Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to this lesson on Creative Writing in Poetry with me Miss Krzebietka.

Today, our focus is going to be on sound and rhyme and how we can use these things in our own poems to make them brilliant.

Before we get started, please, can you make sure that you've gotten rid of any distractions, so if you have a mobile phone nearby, please make sure that it's turned off or even better put in a different room so it won't distract you.

Please make sure that you've got a pen and something to write on so you can record all of the amazing things that you're going to do in the lesson.

And also it'd be a really good idea to just make sure that you're somewhere really quiet so that you can focus fully and do the best learning possible in this lesson.

All right, let's get started on how we can create sound and rhyme in our poetry.

Before we get started in the main lesson, just going to run through exactly what we're going to be doing.

So we're going to start off with a recap task on simile and metaphor, see what you remember about those techniques.

Then we're going to explore sound and rhyme in general, we're going to find out a bit more about how we can create sound and rhyme in poetry.

Then you're going to have a go at creating some sound and rhyme in your own writing, and then we're going to review your knowledge with a quiz.

All right.

So let's just do a quick recap to see what we remember about simile and metaphor.

So on the screen, you can see a really beautiful image.

So what I'd like you to do is to write a simile and a metaphor to describe two different things in the image.

If you look at the examples at the bottom of the screen, you'll be able to see exactly what I mean.

So, first of all, we've got a simile about the rays of sun.

Let me read that to you.

Rays of sun slowly spread across the freezing city, like butter melting.

Isn't that a gorgeous simile? Then the metaphor is about something totally different.

It's about somebody's fingers.

We don't know who's are being talked about, but somebody in that picture has some very cold fingers.

So listen carefully again.

His fingers had turned to ice throughout the night.

Remember the difference between the simile and the metaphor is that in the simile we compare using like or as, but in the metaphor, we actually say that something is something that it can't be, okay? His fingers have not turned to ice, but we are using that description in order to help our reader understand just how cold they are.

So use those examples for inspiration to write your own simile and metaphor, off you go.

Let's look at some more great examples.

Now that you've come up with your own, and I'm sure that what you've come up with are absolutely brilliant examples of similes and metaphors.

Maybe they're a little bit like the ones that we've got on the screen.

Let's read through them.

Swift feet pounded the pavement like a train churning on its tracks.

And our metaphor, the growing crowds were hungry for bargains.

So that simile, we've got the comparison to the sounds of the feet on the ground at being like a train churning on its tracks.

And then with the metaphor we're being told that the growing crowd were hungry for bargains, they aren't really who'll refer bargains.

You don't get hungry thinking about bargains, but what the writer is doing is showing their sort of desperation to get to the shops and get shopping.

So soon, you're going to have a go at writing your own poem, but before we do that, we've looked at various techniques that we can use so far, but all of them have been figurative language techniques.

What we're going to look at now are techniques that will help us create sound and rhythm in our poems. So we can create sound and rhythm in two ways.

We can create sound and rhythm by using the rhyme scheme and by using onomatopoeia.

And we're going to go through exactly what those things are now.

First of all though, let's see if you have remembered and if you've listened to what we've just been through.

So on the screen there are four options, I would like you to choose the two options that are not ways to create sound and rhythm in a poem.

So you're looking for the two that I have not just been through with yet, 'cause the other two are ways to create sound and rhythm in a poem, okay? Pause now, read through the question again if you need to, and then make your selection of which two are not ways to create sound and rhythm in a poem.

All right, off you go.

Brilliant job if you said the option two and option four are not ways to create sound and rhythm in a poem.

So option two, we can create sound and rhythm by using metaphors.

No, that's not true.

And option four, we can create sound and rhythm by using personification.

Again, we know that those are both figurative techniques, so they help to create images and pictures, but they don't help to create sound or rhythm in a poem.

Onomatopoeia helps to create sound and rhyme scheme helps create sound too and they both help to create rhythm.

All right, then let's focus on rhyme scheme.

So to identify the pattern of rhyme in a poem, we label rhyming lines with letters.

So you can see an example of what I mean there on the screen.

So for example, in this very famous nursery rhyme, which is a poem, we can see the rhyme scheme and the way that the rhyme scheme has been labelled.

Twinkle, twinkle little star by Jane Taylor, Twinkle twinkle little star, How I wonder what you are, Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone, When he nothing shines upon, Then you show your little light, Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

I'm sure that you are very familiar with that nursery rhyme, which is a poem, but what you might not be familiar with is the way that we can label the rhyme in this poem.

What's if you look very carefully, you will notice I have labelled the rhyming lines with letters.

So the first two lines rhyme together.

So I've put those as a pair by calling them both A, so it goes AA.

The next two lines rhyme together.

So I have put those together by labelling them both as B.

Then if you look again at the second stanza, we've got two more rhyming words gone and upon.

So again, I would label those A and A because they are two rhyming lines together.

And then the next one light and night two rhyming lines together, I label those B.

So you label with letters, the lines that rhyme together, okay? And that's how you can label rhyme scheme.

Okay, let's focus a little more on rhyme scheme then.

And when you come to write your own poem, it does not have to rhyme but you may choose to follow one of the following patterns if you do wish to use rhyme.

So you may choose to follow the rhyming pattern of the poem that we've just looked at, that's AABB rhyme scheme, or you might choose to use the ABAB rhyme scheme, where you have alternate lines rhyming with each other, okay? So they are two options for you to use when you come to write your own poem, if you wish to use rhyme.

So just to see if you have taken on board that knowledge about rhyme scheme, and if you can identify different rhyme schemes.

What I'd like you to do is to identify which of the following poems uses ABAB rhyme scheme, and which uses AABB rhyme scheme.

So remember that ABAB rhyme scheme would be alternate lines rhyming with each other, and the AABB rhyme scheme would be one line after the other rhyming, and then the next two lines rhyming together as well, okay? Pause now, read through the poems very carefully and then decide which poem you think follows the ABAB rhyme scheme from which follows the AABB rhyme scheme.

Okay, off you go.

Great work if you said that The Tyger by William Blake follows the AABB rhyme scheme.

If you listen very carefully, you'll hear those rhymes at work.

Tyger tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? Now I'm sure that you notice that symmetry and eye don't rhyme fully together, but because they have similar sounds, they are what we call half rhymes, and they still count in the rhyme scheme, okay? 'Cause eye and symmetry, they still have that e sound they share, okay? So we do call them half rhymes and they do count in the rhyme scheme.

So that would make The Tyger by William Blake an AABB rhyming pattern.

The next one You are Old Father William, I'm sure you noticed was the, ABAB alternate rhyme scheme.

So just listen carefully and you'll be able to hear that rhyme scheme at work.

"You are old father William," the young man said, "And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head; Do your think, at you age, it is right?" So said and head rhyme together and white and right rhyme together.

So we have that alternate rhyme ABAB.

Really well done if you got that right, because we've only just gone through rhyme scheme, so you've done a brilliant job there.

And that just shows you again, an example of the kind of rhyme scheme that you might use in your own poetry.

So we've looked at rhyme scheme, now let's move our focus onto onomatopoeia.

Just a reminder for you or this word might be circling into you.

And if it is, it looks like a very strange word where they shouldn't have all of those factored in.

And onomatopoeia is actually quite simple.

It means words that sound like the noise that they describe, okay? So if you look at the example on the screen, the sausage is crackled and popped in the heat of the fire.

Crackled and popped are both onomatopoeic words.

They are both words that sound like the noise that they describe, okay? So that's what onomatopoeia is.

And you can be very experimental with your onomatopoeic words.

In fact, I'm going to give you a list of them to experiment with very soon.

Okay, let's have a look at two famous poems then, and I want you to decide, which one of them uses onomatopoeia to create sounds.

So listen very carefully to these lines of poetry, and then I want you to decide which of them use onomatopoeia to create sound.

The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll.

The moon was shining sulkily, Because she thought the sun, Had got no business to be there, After the day was done.

Think, are there any words in there that describe the sound that is being made? Let's have a look at the next one, The Bells, Edgar Allen Poe.

From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

How they clang, and clash and roar! Pause now, perhaps read through them again and decide which of those poets do you think has used onomatopoeia in those lines, from their poems. Off you go.

Brilliant work if you said that it was the Bells, and the title kind of gave it away, because it kind of suggested it's going to be quite a noisy poem, jingling, tinkling, clang, clash, and roar, are all onomatopoeic words that Edgar Allan Poe has used to create sound in his poem, okay? All right, let's experiment with some of these techniques then.

So I'd like you to copy and complete the poem that's on the screen by filling in rhyming words and onomatopoeic words, okay? So you're going to have to read very carefully.

You've got one, two rhyming words to fill in, in the first stanza, and two rhyming words to fill in, in the second stanza, and then you've got to onomatopoeic words to fill in, in the second stanza, okay? There are some onomatopoeic words on the screen that will help you if you would like to use them.

Pause now, copy out the poem in full, and fill in the blanks with rhyming words and onomatopoeic words where you think they should go.

All right, off you go.

So let's talk through some really good examples, of the kind of words you might have used.

So you might have said something like this, Sunshine, sunshine setting in the sky, Disappearing into a watery bed, But truly you're way up high.

We've got those two words, high and sky that rhyme with each of them, you might chosen those as your rhyming words, you might not.

And then in the second stanza, we've got Waves, waves, green and blue.

Sloshing and slapping all day long, Washing away the dirt, making everything look new.

So we've got those rhyming words blue and new, and then there's onomatopoeic words, sloshing and slapping.

I'm sure that you came with some really creative poems on your own and well done, having a really good go using those rhyming words and those onomatopoeic words for the first time.

But now what I would like you to do is to move on and to actually start using some of these words and these techniques independently.

So what you will do in a moment when I ask you to pause and do the main task is you will be given some prompts, okay? And you've got two prompts on the screen, and you'll be asked to write the opening stanza of a poem using the AABB or the ABAB rhyme scheme and including onomatopoeia.

So what you've got on the worksheet that you're going to fill out are lots of onomatopoeic words that you can use, and then you've got the pictures and the prompt.

So the first prompt that you could choose to use is to write about scoring the winning goal in an important football match, and the second prompt is to write about walking down a really busy beach.

You just choose one, you don't have to do both, okay? So this is on the worksheet to help you and also you've got a few more things to help you.

So if you want to use this as your opening stanza, and then write the second stanza and use this as inspiration, then you can do so.

Listen to this example, Zoom! Into the top corner of the net, The keeper has no chance once my aim was set.

Crowds roared and cheered allowed, Mum, is that you? You look so proud! So we can see that this poem has started in the AABB rhyme scheme, and we've got lots of great onomatopoeic words in there.

So if you wanted to use that as your opening stanza, and then write the second stanza from that, then that is absolutely fine, I'm really happy for you to do that.

And then finally, if you think, actually I need a little bit more support, but I want to do prompt too, then on the screen, what you've got and in the worksheet, you've got this too.

You have got a poem that has been written, but with some words missing, okay? So you'd be looking for an onomatopoeic word for the first gap and a word that rhymes with clashing for second gap and a word that rhymes with clouds for the third gap, okay? So you've got some more support there for you as well.

So what's about you to do now is to pause and complete the main task on your worksheet by using rhyme and onomatopoeia independently in your own lines of poetry.

please do refer to those help sheets that are on the worksheet in order to support you, okay? Because these concepts, these ideas, these techniques are probably very new to you, and we want you to do the best job that you can, and that often means using the help to guide you, okay? Off you go, remember to resume once you've finished.

Alright, let's see some amazing examples then, and I'll show you how you can share your examples at the end, your own poetry that you've come up with.

But let's read through these good examples to see the kinds of things that you might have come up with.

So we already read the first stanza of this poem, let's read the second one.

Crash! In it went, fast as the speed of light, There was no way the keeper who puts up a fight.

I ran into my team and received a slap on the back, But quick! Back to the game! Our rivals are on the attack! So what we've got here are those two onomatopoeic words, crash and slap.

And then we've got the rhyme scheme of AABB, flight, fight, back and attack.

Really an example, doing everything that it was asked to do.

The next great example is this one.

Waves smashing, voices clashing, The sun breaking through the clouds.

Kites swooshing, wind crashing, Winding my way through the crowds.

So we've got those onomatopoeic words and then we've got the, ABAB rhyme scheme where we've got alternate rhymes clashing and crashing and clouds and crowds, all right? I am sure that you came up with some beautiful, beautiful onomatopoeic words and that you use rhyme scheme really creatively in the poems that you had to go at writing.

Okay, so, as I said, if you would like your parent or carer to share your work, 'cause you're super proud of it and you're super proud of those poems that you have come up with, then please ask them to share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and using the #LearnwithOak.

You'd love to see what you have been doing.

If you don't want to share it online, then maybe ask your parents or carer to share your work with your teacher, because I know how impressed they will be with your poetry and with how well you've used rhyme scheme and onomatopoeia.

Finally, there is a quiz attached to this lesson that I'd like you to complete to show exactly what you've learned and to check your knowledge of rhyme scheme and onomatopoeia.

Brilliant work and goodbye.