Select
a news article from a local paper, a news magazine, or one of the online
news sources (www.nytimes.com,
www.cnn.com, www.newsday.com
or your local paper). Chose a story in which something happens
or has happened. Use your imagination and the facts in the article
to place 2 individuals into the story. Give them words to say and a shared
moment.
Use this as the basis for a ballad or
narrative poem of at least 6 stanzas or 24 lines. You
should use the Ballad
planning form.doc (or the alternative poemplan.pdf
document or Ballad....htm)
to help you structure your story. Rhyme and rhythm
will be easy for some, hard for others. Do your best. The
poems which you have read can be your models. Your
guiding rules are these: be
consistent and be in past tense.
Only if you are totally stuck may you use
one of the following events instead of an article:
- A child and a parent fight
over something ordinary
- Two animals meet in deadly
battle.
- An animal is faced with
death at the hands of a man-made object.
- Something comes from
somewhere and does something to a child.
- Two school kids have a
confrontation.
When you have completed and edited your poem,
copy and paste it into the form below. Identify yourself,
then submit it to Original
Narrative Poems and Ballads.