Thinking About Rhyme and Repetition

As you know, poets are constantly aware of sound. Poets can play with sound in their poetry by using rhyme and repetition. The use of these devices enables poets to create movement in poems, link stanzas and similar ideas, and increase the emotional impact of a word, phrase, or line. However, rhyme and repetition create expectations that the poet can CHOOSE not to meet, and in so doing make a powerful statement and create a lasting impression. Keeping this in mind, carefully reread Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” and read, for the first time, Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool.” After having read or reread each poem answer the questions on both sides of this paper using COMPLETE SENTENCES.

1. On your copy of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” label the rhyme scheme.

2. How does Frost use rhyme scheme to “link” his stanzas to one another?

3.With what line, in what stanza, does Frost “break” the rhyming pattern or scheme; why do you think Frost does this at this exact moment? What effect does it have on the poem and the reader’s understanding of the poem? WE REAL COOL Gwendolyn Brooks

1. We real cool. We 2. Left school. We

3. Lurk late. We 4. Strike straight. We

5. Sing sin. We 6. Thin gin. We

7. Jazz June. We 8. Die soon.

QUESTIONS:

1. Where does Brooks use rhyme in her poem?

2. Brooks’ rhymes are simple and easily made. What type of writing do her rhymes make this poem sort of sound like?

3. What word is repeated throughout the poem, and where is that word (most of the time)?

4. Does Brooks ever “break” from the pattern you identified in your previous answer? Where does she do this? Consider the story the poem is telling; why does Brooks “break” the pattern she developed?