Module 5: Poetry

Activity 1 : : Activity 2 : : Activity 3 : : Activity 4

Activity 4: Competence Builder and Website Visit

1. Pick one or two poems that you enjoy.
2. Look at the poems and find things they have in common that make you like them—these are your own “criteria” for a “good” or “enjoyable” poem.
3. Go to the Literature community thread marked “Module 5 Competence Builder: What Makes a Poem ‘Good’?” and list 4 criteria of your own for a good poem and 1 or 2 poems that display these criteria.
Your criteria can be almost anything, from technical aspects to subject matter. Here are some examples:
• whether it rhymes (some people only like rhyming poems, while others find them annoying)
• use of metaphors and other figurative language
• subject matter (should poets stick to big subjects like love, life, and death, or is a poem still "good" if it is about a wheelbarrow?)
• time period (do you only like modern poems?)
4. Read over other posts and post your responses.
                                                                                                                                    Websites: Really Worth Visiting!

 Three sites that explain poetic meter:

1. OWL Intro to Sound and Meter (be sure to read through all the links)

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_soundmeter.html

  2. Cummings Study Guide to Poetry (an excellent basic resource)

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xmeter.html

  3. UPenn Poetry Site (please ignore the "spondee" example--it is confusing)

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/meter.html

• Library of Congress: Poetry The Library of Congress has an excellent website that goes into specifics about poetry, major authors (with biographies, photographs and even audio podcasts), along with examples of great works of poetry from their collection.
• Library of Congress Collection Guides and Bibliographies This site is one of the best poetry resources on the internet.
• Sonnets This site goes over the basic forms and structure of the Sonnet.