Penfield Poetry & the Internal Monologue

Please prepare your poem for the Penfield Poetry Contest.

Prepare and chat with me about your Penfield Poetry entry. You should leave your name off the copy, just the title. On a SEPARATE sheet, please include the title, your name, address (with zip code), email address, cell # or phone #, School Name and grade.

Please submit your poem as an email attachment. Subject line should read: Poetry Contest. The email address is: lgrills@libraryweb.org

Today, let's attempt an internal or dramatic monologue poem (since you're writing one for the stage).

What is it?
Internal Monologue Poem: a specific character or speaker is speaking to a specific person or persons (audience) for a specific purpose (motivation) at a specific time and place. In other words, think of a situation where your character (not YOU, but your character) is speaking for a reason or purpose.

Here are some famous examples of internal monologue poems. Note that these speakers are writing about themselves as objects or in the 3rd person in some cases (the action is going on in the person's head, such as in the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock about an aging lonely guy who can't bring himself to speak to women)

Internal Monologue Poems:

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot (here's a video of Eliot reading his poem)

Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath. The vocal performance read by the poet.

My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. Here's a reading of the poem.

To An Athlete Dying Young by A.E. Housman. The reading of the poem.

Miniver Cheevy by Edwin Arlington Robinson. The poem read.

Daddy by Sylvia Plath

After working on this for a bit, let's go to the library to pick up a book. We'll return to room A240 to discuss and begin reading.

Your writing task: In your journal create a character. Give them a name. When were they born, who were their parents, what happened in their childhood that was important, what happened to them as they grew up, what occupation or work did they do, who did they love, what kind of family did they have, how have they grown and matured? What is the most important event of their life?

Design a character. We will use this character 4th period.