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Robots write poetry or not? Guess....

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This website is a Turing test for poetry. You, the judge, have to guess whether the poem you're reading is written by a human or by a computer.

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lawrence ferlinghetti: two scavengers in a truck

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moniza alvi: presents from my aunts in pakistan

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Different Cultures-AQA Anthology for GCSE

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Poems from Different Cultures: a guide for GCSE students.

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Minimum:
- Shakespeare
- Culture or From Around the World
- One ´fun task´
Remember to upload your work onto Microsoft team and to comment

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The poet who painted with his words - Geneviève Emy

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Among the great poets of literary history, certain names like Homer, Shakespeare and Whitman are instantly recognizable. However, there's an early 20th century great poet whose name you may not know: Guillaume Apollinaire. Geneviève Emy shows how during Apollinaire's short lifetime he created poetry that combined text and image in a way that seemingly predicted a artistic revolution to come.

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What makes a poem ... a poem? - Melissa Kovacs

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What exactly makes a poem ... a poem? Poets themselves have struggled with this question, often using metaphors to approximate a definition. Is a poem a little machine? A firework? An echo? A dream? Melissa Kovacs shares three recognizable characteristics of most poetry.

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Select at least ONE poet, read about the poem then find a poem by that poet, remember HOPE and FUTURE.
Create a stick man or mini poster explaining WHO is a good audience for your chosen poem. Remember to use PQE.
Upload your work on Microsoft Team.
READ AND COMMENT ANOTHER STUDENT´S WORK

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What learning can I do on this page?

read and explore the poems (click on the name to see the poem)

print out your own copies to annotate and use for revision

focus on your reading skills

if you like to be more active print out and cut up the poems - can you put them back together again?

return to the main page

Limbo

And limbo stick is the silence in front of me
limbo

stick hit sound
and the ship like it ready

stick hit sound
and the dark still steady

limbo
limbo like me

long dark deck and the water surrounding me
long dark deck and the silence is over me

limbo
limbo like me

stick is the whip
and the dark deck is slavery

stick is the whip
and the dark deck is slavery

limbo
limbo like me

drum stick knock
and the darkness is over me

knees spread wide
and the water is hiding

limbo
limbo like me

knees spread wide
and the dark ground is under me

limbo
limbo like me

sun coming up
and the drummers are praising me

out of the dark
and the dumb god are raising me

and the music is saving me

on the burning ground.

Edward Kamau Brathwaite

Nothing's Changed

I back from the
glass,
boy again,
leaving small mean O
of small mean mouth.
Hands burn
for a stone, a bomb,
to shiver down the glass.
Nothing's changed.

Tatamkhula Afrika

Another London day

Grace Nichols

The skin cracks like a pod.
There never is enough water.

Sometimes, the sudden rush
of fortune. The municipal pipe bursts,
silver crashes to the ground
and the flow has found
a roar of tongues. From the huts,
a congregation: every man woman
child for streets around
butts in, with pots,
brass, copper, aluminium,
plastic buckets,
frantic hands,

Imtiaz Dharker

Two Scavengers in a Truck,
Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes

And the two scavengers up since four a.m.
grungy from their route
on the way home
the older of the two with grey iron hair
and hunched back
looking down like some
gargoyle Quasimodo
And the younger of the two
also with sunglasses & long hair
about the same age as the Mercedes driver

Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Nissim Ezekiel Chinua Achebe What were they like?

1. Did the people of Vietnam
use lanterns of stone?

2. Did they hold ceremonies
to reverence the opening of buds?

3. Were they inclined to quiet laughter?

4. Did they use bone and ivory,
and silver, for ornament?

5. Had they an epic poem?

6. Did they distinguish between speech and singing?

1. Sir, their light hearts turned to stone.
It is not remembered whether in gardens the lanterns illumined pleasant ways.

2. Perhaps they gathered once to delight in blossom,but after the children were killed, there were no more buds.

3. Sir, laughter is bitter to the burned mouth.

4. A dream ago, perhaps. Ornament is for joy.
All the bones were charred.

5. It is not remembered. Remember,
most were peasants; their life
was in rice and bamboo.
When peaceful clouds were reflected in the paddies
And the water buffalo stepped surely along terraces,
maybe fathers told their sons old tales.
When bombs smashed those mirrors
there was time only to scream.

6. There is an echo yet
Of their speech which was like a song.
It was reported their singing resembled
the flight of moths in moonlight.
Who can say? It is silent now.

Denise Levertov
(munay hutoo kay aakhee jeebh aakhee bhasha)

(may thoonky nakhi chay)

(parantoo rattray svupnama mari bhasha pachi aavay chay)

(foolnee jaim mari bhasha nmari jeebh)

(modhama kheelay chay)

(fullnee jaim mari bhasha mari jeebh)

(modhama pakay chay)

it grows back, a stump of a shoot
grows longer, grows moist, grows strong veins,
it ties the other tongue in knots,
the bud opens, the bud opens in my mouth,
it pushes the other tongue aside.
Everytime I think I've forgotten,
I think I've lost the mother tongue,
it blossoms out of my mouth.

Sujata Bhatt

Half-Caste

John Agard

Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan

I tried each satin-silken
top -
was alien in the sitting-room.
I could never be as lovely
as those clothes -
I longed
for denim and corduroy.
My costume clung to me
and I was aflame,
I couldn't rise up out of its fire,
half-English,
unlike Aunt Jamila.

I wanted my parents'
camel-skin lamp -
switching it on in my bedroom,
to consider the cruelty
and the transformation
from camel to shade,
marvel at the colours
like stained glass.

I pictured my
birthplace
from fifties' photographs.
When I was older
there was conflict, a fractured land
throbbing through newsprint.
Sometimes I saw Lahore -
my aunts in shaded rooms,
screened from male visitors,
sorting presents,
wrapping them in tissue.

Moniza Alvi

O Why is my heart unchained?

Grace Nichols

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poems from different cultures and traditions: index page

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What learning can I do on this page? read and explore the poems (click on the name to see the poem) print out your own copies to annotate and use for revision focus on your reading skills if you like to be more active print out and cut up the poems - can you put them back together again?

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Learn more about poetic devices

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Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia | Style | Grammar

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Edpuzzle assignment. Make video delivery an interactive experience. Students watch the lesson while answering the quizzes. The teacher gets the powerful hassle-free analytics.

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List:
FIVE DIFFERENT POETIC STYLES i.e sonnet
FIVE DIFFERENT POETIC DEVICES.
Upload on Microsoft Team.
Read at least TWO other students´submission and comment on differences and similarities

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Race to the future with our Robot Race Timer. An awesome Robot Racing countdown that's easy to use! Which robot will get to the finish line first?

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Select TWO geographical areas, read at least 4 poems. Write down the titles and poets and skim read the four poems.
Select ONE poem that could be about hope or future. Read the poem, copy it and then create an image to the poem. Write a caption to the image. Upload to Microsoft Team.
READ AND COMMENT ON AT LEAST ONE

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Poets by Nationality - Famous Poets and Poems

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On this page you can find Famous and Contemporary Poets from around the world.

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Skim read, select ONE at least, about future OR hope.
Write a one-paragraph rationale about how you know the poem is about the future or hope.
Upload the poem and your rationale to Microsoft team

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William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. Though he is most renowned for his plays, Shakespeare's poetry also remains to be popular. He wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership. He also wrote two long narrative poems, which were published in the 1590s, and a few other verses. Shakespeare's collection of 154 sonnets was first published in 1609. Almost all the sonnets follow the structure of three quatrains, or four-line stanzas, followed by a final couplet. The beginning of the third quatrain, at times, introduces an unexpected sharp thematic "turn", the volta. The couplet usually summarizes the theme of the poem or introduces a fresh new look at the theme. This form is known as Shakespearean Sonnet, not because he was the first to use it, but because he became its most famous practitioner. Know more about the poetry of William Shakespeare through his 10 most famous poems including his renowned sonnets.

Lucretia was an ancient Roman woman who was raped by the king's son and committed suicide. The incident led to an anti-monarchist rebellion and thus played a part in the transition of ancient Rome from monarchy to a republic in late 6th century BC. The Rape of Lucrece is a 1,855 lines tragic narrative poem about the rape of Lucretia by the king's son, Sextus Tarquinius, and the repercussion of the incident. It is extremely rich in poetic images, fancies and metaphors; and is one of Shakespeare's earliest and most famous poems.

When they had sworn to this advised doom,

They did conclude to bear dead Lucrece thence;

To show her bleeding body thorough Rome,

And so to publish Tarquin's foul offence:

Which being done with speedy diligence,

The Romans plausibly did give consent

To Tarquin's everlasting banishment.

#9 The Phoenix and the Turtle

The Phoenix and the Turtle is an allegorical poem perhaps about the death of ideal love. Some critics see it as a poem about the relationship between truth and beauty. The poem describes a funeral arranged for the deceased Phoenix and Turtledove, who are symbols of perfection and of devoted love, respectively. It is one of the most obscure works ever written and there continues to be speculation about its meaning. It has been thought to allude to various things including the extinction of the Tudor monarchy; and the phoenix being Elizabeth I and the turtle-dove representing her lover, the second Earl of Essex.

Truth may seem but cannot be;

Beauty brag but 'tis not she;

Truth and beauty buried be.

Sonnets 1 to 126 of Shakespeare's collection of 154 sonnets are addressed to an unnamed young man who is now referred to as "Fair Youth"; while the Sonnets 127 to 154 are known as the Dark Lady sequence as they are addressed to a woman who appears to be a brunette. Sonnet 20 presents the Fair Youth as "master-mistress" of the poet's passion. The speaker proclaims that his beloved possesses a woman's physical attractiveness and the form of a man. Moreover, he is more faithful and less fickle than women are. Sonnet 20 remains one of the most controversial poems of Shakespeare for several reasons including its sexual duality and its homoeroticism.

A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted

Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;

A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted

With shifting change, as is false women's fashion;

In the first quatrain of Sonnet 1, the speaker praises the beauty of his beloved and expresses his desire for his beloved to procreate. In the second quatrain, he scolds the young man for being too self-involved to consider procreation; while in the third, he warns his beloved that his beauty will fade. Shakespeare ends the sonnet with the couplet in which he says to his beloved to not deprive the world of his beauty. Sonnet 1 is important as it sets the tone for the entire collection and also the first mini-sequence of 17 poems, which are referred to as "procreation" sonnets as they each urge the young man to bear children.

From fairest creatures we desire increase,

That thereby beauty's rose might never die,

But as the riper should by time decease,

His tender heir might bear his memory:

Sonnet 73 focuses on the theme of old age and its effect on human beings. Shakespeare uses a series of metaphors to characterize the nature of old age. In the first quatrain, he equates it to the fading of life like in late autumn; in the second quatrain, he likens it to the fading of light calling darkness "death's second self"; and in the last quatrain, he compares it to the burning out of the fire. In the couplet, the speaker addresses his beloved, expresses gratitude for his adoration in spite of the physical deterioration of the speaker and tells him "To love that well which thou must leave ere long". Sonnet 73 is regarded among Shakespeare's most beautifully crafted poems and is one of the most famous of his 154 sonnets.

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the death-bed whereon it must expire,

Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.

Probably Shakespeare's first publication, this poem narrates the story in Greek mythology of Venus, the Goddess of Love, and Adonis, an extremely handsome young man. Enamored by Adonis, Venus tries to seduce him though Adonis is only interested in hunting. She faints when he scornfully rejects her and fearing he has killed her, Adonis kisses Venus. She recovers and they kiss again. The next day Adonis goes out for boar hunting even though Venus has had a vision of him being killed by a boar. The vision comes true and Venus is devastated. Due to what happened to her, from then on, when ever humans will love, there will always be suspicion, fear, and sadness. Among Shakespeare's most renowned works, Venus and Adonis contains discourses on the nature of love and brilliantly described observations of nature.

It shall be cause of war and dire events,

And set dissension 'twixt the son and sire;

Subject and servile to all discontents,

As dry combustious matter is to fire:

Sith in his prime Death doth my love destroy,

They that love best their loves shall not enjoy

In the octave of Sonnet 29, the speaker is depressed due to social ostracism ( "my outcast state") and personal misfortune ( "curse my fate"). He also gives vent to his jealousy of those that are "rich in hope" and "with friends possess'd". The sestet of the sonnet begins with "Yet" and takes a brighter tone as the speaker feels better upon thinking of his beloved. It ends with the couplet, "For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings; That then I scorn to change my state with kings." Sonnet 29 breaks away from traditional sonnets due to its different structure and because the speaker, due to his lack of self-worth, is unable to present a solution in the sestet.

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Sonnet 130 satirizes the concept of ideal beauty that was a convention of literature and art during the time. It compares the poet's mistress to a number of natural beauties; each time making a point that the beauty of his mistress in obviously inadequate for such comparisons. In the last couplet of the poem, Shakespeare states that still his beloved is as special as any beauty for whom such fanciful comparisons are made by artists. He writes, "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare; As any she belied with false compare". Sonnet 130 is renowned for mocking flowery courtly sonnets.
Excerpt:-
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

This often-quoted sonnet provides the definition of ideal love. In the first quatrain, the speaker says that love is not changeable; in the second he says that it is fixed like the north star is to sailors; in the third he says that it not a "Time's fool", that it does not change with time; and in the couplet he attests to the certainty of his definition of love by saying, "If this be error and upon me proved; I never writ, nor no man ever loved." Sonnet 116 is regarded among the finest in Shakespeare's entire sequence of 154 sonnets and it is one of the most famous poems written on love.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

Shakespeare starts Sonnet 18 with a flattering question to the beloved: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" He goes on to list some negative aspects of summer to establish that his beloved is better. In the last part of the poem, he states that the beauty of his beloved will never fade as he will make it eternal though the words of this poem which will remind the world of him "so long as men can breathe or eyes can see". Sonnet 18 is the most famous poem written by William Shakespeare and among the most renowned sonnets ever written.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

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10 Most Famous Poems by William Shakespeare

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William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. Though he is most renowned for his plays, Shakespeare's poetry also remains to be popular. He wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership. He also wrote two long narrative poems, which were published in the 1590s, and a few other verses.