Marie P. Casey
To Teach Poetry by Writing Poetry
Objective
To teach what a poem is—by writing poems. Poetry is a very unique way to use language because poetry is the language of feelings and experience of the human condition.
Strategies
To assign sonnets, and free verse—to encourage student writing.
Day 1:
Materials &Activities
Read the following sonnets and hand out worksheets to write sonnets. Discuss form on the worksheet.
When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men’s Eyes
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When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes,
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I all alone beweep my outcast state,
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And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
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And look upon myself and curse my fate,
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Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
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Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
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Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
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With what I most enjoy contented least;
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Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
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Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
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Like to the lark at break of day arising
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From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
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For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
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That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
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By William Shakespeare
Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare
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My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
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Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
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If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
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If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
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I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
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But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
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And in some perfumes is there more delight
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Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
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I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
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That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
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I grant I never saw a goddess go;
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My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
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And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
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As any she belied with false compare.
Sonnet
Instructions: Write a sonnet on a topic of your choice on this grid, using the rules below.
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1. Write exactly fourteen lines, putting one syllable in each box.
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2. In the first twelve lines, describe a problem, introduce an issue, or pose a question.
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3. In the last two lines, resolve the problem, make general comments or conclusions, or answer the questions.
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4. Follow the pattern for stressed and unstressed syllables shown along the top of the grid.
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5. Follow the pattern for end rhymes shown along the right side of the grid.
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___________________
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1 a
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___________________
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2 b
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___________________
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3 a
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___________________
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4 b
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___________________
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5 c
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___________________
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6 d
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___________________
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7 c
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___________________
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8 d
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___________________
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9 e
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___________________
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10 f
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___________________
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11 e
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___________________
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12 f
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___________________
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13 g
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___________________
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14 g
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___________________
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NAME ___________________
Day 2
These are poems of personal experience. They are read in class. Ask students to write their own poem of experience.
Materials & Activities
Read
3 poems from prison
(see appendix by Etheridge Knight, “The Idea of Ancestry” “Cell Song” and “Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane”, and “To Make a Poem in Prison”.
Read: Ntozake Shange
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf
. p. 58 to 63. Narrative of lady in red.
Read: Langston Hughes
Selected Poems
, “Love”, p. 69. “Dream”, p. 97, “Homecoming”, p. 135.
Day 3
Writing the poem.
Directions:
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1. Ask the students to decide whether to use the first person “I” or the third person, “he” or “she” or some other way to observe and reflect on some experience of family, or friend or stranger.
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2. Invite memories or feelings or images which are the strongest—perhaps—evoked by the reading of the poems—perhaps entirely personal—to come to mind. Write them down. Write at least four of the strongest thoughts.
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3. Give the strongest thoughts a single word—definition.
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4. Experiment with form. Write prose or free verse of dialogues or letters to a friend.
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5. Write a rough draft.
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6. Revise for homework and bring to class to read the next day.
