Tuesday, February 10- Poetry Final Project

As a culminating task for our poetry unit, you and your group will create a mash-up a poem and song pairing that really resonates with you and about which you are passionate.. Using significant lines from both pieces you will create your own work that highlights the importance of your chosen theme.

You will choose a poem and song pairing -- so Poem A should go with Song A, Poem B with Song B, etc. Once you have chosen the poem and the song, you are ready to go!

Step 1: Create Your Mash-Up

Using lines from both the poem and the song you have chosen, create your own “found poem” to be presented orally.  You want to choose lines that are significant to the work, have a unique oral quality and/or help contribute to the overall theme being expressed.  Poetic devices such as consonance, assonance, onomatopoeia, repetition, imagery, symbolism, metaphor, simile, hyperbole should be included.  

Step 2: Presenting Your Mash-Up

As a group, put your mash-up on padlet so we can read them as a class.

Step 3 - Analysis of Mash-Up

After we read the Mash-Ups as a group, we will analyze them. The writers can contribute to the discussion.

a) Authors: Should be prepared to give explanation of the subject/message/plot of the poem and song. What commonalities did you see in the powm and song. Why did you organize/arrange your mash-up the way you did? What was the main theme/message of your mash-up? How effectively do you feel it was communicated?           

b) Readers: Speak to the decisions the authors made regarding the differences between the poem and song. Think about:

1. Type of poem
2. Speaker (narrative voice)
3. Mood, tone and atmosphere                 
4. Structure of the poem (rhyme schemes, length, meter, stanzas etc.)
5. Subject matter 
6. Intention (i.e. theme)

POEM OF THE DAY: The Iraqui Nights” by Dunya Mikhail (EXCERPT - For Full Poem, Visit https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/88939/the-iraqi-nights)

In Iraq,

after a thousand and one nights,

someone will talk to someone else.

Markets will open

for regular customers.

Small feet will tickle

the giant feet of the Tigris.

Gulls will spread their wings

and no one will fire at them.

Women will walk the streets

without looking back in fear.

Men will give their real names

without putting their lives at risk.

Children will go to school

and come home again.

Chickens in the villages

won’t peck at human flesh

on the grass.

Disputes will take place

without any explosives.

A cloud will pass over cars

heading to work as usual.

A hand will wave

to someone leaving

or returning.

The sunrise will be the same

for those who wake

and those who never will.

And every moment

something ordinary

will happen

under the sun.