Poetry Writing Project

Putting all this together into a really fun writing project that you will treasure forever.

(Either that or you will curse me for making you do such a dumb assignment.)

Edgar Lee Masters wrote a collection of poetry called the Spoon River Anthology.

This book consisted of over 200 free-verse poems, each one from the viewpoint of one of the townspeople. In them, the people expressed their opinions about their lives and life in general.

All kinds of characters spoke: the night watchman, several doctors and lawyers, the village poetess and so on. Using the first person (I) point of view, they gossiped and complained, chattered and accused -- you know like people do. In the course of their monologues, all sides of the town including its seamy corrupt sides, were revealed.

It was an interesting concept that people of the time had mixed emotions about.

(Probably because many of the characters were people that others recognized)

Masters puts an even stranger spin on Spoon River Anthology. All of his characters are dead, so what they said came from "beyond the grave" where no one could reach them.

This is your final writing assignment. You are going to write your own Spoon River; only your speakers are high school kids in your school who are quite alive and have a lot to say, or people in your neighborhood, or people in your workplace, or people in just about any other place where people might gather. Whether you use free verse or a more traditional rhyming verse is up to you. If possible mix the two. Write all the poems in the first person point of view and make them at least 12 lines each.

The first poem is about yourself and the way you see yourself in your life. Write two versions -- one rhymed, one unrhymed just to get a feel for what you prefer doing.

Then write nine more all in first person point of view. They can be from anyone's viewpoint about anything: a teacher talking about the class clown, a boyfriend talking about his girlfriend or vice versa, someone you dislike talking about you, you talking about someone you dislike. Remember all are written from the first person point of view as if you were that person.

Some of the poems you write can have an interrelated story line. For example, you could write a poem about a boyfriend and a girlfriend who split up when a second girl stole the boyfriend. You can write as the boyfriend and/or the two girls. You could have as many as three poems about the same situation. More if you used your imagination.