CONTENTS What Is a Poem Different Kinds of Poems Themes in Poems Poems Retold 10 It's Hard to Lose a Friend The Other Day 10 The Witches Spell From a Railway Carriage 12 Let s Compare 14 Haiku by Matsuo Basho 16 Haiku by Natsume Soseki 18 Let's Compare Limericks by Edward Lear 22 More Limericks 24 Let's Compare Write Your Own Poem 28 Glossary For More Information 31 Index 32 20 26 30
WHAT IS A POEM What Is a Poem poem is a piece of writing that has rhythm like a song To feel this rhythm it helps to read poems aloud Poems are wonderful ways of describing how something looks feels or sounds often through rhyming words Poems have been written for thousands of years Poems from the Chinese Book of Songs are up to 3 000 years old Some early poems came from ancient folk songs O Some poems might be used to describe a wonderful scene such as a beautiful sunset over the
WHAT IS A POEM Other poems came from stories that were told aloud and passed down from one generation to the next Poems have been written in every country from Australia to Zambia There are poems for adults and there are also children's poems STORYTELLERS Shel Silverstein wrote great poems for children Look for his poems Snowball Sick or Vegetables in a book or on the Internet When you read a poem try to read it aloud so you can hear the poem s
