poem Archives - Writing with Sharon Watson-Easy-to-use Homeschool Writing and Literature Curriculum

National Poetry Month: Do You Haiku?

April is National Poetry Month. What a wonderful time to try your hand at writing a poem!

Haiku (high KOO) is a beautiful poem form that comes from Japan. It is usually about nature and can be spoken in one breath.

Syllables are important in a haiku. Words can be broken into parts based on their vowel sounds. Those parts are syllables. Tree has one syllable. Forest has two. And timberland has three. When you speak these words out loud, you can hear their syllables.

Haiku poems have another feature: They do not rhyme.

National Poetry Month: Write a Diamante

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Let’s write a fun poem to celebrate National Poetry Month!

A diamante (Dee-a-MON-tay) is an interesting type of poem. It is a diamond-shaped poem of opposites, and the last word in the poem is the opposite of the first word.

The Story Behind Dr. Seuss and the Grinch

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

You know about Dr. Seuss, and you know about the Grinch. But do you know the story behind the story?

When Ted (we know him as Dr. Seuss) was 53 years old, he was fed up with Christmas. He was tired of the noise, the constant activity, and the busy-ness, and he wished everyone would get along with each other.

His desire was that people would celebrate the joy and peacefulness of Christmas without all the hoopla detracting from it.

So what did he do? He wrote a story about it. He created a Scrooge-like creature who hates the noise and celebration of Christmas. Ted writes this in the story:

Explore Poetry with “Birches” by Robert Frost

SHARON’S BLOG
Have you ever come across something unusual and wondered how it got that way?

Robert Frost in his poem “Birches” does just that. He finds some birches in the woods that are bent down and wonders what happened to make them curve down. Did a boy come by and climb them, bending them down? Did an ice storm overwhelm the branches?

Then he remembers swinging on birch trees when he was a youngster, and he misses the little boy he once was. He misses the enjoyment of being young and swinging on birches.

A Sonnet: Be the Shakespeare

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

Today you get to be Shakespeare and write a sonnet.

A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines. The last two lines, however, are separate and either sum up the rest of the poem or provide a new twist, as does the sonnet below.

Let’s look at Shakespeare’s Sonnet 62. The letters at the end of each line are Shakespeare’s rhyme scheme, but ignore that for now. Take a few moments and read the sonnet. Then I’ll explain it:

‘Twas Brillig: Create a New Word

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

What?!

That’s the first verse of the poem “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. You can read the whole crazy poem by clicking here.

Surprisingly, if you read the whole poem, you really can tell what is going on, despite all the new words.

Lewis Carroll, author of the Alice in Wonderland stories, enjoyed making up words, as you can tell by his poem. In fact, one of the words he concocted for this poem is a word we still use today:

Write a Christmas Carol

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Which part of the Christmas account do you like the best?

Is it the Annunciation where an angel announces to Mary that she will have a child?

Is it the long journey to Bethlehem with no inn available when Mary and Joseph arrive?

Could it be when the angels burst into the night sky and sing to shepherds? Or perhaps when those exotic kings find the real King as a baby and then fool Herod to make their get-away?

Many of our Christmas carols highlight one part of the Christmas story. For instance, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” focuses on the night Jesus was born.

When the Frost Is on the Pumpkin: 3 Fun Writers’ Devices

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

This is a good time of year to read James Whitcomb Riley’s “When the Frost Is on the Punkin,” which you can read here. It describes the glories of life on the farm during the cool, crisp days of autumn, and the harvest season.

In the poem, you’ll find this phrase: “The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn / And the raspin’ of the tangled leaves as golden as the morn. . .”

Note: Riley misspells “russel” on purpose. The correct spelling is “rustle.” Same with “tossels,” which is supposed to be “tassels.” And, of course “punkin,” which is, you guessed it, “pumpkin.” He’s using a country dialect in his writing.

Riley uses the three wonderful words “husky, rusty russel” to describe the sound of the dried leaves of the corn plant as they rub together in the wind. If you have ever heard those dry leaves or blades rubbing together, you can almost hear the “s” sound in the wind, as though they are whispering to each other.

What are Riley’s secrets to writing so well?

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