A Poetry Toolbox

Figure 4-1 Poetry Toolboxes (pg 65)

Georgia Heard, in Awakening the Heart, introduces the reader to a variety of craft elements to implement into poetry. She refers to these tools as a poetry toolbox.

Column I focuses on helping the reader experience the poem through visual tools.

Column II focuses on the sound and rhythm of the poem.

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  Draft One

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  Draft Two

On the left side was draft one. I had just wrote this poem and did not know if I would ever come back to it. I really liked the meaning of the poem and how the beginning and end are similar.

When I did decide to revisit it, I separated it into stanzas, took out extra words, and lines I did not like.

The right side, was yet another draft. I rewrote my poem and inserted the stanzas and line breaks where I thought it needed to be emphasized (but, love, religion, and wisdom). In this draft I also worked on word choice. I thought about words I could use in place of other words- some worked and others did not.

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Lastly, is my final piece, you can still notice a few minor changes.

When I was writing, my major takeaways from Heard were: word choice, line breaks, and the beginning/ending. I feel like the use of contractions (you'll and you've) make the text more personal because it is written like I would say it.

There were tons of other craft elements that I could've implemented but I did not feel lead to do so.

Heard, G. (1999). Awakening the heart: Exploring poetry in elementary and middle school. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.