Poetry and Visual Arts - Project 2021 A collection of poems and artwork exploring the themes of 'Lost Things', 'Growing Up' and 'Change' ...
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Poetry and Visual Arts Project 2021 A collection of poems and artwork exploring the themes of ‘Lost Things’, ‘Growing Up’ and ‘Change’
Welcome to Staffordshire University’s
Poetry and Visual Arts Project 2021
Contents What is it about?
What is it about? 3 Connotations: Associated words, ideas or Staffordshire University’s PGCE Department are offering A little bonus…
images that a particular word evokes 13 you the opportunity to write a poem or create a piece of Each section of the anthology will have a star poem and
Why should I get involved? visual art based on one of three themes: star piece of artwork which will be shortlisted by one of the
How do I get involved? Sounds to create effects 14
English or Art Trainee Teachers and then chosen by our
File formats The Big Question: How can I use • Lost Things Staffordshire Poet Laureate, Mel Wardle-Woodend and
metaphors to create a poem 15 • Growing Up local artist, Kate Windsor. The star poems and artwork will
How to submit your arrtwork 4 • Change be placed at the beginning of each section. Star poem
Poetry writing tips 16
Visual Arts resources and top tips writers will also receive a £10 Amazon gift voucher to
to create your artwork 5 Creative task 17 Any student from any year can enter from years 7-13. You spend on a book of their choice, while the star artists will
do not have to be in top sets or amazing at English or Art receive an Art Box full of exciting materials worth £50.
How do I start to create an artwork? 6 – it’s open for everyone and everyone’s contribution will
What can I write about? 6 be welcome.
WHY SHOULD I GET INVOLVED?
Poetry resources and top tips 7 Every poem and piece of artwork will be published
electronically in an anthology by the end of the school • It’s an opportunity to be creative
Playing with words in poetry 9
year and each student who contributes will be sent • You can create something that is important to you –
A crash course in Imagist poetry 10 a personal copy of the electronic anthology and a with no restrictions!
certificate of participation. • You can vent your fear, frustration, anger, joy,
happiness, worry about what is happening in an
The aim of this project is to give you the opportunity to be unusual and therapeutic way (yes – being creative
creative, have a voice and an outlet in these very strange is therapeutic!)
times. Your entries are not marked or assessed and there • It looks great on college/university applications
are no mark schemes or success criteria; your poem will
• It will help you with your English and Art lessons
purely be read for pleasure by a wide range of people. The
in school
main thing is that you enjoy what you are writing and use
it as an opportunity to voice your opinion, have a little fun • You can challenge yourself to do something you’ve
and do something different. never done before.
There are no rules! Your poem does not have to rhyme, HOW DO I GET INVOLVED?
it does not have to have lots of poetic techniques, it can
be very short or very long and it can explore any aspect Write your poem or create your artwork and send it to
of the theme you have chosen to write about. If you the following email address by: Monday June 7th 2021
speak another language, you can include words from that poetry@staffs.ac.uk
language too and it can be simple or abstract. Your poem
does, however, have to come from the heart which means Make sure you include your name, school, age and which
it can be sad or funny! You can also present your poem theme you used for your poem or artwork. (If you want to
in any way you like – handwritten (as long as it’s legible be anonymous in the anthology, that’s fine. You can tell
and clear) or typed. Your artwork doesn’t have to be just us this in your email) Don’t forget to give your poem an
a drawing it can be any art materials you like: a digital interesting title.
image, a craft piece, a collage, a sculpture, a photograph
- anything at all that gets you creating, using art materials It’s as simple as that!
that you enjoy making with. *You are only allowed to submit one poem.
Poetry and Visual Arts Project 2021 3
Visual Arts resources and top tips to
How to submit your artwork: create your artwork
You will need to submit your artwork by taking a good FILE FORMATS The Associate Teachers in Art and Design have created items from your kitchen cupboard and recycle cardboard
quality photograph of it or submit a scan of your artwork a resource to help you get started if you haven’t any art and other papers. You don’t need specialist art materials
if appropriate (A flat artwork for example, a painting • Photographs or scans should be submitted either as materials at home. Think about which art materials you to participate in this project. See below for some ideas
or drawing). an individual image files or document. have enjoyed using at school or at home before, don’t for creative resources you could use.
worry if you haven’t specialist art supplies you could use
This is a tricky task and so we have put together some We can accept the following file types and sizes:
do’s and don’ts about how to take a good image of
your visual artwork creations. File type File format Max. individual
file size
Stuck for creative Tea
Coffee
Do’s: Image .jpg 15Mb resources? Gravy browning
Soil
• Take your photo straight on and not on an angle .png
Turmeric
• Take the photo in good lighting, without glare .tif
Beetroot
or reflection .doc Back/inside of A4 envelope Red onion skin
.bmp
• Make sure the photograph is in focus so that all Back of old letters/ receipts – Soya Sauce
.pdf get permission
the image can be seen clearly
Document .pdf 25Mb Inside cereal box
• Fill the frame with your visual artwork creation
.doc Wrapping paper
• Have a white or neutral, uncluttered background .docx Brown paper
behind the artwork .pages Cardboard
• Only included one image for the project submission- Whiteboard
include your name and project theme as part of the Mobile phone drawing apps
saved image or documents file when you email your The plain side of an old Birthday card/
Christmas card
submission to poetry@staffs.ac.uk
Packaging paper
Don’ts Newspaper
Baking paper – alternative tracing paper
• Do not crop, adjust, balance or re-size the
photographs
• Do not photograph your creation that is behind glass
or in plastic sleeves
• Avoid hands/arms in the image when taking your
HOW DO I START TO CREATE AN ARTWORK?
photograph of the artwork
You need to choose one of the themes from this like to create. You can create your artwork in any medium
year’s project: you like. The hardest part about making an artwork is
getting started, but the best thing to do is just start by
• Lost Things being creative and looking at other artists for inspiration,
• Growing Up have a search on the internet and use art materials that
• Change you enjoy working with.
Start by looking on the internet for inspiration to the Have a look at some of the lock down artwork that
topic themes, mind map your thoughts about the topic has been created through Grayson Perry’s Art club
chosen. Start to make initial sketches about what you may https://www.graysonsartclub.com/
4 Staffordshire University Poetry and Visual Arts Project 2021 5
What can I write about? Poetry resources and top tips
You need to choose one of the themes from this The Associate Teachers in English have created some POPULAR POETRY FORMS
resources to help you get started. If you’ve never written
year’s project: any poetry before, the hardest bit is getting started, but Acrostic
the best thing to do is just start writing and see what
• Lost Things happens. You can fine tune it later. In an acrostic poem, the letters of a word are written
• Growing Up vertically down the left-hand side of the page and each
• Change letter is the beginning of a new word or phrase. They
HOW DO I START? can form a sentence or short phrase or simply be a list of
Don’t forget to keep an eye out for updates on Facebook words.
You might get inspiration to start your poem from
(https://www.facebook.com/StaffsUniPGCE) and we’ll use anywhere. It could be a tweet or a news headline or Examples
#StaffsPoetryArt on Twitter and Instagram. something someone says to you. It could be something
Sunny days
you’re passionate about or a hobby or a character from a
book you’re reading in lockdown. It could be the noises Plants awakening
or silence you can hear in your garden or Piers Morgan’s Raindrops on the roof
rants on GMB or Donald Trump’s speeches. It could be Interesting clouds
a photograph you’ve seen or a piece of artwork or a New flowers
Tik Tok challenge. It could be an Xbox or Playstation
Grey skies
game….be creative and write about something you feel
strongly about.
Acrostic by Lewis Carroll (Lorena Alice Edith)
Once you’ve written it, read it through and check you are
happy. Read it aloud – how does it sound? Little maidens, when you look
On this little story-book,
Don’t forget to give it a great title too. Reading with attentive eye
Its enticing history,
Never think that hours of play
Some help… Are your only HOLIDAY,
WHAT IS POETRY?
And that in a HOUSE of joy
Poetry is a form of writing where the poet expresses his Lessons serve but to annoy:
or her feelings about an issue or idea. You might want to If in any HOUSE you find
simply explore your feelings but you might also want to Children of a gentle mind,
have an impact on your reader or send them a message or Each the others pleasing ever—
shock them, for example. You don’t have to – it’s your poem.
Each the others vexing never—
There are many different types of poem but some of the Daily work and pastime daily
more common ones are listed below with an example, In their order taking gaily—
but remember that we’re not looking for perfection. Then be very sure that they
You can explore the best form of writing for what you Have a life of HOLIDAY.
want to say. These are just ideas to help you and give
you somewhere to start. We’re not looking for anything https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z4mmn39/
specific – this is your poem and you need to own it! articles/ztdvw6f
6 Staffordshire University Poetry and Visual Arts Project 2021 7
Playing with words in poetry
HAIKU Do not be afraid to play around with words when you A poet who often plays on the way words sound is Brian
Helpful Haiku Hints! are writing poetry. Many poets use features of word play, Bilston. In the poem ‘You Took the Last Bus Home’ he
A haiku is a Japanese form of poetry. It has three lines. such as puns, to add humour to their poetry. A pun uses plays on popular phrases that people say and their
What is a haiku? multiple meanings and the similar sounds of words for different meanings, such as when we say we catch the
The first line has 5 syllables, the second line has 7
syllables and the third line has 5 syllables. Think of it as A form of Japanese poetry. a humorous impact. For example, in a love poem about train or take the bus home.
a snapshot, like a photograph or a moment in time. You vegetables, I might say that ‘I love you from my head
could create a series of haiku on the same theme if you tomatoes’ instead of ‘to my toes.’
wished.
Structure
You Took the Last Bus Home Fall
Examples First, five syllables.
An old silent pond... The second line has seven. you took She loved to catch
A frog jumps into the pond, Final five, and done! the last bus home the falling leaves
in autumn
splash! Silence again. (By Basho)
don’t know how she
you got it through the door would
Content sit
you’re always doing amazing stuff and wait
Usually, nature: under trees
the animal kingdom and the like the time until
changing seasons you caught that train she’d
cautumn
The tiger charges Brian Bilston Brian Bilston
Its tail flicking the snow high
Stripes bear down on me.
Instead of travelling on the bus, he is suggesting that If you are really creative, why not even make up your
they picked up the bus and brought it inside. own word?
Or in this poem called ‘Fall’, which is the American word Remember, this is your poem – you can express yourself
for Autumn, he plays on the words by using the spelling however you like.
of the word Autumn and applying it to the rhyme,
caught them.
8 Staffordshire University Poetry and Visual Arts Project 2021 9
A crash course in Imagist poetry
DID YOU KNOW? Now that you’ve filled in the boxes, remove any words THE ENGLISH SONNET Is heavier now. No wonder they protest.
that you think are unnecessary – the Imagists said to use Arthritic fingers, problematic neck,
Imagism was a poetic movement that valued everyday as few words as possible to get the message across. Sometimes causing mild to moderate pain,
A sonnet has 14 lines and is one stanza long. It has a
life in all its mundane details, and when you know this, Could well persuade me I’m an ancient wreck
specific rhyming pattern: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. It uses
you soon find that you can write a poem about just about Here is an example of what I came up with as I looked But here’s what helps me to feel young again:
iambic pentameter (For help with this, see: https://
anything! out of my living-room window. My love, who fell for me so long ago,
www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-learning-zone/macbeth/
Still loves me just as much, and tells me so.
language/key-terms#) Historically it was written on the
Example
Pick a noun or an A lamppost
image (a car, a theme of love but modern sonnets are written on all sorts
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/70051/
flower, a piece of of different themes and topics.
In a Station of the Metro – Ezra Pound (1913) litter etc.) learning-the-sonnet
The apparition of these faces in a crowd: Examples
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/13/
Petals on a wet, black bough. wendy-cope-simon-armitage-andrew-motion-
Describe that noun A solitary lamppost, with graffiti Sonnet 18: shakespeare-love-sonnets-21st-century
In just two short lines, Pound captured a snapshot of life – if it is a car, what scrawled in permanent marker; Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
– a fleeting moment that is preserved forever. There is a colour is it? Is By William Shakespeare
the light is flickering.
hint of rhyme (half-rhyme) in crowd/bough, and the use there frost on the
of language in this poem allows it to really stand out – windshield? FREE VERSE
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
apparition suggests something ghostly, for example! Thou art more lovely and more temperate: This is exactly what is sounds like – you are free to do
Write a metaphor The light flickers in morse code Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, whatever you like! There is no strict rhyming pattern,
Here is how you can do the same. that links closely to signal the dusk. And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; rhythm or other rules! It is more like natural speech.
to the image you Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
Fill in the following boxes based on something that you described earlier
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; Examples
can see outside of your window:
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
Pick a noun or an
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; Fog by Carl Sandburg
image (a car, a But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
flower, a piece of Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; The fog comes
litter etc.) Warden – T Longshaw (2020) Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, on little cat feet.
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: It sits looking
a solitary lamppost So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, over harbor and city
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. on silent haunches
Describe that with graffiti scrawled in black marker
noun – if it is a car, and then moves on.
what colour is it? flickers in morse code
Is there frost on
and signals the dusk
Sonnet (inspired by Sonnet 22)
the windshield? Wendy Cope Autumn by T.E. Hulme
My glass can’t quite persuade me I am old – A touch of cold in the Autumn night—
Write a metaphor
that links closely In that respect my ageing eyes are kind – I walked abroad,
to the image you But when I see a photograph, I’m told And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge
described earlier The dismal truth: I’ve left my youth behind. Like a red-faced farmer.
And when I try to get up from a chair I did not stop to speak, but nodded,
My knees remind me they are past their best. And round about were the wistful stars
The burden they have carried everywhere With white faces like town children.
10 Staffordshire University Poetry and Visual Arts Project 2021 11
Connotations: Associated words, ideas or images
that a particular word evokes
Spoken Word Poetry (Slam) For example… Red might be associated with anger, passion, danger or love. You might want to use this table to
explore ways of using different words in your poem.
This is a type of poetry which expresses a person’s story
or struggle and is usually strong, powerful, emotional
and moving. It usually has a strong sense of rhythm (like Ways I can suggest this within
The Word Ideas associated with this word
rap music) and has a musical feel to it. There are no my poem
rules with spoken word poetry, other than that the poem
should have a great sound – it is supposed to be read
aloud at a poetry ‘slam’!
Check out these websites:
http://slam.poetrysociety.org.uk/
https://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/
slambassadors-uk/teachers-toolkit-tips-for-running-
slam-poetry-sessions/
http://joelletaylor.co.uk/
You might also consider the following:
• Do you want to use rhyme? Will it rhyme on every
line or just some lines? Will it have rhyming couplets?
(https://www.youngwriters.co.uk/info/other/poetry-
terms/rhyming-couplets)
• Which words will you choose? It’s always handy to have
a thesaurus open https://www.thesaurus.com/ could
Look at this example from ‘Checking out me history’ by John Agard;
we use ‘contented’ instead of ‘happy’ or ‘sombre’ Accent and Dialect ‘Dem tell me
instead of ‘sad’? Which words best explore what you
are trying to say or how you want your reader to feel?
in Poetry Dem tell me
Wha dem want to tell me
• Will you use punctuation? You may have learned Bandage up me eye with me own history
about enjambement (where the sentence is spread Our themes this year are personal, Blind me to my own identity
over more than one line) or caesura (where there so write about yourself and the Agard uses non-standard spelling to represent his own accent and sound –
is punctuation in the middle of the line). These things you know. poetry is all about sounds!
techniques will affect the way the poem sounds when
read aloud. Find and use your own voice, Or try using some non-standard Some examples of dialect words
• How many verses will your poem have and why? personalise your poem through words in your poetry. in Stoke-on-Trent
• Will your poem be written from your perspective or your accent and dialect. We have a rich cultural heritage
in Stoke, listen out for unusual ‘Ay up Tara! Nana
will you write it from someone else’s perspective?
• Do you want to write for a specific audience? A big part of this is writing in the words that you and your family
words you use and in the way you and friends use. Can you use Hello Goodbye Grandma
them in your writing?
speak – this is called using your
dialect in poetry.
Have a go and start writing!
I bet you have some fantastic words and sounds inside you!
12 Staffordshire University Poetry and Visual Arts Project 2021 13
Sounds to create effects
Poets use devices to jazz up their writing. There are many Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, ALLITERATIVE EFFECTS
different techniques they use: punctuation, repetition, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
irony, but let’s look at how the writer uses sounds to
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.— Letter Sound
create different effects.
B Hard/plosive (makes an explosive sound when pronounced)
What do you notice about the sounds that appear?
Alliteration, consonance and assonance are devices
the poet uses to create different effects. What effect does the poet try to create? K Guttural/ hard/ plosive
Alliteration is the repetition of the initial D Hard/ plosive
consonant, for example, “Betty Botter bought The alliterative ‘f’ sounds in the slows down the rhythm as
some butter, but she said, this butter’s bitter; if I you move your mouth around the two close ‘f’ sounds, also
creating the sense of clumsiness in the way you read it. F Hard
put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter…”
Consonance is the repetition of the consonant G Hard/ guttural/ plosive
sound in the sentence, for example, “Try to light The ‘s’ sound in the line, ‘someone still was yelling
the fire/ The squeaky wheel gets the grease/ It’s out and stumbling’ creates a ‘hissing’ sound, creating M Soft
hot and monotonous/Stem end and blossom end/ imagery of quickness and disjointedness from the ‘f’
And every fleck of russet showing clear.” (“After sounds. The pace quickens mimicking the panicked W Gliding/ wispy/ airy
Apple-Picking” by Robert Frost) tone of the soldier.
Sibilant: can suggest smoothness, slyness, controlled anger. Repetition of the ‘s’ sound can create
Assonance is the repetition of the vowel sounds in S
a sense of quiet.
the sentence, for example, “upon an island hard QUESTION 1:
to reach, the east beast sits upon his beach. Each “Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
beast thinks he’s the best beast.” But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.”
Let’s have a look at some excerpts from
Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
Can you identify any alliteration, consonance or
assonance? What effect does it have on the tone,
“Knock-kneed, coughing like hags.” The consonance of
pace or rhythm of the stanza?
the ‘k’ sound in this simile, emphasises how the young
soldiers are suffering from illness and gives a ‘plosive’
What effect does it have on the reader?
coughing sound- just like the soldier later in the poem.
“and watch the white eyes writhing in his face” the QUESTION 2:
consonance of the ‘w’ sound slows down the pace and Look at this line:
illustrates the slow suffering of the soldier. The use of
“He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.”
assonance is also evident, the ‘I’ sound also slows down
the pace and a disjointed and uncomfortable rhythm to
Why do you think Wilfred Owen chose these words?
this part of the poem.
What sounds are created when saying them?
Let’s take a closer look. Read these four lines aloud. What imagery does this create?
How does it help the reader understand the horrors
“An ecstasy of fumbling of war?
14 Staffordshire University Poetry and Visual Arts Project 2021 15
The Big Question:
How can I use metaphors to create a poem Poetry writing tips
ABSTRACT NOUN CONCRETE NOUN • Don’t overthink it, poetry doesn’t have to be hard!
An abstract noun is a feeling or concept that you A concrete noun is a noun that can be identified
• Write about something that interests you
cannot touch, such as happiness or education. through one of the five senses (taste, touch, sight, • Write about something or someone you know such as: family member, pet,
hearing, or smell). favourite place, friends etc
• Can you use your favourite film or song and turn that into a poem?
A metaphor compares two things that aren’t alike, but have something in common. Which of these nouns and • Poetry doesn’t have to rhyme, so don’t force it too if you can’t
definitions make the best metaphors? Remember to mix the abstract and the concrete!
• Brainstorm/mind map your ideas
Is a thing of value that
• Read other poetry on the same topic, it might give you some inspiration
Is a living thing, that
LONLINESS FRIENDSHIP
grows in the earth
can be exchanged for the • Think about how you want it to make people feel; do you want it to be funny? Sad?
things you need
Is the quality of putting Is the act of sharing what You can also see some more top tips on this video:
GENEROSITY SELFLESSNESS
others before yourself you have with others
https://youtu.be/afkVvgtUqag
Is a kind of Is feeling at peace
MONEY TIME
nourishing food with yourself
NOW WRITE YOUR OWN POEM!
Select your best metaphor and make it grow into a whole
poem. Think about each of your senses – taste, touch, sight,
smell and sound – and use them to add more detail.
16 Staffordshire University Poetry and Visual Arts Project 2021 17Creative task
We are going to work on writing our own poetry. For our STEP 3
first go, we are going to try and write a poem about our
favourite animal. Using your animal, and your plan, write your own 2 stanza
poem
STEP 1
Choose an animal and write down all of the things you Giraffe! Giraffe! Spindly legs standing tall
think characterises that animal. Think about: in the dry savannah. I wonder; how does it feel
Having such a long and windy neck?
• Patterns
• Colours His sandy yellow complexion warms hearts
• Body parts All over the African plains, and his chocolate
• Sounds/senses Brown spots tantalise the eyes as he stretches
His legs across the land.
His razor-sharp ears twitch as he hears rustles
Hexagonal spots From afar, his navy blue tongue slyly poking out
Sandy yellow To attract the attention of his mates.
Deep brown And like a stallion at the races, he gallops.
Windy neck
Pointed ears
Long blue tongue
Hooves - clop clop
HAVE I:
Spindly legs
• Used 5 techniques?
Which ones
WHAT ANIMAL AM I?
• Created a clear start, middle and end?
• Used tone to tell you how I feel about giraffes?
STEP 2
Decide your techniques for each part Remember that the most important thing is to
express your ideas and feelings in a creative and
Start - Giraffe! Giraffe! Spindly legs standing tall
interesting way.
Hexagonal spots
Sandy yellow - put with brown colour We are really looking forward to reading your
Deep brown – Metaphor, similar to burning bright but poems and seeing your artwork.
about brown/yellow combination
Windy neck – rhetorical question about how it feels
Pointed ears
Long blue tongue – smile – as blue as...
Hooves – clop clop – onomatopoeia
Spindly legs – at the start with verb phrase standing tall
18 Staffordshire University Poetry and Visual Arts Project 2021 19Staffordshire University’s School of Education
Poetry and Visual Arts Project 2021, created in
conjunction with students from local Secondary
Schools and supported by Stoke CEP.
Staffordshire University
College Road
Stoke-on-Trent
ST4 2DE
enquiries@staffs.ac.uk
www.staffs.ac.ukYou can also read
