Poetry
in Motion
Our
Virtual Field Trip
Already this week we have shared what we personally know about
poetry and learned about what makes a poem a poem. But in order to
completely understand poetry, we must first learn about the origins of it. We
are going to be traveling through time in a Virtual Field Trip. At each of the
four stops, there is a website that you must visit in order to help you fully
understand how poetry has taken shape over the past few centuries. Buckle up
because here we go!
All literature
can be traced back to oral history. Before paper and pen (and especially
computers) were available, people only had their spoken word to rely on.
Through storytelling, folk lore, and verbal accounts of history, pre-illiterate
societies were able to pass their knowledge down through generations. Many oral
traditions carried morals, which encouraged positive behaviors and making wise
decisions. A great example of oral tradition is the Indian tribe, Ojibwa. Read
the story of The Underwater
Panther and identify the message, or moral, that the story is trying to
convey.
The concept of
poetry was birthed after classical thinkers found a way to assess and classify
poetry. Aristotle identified three types of poetry: epic, comic and tragic.
These types, or genres, were later expanded upon and poetry became a way for
people to express ideas and sentiments. Through strong word formulation, prose,
and the development of poetic devices, poetry bloomed into a new form of
expression. The British became masters of poetry and possessed some of the most
prolific poets ever. Here you will read a John Keat’s
poem, Ode to a Nightingale.
American picked
up on poetry and people started to create their own poems. These American poems
tended to be more light-hearted and simplistic, but they still touched on
passionate topics. William Carlos Williams was one of the well-known American
poets who sought out to create an entirely fresh poetic movement, which
centered on everyday circumstances and lives of common people. We are able to
see this through his poem, The Red Wheelbarrow.
Our last stop
will be exploring the modern applications of poetry in our society today. The
best example of this is through lyrics. Lyrics (which derived from the Greek
word lyre which was a stringed instrument) are basically poems that are
sung or put to a beat. The late 20th century rise of the
singer-songwriter, rap culture, and the increase in popularity of slam poetry
have led to a split between academic and popular views, but it is none-the-less
considered poetry. In order to see how poetic the songs that you listen to on
the radio are, find a song of your
choice, print it off, and find at least 6 poetic devices in the song.
We have finally
gotten back to the present, but now we have knowledge of how poetry came to be!
Hope you had a great time on our trip!