A Poem for the

   These are definitely the dog days of summer. In Florida where I live, the heat and humidity create a sense of somnolence and stillness. It’s too hot to move. When the inevitable afternoon storms break up these long days, I perk up for a moment, pause, and stand at the window, relishing the crash of lightning, the rumble of thunder, and the refreshing wash of rain on the lake behind our home. Summer is a special time, and to celebrate we wanted to share this special poem with you. Drawing on a bevy of stylistic techniques such as descriptive adjectives, onomatopoeia, five-senses words, alliteration, dual verbs, personification, simile, and metaphor, Amy Lowell beautifully describes a stormy, summery scene of a woman with her beloved in her brief poem, â€Å"Summer Rain.† We hope you enjoy reading it.    Summer Rain By Amy Lowell      Ã‚  Ã‚                  All night our room was outer-walled with rain.                         Drops fell and flattened on the tin roof,                         And rang like little disks of metal.                         Ping!—Ping!—and there was not a pin-point of silence between them.                         The rain rattled and clashed,                         And the slats of the shutters danced and glittered.                         But to me the darkness was red-gold and crocus-colored                         With your brightness,                         And the words you whispered to me                         Sprang up and flamed—orange torches against the rain.                         Torches against the wall of cool, silver rain!    Amy Lowell was born in 1874 and wrote several books, including What’s O’Clock, for which she was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926. She embraced and emulated a style of poetry called Imagism. Imagism is a form of free verse focused on creating vivid pictures with very precise language. Now that you’ve read a sample of this type of poem, perhaps you would like to try your hand at creating one of your own!    Jennifer Mauser  has always loved reading and writing and received a B.A. in English from the University of Kansas in 1991. Once she and her husband had children, they decided to homeschool, and she put all her training to use in the home. In addition to homeschooling her children, Jennifer teaches IEW classes out of her home, coaches budding writers via  email,  and tutors students who struggle with dyslexia.