Poetry Anthology
Goal: To get a vital sense of the poetry world – what poetry is, what wonderful variety is available, who writes poems, what makes poetry special as a form of literature, and why people love and need poetry in their lives.
For this assignment:
- Choose
- TEN (10) poems - You can include your poem selection for the McLane Poetry recitation.
- from TEN (10) different poets.
- ONE of these may be a song.
- Illustrate your anthology, one illustration for each poem.
- After finding your favorite ten poems that you want for your anthology, you must write a minimum 10-paragraph introduction to your collection (one paragraph per poem).
- What is your theme? Usually a collection of poems is tied together by a unifying theme. They may be as simple as “My Favorite Poems,” but you could also choose a theme like sports, or seasonal, read-aloud poems, poems for young children etc. Like the Chicken Soup books, the range is limitless.
Please keep the following requirements in mind as you write your introduction. Use this as a checklist:
_____Explain why your theme (or other basis that you used for selecting poems) might be meaningful or important to readers of literature.
_____Explain why your theme (or other category) is personally meaningful or important to you.
_____Include personal anecdotes and scenes like those in the sample.
_____Explain why you arranged the poems in the order you chose.
_____At least twice, weave a short quotation from a poem into your sentence (use slashes to mark line breaks).
_____Briefly discuss each of the poems. You must use the following terms in your introduction at least once:
Alliteration Personification Metaphor Imagery
Symbol Onomatopoeia Simile Rhyme Scheme
SAMPLE PARAGRAPH FOR THE FOLLOWING POEM
by Ms. Ridinger
“Dulce et Decorum Est” has been a favorite poem of mine ever since my 7th grade English teacher, Ms. Presnell introduced it to our class comparing it to the lyrics of Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung;” both poems are about men drowning in their own bodily fluids. The speaker is a WWI soldier like Wilfred Owen, and the images he uses are very powerful, such as when the soldier is flung into the wagon still alive, “blood gargling from his throat”. He uses assonance of the short “u” which mimics getting punched in the stomach and the gut wrenching of the war is expressed much more effectively. Double, under, cursed, trudge, blood, drunk, clumsy, fumbling, stumbling are examples. Alliteration also helps makes the images come alive; “Watch the white eyes writhing, the reader can practically sees the eyes rolling back into his head. The devil “sick of sin” sounds like spitting. Owen’s parents found out that he died on the day of the Armistice, which always made the poem all the more poignant for me.
THE POEM
“Dulce Et Decorum Est”
by Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Poetry Anthology Rubric
You are to grade yourself before you submit your anthology. Use this rubric as your guide and checklist. be sure to provide reasons why you have scored yourself they way you do. Cite specifics from your project to prove your point.
_____ Ten Illustrations - one per poem
____ Ten paragraph Introduction to your anthology - one paragraph per poem
___Explain why your theme might be meaningful or important to readers of literature.
___Explain why your theme is personally meaningful.
___Include personal anecdotes.
___Explain why you arranged the poems in the order you chose.
___Briefly discuss each of the poems. You must use the following terms in your introduction at least once:
___Alliteration
___Personification
___Metaphor
___Imagery
___Symbol
___Onomatopoeia
___Simile
___Rhyme Scheme
___At least twice, quote a poem.