As part of their online English sessions, Form 3 have been studying free verse poetry and have extended this to writing their own. Free verse is an open form of poetry than tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Free verse does not typically use consistent metre patterns, rhyme schemes, or any musical pattern and because it has no set meter, poems written in free verse can have lines of any length, from a single word to much longer. Form 3 looked at clips of the poets Joseph Coelho reading his poem, ‘Cards Dealt’ and Michael Rose reading ‘Chocolate Cake’.
Although there are no rules when writing free verse, the children discussed the importance of including poetic devices to make their poems sound interesting and effective for their audience. Through studying famous free verse poems, they realised that carefully chosen words can help to create a poem that sounds like the situation, emotion or object that they are trying to portray. Not only do poets writing in free verse have the freedom to write unrhymed lines of any length, they also use enjambment in unusual ways such as adding line breaks in the middle of sentences and even in the middle of words so that the meaning runs over from one poetic line to the next.
The three Form 3 classes wrote their own free verses with different approaches: some told the story of a moment when they got into trouble and others wrote about something special to them such as food, a person, place or thing. All the children were encouraged to use repetition, embellishing their poem to create humour and suspense and writing in a free form, expressive style. After they had completed their poems, F3 uploaded them to an online padlet to share with their class either in written or typed form or as an animation or video recording.
Head of Third Form, Mr Nikki Macpherson, commented, 'Poetry writing can often involve following patterns of rhyme and rhythm, and number of words or lines, so when Third Form were told they were going to explore 'Free Verse' it took a while for them to believe that there were no rules! After watching the master of free verse, Michael Rosen, deliver his wonderful poem 'Chocolate Cake', discussion and reflection took place, and in some cases, performances of extracts of the poem. The children were buzzing with ideas and couldn't wait to start creating their own poetry. The only consideration was to entertain their audience and include their choice of poetic devices such as similes, repetition and alliteration, to name but a few. They wrote on a range of subjects and experiences, creating fantastic examples of free verse poetry.'
For more information: BBC Bitesize Free Verse Poetry and Michael Rosen and Joseph Coelho
Examples of some of Form 3's Free Verse:
Chess
Chess is a very important part of my life
I was taught young
I fell in love with the checkered board game
The more I played the better I became
I read many books about the game and studied the beautiful wooden pieces as well
Before I knew it, I was in the World Youth Chess Championships at the age of 7.
Yet to this day with all my skill, I have never beaten my dad or grandad.
By Dev Patel
Lego
I build my Lego day and night it always fills me with delight.
Whether they are small bits or tall bits, they are fixing me, encouraging me to build more.
The morning dawns across the lawn, what a wonderful sight it is such a change from the cold gloomy night.
My bottom gets sore sitting on the floor until the final piece goes click.
The end has come what a shame, but now I think it is time to quit.
By Samuel Smith
Chocolate
I love chocolate
I love the idea of it
I love the smell of it
And of course the taste of it
So when I was on a Zoom with our extended family all over the world
I kept sneaking off to do something
It was because we had a long quiz
The topic was politics, which I don't know about
I love chocolate
Cramming it in how it melted gently in my mouth, I love it!
Just waiting for it to melt slowly it felt so satisfying
My sister called me it was the end
They just wanted me to say goodbye
Then my mother said what is that
I said what
She was looking at my nose
She said is that chocolate
I said no
Are you sure
Yes
Ok so you had some Christmas chocolate
She said
She said go wipe it off
The giveaway
Would she forget about it next week?
By Sophia Wickham
The Medal Stealer
When I was young
And my brothers seemed so big
I looked up to them
By now, they knew that
They wouldn’t expect one of their medals stolen
Would they?
It was dark
It was late
I was awake
I was fed up
I wanted fame
First into my older brother’s room
He has a creaky floorboard in his corridor
But I was an expert
I was thinking I was so good and clever
There is the creaky floorboard
Must not step on it
Here
Here I was
To the door of peril and doom
Or that is what I thought it was
In the situation
Up the step
Into his room
Where was his trophy cabinet?
As it was dark it was hard to see
But there!
There it was
By his bed
He was not snoring
I had to be extra careful
Where is the key
There
I got the key unlocked the cabinet
Got the medals and got back to my room
In the morning
I got up
By Charlie Smith
Swinging
I love swinging
I love to soar high into the sky
I love the feeling of air brushing on my face
Making my hair flutter around my head
Every time I push off the ground
I feel myself entering the heavens already
In autumn the leaves flutter and rustle around me in the wind
Are angels asking me to go higher
In winter the snowflakes fall
Like fairies asking me to go higher
In spring the dewdrops dance around
Are diamonds on the ground asking me to go higher
In summer the clear sky around my head
Asking me to go higher.
By Lola Masanes Kaoukji
Video games
When I wake up in the morning,
The first thing I do is go to the kitchen,
Get my console
And start playing video games.
I have a big obsession with them, I play with them a lot.
Once when everyone was asleep at midnight
I snuck out of bed.
I sneaked into the kitchen, but then I realised
One more step…
I would have stepped on my dog
He woke up and jumped right on me.
I nearly fell but I was fine
I grabbed the console and went to bed
I really felt lucky.
By Nilan Huria
Zaza
End of school and a surprise awaits
My grandmother has come all the way from Switzerland
I run into her arms with a smile on my face and I hug her as she hugs me back
Her hugs are warm, her hugs are kind, her hugs are love
We go back home and gifts are given precious things but the most precious gift was Zaza
We fall to sleep with funny stories of my uncle flying an airplane
Across the classroom and going to the playground during school
In the morning I wake up and go downstairs, there she is I hug her and she says
‘Bonjour ma Cherie,’ and I say
‘Bonjour Zaza,’
By Eloise Halban-Taylor
Cooper
Imagine the fluffiest puppy in the world
My downy dog is the colour of caramel
With his face and paws dipped in vanilla ice cream
With his prideful trot he roams the garden
Nose to the ground he sniffs all day
Just one happy happy dog.
My dog is a greedy gopher he’ll do anything for a treat
He won’t come inside unless you have something sweet
Lamb chunkys are what he demands
If you leave something out he’ll be sure to get it
So beware of my happy happy dog
When the brush comes out so do his teeth
He roars like a lion to protect himself from the evil brush
When he went to the groomer to get a small trim
He came out as looking quite grim
That's my not so happy happy dog
Imagine the skinniest puppy in the world
My not so downy dog is the colour of caramel
With his face and paws dipped in vanilla ice cream
With his prideful trot he still roams the garden
Nose still to the ground he sniffs all day
He’s still Just one happy happy not so fluffy dog.
COOPER
By Mason Mayfield