Assignment #6 Chapter 11 Poetry writing

I think that adults are used to analyze poetry from academic perspective rather than purely enjoying reading it. We usually think that we should know a lot of rules when reading and evening writing poetry, but Prof. Tompkins introduces the purpose of poetry writing as “Children write poetry to create images, explore feelings, and entertain (Tompkins, 2008, p.240)”. I think that this definition of poetry’s purpose is perfect for the children because it is very hard for the adults to purely “create images, explore feelings, and entertain” but the children could do that because they are pure enough to feel the poetry as itself without biased image on poetry’s literal devices.
Unlike many of poetry books, she starts introducing forms of poetry mainly according to its content. She doesn’t talk about difficult terms firstly. Basically, she gives genuine examples of poetry which were written by the children, and this was very impressive for me. I’ve been thinking that writing poetry would be too difficult to learn for the children because they wouldn’t understand the nature of poetry well, but it was my prejudice. The examples of poetry of the children were full of colorful expressions, interesting and sometimes profound ideas of the children about the objects. The children are able to express their feelings and thoughts according to the formula forms provided, and I guess that it was possible because those forms seem quite simple and interesting. She suggests several forms of formula poems: “I wish…” Poems, Color Poems, Five-Senses Poems, “If I Were…” Poems, “I Used to…/But Now…” Poems, “…is…” Poems, Preposition Poems, etc. As we can see, the kinds of formula poems are various and it would make the children generate ideas with limited formulas efficiently because those formulas basically give the children the direction of what to write.
Following the formula poems, she introduces Free-Form Poems: Concrete poems, Found poems, Poems for Two Voices, etc. These free forms seem to be higher level for writing, because the children should be more tactical and manipulative when writing these.
Also, she introduces Syllable-and Word-Count Poems which include Haiku, Cinquains, Diamantes. There is Rhymed Verse Poems which include Limericks, Clerihews. She also shows Model Poems which include Apologies, Invitations, Prayers From the Ark, and “If I Were in Charge of the World”. And Poetic Devices are also given following those forms above. Comparison, Alliteration, Onomatopoeia, Repetition and Rhyme are given as poetic devices.

Reference:Tompkins, G. E. (2008). Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product. NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Here are some interesting articles about this chapter.
http://www.poewar.com/poetry-writing-tips/

Response to Kyoung-Chun Kim:
He said get a two main fact from this chapter. That is many types of poems and poetic devices, and each type of them has its own advantages. And he has a lot of citations. Especially, he mention about Hart, B. (2010) states, “Poets that are able to make the best statements use techniques that are able to get points and philosophies across.” I think that is point and that can be a one way for humanity teaching strategy.