ABSTRACT
Poetic features are the building blocks of poetic structure. Indeed, the patterning of sound, tone and rhythm, repetitions, variations, constants and contrasts are all essentially conceptions of structure itself, and according to Hymes, the overall structure of a poem helps convey meaning. This chapter explores how poetic structure work to honor the subjects and moods of children's poems. These structures include: retrospective-prospective, emblem, ironic, riddle and ping pong. The chapter defines each structure, noting how it moves and functions in the poems. Some poetic structures have a direct relationship to the functions of children's poetry. That is, in each of the retrospective-prospective poems, the poems had a personal function in that children expressed deeply thought, personal feelings. Children sometimes drew on interdiscursive practices to write poetry that had an obvious structure. For example, Angelique wrote a retrospective-prospective poem similar to a pantoum in a classroom poetry book.
