1. 7/1: Protest Poems, SLAMS and Poetical Forms
Begin class with Students reading Protest Poems.
Objectives:
1)To learn the purpose of FORMS
2)To write various types of forms to find which best fits our purpose
3)To discuss the dramatic monologue and how the monologue can be used
FORM + CONTENT + CONTEXT = IDEA
Forms that we will investigate:
List (look at Allen Ginsberg, other examples)
Litany (need poems)
Haiku (Basho – discuss 5-7-5 verses Kerouac’s idea of Western Haiku)
Pantoum (Atomic Pantoum, Ashberry’s Pantoum)
Syllabic Verse
Found Poetry
OTHER FORMS Students can explore: Ghazal, Villanelle, Sonnet, Blues, Sestina
Dramatic Monologues:
Robert Browning (“My Last Duchess”), Jonathan Holden (“Babbitt”), AI.
HW: Choose a form to write; Write a dramatic monologue
LIST POEM
Really – it is what it sounds like – A List.
Yet, it has purpose:
1) The things on the list are important and the writer wants you to notice them for a reason.
2) There’s a story in it – somewhere.
3) Arranged with a parallel structure or repetition.
Cosmopolitan Greetings – Allen Ginsberg
Stand up against governments, against God.
Stay irresponsible.
Say only what we know & imagine.
Absolutes are Coercion.
Change is absolute.

2. Ordinary mind includes eternal perceptions.
Observe what’s vivid.
Notice what you notice.
Catch yourself thinking.
Vividness is self-selecting.
If we don’t show anyone, we’re free to write anything.
Remember the future.
Freedom costs little in the U.S.
Asvise only myself.
Don’t drink yourself to death.
Two molecules clanking us against each other require an observer to become
scientific data.
The measuring instrument determines the appearance of the phenomenal
world (after Einstein).
The universe is subjective..
Walt Whitman celebrated Person.
We are observer, measuring instrument, eye, subject, Person.
Universe is Person.
Inside skull is vast as outside skull.
What’s in between thoughts?
Mind is outer space.
What do we say to ourselves in bed at night, making no sound?
“First thought, best thought.”
Mind is shapely, Art is shapely.
Maximum information, minimum number of syllables.
Syntax condensed, sound is solid.
Intense fragments of spoken idiom, best.
Move with rhythm, roll with vowels.
Consonants around vowels make sense.
Savour vowels, appreciate consonants.
Subject is known by what she sees.
Others can measure their vision by what we see.
Candour ends paranoia.
Allen Ginsberg
See –PFD on list
...
www.babinlearn.com/pdf%20files/Poetry/THE%20LIST%20POEM.pd
Litany
“A ritualistic speech, prayer, chant or petition”
It often uses repetition of the same words at the beginning of line or some other type of parallel

3. structure.
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/litany/
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Allen-Ginsberg/3704
Haiku
Usually 5-7-5 syllable count, but this is not always followed as some American poets note that Japanese
doesn’t directly translate into English.
Usually contains three short lines of images. The 2nd and 3rd lines sometimes contrast (“August Dawn
Armpit stain
As the foreman drinks coffee”)
The poem is often about nature, often in present tense using everyday words and often contains a
seasonal word.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=177057
Pantoum
http://www.43things.com/entries/view/1371919
A poem written in quatrains. You can have as many quatrains as you’d like in the poem, but don’t go on
too long. It’s a poem based on repetition of lines. Every line in the poem repeats.
Lines 2 and 4 become lines 1 and 3 of the proceeding stanza
Lines 1 and 3 of the first stanza becomes lines 2 and 4 of the last stanza.
SO – it looks like this
1
2
3
4
2
5
4
6
5
7
6
8
7
9

4. 8
10
9
3
10
1
If it sounds confusing – don’t worry. Let’s look at another example:
http://www1.broward.edu/~nplakcy/pantoum.htm
Pantoum
by John Ashbery
Eyes shining without mystery,
Footprints eager for the past
Through the vague snow of many clay pipes,
And what is in store?
Footprints eager for the past
The usual obtuse blanket.
And what is in store
For those dearest to the king?
The usual obtuse blanket.
Of legless regrets and amplifications
For those dearest to the king.
Yes, sirs, connoisseurs of oblivion,
The usual obtuse blanket.
Of legless regrets and amplifications
For those dearest to the king.
Yes, sirs, connoisseurs of oblivion,
Of legless regrets and amplifications,
That is why a watchdog is shy.
Yes, sirs, connoisseurs of oblivion,
These days are short, brittle; there is only one night.
That is why a watchdog is shy,
Why the court, trapped in a silver storm, is dying.

5. These days are short, brittle; there is only one night
And that soon gotten over.
Why the court, trapped in a silver storm, is dying
Some blunt pretense to safety we have
And that soon gotten over
For they must have motion.
Some blunt pretense to safety we have
Eyes shining without mystery,
For they must have motion
Through the vague snow of many clay pipes.
from The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, edited by Mark Strand and Eavan
Boland (New York: WW. Norton and Company, 2000)
Another example of pantoum - go here: http://:43things.com/entries/view/1371919
Dramatic Monologues: also know as closet dramas. This are poetical speeches given in the voice of one
character. The poem uses the idea of an invented persona (meaning that the poet has made up a
character to speak)to tell a story that reveals some trait (reveals personality) about the speaker that
shows insight into an abspect of humanity. There are many good websites on the dramatic both here
are two: http://:43things.com/entries/view/1371919 and
http://www.poetryarchive.org/glossaryItem.do?id:8072