The theme is the subject matter of the poem. It could be a person, a place, a political idea or an inanimate object. A poet may write just about anything, but he always has a purpose. Some intend to narrate, describe or persuade. For individual projects, a teacher can assign students to think about one thing that they find most interesting and write what they feel about it.
Poems come in several forms. Some of the most common forms are ballad, elegy and ode. Elegy is a poem expressing sorrow. Ballad, on the other hand is a narrative composition designed for singing. An ode is usually employed to admire a particular subject. Knowledge about the different forms in poetry is helpful in predicting and using the other elements of a poem. Once the students have identified their theme, the teacher can assign each student to either use a specific form or use multiple forms using a single theme to create several poems.
The style and tone are the poet’s “signature.” They make up the emotion the poet wants to convey. The style is the artful use of capitalization, line breaks, punctuation and word choice. The tone, on the other hand, is the overall feeling – funny or sad, love or hate, joy or despair. Introduce students to popular poets and poems so each can get an idea on how to execute a style. The poet e.e. cummings never used any capital letters in his poems, while Allen Ginsberg used a style of combining street language with philosophical and sociopolitical ideas.
Cultural context is the relevance of the poem to the period when it was written. It explores the influences that motivated the poet into writing. It is the study of the cultural situation of the poet during his time. It suggests the author’s worldview according to his religion, political status and personal upbringing. When students write out poems, the teacher should be clear that they should write about what they know, so that they can convey their feelings better and more accurately.
A figure of speech is an artful use of a word or phrase that deviates from the literal expression of an idea. It is used for added emphasis, although clarity is sometimes affected. Since poets almost always employ figures of speech, it is important to be familiar with these devices.