• Creative Writing for ESL Learners
  • Cover
  • Introduction
  • Unit 1: Poetry
  • Unit 2: Plays
  • Unit 3: Short Stories
  • Unit 4: Speeches
  • Appendices
  • Download
  • Translations
  • U1 Poetry Concepts

    • U1 Poetry Concepts

    When writing an essay, you will often need to know concepts or ideas such as thesis statement, topic sentence, or supporting details. Understanding these concepts is needed to write academic essays. 

    Like essay writing, creative writing has certain concepts that are often used to write poems. These concepts are specific to poetry. 

    Unit 1: Poetry Concepts

    Concept

    Part of Speech

    Definition 

    Example

    stanza

    		nouna group of lines that make a unit in a poem1

    The Road Not Taken [excerpt] 

    by Robert Frost

    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
    And sorry I could not travel both
    And be one traveler, long I stood
    And looked down one as far as I could
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

    Then took the other, as just as fair
    And having perhaps the better claim,
    Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
    Though as for that, the passing there
    Had worn them really about the same,

    line

    		noun a horizontal group of words in a poem. A line may be a word, phrase, clause, or sentence; a line is not defined by length

    The Road Not Taken [excerpt] 

    by Robert Frost

    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
    And sorry I could not travel both
    And be one traveler, long I stood
    And looked down one as far as I could
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

    rhyme

    		noun a word that ends with the same sound as another word2

    Cat  Bat  Rat  Sat

    Heart Cart Dart Mart

    The Road Not Taken [excerpt] 

    by Robert Frost

    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
    And sorry I could not travel both
    And be one traveler, long I stood
    And looked down one as far as I could
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

    rhyme scheme

    		nouna pattern of rhyming words at the end of lines in poems

    The Road Not Taken [excerpt] 

    by Robert Frost

    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,    A
    And sorry I could not travel both             B
    And be one traveler, long I stood            A
    And looked down one as far as I could   A
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;       B

    syllable

    		nouna unit of sound that has at least one vowel3

    Cat = 1 syllable

    Some•thing = 2 syllables

    Gov•ern•ment = 3 syllables

    De•vel•op•ment = 4 syllables

    1. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/stanza?q=stanza

    2. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/rhyme_1?q=rhyme 

    3. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/syllable?q=syllable 

    Exercise 1.10

    Match the concept term to its example. The letter of the example on the line The examples come from "Book of Nonsense Limerick 26" by Edward Lear.

    Vocabulary Word

    		 

    Example

    1. ___ line

    		 

    a. AACCA

    2. ___ rhyme

    		 

    b. But it's colour and size,

        So bedazzled her eyes, 

    3. ___ rhyme scheme

    		 

    c. But it's colour and size,

    4. ___ stanza

    		 

    d. bon•net

    5. ___ syllable

    		 

    e. There was a young Lady of Dorking,

        Who bought a large bonnet for walking;

        But it's colour and size,

        So bedazzled her eyes,

        That she very soon went back to Dorking.

    Exercise 1.11

    Follow the directions to annotate the poem below. You can print a pdf of this page to do this activity or write the poem on a piece of paper and then do the activity. 

    1. Underline the second line of the poem. 
    2. Draw arrows between the words that rhyme with each other.
    3. Draw a circle around the rhyme scheme. 
    4. Draw a box around the stanza. 
    5. Draw a dot above each syllable. 

    There was an Old Man with a beard

    by Edward Lear

    There was an Old Man with a beard,         A


    Who said, "It is just as I feared! -               A


    Two Owls and a Hen,                                B


    Four Larks and a Wren,                             B


    Have all built their nests in my beard!"      A

    This content is provided to you freely by EdTech Books.

    Access it online or download it at https://edtechbooks.org/introduction_to_crea/u2_vocabulary.