Introduction to Poetry: What makes a poem, a poem?

Introduction to Poetry: What makes a poem, a poem?

warning

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. In this lesson, we will develop our understanding of poetic conventions. We will review figurative language before using the opening of 'I wander'd lonely as a cloud' as an example of poetic conventions.

Licence

This content is made available by Oak National Academy Limited and its partners and licensed under Oak’s terms & conditions (Collection 1), except where otherwise stated.

Loading...

8 Questions

Q1.
What does a poem normally express?
Facts and statistics.
Correct answer: Thoughts and feelings.
Q2.
What is the definition of figurative language?
Language that belongs to another culture.
Language that includes facts and statistics.
Correct answer: Language that is used to create powerful pictures in our minds.
Language that we use all the time in our everyday speech.
Q3.
Which of these is the definition of metaphor?
A figure of speech giving human qualities to inanimate objects or animals.
A figure of speech where one thing is compared to another using ‘like’ or ‘as’.
Correct answer: A figure of speech where something is described as being something else or as something that it can’t be.
Words that sound like the noise they describe.
Q4.
Which of these is the definition of simile?
A figure of speech giving human qualities to inanimate objects or animals.
Correct answer: A figure of speech where one thing is compared to another using ‘like’ or ‘as’.
A figure of speech where something is described as being something else or as something that it can’t be.
Words that sound like the noise they describe.
Q5.
Which of these is the definition of personification?
Correct answer: A figure of speech giving human qualities to inanimate objects or animals.
A figure of speech where one thing is compared to another using ‘like’ or ‘as’.
A figure of speech where something is described as being something else or as something that it can’t be.
Words that sound like the noise they describe.
Q6.
Which of these is the definition of onomatopoeia?
A figure of speech giving human qualities to inanimate objects or animals.
A figure of speech where one thing is compared to another using ‘like’ or ‘as’.
A figure of speech where something is described as being something else or as something that it can’t be.
Correct answer: Words that sound like the noise they describe.
Q7.
How long do we think poems have existed?
Correct answer: Almost as long as humans have existed.
Fifteen hundred years.
Four hundred years.
Nine years.
Q8.
Which of these are forms (types) of poetry?
Leaflets, advertisements and posters.
Letters, speeches and newspaper articles.
Correct answer: Sonnets, lyrics, ballads, haikus and odes.

7 Questions

Q1.
Which of the following is NOT an example of a figurative technique?
Correct answer: Facts
Metaphor
Onomatopoeia
Personification
Simile
Q2.
Which of the following is an example of a simile?
'“Hope” is the thing with feathers'.
'A host of golden daffodils [...] Fluttering and dancing in the breeze'.
Correct answer: 'I wander'd lonely as a cloud'.
‘How they clang, and clash and roar!’
Q3.
Which of the following is an example of onomatopoeia?
'“Hope” is the thing with feathers'.
'A host of golden daffodils [...] Fluttering and dancing in the breeze'.
'I wander'd lonely as a cloud'.
Correct answer: ‘How they clang, and clash and roar!’.
Q4.
Which of the following is an example of a metaphor?
Correct answer: '“Hope” is the thing with feathers'.
'A host of golden daffodils [...] Fluttering and dancing in the breeze'.
'I wander'd lonely as a cloud'.
‘How they clang, and clash and roar!’.
Q5.
Which of the following is an example of personification?
'“Hope” is the thing with feathers'.
Correct answer: 'A host of golden daffodils [...] Fluttering and dancing in the breeze'.
'I wander'd lonely as a cloud'.
‘How they clang, and clash and roar!’.
Q6.
Which of these statements about poetry is false?
Poems are organised into patterns.
Poems can be very short or very long.
Correct answer: Poems must include rhyme.
Poems use figurative language to create powerful pictures in the reader’s mind.
Q7.
Which of these statements about poetry is false?
Poems let us explore the minds of some amazing people.
Correct answer: Poems must follow the normal rules of grammar.
Poems usually explore big ideas and emotions.
Poets use words carefully to create meaning.

Lesson appears in

UnitEnglish / Introduction to poetry

English