Thursday, April 25, 2019

Final run...

  4/25
Chapbook Workshop.

ASSIGNMENT
Prepare for chapbook reading
QUIZ

 4/30
QUIZ on poems we discussed in class.
Chapbook Reading

ASSIGNMENT
Chapbook  Due ( 5/2, 5/7, 5/9)
Pinsky, Ginsberg, and Bukowski--
bring in poems you took from their poems

 5/2
Discussion of Pinsky, Ginsberg, and Bukowski--
bring in poems you took from their poems

  5/7 
  Film

  5/9   2nd half of film and discussion

   Final Exam

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Poetry Revision Check List


POETRY REVISION CHECKLIST

Step 1: Read through the Checks responding to the questions;
if the answer is “No” – FIX IT
Step 2
Step 3

COMMON SENSE CHECK
Peer 1
Name:



Peer 2
Name:
  • Does your poem say what you want it to say? Is the message clear?


  • Does your poem make sense all the way through?


  • Are the lines in the best order?


  • Have you kept the same point of view? (For example, if you start out describing a flower through the eyes of an elderly gentleman, you don’t want to have one line describing the flower from a child’s point of view.)


  • Are you happy with the poem?


  • Think of your poem as a picture, full of images. Are all the images appropriate to the feeling you want to convey? (For example, if your poem is about the peace you feel on summer mornings, you probably don’t want a bloody-mouthed polar bear roaring through the scene.)


  • Have you kept the same tense throughout the poem? (For example, if you start out saying “I see” and “I want,” you probably don’t want to switch to “I saw” and “I wanted” later in the poem.)



TOO MUCH/TOO LITTLE CHECK


  • Are there parts of the poem that need to be expanded with more detail or more explanation?


  • Are there enough details to make readers see what you want them to see?


  • Are there parts of the poem that are unnecessary or irrelevant and that could be deleted?



BEGINNING/ENDING CHECK


  • Look at your poem’s opening lines. Do they capture a reader’s interest?


  • Look at your poem’s concluding lines. Does the ending provide a sense of closure? Is the last line a memorable one?



SOUND CHECK


  • Read your poem aloud. How does it sound? Are there any words, lines or phrases that stick out and ruin the rhythm or feeling of your poem?




  • Again, read your poem aloud. Have you emphasized the most interesting or important words by placing them at the beginning or the end of your lines?



WILTED LETTUCE CHECK


  • When you create a salad, the last thing you want is a dish full of nothing but boring, wilted lettuce. When you create a poem, the last thing you want is lines full of boring, wilted-lettuce kinds of words. Are the words you have chosen fresh and crisp and interesting?


  • Is every word necessary? Does every word add something to the poem?



THE QUIET AS A MOUSE CHECK


  • Even the bet poets can fall into the trap of using clichés like “He was as quiet as a mouse” or “Her eyes twinkled like stars.” Do you see any clichés you could eliminate or replace?



THE SHAPE CHECK


  • How does your poem look on the page? Does it have an interesting and appealing shape?


  • Are the lines of a sensible length?


  • Look at the line breaks. Do your line breaks make sense?


  • Look at your stanza breaks. A stanza in a poem is the equivalent of a paragraph in prose. Poets usually use stanzas to group related thoughts, to slow a certain order of ideas or to indicate a long pause with white space. Do you have a reason for your stanza breaks?



THE POLISHING CHECK


  • Are all your words spelled correctly?


  • Is the writing legible and neat or typed?


  • If you are writing in grammatically correct form, is the grammar correct?


  • If you are punctuating the poem, is the punctuation correct?