1. Poetic Form

2. Learning Targets  Analyze characteristics of different forms of poetry - Ballad.  Analyze how meaning is conveyed in poetry through word choice, poetic devices (rhyme, rhythm, repetition, refrain) and figurative language.

3. Type of Poem: Ballads  A ballad is a song or a songlike poem that tells a story, usually about lost love, betrayal or death.  Ballads can be sad or funny.  They include repetition and refrain.  The rhythm usually makes it easy to sing or read.  Ballads usually are told orally and passed down. The authors are usually unknown.  Ballads are usually also narrative poems.

4. Repetition  When an author repeats words, phrases, or lines several times throughout a line or a poem.

5. Refrain  A repeated phrase, line, or group of lines.  Often used to build rhythm in a song or poem.  Used to provide emphasis or create suspense.  Sometimes the first and the last lines or stanzas

6. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot

8. Background  On November 10, 1975, an ore carrier - the Edmund Fitzgerald - sank in Lake Superior during a November storm, taking the lives of all 29 crew members. Later that month, Gordon Lightfoot, inspired by that article in Newsweek Magazine, wrote what is probably his most famous song: “Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald”  Lightfoot’s song reached #2 on the Billboard charts.

9. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald  " According to a legend of the Chippewa tribe, the lake they once called Gitche Gumee 'never gives up her dead.'"  Thus began the Newsweek article in the issue of November 24, 1975. That lead inspired Gordon Lightfoot to write one of the greatest "story songs" ever.

10. Works cited  Link to lyrics:  http://www.gordonlightfoot.com/wreckoft heedmundfitzgerald.shtml

11. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald video and images  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgI8bt a-7aw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgI8bt a-7aw

12. Ballads… 1. What is the refrain of this song? 2. What details makes this song a ballad? (Which elements of a ballad does this match.) 3. What object is being personified in the refrain? 4. How does the personification in the refrain help you understand what happened? 5. Lightfoot describes the lake as “the rooms of her ice-water mansion” to help develop the listener’s understanding of what has happened in the song. What device(s) is this and what does it mean?