We’re going to be looking at POETRY this half-term.
What is a poem?
Poems are music made of words.
Poems can be short.
Poems can be long.
Poems can be silly.
Poems can be jokes.
Poems can be prayers.
Poems can be love letters.
Poems can be puzzles.
Poems can be patterns.
Poems can be stories.
Poems can be snapshots.
Poems can be patterns.
Poems can be comforting, like a warm old blanket to snuggle into.
Poems can make you laugh out loud.
Poems can break your heart.
Poems can bore you to tears.
Poems can disgust you.
Poems can be word games.
Poems pin somebody's thoughts to the page.
Poems can change the way you see the world.
Basically, there are all sorts of poems. I even made a poem out of my answer, up above, using a simple structure of repetition! Some poems rhyme, some of them don’t. Some of them are serious, some of them aren’t. Some of them are complicated, some of them are simple.
Just about the only thing they have in common is that poems need to be spoken out loud.
I'm not kidding. That's what they're for - they're sounds in the air, just like music. Don't just read them in your head, read them out loud and listen to the patterns of sound. (When I read a new poem, I don't really switch my brain on and start worrying about what it means the first time I read it. I just listen to the sounds, like it's a piece of music, and enjoy any pictures that the poem puts in my head. It's only later on that I start playing with it like it's a puzzle, and trying to figure out what it all means.)
Poems are a mixture of music and meaning. The way they are written out on the page is important because it usually helps you understand the sound patterns in the poem. (There are nearly always patterns of sound - sometimes they're really obvious and structured, sometimes they're a bit more freeform.)
In English, these sound patterns are usually made of things like rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, assonance and repetition.
Here are some poems being read aloud - sometimes by the poets themselves, sometimes by other people. (Don't worry about what the poems mean right now. For now, just listen to them like they're music and try to catch the patterns of sound.)
Spike Milligan performing 'On The Ning Nang Nong':
Val Bloom performing 'Pindar Cakes'
Benjamin Zephanaiah performing 'Dis Poetry'
Michael Rosen performing 'Down Behind The Dustbin'
Alfred Noyes' poem 'The Highwayman', performed by an unknown reader:
Matthew Macfayden performs William Shakespeare's Sonnet 29:
