A Poetry Handbook
Answer questions based on reading.
A. What is the difference between a rock and a stone?
Write a sentence that makes use of alliteration.
Write a sentence that makes use of consonance.
Write a sentence that makes use of assonance.
Think of four words whose meaning reflects their sound.
Think about the sounds that compose your name.
Read over Mary Oliver’s description of various kinds of consonants (semi-vowels, mutes, aspirates, liquids). What kind of consanants is your name made up of?
What sort of feeling does Oliver say those kinds of consonants give a word?
Do you find that to be true about your name?
B.What is a true rhyme or a “masculine” rhyme? Write an example of two lines that end in a masculine rhyme.
What is a off-rhyme or a slant-rhyme? Write an example of two lines that end with an off rhyme.
What is a “feminine” rhyme? Write an example of two lines that end with a “feminine” rhyme.
Words ending in what kind of sound create the most emphatic rhymes.
What is an enjambed line? Can you find an example of enjambment in Jack Gilbert’s Hunger? How about in You Begin? How about in Motown Crown?
When and why did free-verse come into fashion?
What’s a sentence in iambic pentameter?
Of the poems about poetry in the reader so far, which speaks to you most? Can you spot any of the above-mentioned poetic devices in your favorite of these poem?
Extra Credit: Can you write a sentence in iambic pentameter? Can you scan your first and last name?
Must use support from Mary Oliver “A Poetry Handbook”
