Imagery and Synectics for Modeling Poetry Writing.

Synectics is the use of thinking in metaphors, or figurative language in general, to see the familiar in unfamiliar ways or the unfamiliar in familiar ways. W.J.J. Gordon and his Cambridge Synectics Group isolated ways to think metaphorically by using artistic problem-solving mechanisms most people possess in their experiential background. This paper shows how Gordon's synectics mechanisms can be incorporated in introductory poetry writing instruction for public school students. These mechanisms include personal analogy, direct analogy, symbolic analogy, and fantasy analogy. Suggestions include: (1) starting out by reading poetry aloud to students without analyzing it; (2) beginning the writing with a list poem--students jot down words as quickly as they are perceived without worrying about final composition; and (3) beginning through prose writing, which frees the student to follow the flow of their words. The student then rewrites the prose piece with the addition of metaphors, trying to imagine what they wrote in a different light using Gordon's mechanisms. The prose can be transformed into a poem by including metaphors, shortening the sentences into brief phrases, then rearranging the spacing for lines. (Contains 10 references.) (AEF)