My homework assignment is to take Walt Whitmans poem, "I Hear America Singing" and replace words/lines in the poem with the following:
1 Example of Parallel Structure or Anaphora
1 Catalogue of Items
1 Strong Image (use at least 10 words)
1 Example of Onomatopoeia
1 Example EACH of Assonance, Alliteration, and Consonance
I have attempted this poem time and time again, but Walt Whitman's poem structure is something I cannot seem to wrap my head around, and even more so something I cannot seem to successfully change in order to continue to make sense.
So, if you're able to help me with this, thank you so, so much; It's greatly appreciated.
I'm not at all sure what this assignment expects of you. Is this an online course, or a regular classroom?
See my second post to "Laurent" below, who has the same question.
Basically, it's just a really confusing assignment. It's just a regular classroom assignment, but what my teacher said to do was either 1) Take lines out of Whitman's poem, and replace them with lines that contain the aforementioned examples. Or 2) Write a poem that mimicks the style of Whitman's poem, "I Hear America Singing." (I should have added that in the first time, I apologize.)
Whitman's structure is clearly something he knows well, but I however, do not. Here's an example poem that I managed to find online, of a teacher who wrote a poem that mimicked Whitman's style: (I'll just copy and paste it since links cannot be sent.)
"So in class recently we’ve been studying poetry — all types, those that rhyme and those that don’t . . . ballads, elegies, odes . . . (Well, we haven’t got to odes yet, but they are on the horizon.) There were two that we read by Walt Whitman, famous American writer. We read “O Captain! My Captain!” and “I Hear America Singing” together. Then, I asked students to “mimic” the style of one of those poems and write their own with their own choice of a subject. I gave them a handout for each poem to guide the process. After students wrote their poem, I asked them to use the iMovie app on our iPads (or another app of their choosing) to do three things: (1) record themselves reading their poem; (2) provide visuals for the viewer to look at as they listened to the audio recitation of the poem; and (3) provide lyrics (like subtitles) along the bottom of the film clip. Once finished, they were to create a blog post on their blog, and the blog posting needed to contain their poem, and the uploaded media file of their audio/visual poem.
I did one too; here is my sample:
I SEE LADERA VISTA LEARNING
by Jennifer Rovira
I see Ladera Vista learning, the varied lessons I see,
Those of our custodians, each day the vision of them working to keep our campus maintained,
The teachers learning theirs as they grapple with implementing new standards and delivering their instruction,
The students learning theirs, as they explore new technology or are collaborating on assignments,
The admins learning about providing intrepid leadership, while supporting faculty and students,
The office staff learning as they perch at their work stations, the parents requesting assistance,
The lunch ladies, our ASB’s as they prepare for a school dance, or a lunchtime activity, or a spirit day,
The intense learning of the maintenance crew, or of the conscientious bus drivers, or of the nurse administering medicine or checking a temperature,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day — at night the quiet blanket of calm, serene, tranquil,
Learning with inquisitive minds their very valuable, lifelong lessons."
I assume you and Laurent are the same person? I've asked ms.sue and Writeacher to take a look, too. Give us some time and we'll get back to you.
And keep in mind that we are in different time zones. It's 1:36 AM in the east, where ms.sue and writeacher are, and 10:36 PM on the west coast where I am. We may not get back to you until morning.
I hope by now that you've at least made a start on your own, Shalee.
Let us know.