Module 4 Lessons: Poetry For Fun

4. Poetry For Fun

Lesson 50

Poetry for Fun

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You may have noticed that many poems deal with serious and important issues. You learned by reading these poems that poetry can be effective in expressing powerful emotions and complex ideas.

Poetry, however, can do much more than just broaden awareness of life and human nature. It can make people laugh and sing and dance. Poetry can provide a measure of enjoyment unequalled by any other literary form of expression.

And so, before you get the wrong impression about the study of poetry, it's time to consider another extremely important purpose of poetry—to entertain.

Rhyme

Your earliest experiences with poetry have likely left a lasting impression on you about what language can do. As you listened to nursery rhymes, you were most likely spellbound by the musical language and the colourful images. One reason you were so well entertained is because of the rhymes.

Rhyme is nothing more than the repetition of similar sounds. Physiologically speaking, it is known that such repetitions create pleasure in your brain.

Exact Rhyme and Approximate Rhyme

Some rhymes are exact or perfect. Here are some examples:

honey and money
quote and dote

school and rule

hex and decks

You may be confused because you can see that the first two examples rhyme but school and rule and hex and decks look so different. Your eyes see a difference in spelling, but your ears cannot. All they pick up is the similarity in sound.

There are also many words that are spelled similarly but don't rhyme, such as hose and lose, or shove and move. When you're looking for exact rhymes, you need to consider more than just spelling. You have to hear the sounds.

Some rhymes are approximate or imperfect. The words sound something alike, but their final consonant sounds or vowel sounds are not precisely alike. Here are some examples of imperfect rhymes:

heart and card
green and dream
port and chart
grown and moon

1. What kind of rhyme is each of the following—exact or approximate?

a. wild/child	c. birth/forth	e. summer/newcomer
b. prayers/tears	d. gullets/bullets	f. away/they

End Rhyme and Internal Rhyme

End rhyme is the most common form of rhyme. Here, words rhyme at the ends of lines. By contrast, internal rhyme is within a single line; it tends to speed up the poem's rhythm. The following exerpt from "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" contains both end rhymes and internal rhymes.

There's men that somehow just grip your eyes, and hold them hard like a spell;
And such was he, and he looked to me like a man who had lived in hell;
With a face most hair, and the dreary stare of a dog whose day is done,
As he watered the green stuff in his glass, and the drops fell one by one.¹

¹ Robert Service, "The Shooting of Dan McGrew," in The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses (New York: Krasilovsky Copyright Agency Inc., 1910). Reproduced by permission of the Estate of Robert Service.

2. Identify all the end rhymes and internal rhymes in the Robert Service excerpt.

3. Which poems in this module had rhyme? What observations can you make about why the poets chose to use or not use rhyme?

To read a poem just for fun, turn to page 306 of Sightlines 10 and enjoy "Maggie and Milly and Molly and May" by E. E. Cummings.

4. Cummings' poem contains a series of couplets that feature mainly exact or approximate rhymes. Recopy the last words of each couplet, and—if there is a rhyme—identify whether it is exact or approximate.

5. What did you think of the poem? Did you like it? Explain.

6. Despite the poem's light tone, there is an undercurrent of seriousness. Do you agree? Which phrases or lines suggest that this poem is more than just a children's rhyme? What ideas or feelings do these lines suggest to you?

Oral Presentation or Choral Reading

You probably realize that the sound of the words matters a great deal in poetry. Now you'll get the chance to refine your oral skills even further by learning how to prepare and perform a choral reading and oral presentation of a poem.

A choral reading is an oral reading in which several voices take part. For that reason, it would be best to work with other students on the following material, if you can. If this isn't possible, however, you can still gain an understanding of choral reading on your own through planning how you would do it.

The poem you'll prepare is E. E. Cummings' "Maggie and Milly and Molly and May."

Before you can begin to prepare an oral or choral presentation, you need to know what it is that you'll be sharing with your audience. You need to fully understand the poem! Therefore, if the poem contains difficult vocabulary, look up all unfamiliar words in the dictionary to get a better understanding of them.

Here are some questions you can use to guide your analysis of the poem:

• Who is the speaker? Is it the author? Is it a major character or a minor character in the scene? Is it an objective narrator?

• Is anyone listening to the speaker? Is the poem directed to a specific person or audience, or is it directed to a general audience? If the audience is a specific person, be sure to identify the person in as detailed a fashion as possible. What is the speaker's attitude or feeling toward this listener?

• Where and when does the action take place?

• What happens—or has happened—in the poem?

• When does the most intense moment in the poem occur?

• What is the basic mood of the poem?

• What is the theme or main purpose of the poem?

• How does this poem touch you or connect to your life?

Once you've mastered the poem—fully understanding the words, feelings, and ideas of the poet—you must then plan how you intend to read the poem aloud.

An important point to remember when you do an oral or choral reading is your function as a reader. You're not an actor trying to impress an audience. Your voice is simply a tool to allow the poem to be most eloquently and truthfully expressed. The focus is on the poem, not on you.

Here are some suggestions to help you prepare for the actual performance:

Make several copies of the poem so that you can make notes all over them.
Practise reading your poem aloud, paying careful attention to how the poem makes you feel. In other words, consider the poem's mood.
As you practise reading aloud, think about the sounds of the poem. Look for contrasts. Listen for changes in rhythm. Should some sections be read more slowly and others more quickly and in a livelier manner?
Look for key words that should be emphasized in your reading.
Look for places where you can include purposeful dramatic pauses. Your audience will thank you for this.

Note all your ideas by highlighting, underlining, circling words, or placing notes in the margin of the page. You may decide to colour code the words so you'll know how each should be read. For example, you could use yellow for the stressed parts, pink for the quiet parts, and so on.

If you're able to work with other students to plan a dramatic or choral reading, you might consider the following:

• Higher voices can be used to suggest happier, lighter tones, while deep voices can suggest harshness or briskness.

• Soft voices can enhance even rhythms.

• A single voice reading a word or phrase when a number of voices have been reading the surrounding material makes the word or phrase stand out.

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• Alternating voices, each saying one word, can suggest speed, segmentation, or confusion; conversely, this approach can be used to draw out and slow down action.

• Shifts in voice suggest shifts in thoughts or emotions.

After making all necessary decisions regarding the presentation, practise reading your poem with your group. When you've mastered the poem, record your reading; play it for others, and ask for their response to your interpretation.

If you're working alone, read the poem aloud and practise reading the single voices in an appropriate way. If you wish, try recording this; then imagine how multiple voices would sound.

If you can, you might consider adding music or sound effects to your recording. Consider what costumes and gestures could be used in a dramatic choral reading.

Journal Entry

Now that you've recorded the poem, reflect on what you've accomplished through your presentation. Consider the following:

What did you see as the central idea or purpose of the poem? In other words, what main thoughts or impressions do you want to leave with your audience?

How did you achieve this purpose through the use of voice?

What would you do differently the next time you're asked to prepare an oral or choral presentation?

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Writing a Humorous Rhyming Poem

It's time to write another poem. Don't panic! You'll start off slowly and your end product will be a humorous poem that you'll be proud to let other people read. You know that a poem doesn't have to be long to be effective. As a matter of fact, a number of great poets have made a reputation—if not a living—from writing brief and witty poems. Ogden Nash, for example, wrote a series of short, humorous poems on a variety of subjects from babies to eels.

The Baby	The Eel
A bit of talcum Is always walcum.¹	I don't mind eels Except as meals. And the way they feels.²

¹ © 1931 by Ogden Nash, renewed. Reproduced by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
² Ibid., 1942

Brandon: Ogden Nash's poems are funny, but there's not much to them.

Chelsea: They're not meant to say much. They're meant to be entertaining.

Lin: Didn't he spell a word wrong? Is it supposed to be welcome?

Dominic: He did that to create humour. That's poetic licence, isn't it?

Chelsea: What does that mean, exactly?

Mr. Haas: Licence means permission. Poetic licence gives poets permission to break all the rules of grammar that they like.

Brandon: E. E. Cummings sure used his poetic licence! In the poem "Maggie and Milly and Molly and May," he hardly used any punctuation, and I don't think he believed in capitals.

Did You Know?

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Did you know that there is a huge literary controversy as to whether or not E. E. Cummings capitalized his name? Many book editors don't capitalize it, because they may think that at one time the poet actually came out and said that he didn't believe in capitals. His exact quote was, "I am a small eye poet." They took him at his word, and they wrote out his name in small letters. Did you notice that the editors of Sightlines 10 did the same?

However, it's a matter of public record that his signatures all show capitals and his books also capitalize his name. When asked what his preference was, he admitted that he preferred his name capitalized.

Now it's your turn. Write a series of very short poems of two or three lines. Make them funny, and make them rhyme. Don't be afraid to use your poetic licence. Pick any subject that you're familiar with. You can choose to write about school or friends, sports or TV, alligators or mosquitoes.

Try writing a poem
Even at home.

It's really not hard —
You too can be a bard.

It's awfully simple,
much much easier
than suppressing a dimple.

7. How did it go? What enabled you to start writing the rhymes?

Journal Entry

Admit it if you had fun writing the rhymes. In your journal, explore how much fun it is to play with words and rhymes. There is only one rule for completing this journal entry—it has to rhyme!

You may also want to consider how you feel about all the rhymes that are used in rap lyrics. Have you ever written a rap song?

If you like, you can write this journal entry as a rap song.

Limericks

One of the most popular forms of humorous verse is the limerick. You've probably heard a great many limericks, and you'll probably agree that many of them are not repeatable in polite company. The following example comments on this.

The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical,
But the good ones, I've seen
So seldom are clean,
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

—Anonymous

One could argue with the anonymous poet about the opinion that clean limericks are not comical. Some are absolutely hilarious. Here is another limerick.

A flea and a fly in a flue
Were caught, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "Let us flee."
"Let us fly," said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

—Anonymous

The humour in limericks depends mostly on puns. The quick rhythm also adds to the humour. You may almost feel like dancing to the rhythm.

Look at the rhyme pattern. You'll find that most traditional limericks are five lines long and all follow the same rhyme pattern—a a b b a. Now count the number of syllables in each line. Most limericks contain the same rhythm created by this specific arrangement of syllables.

8. Count the syllables in each line of the following limerick. The first line has been done for you.

¹Lynn Tillman, "A Cockroach with Too Many Eyes," 2000. <http://home.earthlink.net/~dtillmanfl/limericks.html> (21 May 2002). Reproduced by permission.

If you count the syllables in each line of the limericks in this lesson, you'll notice that the numbers vary. What does not vary, however, is the rhythm. As you write your own limerick, be sure to maintain this familiar rhythm.

9. Write one or more limericks similar to the previous examples. You may write on any appropriate topic. A suggestion is to write about a literary character you've studied or about a famous TV or film character.

In this lesson, you learned that poetry does not have to be serious. Poetry can also entertain people and make them laugh. You learned about different kinds of rhymes and about positions of rhymes in poems. You also got the opportunity to write rhyming couplets and some humorous limericks.

Lesson Glossary

poetic licence: the freedom poets exercise in breaking the conventional rules of grammar and spelling in their work
pun: a play on words that have similar sounds

Last Words in Each Couplet	Exact, Approximate, or No Rhyme?
may/day	exact
sang/and	approximate
star/were	no rhyme
thing/and	no rhyme
stone/alone	exact
me/sea	exact