Year+10+Poetry

Alfred Noyes - The Highwayman Ballad of Running Bear and Little White Dove Modern Ballads The Loner The African Beggar

**How to Torture Your Teacher** ** by Bruce Lansky **

Only raise your hand when you want to sharpen your pencil or go to the bathroom. Repeat every ten minutes. Never raise your hand when you want to answer a question; instead, yell, "Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!" and then, when the teacher calls on you, say, "I forgot what I was going to say." Lean your chair back, take off your shoes, and put your feet up on your desk. Act surprised when the teacher puts all four legs of your chair back on the floor. Drop the eraser end of your pencil on your desk. See how high it will bounce. Drop your books on the floor. See how loud a noise you can make. Hum. Get all your friends to join in. Hold your nose, make a face, and say, "P.U.!" Fan the air away from your face, and point to the kid in front of you. On the last day of school, lead your classmates in chanting: "No more pencils! No more books! No more teachers' dirty looks!" Then, on your way out the door, tell the teacher, "Bet you're looking forward to summer vacation this year. But I'll sure miss you. You're the best teacher I've ever had."

Loneliness //by Katherine Mansfield// Now it is Loneliness who comes at night Instead of Sleep, to sit beside my bed. Like a tired child I lie and wait her tread, I watch her softly blowing out the light. Motionless sitting, neither left or right She turns, and weary, weary droops her head. She, too, is old; she, too, has fought the fight. So, with the laurel she is garlanded.

Through the sad dark the slowly ebbing tide Breaks on a barren shore, unsatisfied. A strange wind flows... then silence. I am fain To turn to Loneliness, to take her hand, Cling to her, waiting, till the barren land Fills with the dreadful monotone of rain

Road Not Taken, The //by Robert Lee Frost// Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that, the passing there Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

Jabberwocky //by Lewis Carroll// 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought -- So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood a while in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came!

One two! One two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

London //by William Blake//

I wandered through each chartered street, Near where the chartered Thames does flow, A mark in every face I meet, Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every man, In every infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forged manacles I hear:

How the chimney-sweeper's cry Every blackening church appals, And the hapless soldier's sigh Runs in blood down palace-walls.

But most, through midnight streets I hear How the youthful harlot's curse Blasts the new-born infant's tear, And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse.

**Betty Botter** Betty Botter bought some butter. "But," she said, "the butter's bitter. If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter. But a bit of better butter-- that would make my batter better."

So she bought a bit of butter, better than her bitter butter. And she put it in her batter, and the batter was not bitter. So 'twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter! --By Anonymous

1. Make four lists: nouns, proper nouns, verbs, and descriptive words (adjectives and adverbs) that begin with a particular letter (e.g., "B"). For example: bubbles brother Bobby Baxter Boris burst bawl
 * Nouns**
 * Names**
 * Verbs**

broken 2. Write down the first line of a story that makes sense. For example:
 * Describers**

3. Add a second line, using words from your list, that advances the story, for example:

4. Now you can figure out the rhythm and rhyme pattern of the poem you’ve started and continue it in the next two lines. The rhyme pattern is going to be ABAB. 5. The rhythm pattern is going to be: DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da (A) DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM (B) DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da (A) DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM (B) 6. Now you can complete the poem: Bobby Baxter burst a bubble Bobby’s brother Boris blew. Bobby’s brother began bawling Boris cried, boo hoo, boo hoo.

Here are some wacky newspaper headlines that you might see: Elvis Sighted in Wax Museum Shaquille O’Neal’s Parents Are Pygmies //Shrek// Ending Changed: Beautiful Princess Now Marries Handsome Prince President Bush Asks Vice President Cheney: "Where Exactly Is Afghanistan?" ||
 * **How to Write Tabloid Newspaper Headlines** ||
 * by Bruce Lansky ||
 * You’ve probably seen tabloid newspaper headlines in supermarket checkout lines, and you know a lot of crazy stuff is printed as "news." Now you can turn on your creativity and write some wacky newspaper headlines of your own.
 * You’ve probably seen tabloid newspaper headlines in supermarket checkout lines, and you know a lot of crazy stuff is printed as "news." Now you can turn on your creativity and write some wacky newspaper headlines of your own.
 * You’ve probably seen tabloid newspaper headlines in supermarket checkout lines, and you know a lot of crazy stuff is printed as "news." Now you can turn on your creativity and write some wacky newspaper headlines of your own.