All poems have a voice, which can be called a speaker (or in some case speakers, if there is more than one person “speaking†the poem).
Table of contents
Focus on how the words are ordered. Look for patterns; in drawing attention to themselves, they require your attention:. Punctuation organizes and creates relationship between words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. In poetry, where lines are often seen as units of meaning, the importance of punctuation is sometimes magnified, though often overlooked. Punctuation can create or reinforce rhythm. It can also control meaning or make meaning uncertain by its placement and usage, especially if it is used minimally, or in some cases, not at all.
Related to word meaning is figurative language , which often plays a crucial role in both condensing language yet expanding meaning. Most generally, figurative language refers to language that is not literal. Much of what we read is literal: The evening sky was dark; he looked up; he felt sick. The evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table. Here we have an evening a thing , spreading an action , a patient thing , etherizing an action , and a table thing.
Sometimes they are obvious and direct, and sometimes they are subtle, indirect, and debatable. Allusions are frequently references made to other texts for example, to the Bible, or to another poem. You probably first read a poem to yourself, silently, but most poems also create sense though sounds, unlike concrete poetry, which operates visually.
Try reading the poem aloud. When it has regular rhythmical sound patterns, we say the poem has a certain meter. Melody refers to sound effects, such as rhyme , alliteration , assonance , and consonance , with each producing a unique melodic effect. Poems capture thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions, experiences, and incidents, but sometimes poems also tell a story. A symbol represents or stands for something other than the image itself. A river a thing can be symbol for life; Gomorrah a place can be a symbol of shameless sin; Homer Simpson a fictitious person can be a symbol of innocent stupidity; a strawberry a thing can be a symbol of sensual love.
This will include groupings or sets of lines, called stanzas.
Prose poetry - Wikipedia
If the poem you are reading has a particular form or structure determined by genre, learn something about the conventions of that genre, since this can direct your attention to certain expectations of content. One way to determine a theme is to. Poems are not necessarily answers, but they may be problems or questions. Does the title immediately influence what you are about to read, or does it, at the moment you begin your first reading, remain mysterious or vague? After you have thought about the poem, how do you think the title relates to it?
Which words stand out, and why? Words often gather or evolve in meaning when repeated. These often add up so that a clearer sense of the poem emerges. Do you notice lots of material or immaterial things nouns or lots of action verbs? Is the poem concrete, about specific things and places, or is the poem more abstract, about concepts or ideas? Is the poem full of movement, or does it seem to stay still and look at one thing? Do certain words seem to clash with each other, and what effect does this have? Think in terms of oppositions, tensions, conflicts, and binaries. Consider word choice, or diction: Is the word choice distinctive?
How would you describe the level of language and vocabulary register: They will brainstorm and make a jot list of ideas in groups. Graphic organizers will be used to arrange ideas. The people, places, and objects in their poems should be described using poetic devices.
- Voice in Poetry: Dream a World with Langston Hughes.
- Reading Poetry: Some Hints to Help You Read with More Pleasure and Understanding?
- Everyday Practice of Science: Where Intuition and Passion Meet Objectivity and Logic.
- 2011 Year of the Rabbit Forecast – The Snake!
- Engines Of The Apocalypse (Twilight of Kerberos Book 7).
Reading and reciting their poetry occurs during sharing time. Students use their unique voices outside the classroom in numerous ways. They dialogue with family and friends, talk on cell phones, rap to the rhythm of the beat, imitate voices on videos, and sing songs with a variety of language. I want students to incorporate lively, prolific voices in their writing. Oral and written language experiences in the classroom will help students develop voices that are expressive of themselves. When I read aloud Langston Hughes's poems, students will hear words, rhyme, and musical forms that are relevant to their oral language experiences.
They will find their voices by reading aloud, analyzing, and listening to the powerful voices delivered in Hughes's poetry. I plan to take my students on a poetic journey, exploring the distinguished voice of Langston Hughes. The school's student population is predominantly African American. Some of the students come to school with life experiences similar to Langston Hughes's. The separation of their parents, moving around from one place to another, absence of a mother or father, and hardships has an emotional impact on their lives.
I desire for my students to use their voices to express their feelings about the world around them as Langston Hughes did. I want their voices to grab the reader's attention as they write poems about their life experiences. My students need multiple opportunities to explore their voices in order to use their unique voices in writing. The students in 3 rd grade and 5 th grade take state-mandated writing assessments. Their writing samples are scored using a scoring rubric with four domains. The four domains consist of Ideas, Organization, Style, and Conventions.
The components of Style include: By teaching voice in poetry during Reader's and Writer's Workshop, my students will incorporate the components of style in their writing. I feel that my students are struggling in writing because the rules for writing are different from how they speak. Peter Elbow contends that voice is what most people have in their speech but that is deficient in their writing. They spend too much time thinking about their writing.
They worry more about organization, spelling, and grammar. This careful writing lacks resonance and quality. I believe that my students are more relaxed when they speak because they use an informal style to communicate with the listener. They express their personal thoughts and feelings without worrying how they say it. When they write their essays, they are focusing on a formulaic style of writing. I need to make my students as relaxed with writing as they are with speaking.
Elbow argues that you lose your voice in writing during the revising process. You are not worrying about spelling and usage. Sometimes when you are revising, you change a personal thought that expresses your voice. Steve Peha indicates that voice expresses original thoughts, personal feelings, and who we are inside. In order for students to create their own voices in writing, they need to know the elements of voice.
As they interact with the text and listen to the writer's voice, I will introduce the elements of voice including tone, diction, syntax, and audience. Tone refers to the writer's attitude toward the topic. Diction is the writer's word choice, which includes denotation or connotation of the word. The tone of the word, difficulty of the word, and formality of the word are also included in diction.
The arrangement of the words and placement of the word in a phrase or sentence is considered syntax. The audience is the targeted reader or listener who will be reading the writing. My students will learn the elements of voice as they explore voice in poetry. Although the words on the page are silent, I can hear the voice of the poet when I read a poem because of the poetic devices that heighten my consciousness of words and their sounds.
I will expose my students to rhyme, rhythm, imagery, poetic language, and the sounds of words by using poetry to teach the concept of voice. Poetry will not be difficult for struggling readers to read because the lines are shorter. Voices in poetry can be created in a variety of ways. A poet chooses voice or voices for a particular poem to engage the reader's interest or reveal his or her attitude toward the subject.
The voice in the poem can be the voice of the poet, voice of an imaginary person, voice of a personified object, or voice of an abstraction. The voice of the speaker can be lively, inspiring, engaging, emotional, and interesting. A poet chooses a voice for his particular poem and imagines some kind of audience for his or her voice. Frances Mayes describes different voices that poets use to connect to the reader: The reader feels closer to the voice.
The poet uses the public voice to represent a group of people involved in a common situation. The poet forms a relationship with the reader by using the word "we" to write about a situation that he feels is common to the reader. The public voice conveys the writer's attitude toward a subject that is political, religious, or controversial. It implies a community of shared interest and experiences.
The poet uses the invisible voice in a poem to act as an imaginary speaker. The poet acts as the narrator, as he speaks behind the voice of this imaginary person. This is an example of dramatic monologue. You hear the voice of the imaginary speaker, not the voice of the poet. In Langston Hughes's poem "Mother to Son," he uses an imaginary voice instead of his own voice to create the voice of a weary mother. This poem could be used to teach the invisible voice. The speaker in the poem, a weary mother, is talking to her son about the hardships in her life.
When you read this poem aloud to your students and change your tone of voice at various lines of the poem, the students hear the mother's voice, describing her hardships. The use of dramatic monologue places the reader or the listener in the position of the son.
Prose poetry
Elbow describes five different kinds of voices that writers use in their writing. The dramatic voice is the character or implied author in the text. It is like a stage voice because the characters are performing. The recognizable or distinctive voice is the writer's characteristic style in writing. This voice can sound different, depending on the audience. The voice with authority makes the voice heard on a page. This type of voice gets into strong speech. The resonant voice is the sound of more of the person behind the words.
This voice resonates from the page to the reader. Hughes's poetry stirred emotions and passions. The literary legacy he left will continue to inspire generations of African American people who experience life in much the same way as he did. A biography is included in the unit to provide an introduction for each poem.
Poetic Forms & Terms
The biographical information will inspire students to explore the genius of Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes was born on February 1, in Joplin, Missouri. He was raised by his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas after the separation of his parents. His mother moved from one city to another trying to find a better job and his father relocated to Mexico. Hughes was twelve years old when his grandmother died. After the death of his grandmother, Hughes lived with a couple named James and Mary Reed for two years.
At the age of fourteen Hughes moved to Lincoln, Illinois to live with his mother. He wrote his first short poem and was named class poet of his eighth grade class. Later Hughes and his mother joined his stepfather in Cleveland, Ohio.
Hughes began writing poems on a regular basis in high school. Hughes had his first poem published in the Central High Monthly , a prominent school magazine. After graduating from high school, Hughes decided to visit his father in Mexico to convince him to pay for his college education.
Hughes wrote one of his most famous poems, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," while he was on his way to Mexico on the train. The long ride from Illinois across the Mississippi and into Missouri, where Hughes was born, stimulated his imagination. Hughes thought about his past and future; beauty and death; and hope and despair, while he composed this poem. Hughes held various jobs in New York and traveled abroad, while working on a ship. Hughes was disturbed by the African tribes' lack of political and economical freedom.
The Africans considered Hughes white because of his skin color and straight dark hair.
- Poetic Forms & Terms | Poetry In Voice.
- The Triple Whammy and Evolutions Demise;
- 6. Speaker & Voice?
- Related Video Shorts (0).
- Something to Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn.
Later he traveled to France, Russia, Spain, and Italy. In Paris Hughes worked at a night club that featured jazz performers. When the club closed for renovations, Hughes joined two employees on their vacation to Italy. In Italy he was robbed and left stranded. Hughes was forced to live at the beach, while waiting for a job on a ship.
Several American ships came to the harbor but only Caucasians were hired to work on the ship. Hughes had to wait on a ship that hired African Americans in order to travel to the United States. Hughes's depression stimulated him to compose the poem, "I Too Sing America. He sat in clubs listening to blues, jazz, and writing poetry. Through these experiences a new rhythm emerged in Hughes's writing.
Hughes delivered his powerful voice in jazz and blues themes. Hughes's poetry was frequently published and his writing flourished. Hughes shared his poem, "The Weary Blues" and other poems with Lindsey. He gave Hughes advice and inspiration. Langston Hughes's poems reflect the history, hardships, and culture of the African American people.
The poems Hughes wrote during the 's criticized the racism in society during that time period. Hughes connected his experiences to the common experiences of the African American people. Langston Hughes added a new voice to poetry. I believe that the different choices a writer makes about his rhymes, voice of the speaker, and figurative language have an effect on the reader.
The voices in Langston Hughes's poems speak out to the audience with powerful words. Langston Hughes wrote this poem to share his dream of a peaceful and just world. I would also teach rhyme and personification using this poem. I would use Langston Hughes' poem, "Dreams" to teach the public voice and metaphors. I want students to dream and have ways to articulate their dreams. In this poem, Hughes is speaking to the people who believe in dreams. He is telling them to hold on to their dreams. Hughes writes that without dreams, life is meaningless and hopeless. My goal is to provide students with an array of experiences that will allow them to develop their unique voices in reading, writing, and speaking.
I want my students to be able to form a relationship with the reader by creating a speaker's voice that is lively, engaging, and interesting. As the students immerse themselves in Langston Hughes's powerful masterpieces, they will understand voice in poetry. The objectives in this curriculum unit align with the Georgia Performance Standards. By completing a series of engaging activities, the students will accomplish the objectives for this unit. They will read a familiar poem with expression by reading aloud with a partner or in a group.
The students can enjoy reading a poem that they practiced or wrote during Writer's Workshop. The students will use oral language for different purposes by reading and reciting poems to an audience. They will identify the meaning of poetic devices and incorporate them in oral and written language. This objective can be accomplished when the students write the definition of poetic devices in their journals and highlight examples of poetic devices in other poems. The students will also incorporate poetic devices in their poems written during Writer's Workshop.
The students should make judgments and inferences about characters and events. This objective can be accomplished by answering reflection questions and supporting answers with evidence from the poems. The students will summarize the content of a poem by responding to discussion questions and participating in class discussions. The students can identify the basic elements of poetry by analyzing an array of poems by Langston Hughes and engaging in text rendering.
My students will write poems that capture the reader's interest by using voice in writing. By engaging in reading aloud; choral reading, echo reading, and text rendering, my students will find their voices. These approaches will provide them with opportunities to develop their own voices.
They will use poems by Langston Hughes as a model to write their own poems. Finally, my students will prewrite to generate ideas, develop a rough draft, reread to revise, and edit to correct. They will accomplish this objective by following the steps of the writing process to write their poems.
Models of the Universe: An Anthology of the Prose Poem. Von der Romantik bis zur Moderne. Vorwort und Auswahl , Alexander Stillmark, Frankfurt a. Trends and Movements in Modern Arabic Poetry. Retrieved from " https: Genres of poetry Prose. Articles needing additional references from September All articles needing additional references All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from October All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from April Articles with permanently dead external links.
Views Read Edit View history. This page was last edited on 24 July , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Look up prose poem in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.