Poetry: Day 3

Let's take a look at Shmoop's explanation of what a poem is all about. And we'll read a couple.

Get it? Questions? 

Let's break it down. Poems should have a structure. They look different sitting on a page. They are not written like prose is written. They are special. However, they should be written using punctuation. Paragraphs in poems are called stanzas. When we change the topic or scene, we can start a new stanza. 

Poems are written using line breaks. Line breaks are important--because they mean something in a poem. A long line slows the pace of your poem. A short line speeds up the pace of your poem.

Structure: Dice poem exercise... Get ready to write. Follow these rules:

• Select a subject from your journal list. Or, since you're going to use dice, choose one of these themes: chance or fate, gambling, randomness, games, probability, etc.
• Select 2 dice from the pile.
• Roll both dice to determine the # of lines for your poem.
• As you write each line, roll both dice to determine the number of words in each line of the poem.
• Write that poem in your Google drive. 

Take 10 minutes to do this.

Poetry Reading & exercises. 

As we read, we'll stop occasionally and write poetry drafts. By the end of today, you will have enough drafts to choose a poem to perform for the class.

HOMEWORK: Write and revise poetry.