Introduction | Task | Resources | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion
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Introduction
William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) defined poetry as "the art of exciting the imagination and touching the heart by selecting and arranging symbols and thoughts." Poetry is a living, breathing document of the times. People from different time periods experience the same emotions, reflections, needs, and dreams. Poets are the people who communicate what we all feel. Without readers of poetry, however, the message is not complete. Your job is to bring your favorite poetry to life by adding your unique, individual voice to the "language of the soul." |
The Task
You will:
Resources
The following web sites
will help you find: 1) poems; 2) the tools you need to study your chosen
poems; and 3) graphics to complement each poem.
http://www.hti.umich.edu/english/amverse/
This site, The American Verse Project , is sponsored by the University
of Michigan Humanities Text Initiative (HTI) and includes volumes of American
poetry prior to 1920.
http://www.poems.com/
The Daily Poetry Association sponsors Poetry Daily, an anthology
of contemporary poetry that each day brings readers a new poem from books,
magazines and journals currently in print. They also list information about
featured poets and publishers, news from the poetry world, and occasional
special features.
http://www.poets.org/sitemap.htm
The Academy of American Poets site contains poems, current exhibits,
audio clips, and a calendar of events.
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/8383/contents.html
This site contains original poetry written by teenagers, and a place
to write comments and criticism.
http://www.favoritepoem.org/
Poet Laurate Robert Pinsky of Boston University started the Favorite
Poem Project. His purpose is to share readers' favorite poems with a large
audience: people who access it on the internet.
http://www.encarta.msn.com/Default.asp
The premium Internet multimedia encyclopedia offers pictures, maps,
and a good overview of poetic forms (ballad, etc.).
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/poetic-terms.html
This is another site, sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania,
that defines poetic terms.
http://www.pbs.org/ktca/litandlife/
This site, called Literature & Life, is a part of The Givens Collection,
at the University of Minnesota. It contains African-American poetry.
http://sunsite.auc.dk/cgfa/index.html
This site allows you to search for artists by name or period.
http://www.netresource.com/mcny/
The Museum of the City of New York hosts a site that contains graphics
of current exhibits.
This is an individual student project. Because the product
will be an anthology of poems that you have chosen, the contents are personal
to you and you deserve all the credit!
SEARCH...
1. Browse: Your first step is to browse through the poetry web sites and read several poems. You will find that some poems do not appeal to you, while others really speak to you. As you browse, write down the titles that you want to return to. You will eventually want to narrow your poem collection down to five poems. List these five poems on a "Table of Contents" page. (Click here to see a sample "Table of Contents" page)2. Choose: Once you have ten poems, pick one with which you feel the most comfortable. This will probably be a poem whose meaning you are confident of understanding. It may be a poem that you have studied before, and especially like.
3. Cut and Paste: Cut and paste the poem to your "Selections" page. Be sure to list the author's name, the date the poem was written, and the year the author was born (and died, if applicable). (Click here to see a sample "Selections" page)When you start working on your anthology, you will type directly onto this page.WRITE AND DESIGN
4. Summarize: On your "Selections" page, write a one- to two-sentence summary underneath the poem. I suggest that you choose a different font for the poem and the summary. The summary might read something like this: The author recounts the joy of coming home from the war after many years of captivity in a prison camp in "The Homecoming."
5. Analyze: Write a paragraph that analyzes the poem. Here, you will pay specific attention to poetic form, stanzas, technique (alliteration and assonance etc.). Refer to your class notes on "How to Analyze Poetry". Your analysis will be at the bottom of the "Selections" page. Be sure to give yourself credit by putting your name and the year in parenthesis at the end of your analysis.
6. Choose and graphic: Choose a graphic from the "Gallery" resources (or find your own on the Web) that complements the poem. You could choose a piece of artwork or a photograph from the time period when the poem was written. Other options include designing your own graphic on Paint or downloading a picture of an original piece of artwork.
7. Compose: Finally, you will write your own poem on the subject of your choice. Include a summary and analysis.
9. Congratulate yourself: You have just finished the first page of your anthology! The results are fantastic!! (I'm so sure of this that I can write it while anticipating the results!!) Your next step is to tackle another poem.
10. Share:We will periodically share the progress that everybody has made. At this time, you might gain new insights into how to interpret your poem, and you could revise your analysis. While constructive feedback is always helpful, you will also enjoy basking in the praise from people who are seeing your hard work for the first time.
11. Present: Your end product will be a multi-media presentation of poems that you have discovered, and labored to bring to the public's eye. You are now the author of your very own anthology. You can expect to present your anthology to the class as your final project. If you wish, the presentation can be presented as a web page for the whole world to see!
Your anthology will be graded according to the following criteria:
Table of Contents - 5 points
Quality of commentary on each poem - 50 points (10 points per poem)
Graphics - 15 points
Your own poem, with graphic - 15 points
Total Grade = 100 points
Conclusion
The importance of poetry
is a concept that is difficult to communicate. You have immersed yourself
in the world of poetry. By choosing the poems that especially move you,
and by examining their meaning, you have created a link between the written
word, your intellect, and your heart. Lastly, and perhaps most significantly,
you have created a compilation of special poems that bear consideration
by other readers of poetry.
Based on a template from The Webquest Page.