Poetry Craft Lesson

Deepening

General Colour Marking of Poetry Passages

Works:
“Lake Como” by Nicholas Christopher
“Two Sisters of Persephone” by Sylvia Plath

Teachable Terms
Image: a word (or more than one word) appealing to at least one of our senses;
an image deals, then, with reader response. Of our five senses (visual, auditory,
olfactory, tactile, gustatory), the visual is the strongest.

Image Pattern: the repetition of three images, not necessarily in uninterrupted

succession

Motif: a repeated pattern of any type within a work. Note that an image pattern IS a
motif, but a motif is NOT always an image pattern.

Purpose
We’ll take a look through a microscope at our passage to better understand the
writer’s techniques.

Procedure
•Mark with a different colour each type of image/image pattern/motif predominant
in the passage.
•Based on your color marking, ask these questions:
-Is one color predominant? Why?
-Is there some logical progression of imagery/motifs, from one type to
another?
-Is the progression logical?
-Why? Why not?
-How do the imagery/motifs reinforce and/or illustrate the content of the
passage?
-Is a specific tone created by the marked material?

•Based on your answers to these questions and any others you think appropriate,
CODE each color marked with Inferences you draw about the use of that particular
image/ image pattern/motif.
Poetry Craft Lesson
Deepening

•A More Particular Colour Marking: Playing With Images

Two Sisters of Persephone, Lake Como (or any poem rich in imagery)

1. Read aloud in class

2. Read Silently

3. Choose Four Colors

4. Begin any image you notice

or detail you notice

or word you notice

Colour it- and then look for other examples of this detail- colour the same

colour

5. Then begin again- another image/detail- another colour

“problem” - want to use the same detail for two different colours?

ok-circle it- don’t destroy original colour

6. Now go! In margins write thoughts, ideas questions about colours

7. Create a legend for your colours; categorize and name- then share the
patterns

Assignment / Connection
Class discussion: What do you see??

Three Questions :

1. What is the poem about- briefly

2. What effect do you think the writer is intending
3. How is that intended effect achieved?
Poetry Craft Lesson
Deepening