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Poetry Prompt: Playground Games

By Heather Eure 12 Comments

playground_games
Remember your favorite playground games? Whether you played Hopscotch, Tether Ball; Red Light, Green Light; or braved the Dodgeball court, one thing was clear– recess was defined by rules. In order to play, we needed to learn how to play.

Didactic poetry is a type of form that seeks to instruct. It is poetry with direct intention. Didactic poetry originated in the proverb, a miniature form. The Greeks established a traditional model to their verse, with a purpose which operated in two ways: It taught how to do something, like how to keep bees or plow a field. It could also teach what to know about something, such as philosophy or mathematics. Hesiod is considered the father of didactic poetry. In his poem Theogony (ca. 700 B.C.E.), he explains the genealogy and myths of the gods, the origins of the cosmos. He also lovingly tends to practical matters and teaches about farming methods in his poem Works and Days (ca. 700 B.C.E.).

Even Robert Frost leaned toward the idea of poetry as entertainment and instruction when he said that a poem “begins in delight and ends in wisdom.”

Try It

Put your books away and come join us outside on the playground. Pick your favorite playground game and write a didactic poem on either what the reader needs to know about the game or how to play it. Here are a few traditional playground games to help you along. Share your poem with us in the comment section below. Let’s play!

Featured Poem

In last week’s prompt we explored sports. Rick cast his line and shared a poem about the sport of fly fishing:

The Complete Angler

October boasts of the Walleye and Crappie,
But I wade the White,
Where Brown and Rainbow find their way
To where my graphite and dun wait.

Cold to the bone, the water now,
And my fingers numb,
The sun a fickle friend, clouds of winter gathering.

I cast a weighted line cross-stream,
Barely a ripple made,
Mend and mend again to mind the drift, my charade
Draws up a nose that with a swirl retreats.
Gently I draw in the fly, then fake
A cast or two, then let the tippet fall.

Lighter than a leaf of Sycamore
Disguised in the water’s
course and corrugation lays the bait.

Now the strike with furious folly comes,
Brown or Rainbow hidden
in the froth and fight,
The rod tip bent
As if to breaking.
Give and take is its own reward,
Before I let the monster go.

—Richard Maxson

Photo by Phalinn Ooi. Creative Commons via Flickr.

Browse more Games
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How to Write a Poem 283 high How to Write a Poem uses images like the buzz, the switch, the wave—from the Billy Collins poem “Introduction to Poetry”—to guide writers into new ways of writing poems. Excellent teaching tool. Anthology and prompts included.

“How to Write a Poem is a classroom must-have.”
—Callie Feyen, English Teacher, Maryland

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  • Author
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Heather Eure
Heather Eure
Heather Eure has served as the Poetry Editor for the late Burnside Collective and Special Projects Editor for us at Tweetspeak Poetry. Her poems have appeared at Every Day Poems. Her wit has appeared just about everywhere she's ever showed up, and if you're lucky you were there to hear it.
Heather Eure
Latest posts by Heather Eure (see all)
  • Poetry Prompt: Misunderstood Lion - March 19, 2018
  • Animate: Lions & Lambs Poetry Prompt - March 12, 2018
  • Poetry Prompt: Behind the Velvet Rope - February 26, 2018

Filed Under: Blog, Games, poetry prompt, poetry teaching resources, Themed Writing Projects, writer's group resources, writing prompts

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Comments

  1. Bethany says

    October 27, 2015 at 1:02 am

    I enjoyed reading this, Richard. Love how with just a few words, I could see and feel: “The sun a fickle friend, clouds of winter gathering.”

    And what a line: “Give and take is its own reward”

    Thank you for sharing this.

    Reply
    • Rick Maxson says

      October 27, 2015 at 11:40 am

      Thank you, Bethany.

      Reply
      • Andrew H says

        October 27, 2015 at 5:33 pm

        Out of curiosity, was it inspired by this?
        https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/fish-2
        I came across it a while back and loved it.

        Reply
        • Rick Maxson says

          October 27, 2015 at 6:10 pm

          I love that poem, but no, my poem was more inspired by events like this:

          Reply
  2. Andrew H says

    October 27, 2015 at 5:48 pm

    British Bulldogs

    British Bulldogs, the rough and tumble sport.
    The teachers forbade it, said it
    Was dangerous to the likes of us.
    Here is how to play it, so that you
    May better ignore them.

    First find a circle, any round
    Or even square shaped playing ground.
    One in the middle, to divide
    Between the two opposing sides.

    Beware the growling foe! Pass him by,
    And if you’re lucky you will survive
    To pass through to the other side,
    Where in the shadows, you – can hide.

    But if he catches you! Do not go quiet!
    Let your brethren know you did not
    Go easy to meet the foe.

    For you’re like him now, and if you had
    Honour, you’d bid your former friends beware
    That you are coming.

    Note: This is a game probably local to me. Or at least the name is. One person would stand between two lines of children. After a count, the two sides would run towards the opposite end, and the “bulldog” would try to catch you. If he did, then you had to stay with him and help.

    Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      October 27, 2015 at 9:59 pm

      “But if he catches you! Do not go quiet!” Great line, a fun didactic poem, and sounds like a fun game. What’s with those teachers? Don’t they know how boys play games? 😉

      Reply
    • Rick Maxson says

      October 29, 2015 at 7:08 pm

      Andrew, sounds like a cool game. We used to call that game (or something very similar) Red Rover. Good poem about nonetheless.

      Reply
  3. Rick Maxson says

    October 27, 2015 at 7:09 pm

    Thanks for featuring my poem.

    Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      October 27, 2015 at 10:01 pm

      You betcha, Rick. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Glynn says

    October 29, 2015 at 7:07 am

    It’s been at least half a century since I played this.

    Red Rover, Red Rover

    Send someone right over but
    first
    two captains alternate choices
    of their teams membership,
    not unlike the NFL draft except
    no media attention
    second
    each time lines up facing each
    other at a suitable distance,
    not unlike a football kickoff except
    no sportscasters’ gratuitous comments
    third
    the teams join hands
    definitely unlike a football game
    imagine sportscasters’ reactions in the booth
    fourth
    one team calls out red rover red rover
    send (insert name here) right over
    fifth
    (insert name here) makes a mad dash
    to the opposing team with fixed purpose:
    break through the joined hands

    breakthrough, successful: (insert name here) takes
    an opposing team member back to his/her team

    breakthrough, failed: (insert name here)
    is absorbed into the opposing team

    sixth
    the other team gets it turn,
    not unlike what happens after a touchdown
    or safety in football
    seventh
    repeat as often as necessary
    until no one is left on one side
    while the other side celebrates
    its scorched earth victory, not
    unlike American politics,
    another playground game,
    just more expensive.

    Reply
  5. Monica Sharman says

    October 29, 2015 at 10:18 am

    Tetherball

    In this case, tension is a good thing.
    Keep the rope taut. Don’t let it unwind.
    Imagine the rope as the radius of a circle
    and you’re hitting the ball on the tangent
    The closer you get to winning, the shorter
    is the rope, the smaller the circle,
    the faster the spin. Strike the ball hard;
    the pole it’s tethered to won’t move.
    Don’t miss a hit at every go-around.
    Like you, your opponent is not done
    growing. Take advantage of this
    and strike at an angle that maximizes
    the ball’s height right where she stands.

    Unless she’s better than you. In that case,
    move on your half of the circle
    to where the ball’s at minimum height.
    Slow the momentum. Reverse
    to counterclockwise. Wipe that look
    of defeat off your face.

    Reply
  6. nancy marie davis says

    October 29, 2015 at 8:42 pm

    the games they play
    on this land of black tar
    heated by the sun
    one must run
    and run
    and run
    or be tagged
    to be it
    and being it
    is not all it’s cracked-up
    to be

    Reply

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