Scaffolds

Poets can use scaffolds to mimic strategies that authors have used in their poetry. Students may decide to copy verbatim, lines that authors used. They may choose to replicate that style or strategy the authors use (repetition). Or they may imitate the writing form the author used- how the actual poem looks.

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Scaffold:

The Red Wheelbarrow

By: William Carlos Williams

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

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When analyzing this poem, students might note that the poem consists of four stanzas, each stanza has two lines, the first line has three words, and the second only have one.

Students my decide to use imagery, just as the author does- appealing to sight.

Students may decide that they do not like how the poem looks and write theirs with fewer stanzas and longer lines.

Students should use poems to get ideas that they could use in their own writings. In the beginning, they may depend on the authors examples and try to replicate things they see. But as they grow as poets, they will be able to see the authors style and appreciate it, but then manipulate it in their own way.

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My example:

In my example, I took the same approach by using four stanzas, with two lines in each stanza. The first having three words (for the most part) and the second having one word.

I wrote two examples and they are polar opposites of each other, which was a spin I used that the author did not. The first poem was aimed towards being loud and focusing on the sense, hearing. The second poem was a lot quieter and focused on the sense, sight.

I could have focused on using less stanzas and longer lines. Or I could have stressed "CLANK" and SILENCE to exemplify the big difference between the tow poems.