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1FP1 (Spring 2012) Poetry Assignments

Assignment # 6 (due 3/15/2012): Write a first-person poem in which the speaker is not
identical with the author. You might want to base the poem on a childhood experience of
your own, or of the character. Use at least some figurative language (similes, metaphors,
symbols). Group 1 bring copies for the class.

Assignment #7 (due 3/27/2012): EITHER:
(i) Write two 8-line poems, in the first person, from the perspective of the same character
in the same situation or conflict or difficulty. (Make sure you do give the character
something specific to be grappling withanything from taking out the trash to
playing a guitar to walking down the aisle as a bride.) In one poem, give a
sympathetic treatment; in the other, suggest a more critical or doubtful reading.
OR
(ii) Write a poem in which you (the speaker?) revisit a placea school, church,
playgroundthat meant something to you once but feels different now.
Group 2 bring copies for the class.

Assignment #8 (due 4/3/2012): EITHER:
(i) Write a poem about a painful experience using figurative language that sometimes
exalts its subject and sometimes brings it down to earth.
OR
(ii) Write a poem employing a symbol or extended metaphor. Like Schnackenberg, who
writes about the childs embroidery and the fathers dictionary, use one or two
concrete items that help you to convey the emotional and thematic content of a single
scene. 3) Write a poem in rhyme and meter in which you show someone fully
absorbed in a single activity.
Group 3 bring copies for the class.

Assignment #9 (due 4/10/2012): EITHER:
(i) Write a ballad of 3 or 4 stanzas in the first person, in an ABXB rhyme scheme and the
meter of either Dickinsons or Audens poem above, in which you convey a single,
life-changing moment in the speakers experience. An example of the correct
metrical opening might be, As I walked into Gilman (trimeter) or As I walked
into Gilman Hall (tetrameter).
OR
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(ii) Use a line from within either Dickinsons or Audens ballad (for instance,
Dickinsons line I could not see to see), and make it the initial line in your own
ballad, again following the ABXB rhyme scheme and a proper ballad meter.
Group 4 bring copies for the class.

Assignment #10 (due 4/17/2012): EITHER:
(i) Write a sonnet in iambic pentameter, and in rhyme. Employ one of the standard
rhyme schemes. You can write on any subject, but see if you can do something
unexpected. A few choices: 1) Most sonnets are love poems; you might want to make
yours political or historical or about some very contemporary subject, such as the
speakers worries about the volatility of the stock market (which might offer you an
analogy for a love poem, actually). Again, use the traditional form to help you say
something you actually want to express, and that you feel is yours. Dont attempt
to write your sonnet in antiquated diction; make it sound like the 21
st
century.
OR
(ii) Attempt to address God in your sonnet, as Donne does.
OR
(iii) Use any title that inspires you from the Norton Anthology, and use this as the prompt
for the subject of your sonnet. (Clearly identify the title that you have used.)