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ELA 4: Adjectives and Metaphors in Nature Poems 85 Views


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Description:

Adjectives and metaphors are the cheese and sauce to any quality poetry pizza.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

[Coop and Dino singing]

00:13

Not all poems are created equal. [Girl reciting poem on stage]

00:15

Just because something might happen to rhyme doesn't make it exciting or meaningful.

00:19

For example, what if we showed you this poem.

00:22

“The sky is blue, the ocean is too.”

00:25

Didn't exactly make you jump out of your seat or start weeping uncontrollably, did it? [Man on beach with burnt skin]

00:29

That's because it hasn't used any adjectives or metaphors yet.

00:32

Adjectives and metaphors can be used to give imagery and meaning to a poem. [Coop discussing adjectives and metaphors]

00:36

But before we get into all that, let's make sure we know what these things are,

00:39

starting with “adjectives.” [Man running down a road]

00:41

An adjective is simply a “describing” word. It's a word you usually put before another

00:45

word in order to provide extra details about it.

00:48

If we were to simply write the word “cat,” then you might ask, “What kind of cat?”

00:52

Is it a “fluffy cat?” [Cat on the side of a road]

00:54

An “angry cat?”

00:56

A… “grumpy cat?”

00:57

For our little poem, we can add a couple adjectives to the first line to make it have way more

01:02

meaning, like this: [Adjectives added to poem]

01:03

The endless sky is a brilliant blue.

01:06

See how much better that sounds? Really paints a picture, doesn’t it?

01:10

Then there are “metaphors,” which are figures of speech that identify something [Dino explaining metaphors]

01:13

as being the same as, or similar to, something else.

01:16

Suppose we wanted to say that our dog is smart.

01:19

Sure, we could use an adjective and say the “smart dog.” [Dog lying on the sofa]

01:22

But if we wanted to use a metaphor instead, we could say, “The dog is a walking encyclopedia.”

01:27

Of course we know that the dog isn't actually a walking encyclopedia, but as a metaphor, [Dog transforms into an encyclopedia]

01:31

it tells us that the dog is smart and knows a lot…

01:34

…because we know that encyclopedias hold lots of information.

01:37

Although, no matter how smart this dog is, its head is probably more full of stupid pet [Dog with a bone on its head]

01:41

tricks than, say, expertise in the field of quantum mechanics.

01:45

So now let's try and use a metaphor to improve the second line of our short little poem about nature.

01:50

Instead of just saying that the ocean is blue, like the sky…maybe we could try to explain

01:54

how amazing and magical it is. To do that, we need to think of something totally unrelated [Magician explodes and disappears]

01:59

and also amazing and magical.

02:01

Like a shooting star!

02:03

So instead of saying “and the ocean is too,” let's use a metaphor and change it up...

02:08

When all’s said and done, we took our boring old little poem that went, [Coop discussing the old poem]

02:12

“The sky is blue, the ocean is too.”

02:14

And turned it into,

02:15

“The endless sky is a brilliant blue, The ocean is a shooting star, to make your

02:20

wish come true.”

02:22

All from using a few adjectives and a metaphor.

02:25

Probably not going to win any major awards, but…definitely better. [Dog on stage with new poem]

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