October 19th 2010: Simplifying Poetry and Using Literary Devices

Barnes & Noble Poetry Workshop
{Tuesday October19th}~Please join us again on Tuesday November 15th~
Imagine yourself somewhere:______________________________
What do you see there? (Write 2 lines)
I see:____________________________________________________________________
I see: ____________________________________________________________________
What do you hear? (Write 2 lines)
I hear: ____________________________________________________________________
I hear: ____________________________________________________________________
What do you smell? (Write 2 lines)
I smell: ____________________________________________________________________
I smell: ____________________________________________________________________
How do you feel? (This is the last line)
I feel:______________________________________________________________________

-Now that you’ve described this place that you imagined, remove the “I see, I hear, I smell, I feel”
-Start to add in literary devices one line at a time
-Try to use adjectives, similes, metaphors, personification, assonance
-If you’d like to, add a rhyme. (Remember the A-B-A-B format from last time)
Things to know:
Adjectives are words that express an attribute of something or words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence. Words that describe appearance, condition, feeling, shape, size, sound, time, quantity.
Simile a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with `like' or `as') “Her eyes are as sparkly as the stars” “He was fast and agile like a cat”
Metaphor a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity “Her eyes are the sparkling stars” “He is a fast, agile cat”
Personification is a figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities. “The sunflower smiled at me with its bright, cheery face”
Assonance the repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words
With the sound, with the sound, with the sound of the ground. - http://www.answers.com/topic/david-bowie, "http://www.answers.com/topic/earthling-album"
on a proud round cloud in a white high night - http://www.answers.com/topic/e-e-cummings, if a Cheer Rules Elephant Angel Child Should Sit


Tips and Notes
• Pick one literary device to start with, for example, take the simile and go to each line and try to fit one in. Then pick another and try it on each line.
• You are NOT going to use every single literary device on every single line, just try a few and see what works best.
• There is no right or wrong, have fun, and write what you feel 



~~~Lesson written by Amanda Konstantine Perlmutter~~~