Language Learners: Poem Analysis

A well written line or two in a poem can make us see a past experience in a totally different way. We can gain understanding that had escaped us so many times, which gives us new perception and insight. Poetry strengthens our sense of community, cultivates emotional resilience, and promotes literacy. It can cross boundaries that little else can. Poetry helps us to know ourselves and each other. Poetry can allow kids to use words to describe their lives like paints for sketches. As well as, using imagery, symbolic language, and metaphor to describe experiences, or parts of themselves that they feel they are not ready to share with anyone. Poetry opens avenues of speaking and listening that are neglected, important areas of the English Language Arts

Poems defy rules allowing poetry to be made accessible for ELLs, poems can be scaffolded, and students can use them in ways of expressing themselves while having limited vocabulary. Especially important is that poetry is universal. ELLs can learn about or read poetry in their native language, helping them to connect the languages of both their old home and new. Students can learn how to utilize grammar by studying how poets do and do not follow traditional writing rules. Poetry can teach writing and grammar principles by providing an example of what happens when poets drop them or alter them for dramatic effect.

Poetry Genre

Poetry is usually considered the oldest form of literature. Before people used writing to record their words, stories were commonly put into an oratorically poetic form to make them easier to remember and perform. Chapter 10 specifies five types of poetic forms, they are formula poems, free-form poems, syllable- and word-count poems, rhymed poems, and model poems. Each of these have several forms as well:

• Formula Poems; Acrostic Poems, Color Poems, Five-Senses Poems, “I Am...” poems, “If I Were...” poems, Preposition Poems, and Wish