Performance Poetry: Poetry Out Loud

Citation:

Rubin, R.A. (Ed.). (1993). Poetry out loud. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books. ISBN: 1565120302.



Review:

This book contains over ninety poems from various poets. The poems are put into seven categories, "Poems of Love and Wreckage; Light Verse and Poems that Tell Stories; Poems of Animals and the Natural World; Poems of Contradiction and Opposition; Poems of Vision; Poems of Alienation; Art, Poetry, and the Making Thereof." The end of the text contains an index on the poems, first lines and authors. The poetic formats found in this book are limericks, ballads, raps, verse, sonnets, satires and free verse. Any reader will find some favorites in this book. An interesting note...each poem has an accompanying entry that will assist the reader on their body language while reading the poem aloud. You will also find historical information regarding the poetic form and subject matter.

Excerpt:

"The Sniffle"
By Ogden Nash

In spite of her sniffle,
Isabel's chiffle.
Some girls with a sniffle
Would be weepy and tiffle;
They would look awful,
Like a rained-on waffle,
But Isabel's chiffle
In spite of her sniffle.
Her nose is more red
With a cold in her head,
But then, to be sure,
Her eyes are bluer.
Some girls with a sniffle,
Their tempers are uffle,
But when Isabel's snivelly
She's snivelly civilly,
And when she is snuffly
She's perfectly luffly.

Introducing the Poem:

I chose this poem due to the vocabulary and rhyming elements. I would read this poem to the students demonstrating the appropriate body language. I would have the students look up the rhyming words and then have each row say a verse back to me demonstrating the approriate body language. I am hoping to achieve a "wave" response from each row. Another activity would be to have the students identify the tumbling format that was used in this poem and identify the correct use of pauses for the listener to comprehend the humor element.