The Basic Moves in Poetry

Kids love music - rock, rap, rhythm & blues, country, gospel or classical tunes - and poetry is full of music. It captures the ear's attention. Before we can read, write, or even speak, we are enraptured by the music of nursery rhymes and playground chants. There are three main musical techniques on the poet's game: rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration. Recite the following lines out loud to your child.

Slurp! Slop! Slip!
Words begin to drip!
Let me hear you give it
Some lip -
Poetry is hip.

Rhythm is created by the repetition of stresses and pauses. It's the hip-hop and the bebop of language. In the poem you just read, the pauses come at the end of each line.

Rhyme is created by repeating matching sounds at the end of words: "slip," "drip," "lip," and "hip".

Alliteration occurs when we repeat the same consonant sound at the beginning of successive words. The S's in the first line let you know your playing the game of poetry.

Ask your child to name some of his or her favorite songs, tunes that stick in their heads like "Old McDonald," or the "The Star Spangled Banner," or "Who Let The Dogs Out!"

Now have them pick one, and encourage them to write new lyrics of their own.

For example, the original lyrics to "Home, Home on the Range" go something like this:

Home, home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play.
Where seldom is heard,
A discouraging word
And the skys are not cloudy all day.

Home, home of the strange
Where the weird and the wonderful play.
Where the upside-down
Is the right-side up
And the mixed-up show you the way.

Usually poems are not accompanied by instruments, but we can accentuate the musical quality of words with a little drumming or strumming or piano plinking and plunking.

A Child's Voice has developed an audio CD that allows children to hear the musical quality of poetry. It's called Kiss The Fish and contains 28 tracks of original poems set to musical rhythms and sounds. It's a great way to introduce your children to the game of poetry. For more information on this CD, just click here.

Click the play button below to hear an example of how instrumentation can accentuate the natural rhythm of a poem.

To read about Creating Imagery, click here.

To return back to the Poetry Resource page, click here.