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IWW
Practice-W Exercise Archives
Exercise: The World's a Poem
These exercises
were written
by IWW members
and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its
members.
You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that
you found
them at the Internet Writers Workshop (http://www.internetwritingwor
kshop.org/).
Prepared
by: Ruth Douillette
Posted on: October 29, 2006
Reposted on: November 4, 2007
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Exercise: Find an article in the newspaper or magazine on a topic that
interests you: a current event, a political development, a science
breakthrough, an obituary, or anything you react to emotionally. Turn
the prose into a poem that expresses the essence of the article. Give
your poem a
brief introduction. For example: This poem is based on the book burning
staged by Alamogordo objectors after they read "When Pigs Fly."
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William Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings, recollected in tranquility."
If this is true, then we are all poets at heart. Often those who write
prose include poetic elements in stories. The use of rhythm, figurative
language, alliteration, metaphor and other literary devices are not
exclusive to poetry. Yet we often steer clear of writing poetry, fearing
it as something foreign, very different from the familiar prose of
everyday language.
While poetry is different, it is in many ways similar to prose. A poem
can tell a story, although it doesn't have to. Poetry expresses ideas,
thoughts, and actions, like prose, but in a different way. Poetry
condenses and concentrates the essence of prose, saying much in few
words. Ideas and emotions are expressed with literary devices such as
rhythm, meter, figurative language, rhyme, alliteration and more.
Many of you may feel incompetent when it comes to writing poetry, so, if
it helps, don't think of yourself as writing a poem--what you are doing
is simply what Wordsworth recommended: letting your feelings overflow.
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Exercise: Find an article in the newspaper or magazine on a topic that
interests you: a current event, a political development, a science
breakthrough, an obituary, or anything you react to emotionally. Turn
the prose into a poem that expresses the essence of the article. For
example: This poem is based on the book burning staged by
Alamogordo objectors after they read "When Pigs Fly."
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Critique by naming the emotions you found in the poem. Can you tell from
the poem what the article was about? Did the poem inspire an emotional
reaction?
Web site created by Rhéal Nadeau and
the administrators of the Internet Writing Workshop.
Modified by Greg Gunther.
Page last
updated: 07/25/2009 20:58:42
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