What the Hell is Poetry?

We are working with poetry in modersmål English at the moment. You will be expected to read, talk about and even write poetry. It is not about if you think it is good poetry, or if you think it is fun or not. It is about learning something new about how English works. But first, what is poetry?

Poetry is about feelings, emotions and imagination and does not just focus on meaning and understanding. There are always more than a few ways to understand a poem. It usually uses language and is written, but not all the time. It does not follow the same rules as other types of language, and this is why it is important to learn about it. A poem can be short or very long. For example:

From time to time
The clouds give rest
To the moon beholders..

This was written 400 years ago by a Japanese man named Matsuo Bashō. It is a very famous poem. What do you think it means?

To start making your own poem, begin with these websites that will help you:

https://www.poetrygames.org/poetry-machine/

https://interactives.readwritethink.org/theme-poems

Make at least three poems using these websites.

When you have made three poems using the websites, start working on a poem of your own using these worksheets (You will be given a printed one in class):