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Song Writing – 101
Thursday, May 20
Project due: Thursday: June 10
Someone once said that poetry is an imaginary garden with real toads. I think the same is true for song
writing. In fact, I think that songs are just works of poetry that have been put to music! Regardless, it is a
very creative way of getting a point across.
You will use the basics of poetry to write a songbook.
You must have at least 15 songs in your songbook.
Within your songbook, you must use at least 10 different types of poetry and you must use at
least 10 different poetic devices to create those songs.
o Poetry types you may choose from include: sestina, villanelle, ode, lyric, epic, elegy,
ballad, limmerick, sonnet, cinquain, haiku, and couplet.
o Poetry devices you may choose from include: rhyme scheme (but you must name it),
meter (but you must name it), alliteration, blank verse, free verse, assonance,
consonance, repetition, end rhyme, internal rhyme, and onomatopoeia.
You do not need to worry about providing the music for your songs.
Finding a Subject: Poetry is written about any topic, but the best poetry is written about something the
author already knows or thinks.
Think about an important time or event in your life and write about it or about the minutes just before or
just after it.
Think about a subject that has special meaning for you.
Think about something you want to celebrate like a time, a place, or a thing (like a special object that has
particular meaning to you).
Pretend you are older or younger or from a different place or from a different time.
Preparing to Write: Once your subject is chosen, think of an interesting way to write about it.
Try clustering or webbing ideas. These short notes may lead you naturally to poetry.
You might also try an open-ended question like “what if” and repeat it several times.
Writing the First Draft: Once you have an interesting subject and many details or interesting ideas about
your subject, you are ready to begin.
Don’t worry about whether it “sounds” like a poem right away.
Say everything you want to say about your topic.
Remember to incorporate how you feel as well as the sounds, tastes, or smells of your topic.
The way your poem looks is up to you as long as it looks good and makes sense to you. It may be a list
of words or phrases, or it may be complete sentences.
Your poem does not have to rhyme. Most modern poetry is called free verse. That means it is not
written in any special form and doesn’t require rhyme or rhythm, but your poem can rhyme if you want it
to. Most songs do rhyme and have a particular rhythm because they’re easier to put to music and
because they’re easier to remember. That part is up to you.
Revising your Poem: You will revise your poem many times. Do not plan on being done after the first
draft. Wait until you are satisfied you have captured your subject.
Make sure your poem title adds something to your poem and catches the reader’s attention.
Your poem should contain strong, active words that show rather than tell something.
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Make sure your poem is clear and complete.
Make sure your poem looks and sounds in a way that helps your readers enjoy it.
Check the way your poem ends. It should not fizzle and die.
Check for capitalization. The first word in each line of a traditional poem is capitalized. (In free-verse
poetry, capitalization is not necessary, but you might decide to capitalize a few words for emphasis).
Check spelling, punctuation, and word usage.
Make sure your final copy is neat and clear.
Appreciating Poetry
To fully appreciate poetry, you must not only write it, but you must read it, talk about it, and listen to it. As
you read the following poem by Robert Frost, try the following steps: (1) Read the poem slowly and
carefully; (2) Read the poem aloud or have someone read it to you; (3) Read the poem several times; (4)
Try to catch the general meaning the first time you read it in order to help you with the difficult parts; and (5)
Share poems you enjoy with friends.
Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know. (a)
His house is in the village though (a)
He will not see me stopping here (b)
To watch his woods fill up with snow. (a)
My little horse must think it queer (b)
To stop without a farmhouse near (b)
Between the woods and frozen lake (c)
The darkest evening of the year. (b)
He gives his harness bells a shake (c)
To ask if there is some mistake. ___
The only other sound’s the sweep ___
Of easy wind and downy flake. ___
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep ___
But I have promises to keep, ___
And miles to go before I sleep ___
And miles to go before I sleep ___
Can you fill in the blanks? What do all those letters mean?
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The Language of Traditional Poetry – Poetic Devices
Most traditional forms of poetry follow exact patterns of rhyme and rhythm. Although modern poets tend to
write in free verse, understanding the characteristics and forms of traditional poetry will help you better
understand and appreciate why poets write the way they do. See if you can think of any songs that fit these
patterns.
1. Rhyme Scheme: The rhyme scheme is a rhyming pattern in poetry. Note that in the previous poem,
the rhyme scheme was aaba/bbcb/ccdc/dddd.
2. Meter: This is the rhythm or pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in the lines of the poem.
Traditional poems have identifiable meter. In the previous poem, every other syllable is accented.
This is called Iambic tetrameter. Read the sections about Foot and Verse and see if you can figure
out why.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though.
3. Foot: A foot is one unit of meter. There are five basic feet.
Iambic: an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one (re peat).
Anapestic: two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one (in ter rupt).
Trochaic: an accented syllable followed by an unaccented one (old er).
Dactylic: an accented syllable followed by two unaccented ones (o pen ly).
Spondaic: two accented syllables (heart break)
4. Verse: A line of traditional poetry written in meter and named for the foot and number of repeated
patterns.
Monometer: one foot
Dimeter: two feet
Trimeter: three feet
Tetrameter: four feet
Pentameter: five feet
Hexameter: six feet
Heptameter: seven feet
Octometer: eight feet
5. Stanza: A stanza is a division in a poem named for the number of lines it contains.
Couplet: two line stanza
Triplet: three line stanza
Quatrain: four line stanza
Cinquain: five line stanza
Sestet: six line stanza
Septet: seven line stanza
Octave: eight line stanza
6. Alliteration: Repeating the beginning consonant sound as in creamy and crunchy.
7. Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds as with the “i” sound in the following:
Till the shining scythes went far and wide
And cut it down to dry.
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8. Consonance: The repetition of consonant sounds anywhere in the word, not just the beginning of
the word).
The sailor sings of ropes and things
In ships upon the seas.
9. Repetition: Repeating a word or phrase to add rhythm or emphasize an idea.
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door –
10. End Rhyme: Rhyming words at the ends of two or more lines of poetry.
She always had to burn a light
Beside her attic bed at night.
11. Internal Rhyme: Rhyming words within a line of poetry.
Jack Sprat could eat no fat.
12. Onomatopoeia: Using a word whose sound makes you think of its meaning.
Buzz, gunk, gushy, swish, zigzag, zing, zip
The Language of Traditional Poetry – Types of Poetry
1. Couplet: two lines of verse that usually rhyme and state one complete idea.
2. Haiku: Three line Japanese poetry that presents a picture of nature. Ancient Japanese poets counted
sounds not syllables. (Seventeen sounds in Japanese are more like twelve to fifteen syllables.)
Original haiku tried to link the natural and the human worlds.
Water tumbles down (5 syllables)
In a gently flowing stream. (7 syllables)
Over rocks it trips. (5 syllables)
3. Quatrain: A four line stanza. Common rhyme schemes are aabb, abab, and abcb.
I wish I had no teachers.
That’s what I’d like to see.
I’d do whatever I wanted to,
And nobody’d yell at me.
4. Cinquain: Poems that are five lines in length. There are syllable and word cinquain poems. They
usually consist of two, four, six, eight, then two syllables or words per line.
Game time.
Season looked good.
National champions
We told ourselves as we sat down
Not now.
5. Villanelle: Originally an Italian folk song, it has six stanzas; the first five are three lines long, and
the last is four. The first and last lines of the first stanza rhyme and alternately repeat as the last line
of each stanza, except the sixth. In the last stanza, the lines are used as the last two lines of the poem.
The middle lines of each stanza also rhyme with each other.
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I have lost my dove: (line 1)
Is there nothing I can do?
I want to go after my love. (line 3)
Do you miss the one you love?
Alas! I really do:
I have lost my dove. (line 1)
If your love you prove
Then my faith is true;
I want to go after my love. (line 3)
Haven’t you cried enough?
I will never be through:
I have lost my dove. (line 1)
When I can’t see her above
Nothing else sees to do:
I want to go after my love. (line 3)
Death, I’ve called long enough,
Take what is given you:
I have lost my dove, (line 1)
I want to go after my love. (line 3)
6. Sonnet: A fourteen line poem stating a poet’s personal feelings. Each line in a sonnet is ten
syllables in length, and every other syllable is stressed, beginning with the second syllable. This form
of poetry is usually written in Iambic pentameter (and was Shakespeare’s favorite).
7. Limerick: Five lines of humorous verse. Lines one, two, and five rhyme as do lines three and four.
Lines one, two, and five have three stressed syllables; lines three and four have two.
There once was a lady from Nantucket
Who lived her whole life in a bucket.
Her pleasures unknown,
Were completely thrown,
When in a mudhole her bucket got stuckit.
8. Ballad: A story/song used to preserve an important story usually about a race or class of people. It
is usually written in a quatrain, and usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme.
Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?
9. Blank Verse: Unrhymed poetry with meter. Usually, lines are ten syllables in length. Every other
syllable, beginning with the second syllable, is accented.
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.
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10. Free Verse: Poetry not requiring meter or rhyme scheme.
11. Elegy: A poem stating a poet’s sadness about the death of a person who is important to the poet.
12. Epic: A long story poem that describes the adventures of a hero.
13. Lyric: A short poem expressing personal feeling.
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky;
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old.
14. Ode: An ode is a long lyric that is deep in feeling and rich in poetic devices and imagery.
15. Sestina: Six stanzas of six lines each followed by a three line stanza to finish. Instead of rhyming
words, the poem repeats the same six words at the end of each line in a shifting but consistent pattern.
This is a bit obsessive, but it’s interesting nevertheless. (This is not the complete poem!)
September rain falls on the house. 1
In the failing light, the old grandmother 2
Sits in the kitchen with the child 3
Beside the Little Marvel Stove, 4
Reading the jokes from the almanac, 5
Laughing and talking to hid her tears. 6
She thinks that her equinoctial tears 6
And the rain that beats on the roof of the house 1
Were both foretold by the almanac, 5
But only known to a grandmother. 2
The iron kettle sings on the stove. 4
She cuts some bread and says to the child. 3
It’s time for tea now, but the child 3
Is watching the teakettle’s small hard tears 6
Dance like mad on the hot black stove, 4
The way the rain must dance on the house. 1
Tidying up, the old grandmother 2
Hangs up the clever almanac. 5
On it’s string. Birdlike, the almanac 5
Hovers half open above the child, 3
Hovers above the old grandmother 2
And her teacup full of dark brown tears. 6
She shivers and says she thinks the house 1
Feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove. 4