Transcript Poetry How-Tos: A Tutorial on Concrete Poems - gcu

POETRY HOW-TOS:
A TUTORIAL ON CONCRETE
POEMS AND COUPLETS
WHAT IS
?
Dictionary.com defines poetry as, “The art of
rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for
exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or
elevated thoughts.”
 Poetry comes in many forms
 Concrete poetry and the couplet are two very
different forms of poetry.

CONCRETE POETRY

What is it?
 According to PoemofQuotes, a concrete poem “uses
typographical arrangements to display an element
of the poem. This can either be through rearrangement of letters of a word or by arranging the
words as a shape.”
CONCRETE POETRY
In a concrete poem,
the words form a
shape that represents
the main idea of the
poem.
 Before reading this
poem (right), the
reader can tell what
the main idea of the
poem is by the shape
the words form…

THE STEPS TO CREATING A CONCRETE
POEM

Step 1…Decide on a topic.


Step 2…Write the poem.


Make sure the topic is one that can be represented
with an image. For example, rainbows.
The words in a concrete poem can rhyme, but do not
have to. Remember, the longer the poem, the more
words you’ll have to fit into your image.
Step 3…Choose the image you would like to
represent your poem.

For example, the image that will represent a poem
about rainbows is a rainbow.
CREATING A CONCRETE POEM
(CONTINUED)

Step 4…Create the image with words.

The image can be drawn first and the words added
after, or the words can simply form the image…
THE COUPLET

What is it?

According to PoemofQuotes, “A couplet has rhyming
stanzas made up of two lines.”
The dog was much too fat.
He couldn’t catch the cat.
CLICK
THE COUPLET
A couplet can be composed of two lines, or
multiple lines.
• In a multiple-line couplet, every two lines
must rhyme.
•
Goose and Moose
It's hard to tell just what a goose
will have in common with a moose.
Or better yet, just what three geese
will have in common with three meese.
(Is that the plural for a mouse?
Is grice the plural for three grouse?)
I'll say this once, I'll say this thrice,
the plural for a moose is mice,
or plural for three mice is meeses.
I think that I may fall to pieces.
I feel my dizzy state increase
about the mice, the grice and geese.
by Denise Rodgers
Copyright© Denise Rodgers
THE STEPS TO CREATING A COUPLET
Step 1…Decide on a topic.
 Step 2…Write the first line of the poem.



Make sure the last word in the line can be made into
a rhyming word…For example, do not use a word
such as orange…
Step 3…Write the second line of the poem.

The last word of the second line must rhyme with the
last word of the first line.
REMEMBER…

The key to good poetry of any type is creativity
and imagination!
REFERENCES

55 Types of Poetry. (2011). Retrieved July 7, 2011
from


Couplet Poems and Couplet Poetry. (2011).
Retrieved July 7, 2011 from


http://www.poemofquotes.com/articles/poetry_forms.p
hp
http://www.funny-poems-for-free.com/coupletpoems.html
Poetry. (2011). Retrieved July 7, 2011 from

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/poetry