Thematic Poetry Portfolio

Completion Date: Last week of school.

A portfolio is a collection of an artist’s work. You’ll be assembling your own poetry portfolio for this project. This page outlines the requirements. Be thinking of what you would want to do to make your portfolio unique and completely yours. Most importantly, make it expressive of you and something of which you can be proud! All of the poems should be related either by person (real or imaginary), theme, or both. All poems should use several of the poetic devices listed below. One each page you need to identify the poetic devices you use in your poem.

Your poems should be typed or written in ink. Please type/ write one poem per page. Each poem must have a title. You will get your portfolio back, so feel free to include photographs or any other memorabilia.

A poetry portfolio must contain the following:

  • Illustrated Cover
  • Title Page
  • Table of Contents
  • All of the poems should be related either by theme or topic, or both

Each of the following:

  • Bio-poem
  • Haiku
  • Cinquainography
  • “Found” Poem
  • AcrosticPoem
  • Concrete Poem
  • Elizabethan Sonnet (separate handout to follow)

Bio-Poem

Directions: Using the form below, create a bio-poem, which demonstrates your knowledge of a person, real or imaginary (perhaps one of the characters we have read about) and/or a theme.

Line 1: Four adjectives describing the person or character

Line 2: Relative (son, daughter, husband, wife) of…

Line 3: Resident of (city and/or country)…

Line 4: Who cares deeply about…

Line 5: Who studied…

Line 6: Whose talents included…

Line 7: Who believed…

Line 8: Who is remembered for…

Line 9: First and last name.

Example of Biographical Poem:

Courageous, strong, handsome, intelligent

Brother of Darry and Soda

A resident of the “wrong” side of town

Who cares deeply about people

Who did not care for fighting

Whose talents writing

Who believed in soft summer sunsets

Who is most remembered for helping to unite the Socs’ and greasers

Ponyboy Curtis

Poetic Devices: alliteration

Haiku
Directions: Haiku is a form of poetry that originated in Japan. A haiku has three lines: the first and third lines have five syllables each, the second line has seven. Although a Japanese haiku usually depicts a scene in nature, you will use an important theme or topic to imply a strong feeling. In a good haiku, a mere handful of words will make you see an entire scene and will convey a universal feeling, such as fear, surprise, regret, hope or mystery.

Example of Haiku:

Sunsets

Sun, dances through sky

West side, East side united

Sets quickly, renew

Poetic Devices: form, personification

Cinquianographies

Directions: You will be creating a Cinquainography. Very much like a Cinquian poem, this poetry also has five lines.

  • The first line consists of the first name of an important person (real or imaginary)
  • The second line consists of two words, which are associated with the topic.
  • The third line has three words ending with “-ing” which describe the person’s character. The fourth line has four words ending in “-ing” that describe the character.
  • Line five is simply the last name of your figure.

Example:

Ponyboy

“Tuff” teenager

Protecting, writing, reforming

Thinking, challenging, speaking, debating

Curtis

Poetic Devices: form, repetition, alliteration

“Found” poem

Directions: Create a “found” poem by choosing words and/or phrases quoted from a piece of literature that best express what you think the piece is about. Arrange the words and/or phrases in a poetic way. The order may be your own; you may add original words or phrases and the overall theme of your “found” poem will reflect your personal interpretation. You must find your own piece of literature to “pull” your words from. Your “found” poem must be a minimum of eight lines.

Example:

Ponyboy Curtis

In the bright sunlight

Where carelessness burns

Secret Fears

Regretting outbursts

The sunset beckons

Dreams another time

Hailed heroes

Delinquents

Poetic devices: alliteration, personification

Acrostic Poem

Directions: An acrostic poem differs from other poetry in that the first letter of each line spells a word when read vertically.

Your lines across should have five to eight words.

Use powerful, poetic words as you reveal your understanding and interpretation of the person (real or imaginary) or theme you have chosen.

Example:

Outsiders

Out in the bright sunlight

Uniting east and west sides

Trial to determine Ponyboy’s home

Soc against grease, grease against Soc

In the newspaper, hailed as heroes

Dally seeks revenge for Johnny’s death

Eventually learning to understand one another

Remembering Johnny, remembering Bob, remembering Dally

Stereotypes harmful, dangerous, leading to pain

Poetic Devices: repetition, alliteration
Concrete Poem

Directions: A concrete poem is a poem whose words recreate the shape of an object. The carefully chosen words can fill the interior of the shape, or the words themselves can become the outline of the shape. Before reading the poem, the reader can get a visual impression from the shape in which the words are arranged.

Step 1: Choose a character (real or imaginary) or a theme for you subject

Step 2: Brainstorm words or phrases that describe your subject

Step 3: Using a thesaurus, look up key words from your list and add more descriptive synonyms where possible

Step 4: Using a pencil, lightly draw or trace a picture, which represents your subject

Step 5: By mixing and matching the words, phrases and sentences you have made, write a description of your subject along the outline of the picture you have drawn.

Step 6: Erase the penciled outline, and there you have your concrete poem.