Lighthearted Limericks: Crafting Humorous Poetry with Rhythm and Rhyme

1. Poetry Vocabulary

2. Alliteration: • Repetition of initial consonant sounds • Example: Sister Suzy sat on the seashore until suddenly she was swallowed by a shark. • Allusion: • A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art

3. 3. Ballad: • A song-like poem that tells a story • BlankVerse: • Poetry written in unrhymed, iambic pentameter. • ConcretePoem: • A poem with a shape that suggests its subject • Example: George Herbert’s Easter Wings and The Alter

4. 6. FigurativeLanguage: • Writing that is not meant to be taken literally • Example: He made me so mad I wanted to die. 7. FreeVerse: • Poetry not written in a regular rhythmical pattern or meter

5. 8. Image: • A word or phrase that appeals to one or more of the five senses • LyricPoem: • Highly musical verse that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker • Metaphor: • A figure of speech in which something is described as though it were something else • Example: He is such a pig when he eats!

6. 11. Mood: • The feeling created in the reader by a literary work 12. Onomatopoeia: • The use of words that imitate sounds • Example: The buzz of the bee was very loud. • Personification: • A type of figurative language in which a non-human subject is given human characteristics • Example: The tree waved excitedly in the wind.

7. 14. Repetition: • The use, more than once, of any element of language 15. Rhyme: • Repetition of sounds at the end of words • Example: Roses are red, violets are blue….. 16. RhymeScheme: • A regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem

8. 17. Rhythm: • Pattern of beats or stresses in spoken or written language 18. Simile: • A figure of speech that uses like or as to make a direct comparison between two unlike ideas 19. Stanza: • A formal division of lines in a poem considered as a unit My love is like a red rose.

9. 20. Motif – Main or reoccurring theme. 21. Extended Metaphor – a comparison developed over several lines of poetry. 22. Pun – Double meaning

10. 23. Confessional poetry – confession of an activity or an emotion. 24. Elegy – Pays tribute to a person (usually dead) 25. Imagist poetry – uses lots of images to paint a picture for the reader.

11. Humor • Humor in poetry can arise from a number of sources: • Surprise • Exaggeration • Bringing together of unrelated things • Most funny poems have two things in common: • Rhythm • Rhyme

12. Using more spirited language makes humorous situations even more humorous “The Porcupine” By Ogden Nash Any hound a porcupine nudges Can’t be blamed for harboring grudges. I know one hound that laughed all winter At a porcupine that sat on a splinter. Rhythm & Rhyme

13. If you take away the rhythm and rhyme, the humor vanishes. Any hound that touches a porcupine Can’t be blamed for holding a grudge I know one hound that laughed all winter long At a porcupine that sat on a piece of wood

14. Limericks • A limerick is a poem of five lines • The first, second, and fifth lines have three rhythmic beats and rhyme with one another. • The third and fourth lines have two beats and rhyme with one another. • They are always light-hearted, humorous poems.

15. Limericks There once was a man with no hair. He gave everyone quite a scare. He got some Rogaine, Grew out a mane, And now he resembles a bear!

16. Limerick About a Bee I wish that my room had a floor, I don’t care so much for a door. But this walking around Without touching the ground Is getting to be quite a bore.

17. Another Limerick There once was a very small mouse Who lived in a very small house, The ocean’s spray Washed it away, All that was left was her blouse!

18. You will create a limerick similar to this one… There once was a man from Beijing. All his life he hoped to be King. So he put on a crown, Which quickly fell down. That small silly man from Beijing.

19. Fill in the blanks and create your own Limerick. There once was a _____ from _____. All the while she/he hoped ________. So she/he ____________________, And ________________________, That _________ from ___________.

20. The class Limerick: There once was a _____ from _____. All the while she/he hoped ________. So she/he ____________________, And ________________________, That _________ from ___________.

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