Lesson Plan: Writing about Poetry

Author: B. Wu, Murry Bergtraum HS, New York, NY

Subject: English

Grade Level: 9-12

Overview: This lesson is designed to help students understand that the pleasure experienced in listening to or reading poetry comes from the interrelationship of all the literary techniques that the poet uses to present the sense, or meaning, of the poem: choice of speaker, sound, imagery, and figurative language. They will also understand that when writing an essay about a poem, you will do well to show the connection between the techniques of poem and its meaning. Students will demonstrate their understanding the literary techniques by writing critical essay on one of the poems we have learned in the class.

Objective: The student will

• Analyze a poem and the use of stylistic devices in the poem
• Make connections between the techniques of the poem and its meaning.
• Write an outline for the essay

Materials: any poem which has been discussed in the class-dramatic, lyric(ode, sonnet, haiku, elegy) or narrative

Procedures and Activities:

1. Start the class by reviewing some of the literary concepts-

• Speaker- is the voice of the poem. Sometimes the speaker is himself; sometimes the speaker is a character the poet created in the poem.
• Sound- onomatopoeia (a word that actually imitates or suggests the sound of what it describes), alliteration(the repetition of initial consonants), (assonance(the repetition of vowel sounds), consonance(the repetition of similar consonant sounds preceded by different accented vowels).
• Rhyme- the repetition at regular intervals of similar or identical sounds.
• Rhythm-the pattern created by arranging stressed and unstressed syllables.
• Images-pictures that appeal to one or more senses.
• Figurative language- metaphor (two unlike things are compared without the use of like or as), simile ( a comparison using like or as), personification( an animal, object, or idea is described as having human form or characteristics).

1. Discuss what kind of assignment could be given when you are asked to write an essay about poetry?

Select a poem that you have read. What is the meaning of the poem? What techniques does the poet use to reveal the meaning?

2. Discuss how to determine the meaning of a poem .

• Does the poem focus on the action of a character?
• Does the poem describe a person, a place, or thing?
• Does the poem focus on an idea? A feeling?
• What emotional response does the poem seem to evoke in you?
• After your immediate emotional response to the poem, on what does the poem cause you to reflect?

1. Discuss the organization of the essay

• Introductory paragraph- Begin the first paragraph with a thesis statement, which should restate the main point of the assignment. Indicate the various techniques used by the poet all help enhance and present effectively the underlying meaning of the poem.

• Body- (1) In the next paragraph develop your interpretation of the poem's meaning.

• Conclusion- restate the thesis in other words, and discuss further your interpretation of the poem and describe a bit more detail the poem's emotional impact on you.

Follow-up Activities: Develop the outline into a 250-word essay.