Feet

Sixth hour began with their vocab quiz while second hour jumped into poetry. You have THE POETRY PACKET. I cannot laud and revere that packet more! For those of you struggling with poetry, this packet gives you so many angles that you can use for analysis. Whether it be feet and meter (not my favorite method, but many of you have a strong sense of beats and rhythm in writing) or structure or line techniques like caesura and enjambment (those would be my favorite) or comparisons or figurative language or persona, there is something for everyone to embrace!

Today was all about the feet - the iamb, the trochee, the dactyl, the anapest, the spondee. For those of us who do not really think about what syllables we stress (or in different shibboleths stress), this is a challenging exercise, but well worth the effort to start recognizing patterns of sound. Whether you become a foot expert in the long run or not, at least you have the foundations of beat that many a poet latches onto to create their expression - and why poems are often in inverted syntax to fit a supposed meter.

We will finish up your feet handout tomorrow and then look at lines, stanzas, and different poetry styles like the ballad - and not, alas, the power ballads of 80s rock bands.