Boredom Be Gone: An English Teacher’s Guide To Keeping Learning Alive- Lesson 3

If you’re one of those people who cringe at the thought of reading or writing a poem, hang on. Today you’re going to be learning how easy (and hopefully, how satisfying) it can be to create a poem. you might even discover how therapeutic poetry can be when something is bothering you.

You might be under the mistaken impression that all poems have to rhyme . If so, let me assure you that that is absolutely not true . A poet has free reign to compose the type of poetry that comes more naturally to him or her, and/or best expresses the theme he/she hopes to convey. In order for you to explore both realms of poetry (I.e.,rhyme and free verse) you actually will be creating two poems. (Don’t worry- I think you might actually enjoy this assignment!)

Follow these instructions to create two amazing poems:

1. Choose a feeling or emotion (love, fear, wonder, friendship, terror, heartache, etc.)

2. Write down as many images that come to mind when you think of that feeling. (example: LONELINESS - an empty room, a cloudy day, the color grey, a vast field)

3. Convert some of these images to FIGURES OF SPEECH. (Refer to lesson two.) Loneliness is an empty room: metaphor Loneliness is like a day without sun: simile The long, grey fingers of loneliness reach out to me. personificatoon Empty echoes envelop me: alliteration

4. Use the images and figures of speech you’ve come up with to create a poem that does NOT rhyme (free verse).

Loneliness:

The empty rooms of my soul:

Bare walls, cold, cement floors,

Like a day without sun,

A blank screen,

Its long, grey fingers reach out to me,

While empty echoes envelop me...

And no one notices.

5. Now use some of the same images and ideas to create a poem that DOES rhyme.

Loneliness: stalking the rooms of my soul

Until I am fragmented, no longer whole.

It lays bare the walls of my own secret heart

And takes any framework of friendship apart

The echoes of emptiness: all that I hear,

Transforming the loneliness into pure fear.

(If you want to send me copies of your poems, you can try to do so in the Comments section at the bottom of this article. I’d love to read them!)

1. S 2. I 3. P 4. P 5. M 6. A 7. O 8. I

9. O 10. P 11. O 12. M 13. A 14. S 15. P

16. H 17. S 18. A 19. H 20. S. 21. P

22. O 23. S 24. S and P 25. O