Song Lyrics & Rap/List Poems

Lyric Poetry: A short, emotional poem expressing a feeling
Song: A lyric poem set to music and meant to be sung

1 + 1 by Beyonce

One Wish by Ray J

Poetry Terms & Types

Ode: A poem praising its subject. Please read Pablo Neruda's ode: Ode to My Socks in which he praises his socks.

Elegy: a poem of mourning or grieving about something or someone lost. See samples given out in class.

Ballad: a narrative poem (a poem that tells a story), usually written in quatrains (4 line stanzas) and often sung.

Here's an example of a ballad (and elegy, come to think of it): Molly Malone sung by Sinead O'Connor

List or Pattern poem: a poem that repeats a particular phrase. For example: "I Believe" "I Am" or "I Remember" poems.

Lyric Poem: A short poem about an emotion, meant to be sung or read with music.

Song: a lyric poem set to music.

Repetition: a line or phrase that is repeated in a poem. Usually a key phrase or important idea is repeated.

Verse: A stanza in a poem.

Chorus: A repeated line or group of lines in a song. Another word for this is REFRAIN.

Tercet: a 3-lined stanza.

Quatrain: a 4-lined stanza often found in Ballads.

Poetry

What is poetry?

Mark Strand: "Eating Poetry"
Marianne Moore: "Poetry"

There a millions of answers to this question. For our purposes, it is the careful organization of words and phrases to express an idea or emotion concerning the human condition (what is means to be human).

Poetry is found in song, in novels, in advertisement, and children's television programming. It's everywhere!

Q: Does poetry have to rhyme? NO. Rhyme is only one poetic technique that writers use. You don't only use a hammer when a saw or wrench is a better choice. So it goes with rhyme. Use it when it works; don't use it when it doesn't.

What are the ELEMENTS of a POEM?

Content: poetry can contain feelings and ideas. Poems can tell stories about famous or common people, places, or things. But content comes from the writer. It is often what the writer THINKS or FEELS about a topic that makes it appropriate for poetry.

Images: Color, taste, texture, sound, scent, temperature are all the stuff of images. Poets use imagery by using metaphor, simile, personification, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and other figurative language in their poems. Try to include at least one of these techniques in every poem you write.

Let's watch a few poems:

Billy Collins: The Dead
Some Days
Alone
The Letter
The Rose That Grew From Concrete by Tupac
Shel Silverstein: Crocodile's Toothache
Shel Silverstein: The Giving Tree
Dr. Seuss: Fox in Sox

Journalism

Headlines: the attention grabbing title of an article

Masthead: the name of the newspaper/magazine (usually designed, but doesn't change)

Article: a specific story/narrative/non-fiction writing about a specific topic

Body: refers to the text of an article

Hook: Every article starts off with an attention grabbing sentence.

Script Assignment

Get into groups of 1-3. You are going to write a scene together (but you all need to record the lines in your journals).

In your group:

• Decide on a place or setting. Write this in your journal.
• Decide on a time. Write this in your journal.
• Each member of the group should create a character, name the character, and write a one-sentence description of the character for other members to see: 
• for example: 
• Setting: A playground
• Time: 2:00 in the afternoon
• Character: Mrs. Chittlesworth: a twenty-seven year old woman who stutters.
• Describe the opening scene. What are each characters currently doing? Give them an action to perform on stage.
• Mrs Chittlesworth enters the playground with her baby carriage. She stops at a bench and unpacks a lunch.
• Once at least two characters are on stage, go ahead and begin writing the dialogue.
• Script dialogue is not "quoted"
• Each speaker should write their character's name and a colon before they speak. 
• MRS. CHITTLESWORTH:
• MS. JONES:
• MRS. CHITTLESWORTH:
• Write dialogue for each character. Try to give each actor at least 10 lines or more before ending the play.
• Indicate stage directions where appropriate. These are usually separated from the dialogue by parenthesis and italics. 

1 Minute Play & Key Terms

After reading Phyllis and Xenobia and One Minute Play by Christopher Durang, please get together in groups of 1-2 and write a short play/scene.

Some key terms:

Character: a representation of a person in a story, play, film, or poem.

• Readers and writers can often tell something about a character by what the character says and how he/she says it.

Dialogue: the written or recorded conversation a character has in a story, play, film, or poem.

• In a play, dialogue is how information about a situation and about a character is communicated to an audience.

Stage Directions: instructions or directions in a play to help create a scene, setting, or describe an important action. These are off-set by italics or put in parenthesis.

Genre

What is genre in regard to music?
What is genre in regard to dance?
What is genre in regard to visual arts?
What is genre in regard to drama?
What is genre, then, in regard to creative writing?


Genre is: a category of artistic, musical, or creative writing characterized by a particular style, form, or content.

 
Brainstorming: With a partner, list in your journal all the genres you can think of for each art form (music, dance, visual arts, drama, creative writing). After you have a good list, circle or underline or mark the genres on your list that you most enjoy and/or prefer.

Writing task: Choose a preferred genre and write a story.
Optional homework: take your journal home and continue writing your story. Try to stay true to the story's genre and style.

NOTE: I am collecting and checking your JOURNALS tomorrow. You will receive a weekly grade for the writing you are supposed to complete in class (and for those of you who have done optional homework).

Objectifying (Chremamorphism)

If personification is the technique of giving inanimate (things not alive) human characteristics, Chremamorphism is giving characteristics of an object to a person.

For example: "she shined upon him with her eyes" gives qualities of an object, like a star, to a person.

Step One: Brainstorming

Make a chart in your journal that includes 6 columns at the top and 3 columns long. Put part A (emotions) on top and put part B (people and objects) on the side. Here's a depiction:

Emotion:	Happy	Angry	Loyal	Kind	Sad
Person:
Object:

Identify the following people in your life:

• A positive or happy person
• An angry or grumpy person
• A loyal or trustworthy person
• A kind or sweet person
• A sad or melancholy (depressed) person

Step Two: More brainstorming

List objects (non living things) that you consider:

• positive or happy
• angry or dangerous
• loyal or trustworthy
• pleasant, nice, or sweet
• sad or tragic

Step Three: Writing

In your journal write a poem or description of a person as an object. If, for example, your mother is a stable, loyal, trustworthy person, you might identify or describe her with an object that is stable and trustworthy like a four-legged table.

"Mother--you are a four-legged table
There to lean on, support our weight.
You are wide and strong and able
To bear the things we place upon you.
We gather around you each morning, each night,
And though we don't always say it--
We mutter grace and give thanks,
thankful that you are always there within sight."

Personification

What is personification?

Personification brainstorming:
1. Think about this school year, your art major, or a particular class.
2. Give this school year, art major, particular class a personality by defining:

• How old is this person?
• What gender is this person?
• What does this person look like? What does he/she wear? What kind of hair style or shoes does he/she sport?
• What kind of personality does this person have? (happy-go-lucky? angry? morbid? annoying? respectful? cruel? hopeful? pleasant? sad? jealous?, etc.)
• Give this person a quirk or personality trait. (Always sings in the shower, doesn't like the color green, likes to pull wings off flies, doesn't eat anything beginning with the letter "f", dislikes laziness, etc.)
• How else would you describe this person? What's his/her favorite pastime or activity? What's his/her pet peeve? Etc.

Personification writing task: After brainstorming, write a personal letter to your personified school year, art major, particular class, etc. in which you confess a secret or make a promise or tell the person off.

Remember to sign your letter.

Optional HOMEWORK: Write a poem using personification. The more you write, the higher your participation grade will be.