1. Lesson 3: Free Verse Limerick Sonnet
Poetry Unit
Lesson 3:
Free Verse
Limerick
Sonnet

2. What is it?
Free Verse: It’s just that – free. There are no confines of rhyme, meter or cadence
Sonnet: comes from lyric poetry – means little sound. 14 lines with specific rhyme pattern.
Limerick: A short poem written for its wit.

3. Sample Free Verse: Mother to Son Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinter,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on
And reachin’ landin’s
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So, boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
‘Cause you finds it kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
-Langston Hughes
Hughes, Langston. “Mother to Son.” Daybook. Fran
Claggett, et. all, eds. Wilmington: Great Source
Publishing Group,

4. Sonnet My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130)
by William Shakespeare
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

5. Sample Limericks There once was a man from Peru
Who had a lot of growing up to do,
He’d ring a doorbell,
then run like hell,
Until the owner shot him with a Anonymous
A bather whose clothing was strewed
By winds that left her quite nude
Saw a man come along
And unless we are wrong
You expected this line to be lewd. - Anonymous

6. Format: Free Verse Sonnet (English) Limerick No Rules
Only use language that is vivid and that flows
14 lines
Rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, etc.
Iambic pentameter = 10 syllable lines: unemphasized syllable followed by emphasized for 5 times
5 lines
Lines 1, 2 & 5 rhyme
Lines 3 & 4 rhyme
Rhyme scheme aabba