Poetry Mastery Description

Poetry Mastery Description

Category	Score
Poetic Devices: At least 7 poetic devices are used including imagery, simile, alliteration, personification, onomatopoeia, metaphor, allusion, hyperbole and symbolism.  Of those seven, five are different.  The seven devices are used correctly (i.e. a metaphor is used as a metaphor).  The poet provides a thorough explanation of all poetic devices used, where they were used, and how they were used.  All poetic devices were used effectively, correctly, and appropriately.	______/30
Organization: The poem is very well organized. Ideas are presented in a thoughtful and poetic manner. The ending offers a moral, a lesson, a “twist” or a metaphor for life that provides the main message for the poem.	______/20
Spelling, Grammar, Mechanics, etc.: There are no errors in the final draft. People or place names that the author invented are spelled consistently throughout.  End punctuation, and correct punctuation in general, is used throughout the poem.	______/15
Creativity and Individuality: The poem uses concrete details, strong verbs, and specific modifiers to show not tell the intended picture. The author has really used his or her imagination. No clichés are used. The writing has lots of personality.    It sounds different from the way anyone else writes.	______/15
Title: Title is creative, sparks interest and is related to the poem and topic.	______/10
Depth and Power: The poem allows for layers of meaning and is open to deeper interpretation.  It leaves the reader pondering and wanting to discuss the ideas in the poem.	______/10
Quality Product:  Revision is clearly evident in the final product. The final draft of the poem is in standard MLA format.

                                                                                                          Total: ____

Photograph Poem - ME 5 - Due Thursday, 9/19

This week you will take your brainstorm from last week and turn it into a poem 20 lines long.  Remember to include as many elements from your Poetry Mastery Description as you can, such as similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, concrete details, sensory imagery, strong verbs, and a "twist" at the end.

To help you go from brainstorm to poem, here is the example from my brainstorm from last week.  It's still a work in progress, but it will give you the idea.  I'm looking forward to your poems!

Shoeshine Boy

A taxi cab honks

and the faint sweet whiff

of jugo de mango settles

on the dust next to

the five shoe-shine boys

and their livelihood.

The diesel exhaust cannot

Drown out the taste

Of Tia Rosa’s empenadas

Even though it makes

Playing hoyita a little distracting.

They will never get 100 pesos.

Victor remembers

The maqueno he ate for breakfast

And his dad who hasn’t come home

Since before his last birthday.

He looks back to his shoe-shine kit

And his stomach sinks again

As he smells the dust mixed

With stale cerveza.

He blackens those images

Like he blackens shoes

And pulls his long sleeves

Even longer over his fists.

The shop ladies gossip

Outside their tiendas and

The little boy knows that

They could be talking about

Anyone’s dad and anyone’s

Tia Rosa and anyone’s

Shoe shine kit.

The dirt crunches under his

Dusty jeans and

None of it matters

As long as there is

One more customer

At the end of the day

So that the angry Military Macaw

In the trees above him

Will screech at someone else 

and leave him in the relative peace

That comes from

One more pair of

Shiny shoes.

Brainstorm for the Picture Poem - ME #4 - Due Thursday, September 12

Picture Poetry Assignment

Find a photograph and follow the assignment below

Week 1 - ME #4 - For each of the following list at least FIVE – Type your lists and turn them in:

List 1: What kinds of things might be happening or have happened to the people in your picture?

List 2: What sounds might the people in your picture be hearing?

List 3: What smells might the people in your picture be experiencing?

List 4: How are the people in your picture feeling?  What are their thoughts and emotions?

List 5: What does the picture make you wonder or think?  What does it make you feel?

List 6: What tastes might the people in your picture be experiencing?

List 7: Tell about the person’s life experiences?

List 8: What could the setting of your picture be (where are they)?

Week 2 - ME #5 - Write the Poem
 Now look at your brainstorming list and select only the BEST ideas from each question. Using the ideas that will best help your reader see the image in your picture, create the lines of your imagery poem.  

Your poem should be at least 20 lines long.  You will be graded on the Mastery Poetry Description I gave you, so be sure to refer to it as you write and include everything from the description in your poem.

                                    Mrs. Cannon’s Sample Brainstorm

1. They were selling cheap plastic toys and now they’re counting their money; They stole some gum from a tienda and they are splitting it up, keeping a watch out for the cops; They are playing Hoyita behind the train station when they are supposed to be in school; They are chatting about their experiences of that day’s work shining shoes at the train station; They have to have 100 pesos to take back to the boys home at the end of the day and they are afraid to go home.

2. Sounds: taxi cabs honking their horns; shop ladies gossiping outside their tiendas; dirt crunching under their dusty jeans; the bus brakes screeching on the next street over; and angry Military Macaw screeches from the trees overhead.

3. Smells: shoe-shine polish, dust mixed with stale cerveza, diesel exhaust from taxi and bus fumes, clothes that have been worn for days, faint smell of a fruit juice stand selling jugos de mango, pina Blanca and tomate de arbol on the other side of the street.

4. they are feeling frustrated and tired from a long day of working the parks and streets with their shoe-shine kits, they are not dreaming about a new video game or a trip to Disneyworld – their day’s wages wouldn’t even come close to affording that and besides those things are far beyond anything they could even dream of; maybe they are not miserable, not depressed, just plotting the next thing to do – maybe misery and depression are also not in their realm of thinking; maybe they are thinking about the cool new toy that Victor got from his uncle’s tienda across from the parque.

5. It makes me wonder what waits for them when they go home at night.  What do their houses look like?  What do their parents do for a living?  What will they eat? Where do they sleep? Do they ever get to go to school?  Can they read and do math?  Do they feel sorry for themselves or is life good to them because they don’t know any better?  Why do I feel sorry for them?

6.  Tastes:  dust; his Tia’s papas rellenos she served as leftovers for breakfast this morning; imagining the taste of sweet caramelos they could buy with their shoeshine money; blank – nothing – hunger; blue raspberry bolos they got from the nice lady by the lake at the parque.

7. Victor gets up every morning, puts on his chompa, shoes and hat and grabs his shoeshine kit by the door.  His mother is already at the fruit market selling tomatoes and limes and 5 different kinds of bananas.  He grabs a big red one they call maqueno and heads out the door to the park to meet his buddies and find someone who needs some shiny shoes.  He only went to school before his dad started drinking and left them.  He doesn’t think too much about that.  He and Juan Carlos are involved in a game to see who can shine the most shoes on guys wearing hats today.  He has to win because the loser has to buy a bolo from the nice lady who works a cart by the lake at the park.

8. The boys are a couple of streets over from the main park in a little town in Peru; or Mexico; or Bolivia; or Ecuador.

ME 3 - List Poem - Due Thursday, September 5

List Poem Assignment – Due Thursday, September 5, 2013

1.      Brainstorm a list of their most prized, well-loved, or significant possessions. These may be items they own now, or they may be possessions from their childhood.

2.      Choose two or three of these objects, the ones that have the most "history,” meaning, and stories behind them. For each of these objects, do a quick free-write of phrases and ideas that relate to the object and its importance in your life.

3.       Refer to Raymond Carver’s poem “The Car,” a lengthy list of descriptive phrases that create a vivid picture of the poet’s car.  Also refer to his poem “Fear,” and notice the ending “twist” in each poem.

4.       Another format you could follow is the one found in “Star-Spangled Cheese” where each event on the list is expanded into a short paragraph or stanza.

5.      Although this writing might seem easy at first, as easy as compiling a grocery list, you need to do two important things:

·         Decide on a plan, a logical reason for the way you organize the poem and the order of your lines.

·         Work hard to choose just the right words because the poem is composed of so few words.

6.     ASSIGNMENT:  Using one of your most prized possessions, write a 12-25 line list poem using descriptive phrases, vivid images, at least one metaphor and an ending “twist”.

Fear

By Raymond Carver

Fear of seeing a police car pull into the drive.

Fear of falling asleep at night.

Fear of not falling asleep.

Fear of the past rising up.

Fear of the present taking flight.

Fear of the telephone that rings in the dead of night.

Fear of electrical storms.

Fear of the cleaning woman who has a spot on her cheek!

Fear of dogs I've been told won't bite.

Fear of anxiety!

Fear of having to identify the body of a dead friend.

Fear of running out of money.

Fear of having too much, though people will not believe this.

Fear of psychological profiles.

Fear of being late and fear of arriving before anyone else.

Fear of my children's handwriting on envelopes.

Fear they'll die before I do, and I'll feel guilty.

Fear of having to live with my mother in her old age, and mine.

Fear of confusion.

Fear this day will end on an unhappy note.

Fear of waking up to find you gone.

Fear of not loving and fear of not loving enough.

Fear that what I love will prove lethal to those I love.

Fear of death.

Fear of living too long.

Fear of death.

I've said that.

THE CAR
Raymond Carver

The car with a cracked windshield.
The car that threw a rod.
The car without brakes.
The car with a faulty U-joint.
The car with a hole in its radiator.
The car I picked peaches for.
The car with a cracked block.
The car with no reverse gear.
The car I traded for a bicycle.
The car with steering problems.
The car with generator trouble.
The car with no back seat.
The car with the torn front seat.
The car that burned oil.
The car with the rotten hoses.
The car that left the restaurant without paying.
The car with bald tires.
The car with no heater or defroster.
The car with its front end out of alignment.
The car the child threw up in.
The car I threw up in.
The car with the broken water pump.
The car whose timing gear was shot.
The car with the blown head-gasket.
The car I left on the side of the road.
The car that leaked carbon monoxide.
The car with the sticky carburetor.
The car that hit the dog and kept going.
The car with the hole in its muffler.
The car my daughter wrecked.
The car with the twice-rebuilt engine.
The car with the corroded battery cables.
The car bought with a bad check.
Car of my sleepless nights.
The car with a stuck thermostat.
The car whose engine caught fire.
The car with no headlights.
The car with a broken fan belt.
The car with wipers that wouldn’t work.
The car I gave away.
The car with transmission trouble.
The car I washed my hands of.
The car I struck with a hammer.
The car with payments that couldn’t be met.
The repossessed car.
The car whose clutch-pin broke.
The car waiting on the back lot.
Car of my dreams

My car.