1. American Poetry “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought,
And the thought has found words”
Robert Frost

2. POETRY What is it?
Poetry is “a type of literature that expresses ideas, feelings, or tells a story in a specific form (usually using lines and stanzas).”
Poetry can break from traditional forms and continue to be poetry with its infusion of literary elements.
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3. POET
A poet is a literary artist who uses words to create images or messages that evoke an emotional, intellectual or other critical thoughts and responses in readers.
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4. Understanding Poetry
Why We Developed Language-
Why We Read Poetry-

5. American Poetry
Broke away from set form and meter. It didn’t have to rhyme, or have a syllable count pattern. It was FREE verse.
More of an emphasis was on raw emotion. The only emotion in previous Old World poetry was Love—the divine and flawless kind.
Poetry was part of a private observation

6. Classic Poets
Classical Poets: Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickenson, Sylvia Plath, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost
Mainstream, white males
Typically wealthy, or with connections
Subject Matter:
Nature revealing a universal truth
Democracy/Freedom
Religion
The Common Man
Typical Poetic Tools:
Free Verse
Meter, Rhyme, Punctuation, Imagery, Simile, Metaphor, Repetition, Alliteration, Irony
“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
“Oh Captain, My Captain” by Walt Whitman
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7. African American Poets
-Life Ain’t Been No Crystal Stair by Langston Hughes
Famous Poets: Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Sterling Allen Brown, Gwendolyn Brooks
Common Topics:
Freedom, or lack thereof
Class differences
Identity Struggles
Poetic Tools:
alliteration, imagery, metaphor, personification, simile, rhyme, repetition, apostrophe, echo, allusion, hyperbole, and meter

8. Sterling Brown Poem excerpt
Riverbank Blues
A man git his feet set in a sticky mudbank, A man git dis yellow water in his blood, No need for hopin', no need for doin', Muddy streams keep him fixed for good.
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Brown’s use of dialect and blues as a mantra for expressing the reality of black life in the United States.

9. Paul Laurence Poem “We Wear the Mask” We Wear the Mask
    WE wear the mask that grins and lies,     It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—     This debt we pay to human guile;     With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,     And mouth with myriad subtleties.
    Why should the world be over-wise,     In counting all our tears and sighs?     Nay, let them only see us, while             We wear the mask.
    We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries     To thee from tortured souls arise.     We sing, but oh the clay is vile     Beneath our feet, and long the mile;     But let the world dream otherwise,             We wear the mask!
“We Wear the Mask”
Lyrics of Lowly Life, in 1896 by Dodd, Mead, and Company.
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10. How Things Work by Gary Soto: http://www. youtube. com/watch
How Things Work by Gary Soto: GVZTds
Oranges- Gary Soto : z5hG2o
t32Xg –What I learned about Life So Far
Sherman Alexie’s Top Ten: alexies-top-ten-native-american-poets/
Minority Poets
Mexican-American: Pablo Nerudo, Gary Soto, Octavio Paz, Luis Lopez
Native American: Esther Belin, Laura Da’, Santee Frazier, Joy Harjo
Common Topics:
Political and social issues
Historical events
Spirituality and Nature
Identity, Alienation
Family Life
Choices

11. Relevance of Our Un-song Poets
Dunbar exemplifies the stifled voice of many peoples and the frustrated voice of many writers/poets.
Voices may be stifled because of differences: political, racial, gender, economic, social, psychological, philosophical, emotional, etc.
He represents the power of poetry to evoke feelings and teach people to apply a literary psychology in order to survive daily.

12. Children’s Poets and Comedy
Too Many Daves by Dr. Seuss
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Shel Silverstein
Raffi
Flight of the Conchords- Hurt Feelings
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Commonly Use:
Rhyme, Rhythm, Onomatopoeia, lyrics, simile, alliteration

13. Rap
Rapping (also known as emceeing,[1] MCing,[1] spitting (bars),[2] or rhyming[3]) refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics
Rapping is distinct from spoken word poetry in that it is performed in time to a beat
Rapping can be traced back to its African roots. Centuries before hip hop music existed, the griots of West Africa were delivering stories rhythmically, over drums and sparse instrumentation.
Art forms such as spoken word jazz poetry and comedy records had an influence on the first rappers
Eminem- Love the Way You Lie
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Tupac Shakur- Changes
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14. Poetry Slams Slam Poem- Why I Hate School, but Love Education
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Sex
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Pretty
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Poetry Slams
Poetry Slam- Various poets perform
Disillusioned youth use poetry to give a voice to their frustration at being born into a broken word
Poetic Devices:
Rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, lyrics, beats, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor
Common Topics:
Identity
Social Injustice and Dysfunction
Education
Family Issues