Yesterday, we read "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes for the first time. Today we began the lesson by reviewing poetic devices: similes, metaphors, imagery, symbolism, tone, refrain, foreshadowing, and onomatopeoia. We discussed how as readers we have identified these devices in literature; the figurative language has appeared in poetry. However, now that we are reading narrative poems all of these devices will be evident and used by poets to strengthen their writing and messages
Next, I assigned one poetic device to each small group. In their groups, they located examples from the poem including textual support. Groups then discussed the effect that the specific element contributed to the poem - what imagery did it provide for the poem? By discussing the specific elements, students made inferences about plot development and images created focusing upon textual evidence.
In their groups, students substituted the literal meaning for the poetic devices within the poem. Then students shared how the narrative poem would appear if the literal meaning was used vs the poetic devices. Their discussions included how this impacted the meaning and appeal of the original narrative poem.