Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Later Wednesday

Beloved preread

Your piece of writing must be serious in tone, and the sentences must make sense. OCCASIONAL fragments in a poem are acceptable if they work.

Compose a poem or a short, haunting descriptive piece of prose using at least ten words from the following list:

Memory
Grave
Pink marble
River
Tree
Heat
Ghost milk
Baby
House
Bread
124
legs
breasts
feet
iron
desire
loneliness
Sweet home
Men
Forget
Legs
Mother
Child

Or, if you are awesome, compose a sestina with six of the words above used as end words. That will earn you, if it makes sense and is an actual sestina, an additional 100 on a test score as well as the score for this pre-reading assignment.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

can we use "riverbank" instead of "river"??

Mr. Koon said...

Yes, or you could also simply write, "on the banks of the river."

dhara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kyle Benson said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kyle Benson said...

does the sestina have to be iambic pentameter because on the internet it stated only in strict forms of sestinas?

dhara said...

Can the sestina be simple, to be acceptable?

chris said...

can i make this into a funny poem

Mr. Koon said...

It does not have to be in iambic pentameter, but line length should be about that length -- no twenty syllable lines followed by three syllables. Have a little freedom, but keep lines fairly consistent in length. (The form comes from French, which does not have the same metrical patterns as English).

A sestina cannot be all that simple, but do be straightforward -- no need to complicate it without good reason. Remember "The Magician Suspends the Children" by Carol Oles?

I want you to attempt a poem with a serious tone, as mentioned in the assignment. Your Christmas card icon there is not at the level I'd like to see you write this poem!

Meg McGill said...

Is it alright if I used all of the words?

Mr. Koon said...

Yes, you overachiever. Is it a sestina or another type of poem?