This model can be used in conjunction with the Prose Poetry Brainstorming Activity, Prose Poetry Writing Activity, and the Prose Poetry Peer-Editing Activity.

After reading the model poem, The Wind, a brief discussion should ensue that focuses on the rhythm, rhyme, use of stanzas, literary elements and repetition as they are similar to Poe’s ‘The Raven’ This discussion could lead into the Prose Poetry Brainstorming Activity, the Prose Poetry Writing Activity , and the Prose Poetry Peer Editing Activity.

Read the model poem The Wind as a guide to what a student's final writing piece might look like. Notice that the rhythm, rhyme, use of stanzas, literary elements and repetition are similar to that of Poe's 'The Raven'.

The Wind
As the bright lamppost light dies down and the black sky looms overhead, we have come into the night.
The stars glow; glow as they show the way for wind to blow.
The birds stop chirping, the flowers stop dancing, and a deathly silence pervades the hot air.
The wind is lost.
Maybe it's looking for me.

Every night it bangs on my window, using the tree branch as its arm.
I turn out the light and close the shade hoping it will take elsewhere its plight.
So it begins to whistle through the cracks, sending a chill through my room.
'Oh, what do you want from me?!' I cry from my bed.
The arm stops knocking, the crack stops whistling, and a deathly silence pervades the hot air.
The wind is lost.
Is it not looking for me?

Wait. It is too quiet. I hear other things now that keep me awake.
A scratching on my ceiling, tiny footsteps patter through the wall - what is it in there dealing?
I pull the covers tighter around my body, closer to my head.
What is it in the silence of the wind that seems to call to the dead?
'Wind, where are you? I am sorry I did not answer,' I cry from my bed.
But the ceiling claws, the patter comes through the walls, and a deathly silence pervades the hot air.
The wind is lost.
Wind, are you not looking for me?

The creatures around me continue to go bump in the night, and my soul does not feel a good fight.
A scraping to my left, a tearing to my right, a hissing in the corner -- what is it that comes but not in my sight?
'Please, Wind, come back to me and sing me to sleep,' I cry from my bed.
But there is a scraping that tears though my room like a knife, and a deathly silence pervades the hot air.
The wind is lost.
Wind, why are you not looking for me?

I step carefully with my bare feet to the floor, but jump back for the cold of it is sore.
Bracing myself for an icy step, I walk to the window and once there quickly throw open its latch.
I spring backward from the gust of air, but wait; the wind is not there.
'Wind, why do you stay angry with me? I have opened the way to let you in,' I cry from my ledge.
But here is only iciness to the floor, an empty open window, and a deathly silence pervades the hot air.
The wind is lost.
The wind is not looking for me.

I crawl sadly back into my bed, awaiting the noises that dance around my head.
There, by the window, something looms, and I squint through the black to see if it is there.
It pounces into my room and slashes my eyes as I scream to it,
'Please, please don't...' I cry as I leap from my bed.
To the window I try, but the wind won't let me by.
There is a hungry howling of a gale, I take a breath, and slowly I feel my insides freezing as a deathly silence pervades my air.
To the wind I am lost.
The wind had been looking for me.

After reading this model poem, a brief discussion should ensue that focuses on the rhythm, rhyme, use of stanzas, literary elements and repetition as they are similar to Poe's 'The Raven' This discussion could lead into a Prose Poetry Brainstorming Activity.