LEARNING MODULE IN ENG-ELEC 5: CREATIVE WRITING

First Semester, AY 2023-2024

Module No. 7-8 Inclusive 7-8
Week
References
Jose, L. and Larioque, R. (2017). Creative writing. Mandaluyong City, Philippines: Books Atbp Publishing Corp.
Nery, P. (2018). Creative writing. Metro Manila, Philippines: Diwa Publishing House.
Module Content

POETRY

Poetry is a compact language that expresses complex and powerful feelings of a poet. To understand the multiple meanings of poem, you must examine its words and
phrasing from the perspective of rhythm, sound, images, obvious meaning and implied meaning.

Poetry has elements that makes it different from other forms of writing. It has imagery, sound and rhymes, persona, theme and other components that enliven the
unanimated ideas. Words used in poems convey several meanings or shades of meaning and emotion at the same time. It is the poet’s job to find words which, when
used in relation to other words in the poem, will carry the precise intention of thought. Often, some of the more significant words may carry several layers or depths of
meaning at once. The ways in which the meanings of words are used can be identified and interpreted.

Elements of Poetry

The basic elements of poetry include the speaker, content, theme, shape and form, mode and tone, imagery, diction, figurative language and sound-effect devices.

1. Speaker – the poem’s speaker is the person who is addressing the reader. Sometimes, the speaker is the poet, who addresses the reader directly or another
person. The poet reveals the identity of the speaker in various ways. Choice of words, focus of attention and attitudes will indicate the age, perspective and
identity of the speaker.
2. Content – content is the subject of the poem. To answers the question “what?”: what is the poem all about? What happens in the poem?
3. Theme – it refers to a larger, more general, or universal message or a big idea as well as to something that you could take away from the work and perhaps apply
to life. “Purity” is a subject, not a theme; “purity is vulnerability” is a theme. The theme may be stated directly or it may be implied.
4. Shape and Form – basically, the actual shape and form of poems can vary dramatically from poem to poem. In poetry, you will encounter two forms: structured
and free verse. Structured poetry has predictable patterns of rhyme, rhythm, line-length and stanza construction. Some examples are the sonnet and haiku. In free
verse, the poet experiments with the form of the poem. The rhythm, number of syllables per line and stanza construction do not follow a pattern.
5. Mood or Tone – tone is what the author rather than the reader feels about the subject. The mood or tone of a poem is the feeling that the poet creates and that the
reader senses through the poet’s choice of words, rhythm, rhyme, style and structure.

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 a. mood – humorous, sad, tragic, solemn, sarcastic, revengeful, joyous, angry
b. tone (attitude) – playful, light, hopeful, lyrical, admiring, laudatory
6. Imager and Figurative Language – it refers to the pictures which we perceive with our mind’s eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin and through which we experience
the duplicate world created by the poetic language.
7. Persona – it refers to the voice a writer creates to tell a story to define the speaker in a poem.
8. Diction – it refers to the poet’s choice of words. The poet chooses each word carefully so that both its meaning and sound contribute to the tone and feeling of
the poem.
9. Sound effect devices – poets use sound in a variety of ways to enhance their poem. Rhyming words in a variety of patterns are called rhyme scheme.
a. end rhyme – is the rhyming of words at the ends of lines of poetry
b. internal rhyme – is the rhyming of words within one line of poetry

Types of Poetry

1. Traditional or Conventional – follows standard rules of grammar and syntax with a regular rhythm and rhyme scheme. It is stricter in its form. Th sonnet, ode,
blank verse, ballad, dramatic monologue each have formal elements that poets follow.

On the Sea
(John Keats)

It keeps eternal whisperings around

Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell
Gluts twice ten thousand Caverns, till the spell
Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.
Often 'tis in such gentle temper found,
That scarcely will the very smallest shell
Be moved for days from where it sometime fell.
When last the winds of Heaven were unbound.
Oh, ye! who have your eyeballs vexed and tired,
Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;
Oh ye! whose ears are dinned with uproar rude,
Or fed too much with cloying melody---
Sit ye near some old Cavern's Mouth and brood,
Until ye start, as if the sea nymphs quired!

2. Modern or Contemporary – avoids rhyme and standard grammatical organization and seeks new ways of expression. It is most often written in free verse
(unrhymed lines), and the language is accessible to the common reader. The meaning of contemporary poems exists more in the mind of the reader than in
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 accessing the mind of the poet.

I will Always be a Difficult Woman.

(Michelle Gean)

I will always be a difficult woman

because I know I’m not made for rising
at your call, late at night, when the rest of the world is silent.
I will always be a difficult woman
because I learned how to rise for myself—
to keep myself warm during the cold nights.
I will always be a difficult woman
because I know I’m not made to be a hole
where you stuff your emotions.
I’m a human with a mind and emotions, like yours.
I will always be a difficult woman
because I know how to say no.
I will always be a difficult woman
because we definitely won’t always agree.
I will always be a difficult woman
because I was built to bleed
and it is messy but natural.
And without it, we wouldn’t be here.
I will always be a difficult woman
because I will want to have uncomfortable conversations with you.
Ones that we want to run away from and pretend don’t exist.
I will always be a difficult woman
because instead of running
I will stay. I will listen.
I will always be a difficult woman
because I will ask us to do more and go further
and it will show us what we are made of.
I will always be a difficult woman
because I see us as equals—
equal problems, equal pleasure, equal humanity
sharing our worlds.
I will always be a difficult woman
because for the right person
at the right time
I am not.

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Arrangement and Structure of Poetry

1. Line – the line is fundamental to the perception of poetry, marking an important visual distinction from prose. Poetry is arranged into a series of units that do not
necessarily correspond to sentences but rather to a series of metrical feet. Generally, but not always, the line is printed as one single line on the page. If it
occupies more than one line, its remainder is usually indented to indicate that it is a continuation.
2. Verse – one single line of a poem arranged in metrical pattern. Also, a piece of poetry or a particular form of poetry such as free verse, blank verse, etc., or the
art or work of a poet.
3. Stanza – a group of lines in a poem. It is a unit of poetic lines (a “paragraph” within the poem). The stanzas within a poem are separated by lank lines.
Remember that stanzas in modern poetry, such as free verse, often do not have lines that are all of the same length and meter, nor even the same number of lines
in each stanza. Stanzas created by such irregular line groupings are often dictated by meaning, as in paragraph or prose.
a. quatrain – a stanza of four lines
b. couplet – a stanza of two lines
4. Foot – a foot is a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. There are many different combinations, but some are more popular than
others. An unstressed (light) syllable is marked with (a) and a stressed syllable (heavy) is marked with the following:
a. Iamb - a foot with two syllables, one that is stressed and one that is unstressed, in that order.
b. Trochee - a foot with two syllables, this time with one that is stressed and one that is unstressed.
c. Spondee - a foot with two syllables, both of which are stressed.
d. Anapest - a foot with three syllables, two stressed syllables followed by one unstressed syllable.
e. Dactyl - a foot with three syllables, one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.
5. Meter – this is the number of feet that is in line of poetry. A line of poetry can have any number of feet, and can have more than one type of foot. There are some
meters that are used more often than others.
a. monometer – a line with 1 foot
b. dimeter – a line with 2 feet
c. trimeter – a line with 3 feet
d. tetrameter – a line with 4 feet
e. pentameter – a line with 5 feet
f. hexameter – a line with 6 feet
g. heptameter – a line with 7 feet
h. octameter – a line with 8 feet
6. Form – the arrangement of method used to convey the content, such as free verse, ballad, haiku, etc. In other words, “way-it-is-said”. A variably interpreted
term, however, it sometimes applies to details within the composition of a text, but is probably used most often in reference to the structural characteristics of a
work as it compares to or differs from established modes of conventionalized arrangements.
a. Open – poetic form free from regularity and consistency in elements such as rhyme, line length, and metrical form
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 b. Closed – poetic form subject to a fixed structure and pattern
c. Blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter
d. Free verse – lines with no prescribed pattern or structure – the poet determines all the variables as seems appropriate for each poem
7. Melody – like music, each poem has melody, that is, sound devices. A poet chooses words for their sound, as well as for their meaning. Rhythm is a kind of
sound device based upon patter. One of the principal tools of melody is rhyme, that is, where two words have the same sound on their accented vowel preceded
by different consonants, such as:
a. Single (masculine) rhyme – dame, same, love, dove
b. Double (feminine) rhyme – napping, tapping, weather, heather
c. Triple rhyme – mournfully, scornfully, victorious, glorious

Structural Contents and Techniques of Poetry

There is no one way to write a poem. In fact, there are many ways and many different forms. Sometimes, it is the meter of the poem that gives you the form, sometimes
it is the content, and sometimes it is the organization.

Forms of Poetry

Type of Poetry Definition Specific Forms

Narrative A nondramatic poem which tells a story ore presents a Ballad
narrative, whether simple or complex, long or short. Epic
Metrical romance
Dramatic A poetry which employs dramatic form or dramatic Verse drama
techniques as a means of achieving poetic ends Dramatic monologue

Lyric A brief subjective poem marked by imagination, melody, Elegy

and emotion but strict definition is impossible Epigram
Epitaph
Hymn
Sonnet
Song
Ode

Learning Outcomes

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At the end of the module, the student must have:
1. Distinguished the elements of poetry
2. Differentiated the arrangement, structure and forms of poetry
3. Drafted own poem
4. Valued one’s knowledge of poetry and one’s ability to create one
Graduate Attributes
o Truth seeker
Teaching - Learning Activities Assessment Tools

TLA No. 1: Writing Activity: This activity will give a venue for you to practice A rubric for rating creative written outputs will be used by the instructor:
your creative writing skill.
I. Using the poems On the Sea (John Keats) and I Will Always be a Difficult
Woman. (Michelle Gean), give the following:
1. Elements of poetry
2. Arrangement and structure

II. Express how you feel in this subject by writing your original free verse poem.

TLA No. 2: Reflection: This activity will help you think about your learning
process. This will help you realize for yourself what you are learning and how you
are learning. Ask yourself the following questions and write your answers in
proper paragraph format observing correct mechanics and grammar.
a. What is/are the part/s of the tasks I have accomplished without much
difficulty? Pinpoint specific topic/idea that you find simple or
uncomplicated to do.
b. What are the challenges I have encountered in the process of
accomplishing the tasks? Pinpoint specific topic/idea that you find
difficult or complicated to do.
c. How did I overcome these challenges? Mention a specific strategy or
techniques that you used in order to solve your difficulties.
d. What do I intend to do with my learning? What are you planning to do
with the knowledge that you have acquired?Be specific.

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