Music is Poetry Project Instructions
Songs
are poetry
put to music. They appeal to human emotion with
creative words and comparisons and have rhythm just as
poems do. Listen carefully to your favorite artists and
choose a song that is a good poem.
We will focus on identifying poetic devices and
analyzing their effect on the song.
Imagine you are going to “teach” the song to the
class as an example of poetry.
Step One – Decide on the song for which you will
analyze from a poetic point of view.
Step Two – Examine the lyrics of your approved
song. Identify poetic devices and analyze how the poem
gains meaning from it.
Step Three – Create a presentation. You need to
make it creative, interesting, entertaining, and
educational! In a Google Slides presentation, explain
your analysis of the song, including all the
information from the Analysis Handout.
Make a Google Slides presentation for the song that
includes the following:
Section 1 – Include title slide with the song title,
artist’s name, your name, class period, and date.
Section 2 - Type song lyrics
Section 3 - Type your paraphrased lyrics.
Section 4 – Identify figurative language in the song.
Figurative language is imaginative comparisons,
including similes, metaphors, and personification. Copy
the lines from the song that have figurative language
and identify which type it is (simile, metaphor, or
personification). Your slides should show your
knowledge of a minimum of five types of figurative
language. Include at least three graphics or pictures
in this section that go along with the figurative
language.
Section 5
– Tell what a possible theme is for the song. The theme
is the main idea or message. It is an insight about
life or human nature. Support your answer with lines
from the lyrics. Do you agree or disagree with the
theme? Explain. Include at least one graphic which
would convey the theme.
Section 6 – Tell what the tone/mood is of the song. The
mood is the sentiment or feeling that is impressed upon
the reader through the words (angry, peaceful, happy,
etc.). What words from the lyrics convey the mood?
Include at least one graphic or picture.
Section 7 - One slide should be dedicated to a
paragraph analysis of how the poetic devices
affect the tone and theme of the song. *Check the
analysis rubric for help with this slide.
Analysis Rubric:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i0yxiLXEVti8El1Rqp1iAVGzGRIp1QXnPE9ah_75FU/edit?usp=sharin
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*Lyrics must be appropriate (no explicit lyrics, no
profanity, no sexual content). If inappropriate lyrics
are submitted, an automatic 20-point deduction (out of
55) will occur.