We love using lists to get ideas down quickly for writing. But did you know that a list can become a poem?
These are some poetic features you could use to turn a list into a poem.
Shape. Arrange into couplets or play with line breaks.
Sounds. Use techniques such as rhyme/ slant rhyme, alliteration and assonance.
Pattern. Play with the way you group or develop your ideas in order throughout the list.
These ideas for list poems with a Lockdown theme might get you writing...
1. A list of activities that filled your days in Lockdown
2. A list of things you didn’t do in Lockdown
3. What I saw on the walk around my neighbourhood during Lockdown
4. Things I really missed during Lockdown ( and maybe things you miss now that life is returning to a sort of normal)
We're sure that you can come up with even more Lockdown Lists.
Now work with your list so it becomes a poem.
Can you include some or all of these features in your poem?
a. Some real items using sensory language – smell, sound, touch etc – and specific
details, verbs and nouns
b. Some made-up items that stretch our imaginations
c. Some slant rhyme (sister/slipper) – it almost rhymes but not quite
d. A pattern for your poem – Are your items in alphabetical order? Or size order – from smallest to largest? Or are they a list of similes? Do the stanzas start with the same word … or end with the same word?
e. An interesting title!
Here are some samples of list poems from our blog:
When you have written your ideas down you can share them for our Write On Speak Out: Lockdown Voices 2020 project.
See details here: https://www.schoolforyoungwriters.org/write-on-speak-out
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