104 Poetry and Lyrics

Write poetry in e-book format, include multimedia--art, photos, audio clips, video clips, web links & more.  Publish you e-book on the web free.  Get a network of distributors and a service to manage downloads and accounts.  You'll quickly enter the world of writing and publishing in the digital age!

Start with this page of information and resources on poetry, including free online videos.  Next, download  a free trial of DeskTop Author.  Then go to Publish and Sell Your E-book.

104 Course Outline

104 Poetry and Lyrics

Lyrics--no digital

Poetry--can be digital if poet wants to be creative and include multimedia with poetry.  For example, photos or drawings that illustrate poems; audio clips reading poems w/ background music; audio clips of music w/out narration; perhaps even video clips.

offers the following video series for viewing free online!

Voices & Visions:  Poetry

Poetry Video Series  (13x60")

Poetry Web Site

The lives and works of 13 renowned American poets are interpreted through dramatic readings, archival photographs, dance, performances, and interviews in this inspiring series. Illustrative poems in each program are accompanied by insights into their historical and cultural connections. The series covers the terminology of poetry and the larger role of poets in American and world literature studies. Poets include Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Elizabeth Bishop.  Produced by the New York Center for Visual History, 1988.

  1. Elizabeth Bishop
From childhood in Nova Scotia to travels in Brazil, this program illustrates the geographic spirit of Bishop's life and works with scenes from her poems.

2. Hart Crane
Diverse locations and dramatizations of his life illustrate Crane's poetry and his greatest work, "The Bridge."

3. Emily Dickinson
Dramatic scenarios and New England landscapes illuminate the passionate genius of Dickinson, whose poems represent a broad range of imaginative experience.

4. T. S. Eliot
Eliot's life, influence, and poetry from the bold originality of "Prufrock" to the probing, meditative style of "Four Quartets" are explored with photos, archival footage, and discussion with friends, critics, and scholars.

5. Robert Frost
Frost's image as elder statesman is vividly contrasted with his vigorous, poetic exploration of the darker forces of nature and the human condition. Readings and interviews with the poet reveal compelling insights into his work.

6. Langston Hughes
Hughes wrote of the beauty, dignity, and heritage of blacks in America. Interviews, music, and dance performances convey his work and influence, discussed by James Baldwin and biographer Arnold Rampersad.

7. Robert Lowell
Lowell's political passion encompasses much of his greatest poetry. Lowell himself reads from his work. Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Hass, and others discuss his development and style as illustrated by "Lord Weary's Castle" and "Life Studies."

8. Marianne Moore
Funny, formidable, and paradoxical, the poet and her work are analyzed by critics and friends, including Monroe Wheeler, Grace Shulman, and Patricia Willis. Her most memorable poems display her power of observation and moral force.

9. Sylvia Plath
The creative intensity with which Plath confronted her experiences as daughter, wife, mother, and writer is explored in documentary and archival footage intercut with visualizations of her work.

10. Ezra Pound
The most controversial of American poets — artistic catalyst, legendary confidant, and author of brilliant cantos — Ezra Pound and his poetry and role in the modernist movement are explored by friends and critics.

11. Wallace Stevens
Stevens' flamboyant verbal technique and philosophical vision of American life are beautifully illustrated by archival footage.

12. Walt Whitman   
Brilliant readings of Whitman's poems demonstrate his American vision and style and vividly convey their poignancy and sheer power. Whitman's sources, including Emerson, the King James Bible, opera, and political oratory, are revealed.

13. William Carlos Williams   
"No ideas but in things," Williams' aesthetic dictum sought to capture, not analyze. A collage of documentary footage, interviews, animation, and dramatization capture the poet's often visual work and intense life.

The above programs can be viewed online at Poetry Video Series

Also view other programs on demand at the Annenberg Web site or call 1-800-LEARNER.

 when on the Annenberg web site.

If you want to write your poetry in an e-book, especially one including multimedia, download a free trial of DeskTop Author then go to Publish and Sell Your E-book to learn how to publish your e-book of poetry free on the web, form a network of distributors (affiliate web sites) to help sell your work, and get an online service to manage downloads and accounts.

The following online videos should also be of interest to writers of poetry:

Literary Visions Video Series  (30 minutes each program)

11. The Sacred Words: The Elements of Poetry
The role of poetry for the individual and the culture is suggested through visual essays. An interview with James Dickey includes his reading and analysis of his poems "The Performance" and "The Lifeguard."

12. A Sense of Place: Setting and Character in Poetry
The historical settings of "My Last Duchess," "Theme for English B," and "Dover Beach" convey much about the characters and ideas of these poems. The New England landscapes of Maxine Kumin echo the themes of her poetry.

13. Tools of the Trade: Words and Images in Poetry
Poetry readings, visualizations of poems, and an interview with Lucille Clifton, who reads two of her favorite poems, "This Morning" and "Homage to My Hips," reveal the beauty and the workings of poetic language and imagery.

14. Seeing Anew: Rhetorical Figures in Poetry
The power of metaphor, simile, and other figures of speech becomes clear through dramatizations of Anne Bradstreet's "The Author to Her Book," Nikki Giovanni's "Woman," and Daniel Halpern's "Snapshot of Hue." Gary Soto is interviewed and reads and comments on his poem "Oranges."

15. An Echo to the Sense: Prosody and Form in Poetry
X. J. Kennedy discusses and demonstrates the importance of rhyme and meter in his poetry. Dramatic readings of poems by Shakespeare, Dickinson, and Hopkins and contemporary poets like Dudley Randall and Leonard Adame are analyzed to show how prosody and form contribute to meaning.

16. Distant Voices: Myth, Symbolism, and Allusion in Poetry
Four poetic versions of the Icarus myth — those of Sexton, Spender, Williams, and Field — are dramatized and compared. Marge Piercy discusses the role of myth in her poetry.

17. Artful Resonance: Theme in Poetry
Dramatizations of six poems that share the same subject help clarify the difference between subject and theme. Close analysis of poems by John Donne and Donald Hall explore the interrelationship between poetic form and meaning.

The programs listed above can be viewed free online at Literary Visions Video Series

If you want to write your poetry in an e-book, especially one including multimedia, download a free trial of DeskTop Author then go to Publish and Sell Your E-book  to learn how to publish your e-book free on the web and get a network of distributors (affiliate web sites) to help sell your work, and a service to manage downloads and accounts.

Download  a free trial of DeskTop Author--Deluxe Edition        and create your volume of poetry as a multimedia e-book!

SOFTWARE

Recommended items to help you prepare multimedia to include in your poetry e-books:

Download a Free Trial of Muvee for automatic slide show with sound video creation.

ArcSoft Products:

Panorama Maker   for photos

PhotoBase

PhotoStudio

ShowBiz

VideoImpression

Video Stabilizer

Other Software

Audio & Video Converter

AVS Audio Editor

Free Trial of Video Edit Magic

Free trial software, free digital magazines & other free offers-->

BOOKS

101a Writing Home - 101b E-Writing Intro - 102a Fiction: Novel 102b Fiction in E-Books - 103 Scripts  -->104 Poetry E-Books 105 Non-Fiction E-Books

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