Types of Poems - Parts Of Speech

A parts of speech poem contains five lines. The first line consists of an article such as “a or an” and one noun. The second line contains one adjective, one conjunction such as “but or and” and one adjective. Line three consists of one verb, one conjunction and then one verb. The fourth line is one adverb and the fifth line is one noun or pronoun that relates to the first line.

A good understanding of word types is needed for completing parts of speech poems. A noun is a word that is a person, place or thing. A verb is a word expressing action, such as "jump." An adjective is a word that describes a noun, such as "beautiful." An adverb is a word describing a verb and generally ends in "ly" such as "happily." An article is a word that connects a noun to the type of reference that is being used, such as the word "an." A conjunction is a word connecting parts of a sentence, such as the word "and."

An example of a parts of speech poem is choosing “A dad” for the first line. “Strict but patient” could be the second line. The third line is “Disciplines and loves.” The last two lines are “Unconditionally” and “Dad.”

Teachers illustrate parts of speech poems to children of all ages by first reviewing what poetry is. Teachers must also remind students what each part of speech is. Many teachers approach these types of poems as madlibs. A madlib is an activity that requires a person to choose specific types of words, such as nouns and adjectives. A madlib is a story that is missing words throughout. The missing words simply have a blank space and list a specific word type the person must fill in such as 'noun' or 'verb'. The person completing a madlib chooses the specific word types such as nouns and adverbs, and fills them in the blanks. After all the blanks are filled in with words, a humorous story is created. Teaching a parts of speech poem can be taught this way. The poem might turn out silly, but the students will understand the theory. Teachers either create their own madlib or copy one out of a book or off the Internet. An example of a madlib is "The (noun) sat (adverb) on the couch. The student chooses a noun, such as "monkey" and an adverb, such as "patiently." The finished sentence reads "The monkey sat patiently on the couch."