Year 10 EnglishPassionate Poetry

Pick one of these and tell the person next to you about a time when this feeling was

pretty much on your mind.

How to Write Poems about Feelings

Some of the best poems ever written are about feelings. You may want to write poems about your feelings, but perhaps you don’t know how to begin.  

Here’s a good way to get started: On a piece of paper, write "sad," "mad," and "happy." Now add as many feelings as you can to the list. If you’re stumped for feelings, have a friend or two brainstorm with you. Choose one feeling from the list. Write down your answers to each of the following questions:

When do I feel [insert feeling]? Why do I feel [insert feeling]?

How does it feel to be [insert feeling]?Your answer will become the poem, although you may want to revise and polish the poem as needed. What will make the poem work best is if it tells a story or if people can learn something about you from the poem. Check the example in the next slide.

Once you have completed the final draft of your poem, you could try designing a picture that illustrates your verse.

I feel really sad in the mornings….My best friend has moved away.It makes me feel like I am the only pebble on a sandy beach.

Poetic TechniquesPoetic techniques

Poets use special techniques to

make their language more interesting and effective. In fact, we all use them all the time in our everyday speech.Have a look at and complete

this worksheet.

Language techniques.docx

A Word on RhythmThis is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in language.Syllables are the building blocks of words: (the stressed syllables are in bold italics)bit has 1 syllable.And/rew has 2 andIm/poss/i/ble has 4.

ActivityWrite your full name and break it into syllables. Change the syllables that are stressed and listen to how

it sounds!

William BlakeAn incredibly talented man Blake is often regarded as a visionary. His stances against slavery and child labour are evident in both his poetry and his art.See here:

Resources\William Blake Biography.docx

More art

The TygerThe poem begins with the speaker asking a fearsome tiger what kind of divine being could have created it: “What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame they fearful symmetry?” Each subsequent stanza contains further questions, all of which refine this first one. From what part of the cosmos could the tiger’s fiery eyes have come, and who would have dared to handle that fire? What sort of physical presence, and what kind of dark craftsmanship, would have been required to “twist the sinews” of the tiger’s heart? The speaker wonders how, once that horrible heart “began to beat,” its creator would have had the courage to continue the job. Resources\The Tyger.docx

Comparing the creator to a blacksmith, he ponders about the anvil and the furnace that the project would have required and the smith who could have wielded them. And when the job was done, the speaker wonders, how would the creator have felt? “Did he smile his work to see?” Could this possibly be the same being who made the lamb?

The ChimneysweeperEngland in the early IndustrialRevolution was a land that became the wealthiest and most powerful in the whole world.It was a fortune built on the exploitation of the weak and most Vulnerable both at home and around the world through its colonies and Empire.Blake was reviled by what he saw and wrote about it passionately,seeking to change society.The loss of innocence is explored through poetry about child Labour. Resources\The Chimney Sweeper.doc

John DonneRecognised as one of the greatest English poets, Donne lived a very interesting life:

Resources\John Donne Biography.docx

The changing circumstances of his life are reflected in his writing.

You have 2 poems to study, one form his early life and one from his older life. See if you can tell which is which!

Resources\The Sunne Rising.docResources\Death Be Not Proud.docx

RevisionChoose a poem from each poet.Learn and memorise:

1. the poems and 2. know the themes and 3. poetic devices used by the

poet

You will have a question about these

poems in your yearly exam which will

focus on the idea of how poetry can

express ideas that a person is passionate about.