Imitate to Create: Exploring Voice and Style

Charles Caleb Colton once said that "Imitation is the finest form of flattery." Yet, imitation is so much more than flattery in education. For human beings imitation is often how we learn. In writing, imitation can help a writer understand an author's voice, cadence, the texture of her words, and the structure of the her sentences or lines. Writing in another writer's style also helps a writer learn about his/her own style, and how it differs.

I love to try and imitate William Carlos Williams clean and precise voice. He never wastes a word, and creates amazingly bright and vivid imagery using literal images.  My own writing, in comparison, leans towards the figurative. I like to use metaphors and similes, and I am much, much more wordy. It is a difficult and fun challenge to try and write like William Carlos Williams. There are many poetry lessons that work with imitating William Carlos Williams. I originally found my inspiration for this lesson from Sheryl Noethe's poetry book, Poetry Everywhere, however there are lots of examples of these type of imitations on the Internet if you do a little searching. In my experience, his best poems for students to imitate are "The Red Wheelbarrow" and "This Is Just To Say". 

The Red Wheelbarrow                                           

By: William Carlos Williams                                                                                 

so much depends                                                      

upon                                                                         

                                                                                 

a red wheel                                                              

barrow

                                                                                

glazed with rain                                                        

water                                                                        

                                                                                 

beside the white

chickens                                                                   

                                                                                 

Students have fun making so much depend upon a green turtle, or a blue truck, or a brown football. It's also delightfully naughty to pen an apology note for taking a classmate's pencil, or a little brother or sister's toy.

Cupcakes (Imitation of The Red Wheelbarrow)

By: Joey and Emily, 6th grade

so much depends

upon

a hot pink

cupcake

peppered with purple

sprinkles

atop the white

frosting

I usually have students work in pairs, or groups of three when they are working on the imitations. It helps them notice the subtle style of Williams' line breaks, syllables, and even the way each stanza looks like a wheelbarrow on the page.

Last year, I found another poem for students to imitate, and the results were magical. We were reading Nikki Giovanni's poem "Knoxville, Tennessee". I loved the short lines, and the joy of the poem. It really makes students explore why they like an activity, or topic in depth. They can't just say they like snowboarding because its fun, they are forced to think why exactly its fun.

Knoxville, Tennessee

by: Nikki Giovanni

I always like summer

Best

you can eat fresh corn

From daddy's garden

And okra

And greens

And cabbage

And lots of

Barbeque

And buttermilk

And homemade ice-cream

At the church picnic

And listen to

Gospel music

Outside

At the church

Homecoming

And go to the mountains with

Your grandmother

And go barefooted

And be warm

All the time

Not only when you go to bed

And sleep

I Always Like Reading Best
(Imitation of Knoxville, Tennessee)
By: Michael, 3rd grade

I Always like reading
Best
you can sit down
and rest from
your long day
And get your head filled with words
And imagination
And calm down
And learn cool facts
And get your fingers working
And hear the words inside your head
And want to draw afterward
And get comfortable
And lie down
At your secret reading spot where
you have all sorts of books
And you can read all of them
And feel good
Not only can you be lazy but you
can have some rest time
and dream

Imitation is how children, athletes, artists, writers, and people in general build a skill set. Babies learn to smile by watching their parents, a budding cook observes a chef crack an egg and then attempts it himself. Writers read mentor texts, imitate, permeate, and eventually find a voice and style of their own. The next time you want to challenge yourself or your students to write outside their comfort zone, try to imitate a poetry great.

Template and Examples of Imitation Poems