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IWW
Practice-W Exercise Archives
Exercise: The World's a Poem (Version 2)
These exercises were written
by IWW members
and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its
members.
You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that
you found
them at the Internet Writers Workshop
(http://www.internetwritingworkshop.org/).
Prepared
by:
Ruth Douillette
Posted on: October 29, 2006
Reposted on: November 4, 2007
Posted, revised, on: July 26, 2009
Posted on: November 21, 2010
Posted on: July 14, 2013
Posted on: April 10, 2016
Posted on: August 20, 2017
Posted on: January 15, 2023
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Exercise: Find an article in a newspaper or magazine on a topic that
interests you: a current event, a political development, a science
breakthrough, an obituary, or anything you react to emotionally. Turn
the prose into a poem that expresses the essence of the article. Give
your poem a brief introduction. For example:
"This poem is based on the book burning staged by Alamogordo objectors after they read When Pigs Fly."
Note: There’s no specified word allowance for this exercise, but
please use your good sense. Submit a verse with enough content for a
critique, but not an overly long, multi-stanza ode.
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William Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings, recollected in tranquility."
If this is true, then we are all poets at heart. Often those who write
prose include poetic elements in stories. The use of rhythm, figurative
language, alliteration, metaphor and other literary devices is not exclusive to poetry. Yet we often steer clear of writing poetry, fearing it as something foreign, very different from the familiar prose of everyday language.
While poetry is different, it is in many ways similar to prose. A poem
can tell a story, although it doesn't have to. Poetry expresses ideas,
thoughts, and actions, like prose, but in a different way. Poetry condenses and concentrates the essence of prose, saying much in few words.
Many of us may feel incompetent when it comes to writing poetry, so, if
it helps, don't think of yourself as writing a poem--what you are doing is simply what Wordsworth recommended: letting your feelings overflow.
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Critique by naming the emotions you found in the poem. Can you tell from the poem what the article was about? Did the poem inspire an emotional reaction?
Web site created by
Rhéal Nadeau and
the administrators of the Internet Writing Workshop.
Modified by Gayle Surrette.
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