Writing Free Verse Poems Worksheets
When we hear or read poems that do not follow a fixed rhyming structure these are often referred to as free verse. Some writers love this form of poetry because it gives them a great deal of latitude where standard poetry requires you to follow some level of structure. This does not mean that the poem will be completely free of rhyme, they may choose to introduce that at just about any time. These types of poems, when performed, have many more pauses and motions throughout them which means that you will often see them having a high degree of punctuation. You may also notice that some free verse poets insert line breaks right in the middle of sentences or even in the middle of words. This is very polarizing form of poetry because some poets find it near impossible and other thrive in this genre. These worksheets will provide you with a great number of examples for you to take in and help you to find your own voice in this form of poetry.
Writing Free Verse Poems Worksheets To Print:
There You Are - Read the
poem. Then write a free verse
poem of your own about
friendship. It should rely on imagery,
alliteration, assonance, or other
literary devices to convey
meaning.
Who I Am? - This is an exercise in forming vivid thoughts and helping you learn to develop concepts.
Song of Myself - The lines below are the opening of a poem called "Song of Myself"
by the great American poet Walt Whitman. It is an example of free
verse, which is the only kind of poem that has no rules at all. It does
not have rhyme or regular meter.
Imagery - Brainstorm imagery, alliteration, assonance, or other literary
devices that relate to your topic that you may want include in
your poem.
Using Devices - Use at least one of the literary devices
defined above. Then explain why you chose that literary device and how it
contributes to the overall effect of the poem.
The Autobiographical Poem
- An autobiographical poem is a poem you write about yourself. The
autobiographical poem is often written in free verse, which means
that it does not have to have a rhyme scheme or regular meter.
Compose Two - Draw a picture to go along
with each poem.
My Topic
- Choose one of the topics provided. Write a short poem about the
topic in free verse form. Use at least one of the literary devices
defined above.
My Battles
- Draw a picture of something you want to write a poem about. Then
write your poem on the lines below.
Learning to Write Free Verse Poems
Writing in this form takes a special form of creativity. Most people enjoy creating poems because of the melodic nature of them. We get our fascination at an early age because many parents and certainly teachers surround us with nursery rhymes. This is rightly so because they are engaging and gets us enjoying language. We always want to encourage kids to love language. Free verse kind of throws all that out the window. These poems clearly sound a lot different than what you are expecting.
So far, we have talked about everything that this form lacks, but the truth is that it also has a great deal to offer. The freedom you have with this form is boundless. Like all forms of poetry, when you a starting out you are free to pick just about any topic. I like to jot down the things that I am currently passionate about when I am writing in free verse. If you are passionate about something, it is always easier to crunch through some great work. Once I have a list of themes, I try to set a scene. That scene can be something related to nature or just who or what voice the poem speaks from. That is the beauty of this form. For instance, let us say you wanted to write a free verse poem that highlights the fall season, you could explore a poem from your own perspective or as a leaf on a tree or an animal in the forest.
Once I have my theme and perspective, I start to brainstorm a series of words that relate to this theme. I will make sure to include many of them in the end poem. I then write these words on their own lines and begin to see if I can form sentences around them. I find the best way to do this is to add a bit of personification and think of words that would make your human senses explode or at least be greatly heightened. We then get ready to expand these sentences into full lines of poems by using descriptive language. Writing in this format gets easier with experience and you should get plenty of it.