Writing Wednesday: Transformation Poetry

In Monday’s poem, the poet compared a woman to an island, and over the course of the poem, the woman transformed into the island. Today, your challenge is to write your own transformation poem!

To start your transformation poem, pick something that you can compare yourself to, like the poet chose the island to compare to the woman.

You can write the poem in free verse (meaning that it doesn’t need to have a specific form or rhyme scheme) or you can try your hand at writing a butterfly cinquain…

…because what says transformation better than a butterfly!

 
butterfly-5131967_1920.jpg
 

What’s a butterfly cinquain?

A cinquain is a five line poem that has a syllable structure, like the haiku we looked at a couple of weeks ago. Regular cinquains follow this pattern:

Line 1: 2 syllables
Line 2: 4 syllables
Line 3: 6 syllables
Line 4: 8 syllables
Line 5: 2 syllables

There are many versions of that basic pattern, but today we’ll focus on the butterfly cinquain.

A butterfly cinquain takes two cinquains, reverses one, and then squishes the two together!

They follow this pattern:

Line 1: 2 syllables
Line 2: 4 syllables
Line 3: 6 syllables
Line 4: 8 syllables
Line 5: 2 syllables
Line 6: 8 syllables
Line 7: 6 syllables
Line 8: 4 syllables
Line 9: 2 syllables

If you want to learn more about the other kinds of cinquains (didactic cinquains are really fun for younger kids!), you can find more information HERE.


When you’ve finished your transformation poem, post it in the comments here or on Facebook or send it to us at hornpondreview@gmail.com!

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Fine Arts Friday: Summer “Selfies”

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Poetry Monday: A Woman Sleeps on an Island by Marjorie Agosín