ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


4th Grade Videos 155 videos

ELA 4: How Words Can Help
1205 Views

Sticks and stones, right? Well...only sometimes. It's a good idea to make sure your words aren't going to hurt others. Let's look at some ways to d...

ELA 4: Debating Like a Champ
744 Views

Learn to debate like a champ. It's way better than debating like a chimp. That just takes mudslinging to a whole new level.

ELA 4: Types of Biographies
277 Views

Today we'll learn about biographies and autobiographies. And no, the second one has nothing to do with the lives of cars. 

See All

ELA 4: Narrative Poetry 322 Views


Share It!


Description:

Shmoop worked real hard to make a video for you about narrative poetry. But they couldn't think of any rhymes, and...got mad enough to throw a tree?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

[Coop and Dino singing]

00:13

Poetry can do a great many things. It can express anger, address current events, [Person reading text message]

00:19

talk about nature, or confess one's love – for another person or for a slice of cake.

00:26

But it can also be used to tell a story.

00:28

And when it does that, we call it “Narrative Poetry.”

00:31

Narrative poetry is kind of like a short story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. [Coop discussing narrative poetry]

00:35

The only difference is that, unlike a regular story, a narrative poem is written, well…

00:39

poetically.

00:41

It could be a made-up story, or a story that really happened. It could be a big, crazy

00:45

story about a dragon and a princess, or a tiny, simple story about how you fell and [Person holding book about how a man scraped his knee]

00:49

scraped your knee.

00:50

The nice thing about narrative poetry is that it can be written about anything at all.

00:54

Narrative poems don't have to follow a ton of rules – so long as they tell a story,

00:57

that's good enough. [Mother reading daughter a story in bed]

00:58

However, they do often rhyme in rhyming couplets because… really, who doesn't love a good

01:03

rhyming poem?

01:04

One famous example of a narrative poem is called “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence [Ernest stood by a typewriter]

01:08

Thayer. Here’s a taste:

01:10

“The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:

01:13

The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play,

01:17

And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,

01:21

A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

01:25

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest

01:29

Clung to the hope which springs eternal in the human breast;

01:32

They thought, “If only Case could but get a whack at that -

01:37

We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat.”

01:40

As we can see, this is clearly a narrative poem, because not only does it rhyme, but [Person holding a narrative poem]

01:44

more importantly, it tells the story about a baseball team trying to win their game…

01:48

…and this Casey guy, who sounds like a total stud. [Baseball lands on car]

01:51

Of course, the author could have just written the story without doing it poetically, but

01:55

making it rhyme, and writing it this way, makes it that much more fun to read.

01:59

Of course, just now we only read the first two stanzas – remember, that's a grouping [Coop discussing stanzas]

02:02

of verses that rhymes…

02:04

…so if you want to know what happened to Casey's team, you can read the rest of the

02:07

poem on our website.

02:08

Spoiler Alert: we wouldn’t actually put any money on this game if we were you.

Related Videos

ELA 4: How Words Can Help
1205 Views

Sticks and stones, right? Well...only sometimes. It's a good idea to make sure your words aren't going to hurt others. Let's look at some ways to d...

ELA 4: Debating Like a Champ
744 Views

Learn to debate like a champ. It's way better than debating like a chimp. That just takes mudslinging to a whole new level.

ELA 4: Types of Biographies
277 Views

Today we'll learn about biographies and autobiographies. And no, the second one has nothing to do with the lives of cars. 

ELA 4: Complete Sentences
775 Views

In this lesson we'll subject you to some verbs and predicates. Each one is a necessary part of a complete breakfas—er...sentence.

ELA 4: Word Choice
222 Views

Choosing words carefully is important. You may end up vexing the assemblage of citizens you're conversing with...or you might even just plain bore...