What is poetry?

Our next unit is: Reading and Writing Poetry (woo-hoo!)

I HEART Poetry! This is one of my favorite units to teach. I have been reading and writing poetry since I was in third grade or so. Today, I continue to write and publish poetry and perform at public readings in the New York city area.

In this unit, I hope that you will ultimately find inspiration and passion for this genre. More specifically, you will read, interpret, and at times perform a myriad of poems and learn and apply different poetic devices and structures. You will also write poems and hand in your best, revised piece. You will also write reading responses, and hand in a revised response to a poem.

What is poetry?

I. Complete the following sentences in your notebook:

Poetry is...


Poetry is not...


What I wonder about poetry is...


II. How to do a dramatic reading of a poem:

1. First, read the poem several times, annotate, and comprehend it. What does the poem make you think, feel, and know? What questions do you have about the it? What are your theories about it? Make sure you use a dictionary to look up words you don't know to help you understand the poem.

2. Plan and practice a dramatic reading of the poem that involves everyone in your group.
* What words and phrases are most important?
* What is the tone and mood of the text? How are you going to convey it?
* How are you going to read the text? Who will read which parts? Techniques to try: reading in unison, echoing, singing, call and response, changing volume of voice, adding music, etc.
* What gestures, movements, props should you incorporate?
* Think of space and audience. How are you going to stand? How are you going to make the poem clear to the audience?
* Experiment and practice. Have fun!

III. One type of poem is an Ars Poetica,literally meaning the art of poetry; it describes a poet's perspective on what poetry is. We are going to read an example of this. Here are excerpts from What is Poetry?, a book by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, one of my favorite poets who helped establish City Lights Bookstore and was the first Poet Laureate of San Francisco and is considered an important Beat Poet.

First we will read the whole poem together. Then we will do a dramatic reading as a class. Finally, in small groups, you will plan and do a dramatic reading of a stanza of the poem.





What is Poetry?
--Lawrence Ferlinghetti


Poetry is news
from the frontiers
of consciousness


Poetry is
the shook foil of the imagination
It should shine out
and half blind you


Poetry is the anarchy of the senses
making sense


A poem can be made
of common household ingredients
It fits on a single page
yet it can fill a world
and fits in the pocket of a heart


It is a pulsing fragment
of the inner life
an untethered music


Poetry is perpetual revolt
against silence exile and cunning


The poet a subversive barbarian
at the city gates
constantly challenging
our status quo


Poetry is religion
Religion is poetry


A poem is its own Coney Island of
the mind
its own circus of the soul
its own Far Rockaway of the heart

IV. For homework, write a poem about what poetry is.