGS AND POETRY

LECTURE

WEEK 2

3. Clerihew

A Clerihew (or clerihew) is a very specific kind of short humorous verse,

typically with the following properties: It is biographical and usually
whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; but it is
hardly ever satirical, abusive or obscene; It has four lines of irregular
length (for comic effect); The first line consists solely (or almost solely) of a
well-known person's name.

Example
Sir Humphrey Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.

4. Concrete
A concrete poem is one that takes the shape of the object it describes.
This is different from a Shape poem, in that a Shape poem does NOT
have to take the shape of the object it describes.
Example
Triangle
I
am
a very
special
shape I have
three points and
three lines straight.
Look through my words
and you will see, the shape
that I am meant to be. I'm just
not words caught in a tangle. Look
close to see a small triangle. My angles
add to one hundred and eighty degrees, you
learn this at school with your abc's. Practice your
maths and you will see, some other fine examples of me.

LGA 3102: SONGS AND POETRY

LECTURE

WEEK 2

5. Epic
An extensive, serious poem that tells the story about a heroic figure. A
broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative
literature. It retells in a continuous narrative the life and works of a heroic
or mythological person or group of persons.
Example
The Iliad, ascribed to Homer (Greek mythology)
The Odyssey, ascribed to Homer (Greek mythology)
6. Free Verse
A term describing various styles of poetry that are not written using strict
meter or rhyme, but that still are recognizable as 'poetry' by virtue of
complex patterns of one sort or another that readers can perceive to be
part of a coherent whole.
Example
Fog
by Carl Sandburg
THE FOG comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
7. Haiku

A haiku poem is a Japanese poem which can also be known as a hokku. A

haiku poem is similar to a tanka but has fewer lines. A haiku is a type of
poetry that can be written on many themes, from love to nature .

A haiku consists of 3 lines and 17 syllables.

Each line has a set number of syllables see below:

Line 1 5 syllables
Line 2 7 syllables
Line 3 5 syllables

LGA 3102: SONGS AND POETRY

WEEK 2

An Example of a Haiku Poem

The sky is so blue.
The sun is so warm up high.
I love the summer.

LECTURE

5
7
5

Haiku poems don't need to rhyme, but for more of a challenge some poets try
to rhyme lines 1 and 3.

8. Limerick
o Limerick is a five-line, often humorous and ribald poem with a strict meter.
Lines 1, 2, and 5 of have seven to ten syllables (three metrical feet) and
rhyme with one another. Lines 3 and 4 have five to seven (two metrical
feet) syllables and also rhyme with each other. The rhyme scheme is
usually "A-A-B-B-A".
o Example
There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.
9. Narrative

Narrative poetry is poetry that tells a story. In its broadest sense, it

includes epic poetry; some would reserve the name narrative poetry for
works on a smaller scale and generally with more direct appeal to human
interest than the epic.

Example: The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

10. Nursery Rhyme

A nursery rhyme is a short rhyming story, often set to music and usually
designed for young children. Typically, a nursery rhyme has simple
vocabulary and a catchy rhyme. Children can quickly learn to sing along
with a nursery rhyme, and nursery rhymes are often used to help young
children build their vocabulary.
Look at the example below:
Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?

LGA 3102: SONGS AND POETRY

LECTURE

WEEK 2

Yes sir, yes sir,

Three bags full.
One for my master,
One for my dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.
Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
One for my master,
One for my dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.
11. Dramatic
A narrative poem in which one or more characters speak.
The dramatic poem consists of the thoughts or spoken statements (or

both) of one or more characters other than the poet himself in a particular
life situation.
It is dramatic rather than narrative since the character is not "written

about" by the poet; rather, the poem consists of the character's own
thoughts or spoken statements. He may be thinking (or talking) to himself;
a poem recording his thoughts or speech to himself is called a soliloquy.
Or a character may be speaking to one or more other characters in a
given situation; a poem recording his speech is called a dramatic
monologue.