Is+it+Imagery?

toc The most obvious and initial question to answer when asking what great poetry is, probably is "Is it the imagery of a poem? Is it the pictures a poet creates?" =Relevant Terms= Simile, metaphor, personification, and imagery

=Poems to Read= Langston Hughes -[|"Dreams"] Langston Hughes - [|"Dreams Deferred"] Alfred, Lord Tennyson - [|"The Eagle"] Emily Dickinson - [|"Hope is the Thing With Feathers"]

Items to note: What is the poem about? What is the mood or feeling of the poem? What meaning can I take from the poem? What do you feel about the poem?

=Concerning [|Cliches]= It has been said that if you understand what great poetry is, you should be able to tell the difference between the poetry of someone like [|Robert Frost]from a 7th grader. One reason Robert Frost is considered so brilliant is that he uses no cliches--all of his images are strikingly original and produce beautiful images in the readers head. A young writer is likely to fall back on cliches and other common phrases when he/she is struggling to produce an image in the mind of the reader.

=To explore= 1. Listen to [|Billy Collins] read his poem [|"Litany"] which teases a writer who has used too many cliches and too many metaphors. [|Listen now.] 2. Next, fill out the challenge - a list of many common cliches in the American language.