Free Verse and Blank Verse

So, you've heard about a very structured type of poetry...the sonnet.  Now, let's talk about two other kinds:


Blank Verse:  Blank verse has no formal rhyme scheme or pattern like a sonnet does.  However, it does still keep the iambic pentameter.  People wrote in blank verse, because it kept a certain, pleasing beat, or rhythm.

from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet where Juliet is going on and on (she’s such a drama queen) about how she would rather be tossed off a  tall tower, be a villain, walk in snake-infested pits, be chained to bears, or locked in a crypt, or even get buried with a dead person in a new grave…..instead of being forced to marry some guy named Paris, instead of her love, Romeo.

...bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder tower;
Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk
Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears;
Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house,
O’er covered quite with dead men’s rattling bones,
With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls;
Or bid me go into a new-made grave,
And hide me with a dead man and his shroud;

(Note: This section is also an excellent example of hyperbole, because the girl is out of control in exaggeration with what she'd rather do.  It's also an example of verbal irony, because she does get locked in a crypt later on!)




Free Verse:  At some point, people got fed up having to fit their poetry in such a formal structure.  They decided to free their verse from all those rules.  Free verse has no rhyme scheme, and not even iambic pentameter or any other restriction on it.  Sure, you can have rhymes or anything else in it, but you're not tied down.

           "The Storm" by Vivian Gilbert Zabel

Lightning strikes as thunder roars
Sending war across the skies.
Blackness blankets light of night
Except when fire flashes bright,
Blinding eyes to truth, to right.
Tears of agony rain from irate clouds,
Which smother joy, bringing moans
Of pain, despair, distress,
Leaving open bleeding sores
That never can be healed
Until the battle ends
With God’s peace revealed.

Note: although rhyme is used, there is no rhyme scheme (or pattern).

More Sonnets from Students

I shall compare your love to a pencil,
and always push you into a small stream.
I loathe the day when I use a utensil,
But in spite, I will always be too keen.

As time goes on, I see you turn to led,
But I look past the alien to see,
That you are much more than a loaf of bread.
You will always be that special some one to me.

As you become to hither near the end,
I watch you go with the unyielding tide,
Just for me to discern you will never mend.
Throughout what has happened I know you never lied.

Our love is like a pencil is it not,
All that has happened is just a sincere  thought.

-Nate C-M

***

Hockey Sonnet

I awake early to leave for the rink

The only thing I want to do is skate

I dress fast although my pads may stink

As a lad I remember on a crate

With balance by my side I learn to pass

Only a few minutes left, try to talk

I skate my heart out and run out of gas

Peavy, keep you head up, look at the clock

Ten seconds left we have to take the shot

Try to keep in mind we are all winners

Men need water they’re getting kind of hot

Not a huge deal we’re only beginners

            But let’s recall its all deep in the heart

            Love for the game remains till we depart

***

I despise the call of the crow of black.

It perches in its lone dark tree, alone.

It leaps up and forward, speed for attack.

I sprint and run away in search of a phone.

I run and I run but to no avail.

The big black crow is right above me now.

Yet lucky for me, I know how to sail.

I jump in the boat and fire my gun, POW!

Now I’m going far, far from this place here.

The ocean is rough yet better than there.

I’m sailing away because of my big fear.

I am far enough now on an island, bare.

Now I have started my new lonely life.

Food is scarce and would be better with spice.

***

This Poem Will Not Win

    by Scott S.

This will definitely not win for me

because this sonnet is very bad cake

I cannot help hating poetry see

and I just keep adding random words rake

Poetry in all its forms is boring

in fact it often helps put me to sleep

sometimes I can not prevent me snoring

for poetry is much like counting sheep

Teachers try to make me see poetry

as something that can be quite fun to do

that you can write about cats dogs or trees

but I think poetry should die like Rue

So to summarize everything said:

writing sonnets leaves me feeling quite dead.

***

Oh summer how you fill me with delight

Summer brings the most fantastic sunshine

We have the absolute best water fights

Summer, it is the most wonderful time

Lay in the sun to get that summer glow

Summer is the time for friends and laughter

Summer makes you high on life never low

Han all day and stay out all night after

The smell of flowers mixes with chlorine

The ocean and sand fight for attention

The mystical sun is never boring

Few glorious months free from detention

Sadly the months of summer always fly

And then we kiss that summer sun good bye.

***

The night so fluid in your indifferent embrace

Lives heedless in your journey to the top

The dark deciding the permanent pace

The tendrils constricting light until it pops

The futility of denying the inevitable

The instability of the last fragments of light

He world illuminated only by a few cables

Giving the world an endless hopeless plight

The concept of time revolving around

Making all of the human kind hours blind

The dark night with no illumination covers bounds

Covering the world with a endless gloomy mind

The sky lights up with a bright burning light

The sun ending the night’s endless gloomy blight

***

If I could dance I would be a dancer.
I'd glide across the stage on pointed toes
Graceful and lean like the reindeer, Prancer
Dancing, leaving behind all of my woes

To be a ballet dancer is my wish.
My toes broken because of the point shoes
and when I spin I hear the wind's loud swish
The pain is beauty when I wear tutus

Sadly I'm not cut out to do ballet
clumsy is not a quality you want
On stage no one would throw me a bouquet
I don't have the long legs you need to flaunt

Yet I still admire their elegance
Awestruck I observe from a great distance.

***

Shall I compare thee to my worst nightmare?
Whenever I see you, things never go right.
You always lie to me; you just done care,
When thy see's you, it gives me such a fright.

You're like a monster that doesn't go away,
like a nightmare, and I can't awaken.
You have hurt me so much, it is not okay,
You kill me inside, crazy thy have makin’.

I wish that someday thee will maybe fade,
I wish you could see what thy thinks of you.
Why do you always leave me in the shade?
I could say you're nice, but that is not true.

As long as you breathe, pain I will be in,
It's just when I'm with you, I never win.

Sonnets from Students!

Here is where I'll post sonnets submitted by email to me:

*

Dear sonnet you speak only admiration

I love for your poetic sensation

I love you, you are music to my ears

inspire hopes of adventure of new years.

Every word, every line, every rare rhyme

you tell us to love life, and it's climb

you tell us to live you tell us to give

you disguise all life's lies and all mischief.

Your not so clear, you are not so forward

but I navigate you like a chess board

I solve your riddles, I know your kings fate

maneuver through many pawns and then check mate.

You think your clever, my love for you is true

Your story id forever, that's why I read you.

**

Shall I compare thee to a burning sun

You shine as light as I have ever be held

For your red and brown hair slicked into a bun

Your skin shines as bright as a light beam from a weld

Too short to spy a round every and all courts

Your hands rough chipped and picked always

Thy smile posed and distribing of sorts

Eyes so very small you are unable to gaze

Hair so curled up you so frighten me

Freckles and dots cover thou unique face

Laugh so loud booming and heard in the sea

Teeth chipped and missing oh where did they place

Jenny King you are a special weird girl

But we love you and you look like a squirrel

***

The pot fills with water all to the top

I turn off the faucet and let it boil

the water boils and the bubbles pop

I let it boil and I check the book

I begin to add the oats one each time

they float on top then slowly sink under

I add a secret just a hint of lime

the small oats cook, the bubbles then thunder

the water goes and the oats get thicker

I get out red bowls and one percent milk

pour the oats in a basket of wicker

pour in milk that appears as white silk

I eat the whole bowl and Two more 'till dawn 

I have eaten it all and now it's gone

****

Sir Stoll has a stoll stash, on which he grew,

The beard has a name his name is stash,

He shaves thy beard until it’s a nub, he threw,

Thy beard grew back and jumped into thy hairy trash,

Stash has a life the one he gave to thee,

The stash had a bro he needed to know who?,

His bro was a sole, on which he grew thee,

The stash was shocked and fell right off thee,

Then one day when sir stowell ran away,

He got the razor that he bought that soon cut it away,

The razor got sharp and he pulled it right down,

The hair ran off his chinny chin chin to the ground,

So stoll had no stash his life was now empty,

He knew that his stash would be back again, someday.

Another Modern Sonnet

Here is another modern sonnet, by e. e. cummings....who liked to play with capitalization and punctuation for fun and poetic effect...it's not because he is a bad writer.

life is more true than reason will deceive by e. e. cummings 

life is more true than reason will deceive
(more secret or than madness did reveal)
deeper is life than lose:higher than have
—but beauty is more each than living’s

allmultiplied by infinity sans if
the mightiest meditations of mankind
cancelled are by one merely opening leaf
(beyond whose nearness there is no beyond)

or does some littler bird than eyes can learn
look up to silence and completely sing?
futures are obsolete;pasts are unborn
(here less than nothing’s more than everything)

death,as men call him,ends what they call men
—but beauty is more now than dying’s when

What's a Sonnet?

Today we learned what a sonnet was, essentially, and learned some new terms that you'll be responsible for: 

• Sonnet
• quatrain
• couplet
• iambic pentameter

You should also know the following terms already:

• line
• stanza
• end-rhyme

Homework:  You need to write your own sonnet (using the handout) due Thursday!  It can be loving, appreciating, or admiring anyone or anything!  I'm writing one about pizza!

Modern Sonnet - Robert Frost

So, he doesn't follow the same rhyme scheme as Shakespeare - he has a slightly different pattern.  Also, it's not necessarily a poem about love, appreciation, or admiration...it has a pretty dark tone to it.  Check it out:

• Into My Own by Robert Frost

  
  
  One of my wishes is that those dark trees,
  So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze,
  Were not, as 'twere, the merest mask of gloom,
  But stretched away unto the edge of doom. 
   
  I should not be withheld but that some day
  Into their vastness I should steal away,
  Fearless of ever finding open land,
  Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand. 
   
  I do not see why I should e'er turn back,
  Or those should not set forth upon my track
  To overtake me, who should miss me here
  And long to know if still I held them dear. 
   
  They would not find me changed from him they knew--
  Only more sure of all I thought was true.

Epic Rap Battles of English

Today we worked on our rap battles.  See the requirements below:

Epic Rap Battles

of English!!

Boast, Roast, and/or Toast

You must assume the personality of any fictional, historical, or political character.  You will be “rapping” or performing your poem as this character.

MEANNESS/INAPPROPRIATENESS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!!  You can criticize your opponent’s character, but not the real person.

Everyone must participate in at least one battle.

You will be working with/against your partner.  Decide who goes first.  Each partner has two “rounds.”  Round 1 is an opening gambit.  Round two is a rebuttal against what the other partner has stated.  It’s like a debate.

YOUR BATTLE, Round #1 is on Friday, June 1^st!

Requirements (yes, it is graded):

·      You must bring a typed copy of your poem/rap to class, MLA-formatted the day of your battle.

·      The typed poem/rap must be in “poetry format,” or broken into lines and stanzas.

·      You must include at least one allusion to Greek Mythology, the Bible, or some well-known story.

·      It must include some verbal irony

·      It must include a pun

·      You have obviously used 5 of the poetic devices that we have learned in class.

·      Your poem/rap must be split into two parts: an opening gambit, and a rebuttal.

Puns and Verbal Irony

Puns are a play on words (or phrases) that have more than one meanings, one of which is humorous.

• Camping is too intense (in tents) for me!
• I really wanted to be a doctor, until I realized I didn't have the patience for it!
• A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.

Verbal Irony is a contradiction between what is said and what is meant (usually opposite).

• Saying "Oh, great!" when something really bad happens.
• When a mother walks into a room and sees that her children, instead of doing their homework, are playing video games, she gives them a stern look and says "Once you're done with your very important work there, let's take some time out for recreation in the form of some chemistry problems."

Some Really Cool Fakebooks and Blogs!

Check out a few of these great Fakebooks and blogs!  Because the movies and PowerPoints have names on them, they will be on the team 11 Moodle page.

Fakebook on Robert Langdon, protagonist from Angels and Demons! (per. 1)

Guy Montag from Fahrenheit 451!

Bilbo Baggins from Fellowship of the Ring (Lord of the Rings)!

Becca Berlin from Briar Rose!

Morrie's blog from Tuesdays with Morrie!

Project Presentations

Hi Folks!  Today we are presenting the projects in class.  If you would like to have it shared to the entire team, let me know and I can put the link up on Moodle!

Afterwards, we will be having a poetry unit, which will consist of re-familiarizing yourself with some poetry terms, analyzing song lyrics, and of course, epic rap-battles.