Welcome to Your Poetry Webquest!
The theme of this poetry unit is nature. There are four possible genres for you to work in: haiku, sonnet, free verse, and metaphysical poetry.
In your genre, there are four specific tasks that you must complete to receive credit. The tasks are similar for each genre, yet a little different; I encourage you to look at each genre carefully before choosing which one to complete.
Keep in mind, the theme of this unit is nature. You must write a poem in your chosen genre about nature.
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TASK
ONE
Go to the history of haiku web
site and choose an author to read about. Write a one-page summary of
this artist.
Include in your summary:
1. Author's Name?
2. Where's Author From?
3. When did the author live?
4. Did this author do anything significant in his life? What?
5. What kind of haiku's did this author create?
6. Do you like this author's haiku's? Why/Why not?
7. Summary should be free of errors and include
your name, date, title, topic sentence and conclusion.
http://www.big.or.jp/~loupe/links/history/ehisinx.shtml
TASK TWO
After researching your author, look at the poem provided on the site. What
do you think this poem is about? Print out or write out the poem on a
piece of paper, look at each stanza and analyze what the poem is conveying.
Write next to each stanza what you think the stanza means. At the bottom
of the sheet of paper write down what you think all of the stanzas mean
as a collective, as a poem. How does this/ doesn't this poem connect
to you?
TASK THREE
Write your own Haiku in the theme of nature. Remember a haiku is a poem usually
written in three lines with 17 syllables in combinations of 575 or 557
or you could even 755
TASK ONE
1. Go to the
link below.
2. Scroll down
until you see the different genres of sonnets. Click on a few and find
one that interests you.
3. Print out the sonnet that you like.
4. Read the poem to yourself writing notes in the margins of what you think
the poem is conveying as well as circling metaphors.
5. Read the sonnet aloud. Does the meaning change? Remember, sonnets were
made to be read aloud, not read to one's self. Write down if the meaning
changed for you after reading it aloud as opposed to reading the sonnet to
yourself.
6. On a separate piece of paper, write a reflection of what you think the
poem is about and whether you like it or not.
7.. Turn in your poem with your comments and the reflection.
Sonnet Link:
http://www.sonnets.org/
TASK TWO
Now,
research the author whose work you read in TASK ONE.
You will need to find:
1. Is the author still living?
If not, when did he/she live? If yes, how old is this author?
2. Where did/does this author live?
3. Is there anything significant that has happened to this author in his/her
life?
4. What kind of sonnets did this poem write. For example, Shakespeare has
many sonnets on the theme of love. Are your authors sonnets easy to understand
or do they take a lot of analysis?
5. Look at your summary from task one, has your opinion changed of how you
like the poem, now that you have found out more about the author? Why or
why not?
TASK THREE
Write your own sonnet! Remember the theme of this unit is nature, so you
sonnet must be composed with this theme in mind. Have fun with this and good
luck!
TASK
ONE
Research
a poet who primarily writes in free verse.
1. Go to the below link
2. Go to Who's Writing it selection of website
3. Choose one of the links on this selection to research, Example, click
on Walt Whitman to find some of Walt Whitman's poetry (Walt Whitman has many
poems with the theme of nature, he even has an entire book devoted to nature, Leaves
of Grass).
4. Look at one of your author's poems, Example, if you're at the Walt Whitman
site, click on the poem Tests, and the poem will present itself.
5. Print out or write out the poem of your choice.
6. Read the poem writing notes
next to the lines.
7. On a separate piece of paper, write a summary of what you think the poem
is about. Also, write whether you like the poem or not and why.
Go to this link for FREE VERSE
http://www.poetry-portal.com/styles2.html
TASK TWO
Now, research the author whose work you read in TASK ONE.
You will need to find:
1. Is the author still living?
If not, when did he/she live? If yes, how old is this author?
2. Where did/does this author live?
3. Is there anything significant that has happened to this author in his/her
life?
4. What kind of free-verse poetry did/does this author write? For example,
do they write long poems? short poems? poems that are written all over the
page (e. e. cummings)?
5. Look at your summary from task one, has your opinion changed of how you
like the poem, now that you have found out more about the author? Why or
why not?
Write a summary for TASK TWO including all of the questions asked above.
TASK THREE
Write your own free verse poem. Remember, this unit is in the theme of nature,
so be sure to include an aspect of nature in your free verse poem! Note!
Did you know that many songs are written in free verse? For task three,
you have the option of writing a song instead of a poem.
Many metaphysical
poems that you will find will have to do with love. If you choose to do
your webquest on metaphysical poetry, keep in mind that love can be considered
part of nature, so you could write a poem about love in the metaphysical
form.
John Donne and Andrew Marvell were accomplished metaphysical poets of the
17th century.
TASK ONE
1. Go to the link below to find a Metaphysical poet.
2. Choose a poet from the list
3. Print out one of his works to analyze
4. Analyze the poem. What metaphors does this poet use? What message is this
poet trying to convey through these metaphors?
5. Write a summary of what you think the poem is about according to the metaphors
and how it connects to you. Do you like the poem? Why or why not?
TASK TWO
For task two, you will be doing a search of your author. You may continue
using the link that you used in Task One. You must write a summary of:
1. When did your poet live?
2. Where did he live?
3. What was something significant
about his life?
4. How long was he a writer?
5. Do you like his poetry more/less now that you know about the poet? Why
or why not?
TASK THREE
Write your own Metaphysical Poem. Our unit is on nature, you should include
nature as an aspect of your poem, however, love is an established theme
for metaphysical poems, so you may choose love as your theme.
Find a Metaphysical poet:
http://www.luminarium.org/seven
lit/metaphysical.htm
If you're still unsure of what
metaphysical poetry is, check out this link:
http://www.shunsley.eril.net/armoore/poetry/metaphys.htm