Repeating Parrots
by Amy LV
Before anything else, I would like to thank Jama Rattigan for inviting me to her 2011 Poetry Potluck Series! Yesterday at Jama's Alphabet Soup, Jama highlighted my poem "Mother Bird's Lullaby" along with a dear family recipe and some photographs from The Poem Farm, also known as Heart Rock Farm. It is such a treat to be a visitor to her joyful and whimsical blog.
Repetition
Students - repetition is comforting, soothing, and strong. As readers, we like repeating lines and images in books, and we enjoy them in our poetry too.
One thing you will notice as you read poems is that often they have bits that repeat. It might be a word. It might be a rhythm. It might be a whole line or a whole stanza. Sometimes poems are circular, repeating the beginning and ending. Notice repetition in your reading and try it in your writing.
In this poem, you can see one line that repeats twice and also that many lines begin with the same word.
from September 2010
This
poem does whole chunks of text, but you can see how the structure is
the same in almost every line... "A ..... is a ........"
from November 2010
This poem alternates one line of repeating text with something different.
from July 2010
Here are a few more poems with repetition. What repeats in each one? If you think one of these repeating techniques is interesting, try it in your own writing, and please share in the comments!
To Do List
Everynight Everywhere
Toe Jam Jam
For this final upcoming week of National Poetry Month, I will continue to post about different ideas and strategies for writing poetry. After that, The Poem Farm will take a brief hiatus as I try to decide on a new venture for this space. If you have suggestions or recommendations, please do tell!
This Month's Poetry Revisits and Lessons So Far
April 1 - Poems about Poems
April 2 - Imagery
April 3 - Poems about Animals We Know
April 4 - Line Breaks and White Space
April 5 - Poems from Everyday Life
April 6 - Free Verse
April 7 - Poems from Wonders & Questions
April 8 - Classroom Poetry Peek & Circular Poems
April 9 - Poems about Science
April 10 - Rhyming Couplets
April 11 - Riddle Poems
April 12 - List Poems
April 13 - Poems for Occasions
April 14 - Concrete Poems
April 15 - Poems about Food
April 16 - Quatrains
April 17 - Poems about the Seasons
April 18 - Alliteration
April 19 - Poems about Sports
April 20 - Compare/Contrast Poems
April 21 - Family Story Poems
April 22 - Poems about Nature
April 23 - Today - Repetition
April 21 - Family Story Poems
April 22 - Poems about Nature
April 23 - Today - Repetition
(Please click on POST A COMMENT below to share a thought.)
Great site! Such a big help! Blessings! :)
ReplyDeleteIT’S ONLY ME
ReplyDeleteWhile tucked and propped with book in bed,
And peaceful bliss within my walls;
My parent ears tuned while I read
To children’s feet along the halls.
Though I foresaw what would come next,
With gentle knocks, some pleas, then moans;
My sedentary mind was vexed
To know I’d have to move my bones.
No sooner had I prophesied,
Than little knocks came timidly;
But then my heart broke deep inside,
Because they said, “It’s only me.”
Unread, I laid aside my book
Of famous vineyards, lands and farms;
Then opening up the door, I took
My darling children in my arms.
And as we hugged with tenderness,
While sharing love within my hold;
I thought of future joys expressed
From strolling through God’s streets of gold.
For as a child of God, I pray,
While at His gate, I hope to see;
He’ll come and grab me up someday,
When I confess, “It’s only me.”
By Paul Ray
(05/8/2012)
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