The Sound of Words: An Introduction to Poetry

Rhythmic Renditions

Beats, conceived by students as the tapping, banging, or other cadence of some percussion instrument will in turn be used to place stresses and learn how to read and listen for accented syllables. For the interest of this unit, rhythm will only be considered in relation to tempo of voice, tone, meter, and the poets' use of pause. Metrical patterns will be toyed with in regard to line length, stressed and unstressed syllables, and uses of alliteration for rhythm and accent.

In today's poetry performances, poets use intonation, gestures, and sometimes background music to accentuate their poetry, making this pedagogy culturally relevant to my students' world and interests. Therefore, students will deconstruct various lyrical poems written by rappers Tupac, Talib Kweli, Queen Latifah and Common. In this way, students will hear historical and cultural references to social concerns of a specific time period.

For ease in teaching students how to scan lines of verse - scansion, students will go around the room and state their names while others write them down on paper. Next, I will show them the mark of a stressed and unstressed syllable. Beginning with my name they will be able to comprehend accents and measurement of lines. Their names will be said aloud by them, then by the class for accents. Following this round robin of accentual experimentation, I will speak to students about the specific terms of accentual syllabic meter until the end of the exercise, when everyone's name has been scanned. Students will have to practice this skill to become more precise at determining stresses in words - in and out of context of a line of verse. This short and quick exercise will give them tools for more effective inquiry and deeper context when analyzing meaning through rhythmical writings and performance. This short exercise will translate for students a "call for learning." By using each student's name, they will feel connected to the lesson. This is designed to assist in demonstrating for students a level of trust of each other toward a setting for creative freedom of expression. Again, this is in an effort in creating social connection for symphonic unity.

Students will individually dissect the following prose piece then reconstruct the prose selection into a poem, marking where the lines begin and end, changing punctuation, but not changing any of the words. They will be asked to note any repetition of specific words or phrases. They must also create a lexicon for use later.

These two works, published a decade apart—1951 and 1961—exemplify characteristics typical of Hughes' jazz inflected poetry, such as abrupt tonal variation between individual poems and the use of varied vernacular expressions. They also provide fresh conceptual approaches to what constitutes a text that embodies a jazz ethos. The multivocal, dialogic sequencing of varied verse forms in n Montage are intended to represent the idiomatic, idiosyncratic and interlocutory aspects of jazz communication. This uniquely synthesized poem, as Montage's author's note announces: "like be-bop, is marked by conflicting changes, sudden nuances, sharp and impudent interjections, broken rhythms and passages sometimes in the manner of the jam session, sometimes the popular song, punctuated by the riffs, runs, breaks, and disc-tortions of the music of a community in transition.⁴

We will then attempt this short opening activity lesson for a few days. Students will also be asked to incorporate pauses (spaces between words and a play on line breaks) in their modified prose poems. These will convey a new rhythm in the writing highlighting strength and poetic choice. This exercise will assist students in understanding rhythm and its prominence in the written and spoken word. Furthermore, using this particular passage will engage students in advanced literary vocabulary and thinking.

This passage lends itself to rhythmic nuances and syllabic metrical patterns that will allow students to recognize new meanings in the writing when recreating its sentences and phrases into verse for poetry.

Students will notice the intense variation of the kinds of sentence represented that will then transform into lines of verse on their page. Several students will be chosen to read their version of poetry; a typed version of the completed activity will be placed on the wall for display.

Rhythmic lexicon play makes a sort of texture in our listening lives; new rhythms offer new perspectives on tone. In the era of my students' poetic perspective, free stylin' poetry is an art form based on the work of rhythm. It is a word symphony that is constructed on a basic patterned rhythm that the poet (lyricist) determines before uttering the first word. The rhyme creates a repetition of particular sounds; together with incantations, metaphors, and similes these overwhelmingly draw listeners in. Rhythmic repetition initiates a sense of order but freedom from rigidity in a poetic order gives the poet a field of identity, room to move in the language and the rhythm.⁵ Also found in poetic rhythms of African-Americans, there is a sense of immediacy, personal involvement, and dramatic appeal. Students will be guided in viewing clips of young people free-stylin' (their own friends from YouTube) and also on stage at a poetry slam.