Learning About Poetry

Learning About Poetry pp. 606-609

Name______Date______

Poetry is a literary form that relies on the precise meanings of words, their emotional associations, their sounds, and the rhythms they create. Figurative language, or language that is not intended to be interpreted literally, helps poets to express ideas and feelings in a fresh way. • A metaphor compares two apparently unlike things without using the words like, as, than, or resembles: “My love is a red, red rose.” • A simile uses a connecting word to make such comparisons. • In personification, human qualities are given to nonhuman or inanimate things. • Imagery is descriptive language poets use to create word pictures, or images. Images appeal to one or more of the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Poets also use various sound devices to give their works a musical quality. • Rhythm is the pattern created by the stressed and unstressed syllables of words. • Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar sounds in stressed syllables of words. • Alliteration is the repetition of the initial consonant sounds of words. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words. Consonance is the repetition of consonants within nearby words in which the separating vowels differ. • Onomatopoeia is the use of a word whose sound imitates its meaning, such as clank, crackle, and sputter. The following are some major types and forms of poetry. Narrative poetry tells a story in verse. • Ballad: a relatively brief, songlike narrative about an adventure or a romance • Epic: a long narrative poem about gods or heroes Dramatic poetry tells a story using a character’s own thoughts or statements. Lyric poetry expresses the feelings of a single speaker, creating a single effect. • Haiku: a poem containing three lines and seventeen syllables and using imagery to convey a single, vivid emotion • Sonnet: a fourteen-line lyric poem with formal patterns of rhyme, rhythm, and line structure

DIRECTIONS: Circle the letter of the answer that best matches each numbered item. 1. words not meant literally A. figurative language B. onomatopoeia C. quatrain 2. sonnet A. narrative poem B. dramatic poem C. lyric poem 3. pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables A. rhythm B. free verse C. tercets 4. “their eyes are lasers” A. simile B. metaphor C. personification 5. “fear of a frightful fiend” A. assonance B. consonance C. alliteration

Grade 9, Unit 4 1 Pat Mora Listening and Viewing

Videos may be viewed online at pearsonsuccessnet.com. Log into your account and put Mora’s name into the search box to find videos.

Segment 1: Meet Pat Mora • According to Pat Mora, why is it important to use one’s “home” language when writing? • What two languages does Mora use when writing? Why?

______Segment 2: Poetry • How does the shape of “Uncoiling” help you visualize the poem? • How does the poem’s shape add to its intensity?

______Segment 3: The Writing Process • What does Pat Mora do when she revises a poem? • Do you agree with Pat Mora that revising is an important part of the writing process? Why or why not?

______Segment 4: The Rewards of Writing • Pat Mora believes that writing should be viewed as an exploration. What can you gain from using writing as a tool to explore?

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Grade 9, Unit 4 2 The Poetry of Pat Mora pp. 613-615

Poets use sound devices—such as rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia — to create musical, appealing effects with words. Poets also create unexpected insights and perspectives by using words in fresh ways. Figurative language—such as simile, metaphor, and personification—goes beyond the literal meanings of words to express ideas and feelings in a fresh way. A poem also becomes vivid and memorable through the use of imagery, sensory language that appeals to one or more of the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch).

DIRECTIONS: Read the passages from “Uncoiling” and “A Voice.” Then, answer the questions that follow each passage. 1. With thorns, she scratches on my window, tosses her hair dark with rain . . . (“Uncoiling”) A. What figure of speech do these lines contain? ______B. To which sense(s) does the imagery in these lines appeal? ______2. She spews gusts and thunder, spooks pale women who scurry to lock doors, windows when her tumbleweed skirt starts its spin. (“Uncoiling”) A. Identify one example of alliteration in these lines. ______B. Identify one example of assonance in the passage. ______3. In your house that smelled like rose powder, you spoke Spanish formal as your father, the judge without a courtroom in the country he floated to in the dark on a flatbed truck. (“A Voice”) A. Which lines in the passage illustrate the use of simile? (Hint: There are two similes.) ______B. Explain the metaphor contained in the words “the judge without a courtroom.” ______

“Uncoiling” by Pat Mora (p. 613) Grade 9, Unit 4 3 1. What type of figurative language is introduced in the first stanza?

2. What is the effect of this figurative language?

3. What emotions do the images in lines 5-7 convey?

4. What does this figurative language in lines 10-11 describe?

5. What sound device is used in lines 20-21?

6. How do the sounds emphasize the action these lines describe?

“A Voice” by Pat Mora (pp. 614-615)

7. What type of figurative language is used in lines 1-2?

8. What does it describe?

9. What does the description of the father in line 8 suggest about him?

10. What sound devices do you notice in lines 9-12?

11. How do the sounds contribute to the emotion of the poem?

12. What kinds of figurative langange appear in lines 22-24?

13. What does this figurative language describe, and what does it suggest?

14. What type of stanza does the poet use throughout the poem?

15. Why do you think she changes the form at the end?

Grade 9, Unit 4 4