edHelper.com
 Blank Verse - Don’t Draw a Blank!

Blank Verse - Don’t Draw a Blank!
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.04

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    creativity, playwright, re-write, additional, entire, writing, poetry, verse, opposite, ache, poetic, perhaps, however, lines, express, several
     content words:    Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, Mending Wall, Alfred Tennyson, Little Bird, Amy Lowell

Print Blank Verse - Don’t Draw a Blank!
     Print Blank Verse - Don’t Draw a Blank!  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)

Quickly Print
     Quickly print reading comprehension

Proofreading Activity
     Print a proofreading activity

Feedback on Blank Verse - Don’t Draw a Blank!
     Leave your feedback on Blank Verse - Don’t Draw a Blank!  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

Blank Verse - Don’t Draw a Blank!
By Brenda B. Covert 		  
1     Blank verse, in simplest terms, is unrhymed poetry. However, there is more to it than that. Writing blank verse is a bit like putting a puzzle together. You look for words that fit a pattern. Each line will follow the same pattern. That pattern is the rhythm. The rhythm is made up of accented and unaccented syllables. Many styles of poetry incorporate rhythm with rhymes. However, blank verse uses rhythm without rhymes. Blank verse can have any number of lines. There are no rules about how long or short a blank verse should be.
 
2     Meter is very important to blank verse. This meter isn't like a parking meter in which you put coins. Meter is a poetic device. It's the arrangement of a line of poetry by the number of syllables and the rhythm of accented (or stressed) syllables. Each line in blank verse has either the same number of syllables, or close to the same number of syllables.
 
3     Several famous poets wrote in blank verse. Have you heard of Shakespeare? He was before your time, that's true. He is most famous as a playwright. His plays were composed of blank verse. Poets from the last century who wrote in blank verse include Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, and Robert Frost.

Paragraphs 4 to 10:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable
Copyright © 2009 edHelper