Let’s talk about poetry for a moment. WAIT! DON’T RUN AWAY! We’re only talking. Why is it that we love poems like "The Night Before Christmas" and "Casey at the Bat", and yet worry over the poems our teachers ask us to read? We love the rhythm, the pace, the musicality, the rhyme, and the stories of these and similar poems. The more challenging poems have all that too. Why not try some more "serious" poetry: just listen to the music of it; feel the rhythm, and picture the images they present. That should be fun enough, but as you reread it, more things may happen in your mind.
Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that is written with seventeen syllables. These poems are written about everyday things such as nature, feeling, or experiences. Haiku means "playful verse." That means the poems do not have to be serious. The goal of haiku is to convey the meaning by creating a picture. These poems do not rhyme and consist of three lines. The first line has five syllables, the second has seven syllables, and the last line has five syllables.
Tomorrow, January 25th, is the anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, widely recognized as Scotland's national poet. Burns was born in Ayrshire, Scotland in 1759. His father was a tenant farmer, and Burns' early life was one of poverty and hardship. Though he had little regular schooling, Burns wrote original poems and songs, and he also collected many folk songs of Scotland. Some of his best known works are Auld Lang Syne, Scots Wha Hae, A Man's A Man for A' That, To
Emily Dickinson was born in 1830, and died in 1886. Emily was one of the most prolific poets in our country. She wrote nearly 1800 poems. Emily lived her life at the family home in Amherst, Mass. She rarely left her father's house and grounds during her whole life, and rarely saw other people besides members of her immediate family. Her father gave her permission to write late at night in her upstairs bedroom when the rest of the household was quiet and asleep. Her poems were about love, death, art, grief, and gardens. Did you know that very fe