Please note: There are two priorities that will trump this assignment, and those students may need an extension on this assignment. LTS studying (well, cramming now), and finishing The Bully Boys are priorities!

We have been studying poetry for the month of April, as April is poetry month. We have read the poem by Robert Service entitled “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, which is good fun. Here’s a video that we watched in class:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lBkuz1TlVc

And a link to the text.

This week’s assignment is to write a 3 stanza poem in the style of “The Cremation of Sam McGee”. In class we discussed which features should be included:

1. Stanza rhyme at the end of each line, but lines also rhyme internally. So, the pattern is: AAB,  CCB, DDE,  FFE
   This is a tricky scheme, so even if the poem just follows an AABB pattern, it’s okay. The idea is to play with language. To help with rhyming, here is a link to a rhyme generator.
2. Service uses strong imagery, description, personification, alliteration, simile, humour, archaic words… and uses all of this to tell a story. The challenge is to incorporate as many poetic devices as possible while ensuring that the poem makes sense!
3. More links: archaic words                                                                                                            poetic devices