Use Music as a Muse for Poetry

Literature can be tough to decipher, and poetry especially can confuse and intimidate students. One way to overcome that fear is to relate poetry to music. Song writers understand poetry, so the lyrics fit the beat of the music. Here's a fun way to learn about rhyme in songs and poetry, and to get your middle schooler writing some poetry of his own!

What You Need:

• Favorite CD or songs from an MP3 player
• Pencil
• Paper

Step 1
Have you child play one of his or her favorite songs, and write down the lyrics, trying to make line breaks where it sounds like the singer is pausing for breath. If necessary, look up the lyrics online or in the CD sleeve.

Step 2
Read the written lyrics, and notate the rhyme structure. It's easy! To determine the rhyme scheme of a poem or song lyrics, look at the last word of each line and letter them beginning with “a.” When a line rhymes with a previous line, it will have the same letter. For example, this is a section from Hannah Montana's “Nobody's Perfect”:

Sometimes I'm here to jam (a)
I'm gonna make a plan (a)
It might be crazy (b)
I do it anyway (b)
No way to know for sure (c)
I figure how to cure (c)
I'm patchin' up the holes (d)
But then it overflows (d)
If I'm not doin' to well (e)
Why be so hard on myself (e)

Some of the words, such as the ones marked “e,”don't quite rhyme (“well” would rhyme better with “fell” or “sell”), but rhyme well enough to count. These rhymes are called “slant rhymes” - they're not a perfect fit, but they get the job done.