This document discusses the three characteristics that make poetry powerful: intensity, precision, and concision. It provides examples to illustrate each characteristic and examines poems to identify which characteristics they demonstrate. Students are tasked with analyzing poems to determine which of the three characteristics are evident in each one. The lesson concludes by challenging students to identify poetic language in everyday situations.

1. Poetry’s Powers

2. SWBAT explain the characteristics that make poetry both powerful and unique.SWBAT identify these characteristics in poems.SWBAT write collaborative poems.Objectives

3. Today we are learning about the power of poetry. We’ve come across poetry many times in our lives. But, for some unfortunate reason, we sometimes don’t take poetry very seriously. This is probably because we are thinking too narrowly about what poetry is. Let’s reexamine this idea!Poetry’s Power!

4. Poetry is powerful and unique because it is language that has 3 characteristics:(1) Intensity(2) Precision(3) Concision(Milner & Milner, p. 178)KEY POINTS on Poetry’s Power!

5. Poetry’s INTENSITY brings out the most powerful of human emotions about even the simplest of things.(1) Intensity

6. A dull description of what a teacher does (from About.com):“Teachers…prepare lectures; prepare activities; grade exams and papers; hold parent-teacher conferences; attend school meetings; lead extracurricular activities; mentor students; teach life skills…”Now, Taylor Mali’s intense description (“What Teachers Make”):Intensity Examined

7. Poetry’s PRECISION makes crystal clear what one is talking about.(2) Precision“There is no doubt that the presence of a net makes good tennis players more precise in their shots than they otherwise would be.”

8. (Milner & Milner, page 192)A prose description of how I’m feeling right now:“I’m mellow because I had a relaxing weekend at home.”And a poetic description (Jimmy O’Daniel):I’m mellowNot a go lay in a sunny field smoking a cigarette mellowNot mellow enough to give a bum all my moneyNot mellow enough to sit on an ocean yacht and drink lemonadeBut just a sit in the air-conditioned living room watching reruns mellowMellow like a nothing to do Saturday morningMellow like watching your cork from the banks of a cool country pondA do what I want mellow that takes no effort or planning.Precision Examined

9. To express love, I could say something like “I love you!”The response might be dullOR—if I had recently quit smoking—I could say this:“Giving Up Smoking”There’s not a Shakespeare sonnetOr a Beethoven quartetThat’s easier to like than youOr harder to forget.You think that sounds extravagant?I haven’t finished yet –I like you more than I would likeTo have a cigarette.-Wendy CopePrecision Examined Again

10. Poetry displays CONCISION—it expresses much in a few words.(3) Concision“The entire literary canon may be smaller than what comes out of particle accelerators or models of the human brain, but the meaning coded into words can't be measured in bytes. It's deeply compressed. Twelve words from [Shakespeare] can hold a lifetime of experience.”

11. Martin Wattenberg, mathematician and computer scientistConcision ExaminedThe fig has much immediate symbolism. It recalls the fig tree of the Garden of Eden from which Adam and Eve fashioned their first garments after eating the fruit of the tree of wisdom. The fig tree has been associated with sexuality for this reason, and also due to its pendulous fruit and its milky nectar.First FigMy candle burns at both ends;It will not last the night;But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—It gives a lovely light.-Edna St. Vincent Millay“The dual-sided candle is her own dual personality that is set upon by both friends and enemies. ”"My candle burns at both ends" symbolizes her "carpe diem" lifestyle and philosophy. She is truly connected to her soul and recognizes the light that does come from within. It's like the idea of living fast, dying fun.EVM is a good writer and she expresses the 1920s and how people waste there money and party every night and are wasting time and her friends and foes aren't paying attention to her and what she has to say so she expresses it in a poem

12. Turn to a partner and explain what each of the 3 characteristics means.You will receive a bonus if you can give an example of a poem that exceptionally shows one or more of the characteristics.Check For Understanding!

13. Let’s work together to identify and analyze the 3 characteristics that make poetry powerful in selected “poems”!Your task is to determine which of the 3 characteristics of powerful poetry are evident in the following poems:“Doing Laundry in Our Building”“Smoke & Mirrors”“Happy the Man”Guided Practice

14. Doing Laundry in Our BuildingMonday, November 16, 2009Unfortunately I hardly looked up, but I'm pretty sure you were beautiful. Hope to see you again. - m4w - 26

15. Tonight my dreams left, swept far and wide from me, leaving darkened halls and pungent decay in their exodus.The nightmares called my name, in shrill voices filled with disdain, while twisted images all around melted like deeply colored wax.At last I saw you, beautiful and true, and breathed a sigh of sweet relief, a smile dancing upon my lips and joyful tears glistened upon my cheeks.So sudden it happened, the deed was done, you turned your back on me and part of me died a pauper’s death, abandoned, without hope nor dignity.As I called to you, my tongue swelled, words could not come in time, for suddenly I saw you lifted, ripped from me through the heavens. Clutched tightly by my dreams, which have faded away forever.-Elizabeth Anne EasterSmoke & Mirrors

16. Happy the man, and happy he alone,He who can call today his own:He who, secure within, can say,Tomorrow do they worst, for I have lived today.Be fair or foul or rain or shineThe joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.- John DrydenHappy the Man

17. Now that we have a collective idea of what makes poetry powerful, we are going to collectively write poetry!Directions:Take one poetry card from your teacher. Form a group of 4.Write one—and only one—line on your topic (be as intense, precise and concise as you can!). Pass the card to the right when your teacher says to. Continue this process until you have written 3 lines (first, middle, last).Independent Practice

18. Today we learned about the power of poetry to shape us. But what were the three characteristics that make poetry powerful, again? Shout them out loud! Hopefully you’ve learned that poetic language—language that is intense, precise and concise—is everywhere! On your way home from school today I challenge you to identify and analyze poetic language in the commonplace…Poetry is everywhere…