Assignment: Write 2 poems. (Remember, your final project will be to perform one of your original works. Your building your portfolio to select your poem from).
Poem 1: Extended Metaphor Poem
A metaphor that weaves its way throughout the entire poem is called an extended metaphor. Read the poem below and examine how the following demonstrates the concept.
Cliché by Billy Collins
My life is an open book. It lies here
on a glass tabletop, its pages shamelessly exposed,
outspread like a bird with hundreds of thin paper wings.
It is a biography, needless to say,
and I am reading and writing it simultaneously
in a language troublesome and private.
Every reader must be a translator with a thick lexicon.
No one has read the whole thing but me.
Most dip into the middle for a few paragraphs,
then move on to other shelves, other libraries.
Some have time only for the illustrations.
I love to feel the daily turning of the pages,
the sentences unwinding like string,
and when something really important happens,
I walk out to the edge of the page
and, always the student,
make an asterisk, a little star, in the margin.
Your Turn: Think of a metaphor for your own life that you can extend in this same way. Think of something which has several components, such as a kind of television show, movie, or game. Even certain kinds of food that involve many elements -- pizza, casserole, chef salad, -- or ingredients -- cakes and cookies, could inspire your poem. What about complicated places -- highway, library, cruise ship, dormitory, apartment house, shopping mall, a stadium, a garden? Perhaps your metaphor might extend an activity, like playing a football game or driving a car. You can begin your poem "My life is . . . " or try somethg more subtle. Then explore the extensions of your metaphor. Length at least 16 lines (4 quatrains)
Poem 2: Symbolism
Symbolism is something that on the surface is its literal self but which also has another meaning or even several meanings. For example, a sword may be a sword and also symbolize justice. A symbol may be said to embody an idea. A symbol is an object, animate or inanimate, that stands for or points to a reality beyond itself. The cross, for example, is often used to represent suffering. Symbols, however, also indicate their own reality. For example, a cross not only stands for suffering, but it also stands for Christian suffering. A sunrise not only represents new beginnings but the beginning of a new day.
Today's poem in class - Persimmon - illustrated how a symbol is used in a poem and elaborated throughout it.
Your Turn: Think of an object which has symbolic significance for you., perhaps even idiosyncratically. Compose a poem which features that object and reveals its layers of meanings through the details you select. Respect your readers enough to reveal this. Don't tell us what it represents; show us. Length at least 16 lines.
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