Introduction to Poetry
Senior 2 · English
Introduction to Poetry
Lesson 5 of 5
25 min
You have now met rhyme, rhythm, imagery, simile, metaphor, personification and the types of poetry. In this final lesson you will put them together: first to analyse a complete poem using the elements of poetry (line, stanza, persona, theme and message), then to recite it, and finally to write your own. Composing a poem is the best proof that you understand how one works.
This is an original poem by Ganzaa, written for this lesson. The speaker is a moto-taxi rider in Kigali.
The First Rider
I kick my motorbike awake
while Kigali lies asleep;
the hills are shoulders wrapped in mist,
the valleys dark and deep.My helmet shines like river stone,
my jacket smells of rain.
I carry nurses, bread and books,
then turn and ride again.The traffic lights blink sleepy eyes,
the market yawns and stirs;
a baker waves a floury hand,
the city wakes and purrs.I do not own the roads I ride,
I do not own the day,
but half this town gets where it goes
because I know the way.
Word help: mist (thin cloud near the ground); stirs (begins to move after sleep); floury (covered in flour); purrs (makes the low, happy sound of a cat, or of a smooth engine).
What time of day is it, and how do you know?
Very early morning: the city is asleep, there is mist on the hills, and the market is only just waking.
Name three kinds of passenger or load the rider carries.
Nurses, bread and books.
What is the rider proud of in the last stanza?
That, although he owns neither the roads nor the day, he helps half the town get where it is going because he knows the way.
| Element | Meaning | In "The First Rider" |
|---|---|---|
| line | a single row of words in a poem | 16 lines |
| stanza | a group of lines, like a paragraph; a four-line stanza is a quatrain, a two-line stanza a couplet | 4 quatrains |
| persona | the speaker or voice of the poem, which may be different from the poet | a moto-taxi rider (the poet is Ganzaa, not a rider) |
| theme | the big subject or idea, often in a word or phrase | the value of ordinary work; the city waking up |
| message | what the poem wants us to understand or do, as a full sentence | Ordinary workers keep a city moving and deserve our respect. |
| tone | the speaker's attitude | calm, gentle, quietly proud |
The poem is almost entirely in the present simple: I kick, I carry, the market yawns, the city wakes. Poets use it for two reasons:
Remember the third-person -s: the market yawns, the city wakes, half this town gets. Words ending in -s, -sh, -ch, -x or -o take -es: it passes, she watches, he goes.
Worked example. Put into the present simple: the moon (shine) on the lake, and a fisherman (push) his boat out. → the moon shines on the lake, and a fisherman pushes his boat out. (push ends in -sh, so it takes -es.)
Write a poem of two or three quatrains with an ABCB rhyme scheme. Include at least one simile, one metaphor and one personification. Follow these steps:
Model stanza by Ganzaa (persona: a tea picker in Nyungwe's hills)
My basket is a hungry mouth
that swallows leaves all day;
the green rows stretch like sleeping snakes
and whisper, "Stay, please stay."
Metaphor: my basket is a hungry mouth. Simile: like sleeping snakes. Personification: the rows whisper. Rhyme: day / stay (ABCB).
Tip
Theme = a word or phrase (work, freedom, nature). Message = a full sentence about life ("Ordinary workers deserve respect.").
The persona is not always the poet. Ganzaa is not a moto rider; Stevenson was not a child on a train when he wrote. Always write "the speaker" or "the persona", not "the poet", when you mean the voice of the poem.
Who is the persona of "The First Rider"?
Solution: a moto-taxi rider in Kigali, not the poet.
What is the rhyme scheme of stanza 2?
Solution: stone (A), rain (B), books (C), again (B) → ABCB.
Name the device in "the traffic lights blink sleepy eyes" and explain its effect.
Solution: personification. Traffic lights flashing are compared to a sleepy person blinking, which makes the whole city seem to be waking up slowly, like a person.
Theme or message? People who do ordinary jobs keep a city alive and deserve respect.
Solution: message. It is a full statement of what the poem wants us to understand. The theme would be simply "the value of ordinary work".
Correct the verb: Every morning the rider carry bread to the shops.
Solution: the rider carries. Third person singular needs -s; carry ends in consonant + y, so the y becomes -ies.
Remember
Sources and credits
