AMC 11th Grade English 08-09

Due:  May 31, 2007

Anthology of Your Poems (a collection; a set)
•    All five of the poems assigned in class based on the models:  (See blog).
o    Women Who Love Angels
o    What’s In My Journal
o    Street Poet   by  Keith Jones
o    Haiku……..using excerpts from Walden/Haiku Personal
o    Ode to Common Things by Pablo Neruda
•    Illustrations for each poem that reveal the tone of the poem.
•    Reflection on your process for each poem that you have written.
•    Two “Responses” to your poems by someone else in the class.

Walden is one of the most famous American studies on man in nature. As we take a look at the haiku form, Thoreau’s work provides some wonderful words and phrases to make “found” haiku.

The haiku is more complex than it first appears. Short as it is, it must contain suprise, the power of imagery, and fresh language. Sometimes it helps to write out sentences and strip them back to their essence. This is what haiku are all about.

The resulting four to six poems cry out for illustration. Use your imagination (and your artistic skill) to provide a visualization to go with your written work.

Attached, you will find a few words about the haiku form and a few models. Remember: it is not necessary to follow the “seventeen syllable” requirement.

haiku.doc

One great model is William Stafford’s “What’s In My Journal.”  The poet uses a marvelous cluster of noun phrase to emphasize the spirit of “no ideas but in things.”  His phrases show us not only the “things” that are in his thoughts but the feelings he has about them…and the feelings he has about himself.

Write a poem in which you follow the stanzas and patterns of Stafford’s verse. One student wrote “What’s in My Harddrive”; another wrote “What’s in my Closet.”  But, you can also explore what is in your own journal.

whats-in-my-journal-skel.doc

To sharpen your knowledge of the poetic devices, to show what you have learned, and to read a great poem, use Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to Common Things” to identify the poetic devices we studied this week. This “quiz” is worth a double grade.

Again, viewer will not work, but if you download the document should open.

ode-to-common-things.doc

Students used the textbook to find examples of “poetic devices” such as Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, Parallelism, Anaphora, and Repetition. The attached hand-out can be used to find examples. Examples must be cited with Title/ page #/ words that show the example.

Example: “Frederick Douglass” p. 615 beautiful, needful (example of consonance).

Attached is a copy of the hand-out. This hand-out cannot be read by the viewer, but it will download.

poetic devices