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Creative Writing alternatives to a HW Log
1.
Take a short poem by one of the poets we are reading and break it down into its structural parts. For example, if the opening two lines of the poem present a nature image and a simile, and then the next two lines present more sensory detail to flesh out the first image, write down WHAT is being presented in the poem. You should also notice what kind of rhythm and meter is being used, and also look for obvious structures like rhymed couplets or quatrains etc.
So in your creative assignment, after you copy out a short poem and analyze what each part of the poem is doing in a very basic way, as above, then you write your own poem that follows the same pattern, i.e. you imitate the kinds of things that happen in the original but you are free to change the theme and subject to anything you like.
You could start with William Blake's “London,” and
then you could write about Greeley or a super Walmart etc. It does not ave to
be obvious that your poem is based on another poem. But you should imitate the
verse forms, rhythms and meters, if you can. Your poem can be shorter than the
one you are using a “pattern.”
Please make sure that you identify what poem inspired your poem!
2. Another Creative alternative to a HW Log (from Robert King)
DRIVING TO TOWN LATE TO MAIL A LETTER
by Robert Bly
It is a cold and snowy night. The main street is deserted.
The only things moving are flakes of snow.
As I lift the mail box door, I feel its cold iron.
There is a privacy I love in this snowy night.
Driving around, I will waste more time.
Write a poem based on the poem above, line by line.
Line 1 contains a scene, a time, a season. Imagine yourself alone somewhere and write a line (in one or two short sentences) that contains a scene, a time, and a season or weather.
Line 2 contains one visual detail. Write a line in which you add one visual detail to the subject of your first line.
Line 3 shows a small physical action appropriate to the poem (and title). Write a third line in which you take some small physical action or gesture (do not leap off the cliff or into the pool).
Line 4 contains a plain emotional statement (although many poems
do not contain this direct a statement).
Write a fourth line that contains some emotion.
Line 5 concludes the poem. Reading what you’ve written so far, add a fifth line that, in some way, concludes the poem.
There is a sense in which this poem exemplifies the
archetypal lyric form: A scene, a viewer, an emotional
reaction. One of the easiest poems to compare/contrast
this to (because of the season) is Frost’s “Stopping
by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”
Afterwards, some students can read their poems aloud, and comment or draw out discussion on differences and similarities between scenes, emotions, and conclusions.