Before we can read, write, or even speak, we are enraptured by music. From nusery rhymes to playground chants to the head-banging songs of a teen
garage band, young people respond to the music in language.
The poetic classroom is a musical place filled with sounds that capture a young person's attention. You don't have to be a music teacher to
play with the music in words.
"Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words." -Edgar Allan Poe
Recite the following lines out loud:
Slurp! Slop! Slip!
Words begin to drip!
Let me hear you give it
Some lip -
Poetry is hip.
Using the following techniques, individually or together, creates music with words.
Rhythm
Rhythm is created by the repetition of stresses and pauses. It's the hip-hop and the bebop of language. Here the pauses come at the end of each line.
Rhyme
Rhyme is created by repeating matching sounds at the end of words: "Slip," "drip," "lip," and "hip" all rhyme.
Alliteration
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 you're playing
the game of poetry.
Ask your students to name some of their favorite contemporary songs and play a few in class. Together, identify any rhythms, rhymes or alliterative
patterns that make the tunes especially poetic. Let your kids see the poetry in their own music and then try this exercise to get them snapping and
tapping to their own words.
Step 1: Make Your Word List
Pick a song you're pretty sure students have never heard. I suggest some instrumental piece, something without words. While the music plays, instruct
your kids to begin making a word list - Slop it on!
BeatnikBeatCoolBlack
BongosSnapJazzCafe
ShadesSaxHipSmooth
Remember, a good word list is full and varied. What feelings does the song evoke? What pictures come to mind? What kind of actions are suggested?
Any people, places or objects come to mind?
Step 2: Play with Possibilities
After you make a good long list, start looking for playful combinations of words and phrases - Slip slide away, daddy-o!
- Jazz your snap
- Beat your cool
- A black shade smooth cafe
- Bongo beatnik
- Cool dude daddy-o
Step 3: Combine Some Lines
After you’ve collected some lines, start putting them together. New words and phrases may hip-hop and bebop into your mind as you’re composing.
Feel free to add them to the poem.
Bongo Billy
John Coltrane inspired an entire generation of poets called the "Beats."
Bongo Billy beat The beatnik bongo.
Cool dude daddy-o, Go man go!
Snap your fingers! Tap your feet!
Black beret, Billy was beat.
Drank haiku from The campfire stew.
Hitchhiked south with The Mexico blues.
Jump up! Jump back!
Went on the road With Jack Kerouac.
Slap him five. Come inside.
The joint is jumpin’!
The crowd is alive!
When Bongo Billy
Beats the beatnik bongos.
Cool dude daddy-o!
Go man go!
Have your students listen to the track below titled "Dr. Seuss" from the CD Kiss The Fish.
Now ask your students to find a blank page in their journal, Strange World, and describe what they hear. What different instruments are used? How does the speed, the rhythm, or the choice of instruments affect the way they feel?
Beat
- Jazz your snap
