Name: _______________
Period: __________________
Lyric Poetry:
Poems that express thoughts and feelings are called LYRIC POETRY. Lyric
poems are usually short and deal with a single strong emotion. The word lyric comes from the word
lyre. A lyre is a stringed instrument, similar to a small harp. In ancient Greece, people used to recite
poems while accompanying themselves on a lyre.
Read Valentine for Ernest Mann by Naomi Shihab Nye.
1. Re-read lines 1-7. Who is the speaker talking to?
______________________________________________
2. Lines 8-13 contain personification; they describe poems as if they were human. List three
amples of personification from these lines:
ex-
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
3. Lyric poetry captures a thought or emotion. Re-read lines 26-29. What idea is the speaker
ing to convey?
try-
________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
4. What does the “valentine” of the title refer to?
__________________________________________________
5. On the back of this paper, write your own lyric poem, based on an object or person. Use words
that will help the reader see, hear, touch or smell the object the way you do (imagery). Base your
poem on this example:
Soggy socks hang on the line
Or rest in my drawer rolled up and dry.
Crew socks once smelly,
Kneesocks once fuzzy,
Soon will look like new!
1
Name: __________________________
Period:__________________________
Narrative Poems:
Narrative poems tell a story. Like stories, narrative poems have characters, settings, conflict, and sometimes even dialogue. Ballads & epics are two types of narrative poems.
1. Read lines 6-14 carefully. Then, explain in your own words the system of signals that Paul Revere
arranges with his friend and the action he plans to take.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
2. The speaker uses metaphor (a comparison without using like or as, to compare the graveyard to a
military camp (line 43). Another metaphor compares the gravestones to soldiers’ tents (line 47).
What is the simile (comparison using like or as) in lines 45-48?
____________________________________________________________________
3. What is the “shadowy something” (line 53) that Revere’s friend sees from his lookout?
____________________________________________________________________
4. Pause at line 56. What do you think Revere’s friend will do next?
_____________________________________________________________________
5. What do the two lamps in the belfry signal (line 72)? How will the British be coming?
_____________________________________________________________________
6. In lines 81-92, what is one image that appeals to each of the following senses: sight, touch,
hearing?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
7. What “bloody work” would the windows look upon (lines 97-100)?
_______________________________________________________________________
8. Based on the details of this poem, was Paul Revere a true hero? Why or why not?
2
________________________________________________________________________
9. Like other stories, narrative poems have a PLOT, a series of related events. A story map shoes
how one plot element leads to another. Fill in the story map for “Paul Revere’s Ride,” below:
Characters:
Setting:
Problem or Conflict
Event 1
Event 2
Event 3
Climax
Resolution
10. The poet says “the fact of a nation” was riding on that night. Explain what he meant:
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
11. Who won the battle that night, the British or the citizens of Middlesex? Explain:
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3
______________________________________________________________________________
Name: _____________________________
Period: ___________________________
Ballads:
A ballad is a song or a songlike poem that tells a story, usually about lost love or
betrayal or death. Ballads can be sad or humorous. They usually use simple language and a great
deal of repetition, including a refrain. Their simple, regular meters and their rhyme patterns make
them easy to memorize. All those sound patterns also make ballads fun to sing or read aloud.
1. What did you like best about The Cremation of Sam McGee?” In your opinion, why has it continued to be a popular poem?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
2. List three details from the poem that help you picture the frozen landscape or feel the cold.
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
3. Why is Sam McGhee in the Klondike?
______________________________________________________________
4. What does Sam ask the speaker to do? Why?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
5. What surprise does the speaker meet with after he carries out Sam’s request?
______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
6. The poem about Sam McGee uses both end rhymes and INTERNAL RHYMES (rhymes contained within lines, such as done and sun in line 1). List three more pairs of internal rhymes in the
poem
_________________________________________
_________________________________________4
_____________________________________
7. Find three examples of alliteration in “Cremation of Sam McGee”
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
8. Traditional ballads usually:
Tell a story
Are written in simple language
Generally have a refrain, usually at the end of each STANZA (verse)
Have simple rhymes
Have regular rhythm or METER.
Describe supernatural events
Use the Table below to compare these elements of the three poems: Which is closest to the old ballad form? Highlight the winner!
BALLADS
Cremation of Sam
McGee
Dying Cowboy
Tells a story
Written in simple
language
Has a refrain
Simple rhymes
Regular rhythm
Describes
supernatural events
5
Maiden Savin’ Sam
ODE: The ode originated in ancient Greece. For centuries, poets imitated these
long, complex poems, which celebrated, in elegant language, one person or thing.
Over the centuries famous odes have been written to nightingales, Greek vases,
autumn, melancholy, joy, Britain, solitude, and winners of the Olympic Games.
Today odes are looser in form and subject matter, but they still celebrate a particular person or thing. Chilean poet Pablo Neruda has written several books of odes,
most of which celebrate ordinary objects and everyday experiences.
1. Why might a poet write odes about ordinary objects and everyday experiences.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
2. Which of the three poems (two odes and a lyric) did you like best? Explain.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
3. What do you think the speaker of “Ode to Thanks” means when he says in lines
3-6 that thanks “melts iron and snow?”
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
4. What does the speaker compare thanks to in lines 12-15? How is a thank-you
like these things?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
6
5. In lines 31-44 of “Ode to Thanks” what effect does the poem say the word
thanks has all over the world?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
6. The last line of “Ode to Thanks” is “and there’s a penny’s worth of smiles.”
What do you think this line means?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
7. How is the jogger in “Ode to a Toad” different from “Birdsfoot Grampa?” Whose
attitude is closer to your own?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
8. Pick a person, place or thing you would like to celebrate, and write an ode. Your
purpose is to express strong, positive feelings about many aspects of your subject.
Talk directly to your subject, as Neruda does.
7
EPIC: Is a long narrative poem written in formal, elegant language that tells about
a series of quests undertaiken by a great hero. In the ancient epics this hero is a
warrior who embodies the values cherished by the culture that recites them.
1. What request does Beowulf make of Hrothgar?
_______________________________________________
2. Does Beowulf remind you of any of today’s heroes, either in real life, in movies
or books or on television? Explain.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
3. Why is Beowulf a classic epic hero?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
4. Write a Mock Epic:
Try your hand at writing mock epic. Pick an everyday event in your life — such as
getting ready for school — and describe it in the heightened language of an epic. A
regular meter and rhymes would make it more fun, but if those are too hard to
come up with, write your mock epic in free verse. That means that you don’t have
to use rhymes, but you do have to pay attention to the sound and rhythm of your
poem.
(Use this space and the back of this paper to draft your Mock Epic)
8
ELEGY: An elegy is a poem of mourning. Most elegies are about someone who
has died. Some elegies mourn a way of life that is gone forever.
1. In your opinion, what is the most memorable word or phrase in this poem?
Why?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
2. The poem is built on an extended metaphor. The poet speaks of a captain and
a ship all the way through the poem, but we sense that he is not talking about the
actual captain and actual ship. What clues tell you who the captain is? What does
the ship represent?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
3. The poet uses a second metaphor in lines 13 to 18. What is it, and how does
this metaphor make the poem even sadder?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
4. In line 20, the poet says, “From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object
won.” If the ship is a metaphor for the country, what ’fearful trip” has the country
made? What “object” has it won?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
9
5. What refrain, or repeated line, appears at the end of each stanza? Why is the
situation it describes ironic or not what we would expect when a captain has
brought his ship home victorious?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
10
SONNET: Every sonnet always has only fourteen lines (a ballad can have as many
lines as desired). Other poems can have any type of beat (meter) or rhyme scheme
but there are VERY strict rules for sonnets.
They are usually in iambic pentameter. Iambic refers to verse in which the beat or
stress is on every other syllable, starting with the unstressed beat , like this:
_
/ _
/
From hedge to hedge
Pentameter is verse in which there are five stressed beats in every line (pente is
Greek for five). Occasional variations are okay.
An Italian sonnet (also called Petrarchan for the Italian poet who mastered the poem)
asks a question or in the first eight lines (called an octave). Then, in the last six lines
(called a sestet), tells a kind of lesson or answers the question.
Italian sonnets are written in iambic pentameter and have a particular rhyme scheme:
Line 1: We call the last word in this line, rhyme a
Line 2: The last word in this line is rhyme b. (It doesn’t rhyme with line 1.)
Line 3: This one will rhyme with line two, so it is rhyme b.
Line 4: This line will rhyme with line one, so it becomes rhyme a.
Line 5: This line will also rhyme with line one, so it becomes rhyme a.
Line 6: This line rhymes with line 2, so it becomes rhyme b.
Line 7: This line also rhymes with line 2, so it becomes rhyme b.
Line 8: This line returns to the rhyme of line one, so it is rhyme a.
This establishes an abbaabba pattern for the first octave or 8 lines of the poem.
Line 9: This last word uses a new end rhyme called rhyme c.
Line 10: The last word uses another new end rhyme, called rhyme d.
Line 11: This line must rhyme with line 9, so it becomes rhyme c.
Line 12: This line must rhyme with line 9, so it, also, becomes rhyme c.
Line 13: This line must rhyme with line 10, so it becomes rhyme d.
Line 14: The last line must rhyme with line 9, so it becomes rhyme c.
This establishes a cdccdc pattern for the sestet or last 6 lines of the poem.
11
SONNET:
Example of an Italian sonnet:
And what do I want now to eat for lunch?
My stomach is so empty I could die.
I’d really love to order pizza pie.
Bananas? I know I could eat a bunch.
By now, I think that you would have a hunch
That if I don’t eat soon, you’ll start to cry.
Because you ended up with a black eye.
Provide some food or I will throw a punch.
The problem here is very plain to see.
I overslept and had no breakfast meal.
Without some food, a monster I can be.
I might go on a massive eating spree.
So let me know right now. Please make a deal.
And share your candy bar with starving me!
a
b
b
a
a
b
b
a
c
d
c
c
d
c
There you have a 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter. The 14 lines are arranged into an octave and a sestet with the abbaabba and cdccdc rhyme patterns.
The octave tells a story and the story and the sestet provides a kind of lesson:
when I oversleep and don’t eat any breakfast, I just might be willing to beat you up
in order to take your candy bar.
English Sonnets: The English sonnet is a version that was perfected by
Shakespeare, so it is sometimes called a Shakespearian sonnet, although he was
not the first to write them. As in the Italian sonnet, the poem has 14 lines and tells
a brief story, discusses an idea or asks you to think about a question. The last few
lines make a comment or answer the question. Unlike an Italian sonnet with its 8
and 6 line format, the English sonnet divides the 14 lines into three quatrains (3
sets of 4 lines) and one couplet (two lines, which rhyme). The three quatrains give
the story/question/idea, and the couplet makes the comment.
The English sonnet is also written in iambic pentameter or five accented and unaccented syllables per line.
Rhyme Pattern: abab then cdcd then efef then gg (couplet).
12
SONNET:
Example of an English sonnet:
When Christopher Columbus was in school,
They thought they knew for sure, the world was flat.
When he grew up, they thought he was a fool
For challenging their law, and that was that.
When Lindbergh flew his plane across the sea,
They said he was wrong to try the flight.
A silly man that Lindbergh sure must be!
To fly across the ocean isn’t right.
So now it’s up to you to lead the way
To challenge notions new and notions old
Just think! You might invent something today.
Don’t be afraid! Be strong! Be brave. Be bold.
The time is right. The choice belongs to you.
The world is yours and now, what will you do?
a
b
a
b
c
d
c
d
e
f
e
f
g
g
An example of a 14 line poems in the style of an English sonnet with the abab,
cdcd, efef and gg rhyme patterns, featuring iambic pentameter.
Now try your hand at writing an English sonnet!
13