Quarter 1

Expressions
Poets who see with an “inward eye” express in meaningful language the beauty
that they see or the emotions that they feel, and the truth that they perceive around
them. By doing so, they evoke us vivid, colorful sense impressions, fine sentiments, and
ennobling thoughts.
John Keats, a Romantic poet, has exhorted us in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”: Beauty
is truth, truth beauty-- that is all you know on earth and all you need to know.”

Essential Meanings:

1. Poetry begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

2. In poetry, thoughts and images are crystallized in distilled words.
3. The meanings found in the most beautiful lines composed by great poets are often
relevant to one’s life.
4. Committing to memory and reciting one’s favorite poetic passages can be very
rewarding because such act enlivens the mind and warms

Module 2
Learning the Form and Types of Poetry
Skills in Focus
 Follow guidelines in reading poetry
 Use who, whom, and whose as interrogative and relative pronouns
 Recognize figures of speech
 Recognize and define a couplet, quatrain, a sonnet and a free verse
 Use modals in constructing meaningful sentences

Oral Language and Fluency

Reading Poetry
Poetry is meant to be read aloud. It should be shared with others. Poets
make use of any elements to communicate experience. They rely on the subjective power
of language and choose words for their emotional effect, as well as for their literal
meaning. They appeal to both the mind and the senses through images and figures of
speech and sound, such as rhyme and rhythm.
 Guidelines for Reading a Poem

To understand a poem fully, be guided by the following reminders.

1. Read the poem several times and aloud at least once, following the author’s
clues for phrasing.
Punctuation marks, such as commas, semicolons, and periods tell you where
to pause. The reader is not expected to pause at the end of each line. Two
successive lines with no punctuation mark in between are run-on, signifying
that the author wished no break in thought.
In reading poetry aloud, readers sometimes enjoy the sounds so much that
they ignore the meaning of individual lines. In order to stress the rhyme of a
poem, they sometimes read in a monotonous pattern called singsong. One
way to avoid singsong is to read a poem naturally. Do not stress rhyme words
by raising your voice or pausing mechanically at the end of each line. Follow
the punctuation marks and convey the meaning of a poem.

2. Look up key words and references.

3. Write a paraphrase of any line that needs clarification and simplification. A
paraphrase helps the reader understand imagery and figurative language. A
paraphrase also put into normal word order any inverted construction. It also
supplies connections in thought where words have been omitted.
4. Arrive at the central idea or meaning of the poem. Try to state theme in one
or two sentences

Task 1.1 Writing Paragraph; Interpreting Stanzas

Directions: Write a paragraph giving your interpretation of any of the following stanzas.

If all the world and love were young,

And truth in every shepherd’s tongue
These pretty pleasures might me move,
To live with thee and be thy love .

But could youth last, and love still breed,

Had joys no date, nor age, no need ,
Then these delights my mind might move,
To live with thee and be thy love.
 The Relationship of Meter and
Meaning

Creative interpretation gives meaning to the most important role and

interprets rhythm and meter in relation to meaning.

The two approaches to run-on lines are free and metrical. If a free approach
is desired, run-on lines may be read as phrase with no noticeable break between lines.

 Rhythm

In poetry, rhythm can be shown with stress marks (‘) over stressed syllables and
rounded mark () over unstressed syllable. For example in the word ( po-e-tri ),
the first syllable is stressed and the second two are not.

Scansion is the designation of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem.

Scanning a poem is determining what kind of rhythm the poem has. When
scanning a poem, read it aloud in your most natural voice in order to hear the
stresses fall.

 Metrical Emphasis in Choral Speaking

When stresses occur with sufficient regularity in a poem, the result is called
meter. Meter is the number of stresses in a line of verse, determining their
number and placement.
The unit of number is called foot. A metrical foot is usually consists of a
stressed syllable and one or two unstressed syllables that precede or follow. A
line with single foot is called monometer. A line with two feet is called diameter;
with three, trimester; with four, tetrameter; with five, pentameter; with six,
hexameter; with seven, heptameter; and with eight, octometer.

1. The most common is the iambic foot, where the stressed syllable is preceded
by one unstressed, as in the word surprise. The iambic rhythm is called a
“rising” rhythm.

Example: The cur/ few tolls/ the knell/ of part/ ing day.
1 2 3 4 5

The forgoing verse by Thomas Gray is written in iambic pentameter.

2. When the stress comes first, followed by an unstressed syllable, the foot is
called trochee. The trochee is “falling” rhythm.

Spláshing

Dáshing
 The above lines make up a trochaic monometer.
Here is an example of trochaic tetrameter.

Hé was/ prouder/ thán the / devil.

Hów he/ múst have / cursed our / revel

3. The anapest is a foot of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one

as the word intervene. The anapest is a rising rhythm but is more rapid than
the iambic because of greater number of unstressed syllables. The following
is an example of anapestic trimester.

From the cén/ ter all-róund/ to the seá

I am lord/ of the fowl/ and the brute.

1 2 3

4. The dactyl is a foot that begins with a stressed , followed by two unstressed
syllables as in the word mémory. It is a “falling” rhythm, the most rapid and
lively of English meters.

Héed not the / corpse, though a / king in your/ path.

5. In addition to the four principal feet, the spondee is worth mentioning. The
spondee has double movement, in which both syllables are ascended as in
the word amen.

Rócks, cranes / lákes, fens/ and shades/ of death.

Grammar Awareness: Using Who,

Whom, and Whose in Questions

Read the following questions taken from “The Man with the Hoe.” by Edwin Markham.

1. “Who made him dead to rapture and despair…”?

2. “Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw”?
3. “Whose breath blew out the light within this brain”?

Who in the first and second sentences is a pronoun used as a subject.

Whose in the third sentence is the possessive form of who. It is used breath blew as
modifier of breath which is the subject of the sentence.
Usually, there is no problem with using whose but speakers and writers are often
faced with the difficulty in using who or whom correctly. Most often, they used
interchange who for whom or vice versa.

The following guidelines will enable you to use who and whom correctly.
 Whom always follows a preposition.
 For whom is the bouquet of lilies?
Who whispered to whom during the test?

 When an interrogative sentence contains who or whom , change the question into
a statement and substitute he or him in place of who or whom. If he could be
used in the resulting sentence, use who; if him is correct, use whom.

Examples
Interrogative sentence: (Who, Whom ) are you inviting to the dance?

Normal Order: You are inviting him to the dance.

Therefore, use whom. Whom are you inviting to the dance?

Interrogative sentence: (Who, Whom ) is the young man in the picture?

Normal Order: The young man with you in the picture is he.
Therefore, use who. Who is the young man with you in the picture?

Interrogative sentence: (Who, Whom ) shall I ask to welcome the guests?

Normal Order: I shall ask him to welcome the guests.

Therefore, use whom. Whom shall I ask to welcome the guests?

 When who or whom introduces a relative clause, first isolate the clause that
begins with the pronoun and determine whether the relative pronoun can be
replaced by he or him. If he is correct; use who; if him is correct, use whom.

Examples:

A neighbor saw a man ( who , whom ) was thought to be a burglar entering our
house. Isolate the clause ( who, whom ) was thought to be a burglar.

A burglar was thought to be he.

Therefore, use who.
A neighbor saw a man who was thought to be a burglar entering our house.

Mary met the varsity player ( who , whom ) every coed swoons at.

Every coed swoons at him.

Mary met the varsity player whom every coed swoons at.

GRAMMAR NOTES:

To start questions, the interrogatives, such as who, whom, and whose, have the
following uses.

1. Who functions as a pronoun; it is usually used as the subject of the verb.

2. Whom is used as object of the verb (direct object) of the preposition
3. Whose is a possessive modifier.
Task 1.2 Directions: Fill in the blanks with who or whom.

1. ______________ are you taking to the Grand Ball?

2. ______________ should the visitors see if the principal is not around?
3. Do you know the person ______________ shouted for help when the fire broke out?
4. I want to appoint someone ______________ I can trust.
5. Most people ______________ live in Southern Mindanao are tired of violence and
are willing to migrate to a peaceful area.
6. Nobody ______________ I know can remain as cheerful as Flor.
7. My maiden Aunt has a kind of word for everyone ______________ she meets.
8. “They also serve ______________ only stand and wait.”
9. ______________ shall I say is calling?
10. The class elected Carlo ______________ everyone favors most.

Learning the Forms of Poetry

Sharing Prior Knowledge

Do you stop to look at and wonder about tress?
Essential Question
How is a tree lovelier than a poem?

Literary Selection 1

Trees
Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
 A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

Learning What a Couplet Is

The poem above is an example of a couple.

A couplet is one way by which lines are grouped. It consists of two lines that
usually rhyme. The couple of lines, which have the same length and rhythm, combine
to express a simple, complete thought.

Task 1.3
Recognizing Figures of Speech: Simile and Personification
Directions: Based on the poem entitled “Trees”, by Joyce Kilmer, answer the
following questions below.

1. In the first couplet, to what does the poet compare a tree? Do you agree with
him?

2. Write down the couplets that show how human qualities are assigned to the
tree. What pictures does the poet create?

Quatrain: A Common Form of Poetry

As the word suggests, a quatrain is a group of four consecutive lines for poetry.
The word quatrain comes from the Latin word quattuor which means “four”.
Frequently, the four lines of a quatrain are similar in length and end rhymes as
Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”

Sharing Prior Knowledge

Can you imagine yourself doing what the title describes? How would you
probably feel doing this? Here in the Philippines, we don’t have snow. So just
imagine yourself stopping by the woods on a moonlit night.
 Essential Question
What keeps us from enjoying the fullest what we really like to do?

About the Author

Robert Frost (1874-1963) was an American poet. For most of his life, he
supported himself by farming and part-time academic work. His first volume of
poetry, A Boy’s Will (1910) and North of Boston (1914) were published during a
stay in England. His reputation grew in United States, and he won many honors,
including four Pulitzer prizes. Outwardly colloquial and concerned with common
sense rural wisdom, his poetry is richly symbolic. Frost’s complete poems were
published in 1987.

Literary Selection 2

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Reading Poetry for Appreciation

 The Stanza

A stanza is any group of lines that make up a division of the poem. It usually
ranges from two to eight lines, although there are stanzas up to 16 lines. It can
sometimes be a single line. The couplet and quatrain are types of stanzas.
Frequently, the stanzas in a poem are determined by length, meter or rhyme
scheme. The stanza works like paragraphs in bringing together similar ideas or
images indicating changes in subject, focus, time or speaker.
Some poems have single stanza. Other poems are divided into several stanzas,
each of which has the same number of lines and the same rhyme scheme. Some
 poems do not repeat the same structure in each stanza; yet each group of lines
is still referred to as stanza.

The Sonnet

The sonnet is a poem consisting of fourteen iambic pentameter lines. This

form originated in Italy and spread to England in the 16 th century.
The Italian or Petrarchan, sonnet (from the Italian poet Petrarch) is a 14-line
poem composed of the opening octave (eight lines) and a concluding sestet (6
lines). It is rhymed abba abba cdc vdc.
The English or Shakespearean, sonnet consists of three quatrains and a
couplet. The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg.
In the first part of the sonnet, a problem or question is presented by the
poet. The second part gives the resolution or answer.

Sharing Prior Knowledge

Would you want somebody to write a poem dedicated to you? What do you
expect will be expressed by the writer?

Essential Question
What are the ways you can show your love for someone?

About the Author

Elizabeth Barett Browning (1806-1861), an English lyric poet, was best
known for Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), inspired by her husband, Robert
Browning, who had “rescued” her from illness and family tyranny in 1846. Other
works include Casa Guide Windows (1851) and Aurora Leigh (1857), a novel in
verse.

Literary Selection 3
How do I love thee?
By Elizabeth Barett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Task 1.4 Reading/Viewing Comprehension

Directions: Analyze and answer the following:

1. How does the poet answer the question she raises in the first part of the
sonnet?

2. Restate in simple sentences the ways she shows her love.

3. Which of the answers or manifestations of love do you think are practical and
sensible? Which are not? Why or Why not?

4. Compare Elizabeth Barett Browning with the Filipina of today.

 Free Verse

It is a poetry that deviates from the traditional form. It has irregular rhymes and
line length. It may have short or long stanzas or no stanzas at all. It does not
have fixed number of lines. The trend of modern poetry is free verse. The following
poem by Whitman is an example of free verse.

Sharing Prior Knowledge

When you hear the word America, what comes to mind?

Essential Question
Who are those people compromising America? How does each one of them
“sing”?

About the Author

Walt Whitman (1819- 1892), was a major U.S. poet. His Leaves of Grass
(1855), expanded in successive editions, and one of the most influential volumes
of poetry in US literary history, was praised by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry
David Thoreau but did not achieve popular recognition at the time of the
publication. Other works include Drum-Taps (1865), a collection in Civil War
poems; Democratic Vistas (1871); and the autobiographical Specimen Days (1882-
1883). He rejected regular meter and rhyme in favor of flowing free verse, and
celebrated rugged individualism, democracy, and equality.
 Literary Selection 4
I Hear America Singing
By Walt Whitman
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his
as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures
his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work,
or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him
in his boat, the deckhand singing
on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench,
the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way
in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother,
or of the young wife at work,
or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night
the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

Task 1.5 Reading and Viewing Comprehension

Directions: Analyze and answer the following:

1. Who is speaking in the poem? What impression of America and its people
does he picture to his readers?

2. How do the Americans in various occupation regard their work?

What is Whitman’s attitude toward America?

3. Write down the line that describes American people.

 Modals: Expressing Permission,
Request and Probability

Examine the sentences below.

1. May I have your contact information?

2. Seeing that everybody worked hard, you should all be able to pass the test.
3. Will you please turn down the volume of the radio?

What words in the sentences suggest permission, request, or probability?

The words may, should, and will give new meanings to a statement when they are
attached to the main verb. In sentence 1, the word may expresses permission. In
sentence 2, the word should expresses probability, while in sentence 3, the word will
expresses request. Below is a list of modals that you can use to express permission,
request and probability.

1. Permission
 Can - asking permission under general rules or customs
Example: Can I cross the street here?
 May - asking permission from a specific person or giving permission to
another person
Example: Mr. Santos, may I take the exam tomorrow?

2. Request
 Will - used for questions and informal situations
Example: Will you cook for us tonight?
 Would - used for questions and informal situations
Example: Would you pass the salt please?

3. Probability
 Should - expressing probability as expected
Example: The peso exchange rate should increase next month as world
crude oil prices increase.

Task 1.6
Directions: Write two sentences for each modal that exemplify
asking permission, making request or expressing probability.

1. Can

2. May

3. Will

4. Would

5. Should
References

English 9, Curriculum Guide

English 9, MELCS
English for Cultural Literacy 9, Second Edition, FNB Educational
Inc., Ilda O. Cañal, page 25
English for Cultural Literacy 9, Second Edition, FNB Educational
Inc., Ilda O. Cañal, pages 28-31
English for Cultural Literacy 9, Second Edition, FNB Educational
Inc., Ilda O. Cañal, pages 43-45
English for Cultural Literacy 9, Second Edition, FNB Educational
Inc., Ilda O. Cañal, pages 47-58
Practical English 9, Junior High School Edition, DIWA Textbooks,
pages 286-287