http://www.bucks.edu/media/bcccmedialibrary/pdf/FormsofPoetry_000.pdf
Here is a list of poetry forms. Choose one form and give us an example (different from the one provided). Then, write a poem of your own. You may choose any form, the one for which you found an example or any other on the list except acrostic. ( I assume none of you will choose an epic!) If possible, try to choose a form that no one else has done. A nice sampling will be nice!
Cinquain
ReplyDeleteBut then
Because they dwell
In Ireland's beauty
The lucky land of green and fun
They dance
By me
Limerick
There was an old man with a beard
Who said, "it’s just how I feared!
Two owls and a hen
Four larks and a wren
Have all built their nests in my beard.
By Edward Lear
Your poem is so cute! It's very Ireland-esque. I think it's so cool how only a few words can invoke such rich sentiments within a person. It reminds me of the saying "less is more." Sometimes poems have a tendency to be a bit drawn out, and the reader loses interest (particularly if the imagery isn't very abundant). But I think a cinquain is a very interesting form of poetry, and I'm glad you wrote an example. :)
DeleteGrace, I really liked your poem. It was so simple, and yet the words you chose made it extremely vivid and emotional. I was surprised at the number of feelings it evoked, and how they developed as the poem went on. The simplicity itself tied in to your theme of wild beauty. Great job!
DeleteBlank Verse by me
ReplyDeleteA look in the mirror confirms my despairing suspicion,
That as I have grown older I cannot recognize my face anymore,
The years of corruption and innocence lost,
Has left a worn mask drawn on my face.
Is it that we have grown old and worn,
As the atmosphere of innocence and untouched youth has worn away.
Leaving us with a haunting memory of the selves we used to be,
In a time that seems so far away and is forever lost.
Epistle
Elizabeth Bishop, "Letter to NYC"
In your next letter I wish you’d say
where you are going and what you are doing;
how are the plays, and after the plays
what other pleasures you’re pursuing:
taking cabs in the middle of the night,
driving as if to save your soul
where the road goes round and round the park
and the meter glares like a moral owl
Your poem gives me the shivers. I like to think that as I grow older, I'm becoming a better version of myself. This made me sad and I hope it's not about you because I don't think you are corrupted! The New York poem is nice as well because it reminds me exactly of the city. I love to visit there, but could never live there! I have had a great appreciation for poems recently, and I am a fan of blank verse because they don't rhyme and it is just thoughts spilled out in a way that makes sense. I like to understand things.
DeleteAbbey I really like your poem! I also love that form. Kaitlyn Quinn used to use blank verse ALL the time and her poems were always so interesting. It's such a cool form because it doesn't require the poet to abide by too many rules. It allows them to be especially creative and express their sentiments plainly as they come. Awesome job!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteP. S. I didn't realize your example was an epistle. Oops.
DeleteAbbey, this poem was beautiful. Everyone changes as they grow older, and they have to wonder whether it was for better or worse. I feel as though most people feel they become worse, not because they actually do, but because they lose their innocence. Youth is a time of joy and naivety, and it hard to recapture that lightness. Great job!
DeleteAbbey, that poem was absolutely wonderful. I'm kind of terrified to look in the mirror and not recognize myself. But I guess that comes with growing up. Man...that's scary. We're all growing up so fast...eventually...well all be at college and living our own lives. Then we'll look in the mirror, and we won't see any of what we used to be. Your poem captures that stunning realization quite wonderfully.
DeleteI did an Epistle for both.
ReplyDeleteEpistle to My Past Insecurities
By Me
I thought of you today
When my world was slow and silent.
I had merely forgotten our acquaintance,
The shadow that you had so often cast
Nearly unrecognizable
Against the glittering beams caressing my soul.
I'm doing much better now.
The toxic darkness
Which your presence had inflicted upon me
No longer courses through my veins
Infecting my perception and paralyzing my spirit.
I let you go.
And so
As I sit here
Writing this letter to you,
I am reminded of an inescapable truth -
I am, you see, most grateful for you.
I am grateful that you taunted me
With your lies about conformity.
I am grateful for the whispers you spoke
As the storm poured from my eyes.
Because you see, my dear,
Had it not been for you,
I would not have had incentive
To delve into the depths of my soul
As I searched ravenously for answers.
I would never have encountered
The pure delight within my soul
When I at last discovered myself.
Dear David
By Matthew Burgess
This morning I looked
for your book online
and almost bought it
from the evil giant
but balked. Instead
I wrote a poem in bed
about a faux-leopard
jacket while drinking
coffee from a Bette
Midler mug. Marcel
says when he catches
himself self-censoring
he knows to add it
anyway. Anyway
I scrambled eggs
before rearranging
my book shelves,
extracting the ones
I can live without.
Those I put in a box
for prisoners (who
want dictionaries
and classic fiction,
the website says)
and later the buyer
in Red Hook took
a towering stack
for a seventeen buck
credit. I skimmed
the spines and there
you were! Like new!
On the cover in blue
pants, a violet plaid
shirt, surrounded by
bright particulars!
Mary, I really like your epistle! It's hard to write in a form that you're not used to and do it effectively, by you definitely did it! I think epistles are definitely an underused poetry form and when I looked into it for my own blog, I found some really interesting examples.
DeleteYour poem is beautiful, Mary. It is so interesting and shows so much strength! I love how you used apostrophe to personify your insecurities. That is very creative and if you ever write a book of poems, i will buy it and have my kid do their poetry project on you.
ReplyDeleteElegy by Me
ReplyDeleteThe sunlight slowly fades to dusk
Just as you faded away from me
Our connection is withered, a husk
Separated but not free
I scuff my feet and kick the dirt
The blood red sky above my head
Reflects the rawness of my hurt
I wish it were physical instead
Oh why have you gone from me
What has pushed you away
This is not what I wanted to be
How I wanted you to stay
They say time goes on and on
Leaving lives by the wayside
We are all so long gone
Loved ones have died
SONNET 116 by Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Ashley, I love the poem you created. The imagery of the blood red sky made me stop and picture those beautiful red skies at sunsets. Those are always my favorite nights. I love the connection of it to the last line when you say "loved ones have died." I like how it also can connect to the "rawness of my hurt" because rubbed skin appears red. Your poem was well thought out and beautiful.
DeleteOde to Uni-Horned Horses
ReplyDeleteOh thou majestic beast
Your might is quite mighty
The sun strikes your mane
And your horn leaves a shadow
You fly to and fro
With no regards for
Time and space
Thou are truly great
When thou throwith upith
It contains rainbows and sunshine
Lovely puke
For such a lowly time
Whenever thou landing
You are immediately attacked
By 12 year old girls
A lowly exsistence for thou
But you are always flying above
Watching us
Protecting us
Oh mighty unihorned horse
By Me
The deal is, odes are usually very long...so here's a link to ode to joy. I couldn't get it to fit. So...enjoy.
http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/l/ludwig_van_beethoven/ode_to_joy.html
Gizzy, this poem was so beautiful. It is hard to imagine you came up with this in a hotel room in Hershey instead of on some tropical retreat where you were struck by the beauty and majesty of a whimsical uni-horse. I felt deeply touched by your ode to it. I hope someday I can be greatly inspired by this unicorn.
DeleteGizzy, this is a really unique poem. I think the topic itself is interesting and something I'm sure hasn't been written about in poetry much. I also really liked the link you posted as well. I found the whole poem very captivating.
DeleteVillanelle
ReplyDeleteLook at the stars in the dead of the night
When hope is lost and I am not around
For you will find me in the night's starlight
Do not fear when you lose all your fight
For I will find a way back your life
Look at the stars in the dead of the night
I know you think I'm lost, out of your sight
I am never gone, I am always here
For you will find me in the night's starlight
Fight to stay alive now with all your might
The time will come when I see you again
Look at the stars in the dead of the night
For you will find me in the night's starlight
Villanelle
Mad Girl’s Love Song
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead,
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head)
The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary darkness gallops in.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head).
God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:
Exit seraphim and enter Satan’s men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I fancied you’d return the way you said.
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head).
I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head).
Lauren, that was extremely beautious. It's really hard to imagine that you wrote that in a hotel room in Hershey and not in Potter County (best place to go star gazing in the area by the way) watching the sun set and the stars come up. Anyways, that was extremely inspiring. I hope someday to be inspired by the setting sun and rising stars. I also liked your example. Overall, very entertaining.
Delete