1. THE SOUNDS OF POETRY: RHYME

2. BEFORE WE BEGIN  You should first understand basic terms in the structure of a poem.  WHAT is a LINE? LINE BREAK?  WHAT is a STANZA  WHAT is a SYLLABLE?

3. LINES AND STANZAS  Lines do not end with punctuation.  Stanzas are “word groupings” within a poem. They are similar to paragraphs in prose.  When reading poetry, pause or stop with the punctuation, NOT with the end of the line!

4. EXTERNAL RHYME  Occurs at the end of the line.  Example: Nature’s first green is gold Her hardest hue to hold Her early leaf’s a flower But only so an hour…. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost

5. INTERNAL RHYME:  Internal Rhyme occurs when words within one line rhyme.  Examples: “The fat cat on the mat may seem to dream of nice mice that suffice...” from J.R.R Tolkien’s “Cat”  Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning” from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”

6. SLANT RHYME  Near rhyme is not a true rhyme, but the words seem to echo each other closely. Slant rhyme is often called near rhyme or off rhyme.  Examples”: “ Nobody hear him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving, but drowning.” From Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving but Drowning”

7. ANOTHER EXAMPLE:  “But if he finds you and you find him. The rest of the world don't matter; For the Thousandth Man will sink or swim With you in any water.” From “The Thousandth Man” by Rudyard Kipling

8. LET’S PRACTICE! – FIND THE RHYMING WORDS AND IDENTIFY THE TYPE OF RHYME

9. UNDERLINE THE RHYME  Label each rhyme with the following codes. I (Internal Rhyme) E (External Rhyme) S (Slant Rhyme)

10. “FOR THE FUTURE” BY WENDELL BERRY Planting trees early in Spring we make a place for birds to sing in time to come. How do we know? They are singing here now. There is no other guarantee that singing will ever be.

11. MAGGIE AND MILLY AND MOLLY AND MAY BY: E. E. CUMMINGS  maggie and milly and molly and may went down to the beach(to play one day) and maggie discovered a shell that sang so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and milly befriended a stranded star whose rays five languid fingers were; and molly was chased by a horrible thing which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and may came home with a smooth round stone as small as a world and as large as alone. For whatever we lose(like a you or a me) it's always ourselves we find in the sea

12.  This is the field where the battle did not happen, where the unknown soldier did not die. This is the field where grass joined hands, where no monument stands, and the only heroic thing is the sky. Birds fly here without any sound, unfolding their wings across the open. No people killed — or were killed — on this ground hallowed by neglect and an air so tame that people celebrate it by forgetting its name. At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border By: William Stafford