Poetry Plays with Words

Poetry is language set free. Where ordinary writing explains, poetry plays - with sounds, rhythms, and pictures made of words. A poet can make you hear the rain, feel the thunder, or taste the ocean using nothing but carefully chosen lines.

Poets have favorite tools. Rhyme pairs sounds at the ends of lines. Rhythm gives a poem its beat, almost like music. A simile compares things with like or as - brave as a lion. A metaphor goes further and says one thing is another: the classroom was a zoo. Each tool makes words do more than they normally can.

The best way to understand a poem is to read it aloud. Poetry lives in the mouth and ear as much as on the page. Listen for the beat, notice which words the poet chose and why, and ask what picture the poem paints in your mind. Then try writing one yourself - a poem can be three lines long and still be real poetry.