Poetry – JSS1 English Lesson Note (Second Term)

Poetry is the use of devices such as figures of speech, emotion, rhyme, rhythm, stanzas, meter and subject matter in a body of words to express an idea.

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. state what poetry is;
2. explain imagery, stanza, rhythm and rhyme;
3. identify a rhyme scheme in a short poem;
4. name three common figures of speech used in poetry;
5. write a short poem using these features.

What are the features of poetry?

There are four main features of poetry: imagery, stanza, rhythm and rhyme.

1. What is imagery?

Imagery is the selective and effective use of words to create a pictorial impression in the imagination of the reader.

• Purpose: it helps the reader to see, hear, smell, taste or feel what the poet describes.
• Visual example: “The golden sun climbed over the sleepy village.”
• Sound example: “The drums thundered through the night.”
• Smell example: “The smell of fried plantain filled the kitchen.”

2. What is a stanza?

A stanza is a collection of verses that form a section of the poem.

• Verse: one line of a poem.
• Stanza break: a blank space separates one stanza from the next.
• Comparison: a stanza in a poem is like a paragraph in an essay.

What are the common kinds of stanza?

3. What is rhythm?

Rhythm is the measured flow of words and phrases in poetry.

• Beat: some syllables are said more strongly than others, which gives the poem a beat.
• Effect: rhythm makes a poem pleasant to read aloud, like the beat of a song.
• Example: in “TWIN-kle, TWIN-kle, LIT-tle STAR”, the capital letters show the strong beats.

4. What is rhyme?

Rhyme is the sameness of sounds between words in poetry.

• Usual position: rhyming words often come at the end of lines.
• Examples of rhyming words: cat and mat, sun and run, light and night, tree and free.
• Spelling: words rhyme by sound, not by spelling, as in “blue” and “too”.

What is a rhyme scheme?

A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming sounds at the ends of the lines in a poem.

• How to mark it: give the same letter to lines that end with the same sound.
• New sound: give the next letter of the alphabet to a new sound.

Example of a short poem with the AABB scheme

1. The sun rises over the hill, (A)
2. The village is quiet and still. (A)
3. Birds sing in the mango tree, (B)
4. Happy and wild and free. (B)

• Stanza: the poem has one stanza of four lines (a quatrain).
• Rhyme: “hill” rhymes with “still”, and “tree” rhymes with “free”.
• Imagery: the reader pictures a quiet village at sunrise with singing birds.

What are the common figures of speech in poetry?

A figure of speech is a way of using words so that they mean more than their plain meaning.

• Simile: compares two things using “like” or “as”, for example “as brave as a lion”.
• Metaphor: says one thing is another, for example “Time is a thief”.
• Personification: gives human actions to non-living things, for example “The wind whispered”.

What is the difference between poetry and prose?

Poetry is writing arranged in lines and stanzas, often with rhythm and rhyme.

Prose is ordinary writing arranged in sentences and paragraphs, such as a story or a letter.

How do you write a short poem?

1. Choose a subject, such as your school, your mother, rain or a market.
2. Decide how many stanzas you want, for example one or two.
3. List words about your subject that create a picture (imagery).
4. Choose a rhyme scheme, such as AABB.
5. Write each line so that it has a steady beat (rhythm).
6. Match the ends of the lines with rhyming words.
7. Read the poem aloud and correct any line that sounds uneven.

Evaluation

1. What is poetry?
2. Define stanza and name the kind of stanza that has four lines.
3. What is the difference between rhythm and rhyme?
4. Give the rhyme scheme of this stanza: “I see a bird (A), it sings to me (B), a happy word (A), up in the tree (B).”
5. Name three figures of speech used in poetry.

Assignment

Write a poem of one or two stanzas about your school or your home. Use imagery, rhythm and rhyme. Write the rhyme scheme beside each stanza.