Poetry is unlike other types of literature.

Poets use language imaginatively to create images, tell stories, explore feelings and experiences, and suggest meanings.

They choose and combine words carefully to enable you to see your world in a fresh or unusual way.

They may also use rhythm and rhyme to create musical effects in a poem.

MOOD - the feeling a reader gets from the work.

TONE - the feeling the writer brings to the work.

*Punctuation marks are like traffic signals.

*They tell you when to pause, for how long and when to stop.

*If there is NO punctuation mark at the end of a line, read on without pausing or stopping.

From “The Secret Heart”

“Across the years he could recall

His father one way best of all.”

Comma - pause briefly

Semicolon - pause & use tone of voice

Exclamation Point - intensity of emotions

-Dash - shows a thought is not finished

Poetry is full of images that appeal to your

senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and

touch.

Identify those images as you read.

Each piece of poetry has a theme:

Love First Love Lost Love

Hardship Loneliness Fear

Poverty War Anti-War

City Life Country Life Nature

The repetition of initial consonant sounds

-draws attention to certain words or ideas, to imitate sounds, and to create musical effects.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

He who laughs last laughs first. Time and tide wait for no man.

One wet wellington walked on water Two tired travelers tried to talk Three thick thorns thought thick thorn thoughts Four frantic fish fought for flat fish fins Five fit flies flew forward fast Six slow snails saw swooping sparrows Seven sneaky snakes slid slyly and silently Eight eating earwigs eat an entire egg Nine naughty nettles nick nice knickers Ten tall tornadoes tear tiny tents.

The use of words that imitate sounds.

crash buzz screech hiss

neigh jingle cluck ding

Hear the sledges with the bells—Silver bells!What a world of merriment their melody foretells!How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,In the icy air of night!

“The Bells” - Edgar Allen Poe