autobiography poem definition

Autobiography

Ahh-toe-by-ahh-grow-fee

An autobiography is an account of one’s life written by the subject.

E.g. In her compelling autobiography , the author delved into the intimate details of her life, recounting personal experiences, triumphs, and challenges in a candid narrative.

Related terms: Narration , novel , coming-of-age novel , first person point of view

The author spends the pages of an autobiographical novel or short novella writing about their personal life. It might focus on one especially interesting period or start with the author’s birth and end with wherever they are in life at the moment they finished the book.  

Explore Autobiography

• 1 Definition and Explanation of Autobiography 
• 2 Types of Autobiographies 
• 3 Examples of Autobiographies 
• 4 Why Do Writers Write Autobiographies? 
• 5 Importance of Autobiographies
• 6 Autobiography Synonyms 
• 7 Related Literary Devices 
• 8 Other Resources 

Definition and Explanation of Autobiography  

An autobiography is different from a biography in that the story is written by and about the author. In a biography, someone else writes the story of another person’s life. Both forms of writing are incredibly important and common, but an autobiography, in theory, should provide a more intimate look into a person’s life. Biographies require research where autobiographies don’t, meaning that the biographer might not find out everything they need to know, or should know, about someone. On the other side, sometimes biographies can be more truthful than autobiographies as biographers are, in most cases, working only with the facts. It’s easier to change details in order to make one’s own life seem more attractive when writing an autobiography.  

Types of Autobiographies  

• Full Autobiography: a traditional biography that spans the whole lifetime of the person writing it. It starts at birth, goes through childhood, adulthood, and into whatever age the person is at while they’re writing. Someone would choose to write this kind of book because they feel their whole life is of interest to readers, rather than just a particular period.  
• Memoir: an account of a specific period in the author’s life. There are many different types of memoirs, but at their most basic level, they focus on a part of the author’s life they think is worth sharing.  
• Spiritual: based in spiritual experiences and revelations. People who write spiritual autobiographies often feel as though they have to share what they experienced so that others might come to the same conclusions they did.  
• Overcoming adversity: similar to the other types of autobiographies, these stories are based around a terrible experience, one that required the writer to learn something about the world and about themselves. By sharing it, they’re teaching others what they learned.  

Examples of Autobiographies  

Night by elie wiesel.

Wiesel’s personal account of the Holocaust is one of the most commonly read autobiographies today. Although there are some elements that Wiesel added to create some space between himself and Eliezer, Elie’s story is Eliezer’s story. It follows him as a teenager, losing his family members, working in Auschwitz, and seeing the horrors of the Holocaust first hand. Here is a short excerpt from the novel that demonstrate’s Wiesel’s understanding of his experiences:

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke.

This novel is also a great example of why someone would want to write an autobiography—in order to share their experiences and ensure that they aren’t forgotten. This was Wiesel’s overriding goal in writing Night.  

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela  

Long Walk to Freedom was published in 1994 and describes Mandela’s early life, his education and the twenty-seven years he spent in prison. He was considered a terrorist under the apartheid government and spent almost thirty years of his life on Robben Island for his participation in the African National Congress. Here are a few famous lines from the autobiography:  

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass  

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was written around 1845 and is one of the best-known stories of slavery written during this period. The text describes his life in such moving detail that the book became an important informative guide for abolitionists. He speaks about the death of his mother, seeing family members whipped, learning the alphabet from Sophia Auld, and his personal suffering at the hands of Mr. Covey. Here are a few lines from the beginning of the novel that emphasize Douglass’s alienation from his mother.  

Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of [my mother’s] death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger.

Why Do Writers Write Autobiographies?  

Autobiographies are one of the most basic and commonly written forms of prose . It is entirely natural for any human being, not just professional writers to want to share their personal story. This might be for the sole purpose of connecting with an audience or for the possibility of having another person find one’s life worth reading about.  

Importance of Autobiographies

Autobiographies are a wonderful historical resource. They’re first-hand accounts of someone’s life, the thoughts they had, the ideas they pursued, and all the struggles they endured. Depending on whose story it is, the book might have a broader importance to a community, culture, or country. These stories are also important for another reason, they allow writers (and those who wouldn’t consider themselves writers) to share and build connections with readers. When reading an autobiography of someone that one feels is an important figure, and finding similarities between their life and one’s own can be an important revelation. One might learn what led this person to success or to overcome adversity and then be able to implement the same things into their life.  

Autobiography Synonyms  

• Personal history
• Personal account

Related Literary Devices  

• Biography: an account or description of a person’s life, literary, fictional, historical, or popular in nature, written by a biographer.
• Anecdote : short stories used in everyday conversation in order to inspire, amuse, caution and more.
• Flashback: a plot device in a book, film, story, or poem in which the readers learns about the past.
• Audience: the group for which an artist or writer makes a piece of art or writes.

Other Resources  

• Read: Night by Elie Wiesel
• Listen: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Audiobook
• Watch: How to Write an Autobiography  

Home » Genre » Autobiography

The Definitive Literary Glossary Crafted by Experts

All terms defined are created by a team of talented literary experts, to provide an in-depth look into literary terms and poetry, like no other.

Cite This Page

Baldwin, Emma. "Autobiography". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/genre/autobiography/ . Accessed 30 August 2024.

Help Center

Request an Analysis

(not a member? Join now)

Poem PDF Guides

PDF Learning Library

Beyond the Verse Podcast

Poetry Archives

Poetry Explained

Poet Biographies

Useful Links

Poem Explorer

Poem Generator

[email protected]

Poem Solutions Limited, International House, 36-38 Cornhill, London, EC3V 3NG, United Kingdom

(and discover the hidden secrets to understanding poetry)

Get PDFs to Help You Learn Poetry

250+ Reviews

Autobiography

Definition of autobiography, difference between autobiography and memoir, six types of autobiography, importance of autobiography, examples of autobiography in literature, example #1:  the box: tales from the darkroom by gunter grass, example #2:  the story of my life by helen keller, example #3:  self portraits: fictions by frederic tuten, example #4:  my prizes by thomas bernhard, example #5:  the autobiography of benjamin franklin by benjamin franklin, synonyms of autobiography, related posts:, post navigation.

• History & Society
• Science & Tech
• Biographies
• Animals & Nature
• Geography & Travel
• Arts & Culture
• Games & Quizzes
• On This Day
• One Good Fact
• New Articles
• Lifestyles & Social Issues
• Philosophy & Religion
• Politics, Law & Government
• World History
• Health & Medicine
• Browse Biographies
• Birds, Reptiles & Other Vertebrates
• Bugs, Mollusks & Other Invertebrates
• Environment
• Fossils & Geologic Time
• Entertainment & Pop Culture
• Sports & Recreation
• Visual Arts
• Demystified
• Image Galleries
• Infographics
• Top Questions
• Britannica Kids
• Saving Earth
• Space Next 50
• Student Center
• Introduction

The emergence of autobiography

Types of autobiography.

• What kind of relationship did Franz Kafka have with his father?
• What was Franz Kafka’s life like?
• What did Franz Kafka write?
• What was Winston Churchill’s family background?
• What did Winston Churchill do during World War II?

autobiography

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

• Literary Devices - Autobiography
• Academia - Autobiography
• The Canadian Encyclopedia - Autobiographical Writing in English
• autobiography - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• autobiography - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

autobiography , the biography of oneself narrated by oneself. Autobiographical works can take many forms, from the intimate writings made during life that were not necessarily intended for publication (including letters, diaries , journals , memoirs , and reminiscences) to a formal book-length autobiography.

Formal autobiographies offer a special kind of biographical truth: a life, reshaped by recollection, with all of recollection’s conscious and unconscious omissions and distortions. The novelist Graham Greene said that, for this reason, an autobiography is only “a sort of life” and used the phrase as the title for his own autobiography (1971).

There are but few and scattered examples of autobiographical literature in antiquity and the Middle Ages. In the 2nd century bce the Chinese classical historian Sima Qian included a brief account of himself in the Shiji (“Historical Records”). It may be stretching a point to include, from the 1st century bce , the letters of Cicero (or, in the early Christian era, the letters of Saint Paul ), and Julius Caesar ’s Commentaries tell little about Caesar, though they present a masterly picture of the conquest of Gaul and the operations of the Roman military machine at its most efficient. But Saint Augustine ’s Confessions , written about 400 ce , stands out as unique: though Augustine put Christianity at the centre of his narrative and considered his description of his own life to be merely incidental, he produced a powerful personal account, stretching from youth to adulthood, of his religious conversion.

Confessions has much in common with what came to be known as autobiography in its modern, Western sense, which can be considered to have emerged in Europe during the Renaissance , in the 15th century. One of the first examples was produced in England by Margery Kempe , a religious mystic of Norfolk. In her old age Kempe dictated an account of her bustling, far-faring life, which, however concerned with religious experience, reveals her personality. One of the first full-scale formal autobiographies was written a generation later by a celebrated humanist publicist of the age, Enea Silvio Piccolomini, after he was elevated to the papacy, in 1458, as Pius II . In the first book of his autobiography—misleadingly named Commentarii , in evident imitation of Caesar—Pius II traces his career up to becoming pope; the succeeding 11 books (and a fragment of a 12th, which breaks off a few months before his death in 1464) present a panorama of the age.

The autobiography of the Italian physician and astrologer Gironimo Cardano and the adventures of the goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini in Italy of the 16th century; the uninhibited autobiography of the English historian and diplomat Lord Herbert of Cherbury, in the early 17th; and Colley Cibber ’s Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, Comedian in the early 18th—these are representative examples of biographical literature from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment. The latter period itself produced three works that are especially notable for their very different reflections of the spirit of the times as well as of the personalities of their authors: the urbane autobiography of Edward Gibbon , the great historian; the plainspoken, vigorous success story of an American who possessed all talents, Benjamin Franklin ; and the introspection of a revolutionary Swiss-born political and social theorist, the Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau —the latter leading to two autobiographical explorations in poetry during the Romantic period in England, William Wordsworth ’s Prelude and Lord Byron ’s Childe Harold , cantos III and IV.

An autobiography may be placed into one of four very broad types: thematic, religious, intellectual , and fictionalized. The first grouping includes books with such diverse purposes as The Americanization of Edward Bok (1920) and Adolf Hitler ’s Mein Kampf (1925, 1927). Religious autobiography claims a number of great works, ranging from Augustine and Kempe to the autobiographical chapters of Thomas Carlyle ’s Sartor Resartus and John Henry Cardinal Newman ’s Apologia in the 19th century. That century and the early 20th saw the creation of several intellectual autobiographies, including the severely analytical Autobiography of the philosopher John Stuart Mill and The Education of Henry Adams . Finally, somewhat analogous to the novel as biography is the autobiography thinly disguised as, or transformed into, the novel. This group includes such works as Samuel Butler ’s The Way of All Flesh (1903), James Joyce ’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), George Santayana ’s The Last Puritan (1935), and the novels of Thomas Wolfe . Yet in all of these works can be detected elements of all four types; the most outstanding autobiographies often ride roughshod over these distinctions.

• Expressing Identity Through Bio Poems

Poetry is a powerful tool for self-expression and reflection. One captivating form of poetry that allows individuals to share their unique stories is the bio poem. A bio poem is a structured poem that provides a glimpse into a person's life, thoughts, and experiences. By capturing key aspects of their identity, bio poems become a canvas for personal expression. In this article, we will explore the beauty of bio poems by providing examples that showcase the diverse ways in which individuals can tell their stories.

Example 1: A Bio Poem Celebrating Strength

Example 2: a bio poem reflecting on life's journey, example 3: a bio poem celebrating creativity.

Miranda Courageous, determined, and resilient Lover of adventure, seeker of the unknown Who feels exhilaration in the face of challenge Who fears conformity and mediocrity Who would like to see a world united in compassion Resident of a heart filled with wanderlust Smith

In this example, Miranda presents herself as a person filled with strength and determination. She embraces her love for adventure and seeks to push her boundaries. Miranda's poem also reveals her desire for a more empathetic world, emphasizing her longing for unity and compassion.

Liam Dreamer, philosopher, eternal student Lover of books, melodies, and starry nights Who feels the weight of time's passing moments Who fears the regrets of an unlived life Who would like to see a world connected by empathy Resident of a mind always seeking knowledge Johnson

Liam's bio poem reflects his introspective nature and thirst for knowledge. The poem suggests that he cherishes the beauty of literature, music, and the cosmos. By highlighting his fear of an unlived life, Liam emphasizes the importance of seizing opportunities and making the most of each passing moment.

Amelia Imaginative, artistic, free-spirited soul Lover of colors, melodies, and blank canvases Who feels joy in each stroke of a paintbrush Who fears the silence of a creative block Who would like to see a world where art is valued Resident of a heart that beats to a creative rhythm Anderson

Amelia's bio poem celebrates her creative spirit and passion for artistic expression. The poem suggests that she finds immense joy and fulfillment in the act of painting. Her fear of a creative block highlights the vulnerability and sensitivity that often accompanies the artistic process.

Bio poems offer a beautiful and concise way to express one's identity, aspirations, and fears. Through carefully chosen words and structured lines, individuals can create poetic snapshots of their lives. Whether celebrating strengths, reflecting on life's journey, or honoring creativity, bio poems provide an opportunity for self-reflection and connection. So why not give it a try? Write your own bio poem and embrace the power of poetry to tell your unique story.

• Poems About Friendship Breakups: When Words Fail, Poems Speak
• Emily Dickinson: Capturing the Essence of Winter in Poetic Splendor

Entradas Relacionadas

The Mesmerizing Allure of Her Lips: Poems Capturing their Enchanting Essence

Poems that Celebrate Souls Connecting: A Profound Journey of Intimacy and Understanding

The Soul-Enchanting Poems of Rumi

Poems about Being Real: Embracing Authenticity through Poetry

Poems that Capture the Strength and Resilience of Army Wives

Hawaiian Poems about Love: Celebrating Romance in Paradise

Poems & Poets

Autobiography

I am leading a quiet life    in Mike’s Place every day    watching the champs of the Dante Billiard Parlor    and the French pinball addicts.    I am leading a quiet life    on lower East Broadway.    I am an American. I was an American boy. I read the American Boy Magazine    and became a boy scout    in the suburbs. I thought I was Tom Sawyer    catching crayfish in the Bronx River and imagining the Mississippi.    I had a baseball mit and an American Flyer bike. I delivered the Woman’s Home Companion    at five in the afternoon or the Herald Trib at five in the morning. I still can hear the paper thump    on lost porches. I had an unhappy childhood.    I saw Lindbergh land. I looked homeward and saw no angel. I got caught stealing pencils from the Five and Ten Cent Store    the same month I made Eagle Scout. I chopped trees for the CCC    and sat on them. I landed in Normandy in a rowboat that turned over. I have seen the educated armies on the beach at Dover. I have seen Egyptian pilots in purple clouds    shopkeepers rolling up their blinds    at midday potato salad and dandelions at anarchist picnics. I am reading ‘Lorna Doone’ and a life of John Most terror of the industrialist a bomb on his desk at all times. I have seen the garbagemen parade    in the Columbus Day Parade behind the glib farting trumpeters. I have not been out to the Cloisters    in a long time nor to the Tuileries but I still keep thinking of going. I have seen the garbagemen parade    when it was snowing. I have eaten hotdogs in ballparks. I have heard the Gettysburg Address    and the Ginsberg Address. I like it here and I won’t go back where I came from. I too have ridden boxcars boxcars boxcars.    I have travelled among unknown men.    I have been in Asia with Noah in the Ark. I was in India when Rome was built. I have been in the Manger with an Ass. I have seen the Eternal Distributor    from a White Hill in South San Francisco and the Laughing Woman at Loona Park    outside the Fun House in a great rainstorm still laughing. I have heard the sound of revelry    by night. I have wandered lonely as a crowd. I am leading a quiet life outside of Mike’s Place every day    watching the world walk by in its curious shoes. I once started out to walk around the world but ended up in Brooklyn. That Bridge was too much for me.    I have engaged in silence exile and cunning. I flew too near the sun and my wax wings fell off. I am looking for my Old Man    whom I never knew. I am looking for the Lost Leader    with whom I flew. Young men should be explorers.    Home is where one starts from.    But Mother never told me there’d be scenes like this. Womb-weary I rest I have travelled. I have seen goof city. I have seen the mass mess. I have heard Kid Ory cry. I have heard a trombone preach.    I have heard Debussy strained thru a sheet. I have slept in a hundred islands where books were trees.    I have heard the birds    that sound like bells. I have worn grey flannel trousers and walked upon the beach of hell. I have dwelt in a hundred cities where trees were books. What subways what taxis what cafes! What women with blind breasts limbs lost among skyscrapers! I have seen the statues of heroes at carrefours. Danton weeping at a metro entrance Columbus in Barcelona pointing Westward up the Ramblas toward the American Express    Lincoln in his stony chair    And a great Stone Face    in North Dakota. I know that Columbus    did not invent America. I have heard a hundred housebroken Ezra Pounds.    They should all be freed.    It is long since I was a herdsman. I am leading a quiet life    in Mike’s Place every day    reading the Classified columns. I have read the Reader’s Digest from cover to cover and noted the close identification of the United States and the Promised Land where every coin is marked    In God We Trust but the dollar bills do not have it being gods unto themselves.    I read the Want Ads daily    looking for a stone a leaf    an unfound door. I hear America singing in the Yellow Pages. One could never tell the soul has its rages. I read the papers every day    and hear humanity amiss in the sad plethora of print. I see where Walden Pond has been drained    to make an amusement park.    I see they’re making Melville    eat his whale. I see another war is coming    but I won’t be there to fight it.    I have read the writing on the outhouse wall. I helped Kilroy write it. I marched up Fifth Avenue blowing on a bugle in a tight platoon    but hurried back to the Casbah    looking for my dog. I see a similarity between dogs and me. Dogs are the true observers    walking up and down the world    thru the Molloy country. I have walked down alleys    too narrow for Chryslers. I have seen a hundred horseless milkwagons    in a vacant lot in Astoria. Ben Shahn never painted them    but they’re there askew in Astoria. I have heard the junkman’s obbligato.    I have ridden superhighways    and believed the billboard’s promises    Crossed the Jersey Flats and seen the Cities of the Plain And wallowed in the wilds of Westchester with its roving bands of natives in stationwagons. I have seen them. I am the man.    I was there.    I suffered somewhat. I am an American. I have a passport. I did not suffer in public. And I’m too young to die. I am a selfmade man. And I have plans for the future. I am in line    for a top job. I may be moving on to Detroit. I am only temporarily a tie salesman. I am a good Joe. I am an open book to my boss. I am a complete mystery to my closest friends. I am leading a quiet life in Mike’s Place every day    contemplating my navel. I am a part of the body’s long madness. I have wandered in various nightwoods.    I have leaned in drunken doorways. I have written wild stories without punctuation. I am the man. I was there.    I suffered    somewhat. I have sat in an uneasy chair. I am a tear of the sun.    I am a hill where poets run. I invented the alphabet after watching the flight of cranes    who made letters with their legs. I am a lake upon a plain.    I am a word in a tree. I am a hill of poetry.    I am a raid on the inarticulate. I have dreamt that all my teeth fell out    but my tongue lived    to tell the tale. For I am a still of poetry. I am a bank of song.    I am a playerpiano in an abandoned casino    on a seaside esplanade    in a dense fog still playing. I see a similarity between the Laughing Woman and myself. I have heard the sound of summer    in the rain. I have seen girls on boardwalks    have complicated sensations.    I understand their hesitations. I am a gatherer of fruit.    I have seen how kisses    cause euphoria. I have risked enchantment.    I have seen the Virgin    in an appletree at Chartres And Saint Joan burn at the Bella Union. I have seen giraffes in junglejims their necks like love wound around the iron circumstances    of the world. I have seen the Venus Aphrodite    armless in her drafty corridor.    I have heard a siren sing    at One Fifth Avenue. I have seen the White Goddess dancing    in the Rue des Beaux Arts    on the Fourteenth of July    and the Beautiful Dame Without Mercy    picking her nose in Chumley’s.    She did not speak English.    She had yellow hair and a hoarse voice I am leading a quiet life    in Mike’s Place every day    watching the pocket pool players    making the minestrone scene    wolfing the macaronis    and I have read somewhere    the Meaning of Existence    yet have forgotten just exactly where. But I am the man And I’ll be there. And I may cause the lips    of those who are asleep    to speak. And I may make my notebooks    into sheaves of grass.    And I may write my own    eponymous epitaph instructing the horsemen    to pass. Copyright Credit: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Autobiography” from A Coney Island of the Mind . Copyright © 1958 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation, www.wwnorton.com/nd/welcome.htm. Source: These Are My Rivers: New and Selected Poems (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1993)

Poetry Center

Autobiographical and Archeological: A Poetry Lesson

Sequence of activities:, welcome and introduction (10-15 minutes):.

The teaching artist can use this time to introduce themselves, what inspires them to write poetry, and perhaps even share some writing of their own. Students can also introduce themselves. In addition to sharing their names, students can answer/share their response to the following (or another fun question the teaching artist invents):

Imagine yourself as an animal, object, or color. What do you have in common with that animal, object, or color?

Following introductions, facilitate a relaxed, informal, low stakes discussion on the following question, reminding students there is no such thing as a “right/wrong” answer. We’re sharing our opinions, in so far as we are comfortable to do so. These questions set students up to think about their own personal histories:

What are the ingredients of you? How would you describe your character or personality?

What personal stories influence who you are? These could be family stories, family history, stories from your childhood, etc.

Literary Model and Discussion (10 minutes):

The teaching artist can share the following before inviting a student to read the below poem aloud:

Poetry (and any writing) can be autobiographical, meaning it tells your story. Your unique and specific background and journey, whether talking about your childhood, adulthood, or even your ancestry and family history as major ingredients of yourself.

“A Modified Villanelle for My Childhood” by Suzi F. Garcia does just that. As we read the poem, pay special attention to the way she strings words together. Words that sound alike or rhyme (or almost rhyme, which is a slant rhyme). As the poem is read out loud, try finding and listening to the rhythm. Is it a rhythm you can snap your fingers, clap your hands, or tap your foot to?

Read the poem here.

Questions for Discussion:

What is a myth? How can a poem about yourself be mythical? Think of one myth about yourself (write it down or share it out loud).

What do archaeologists do? How can a poem be archeological? Is a poet an archeologist?

Individual Writing  (10-15 minutes):

In a quiet, focused atmosphere, perhaps with each student finding their own special place to write (a corner, the school garden, or simply at their desk with some folders up for privacy), invite students to dive into their own writing. Below is the full prompt:

Write an autobiographical poem that is both archeological and mythical. Write a poem about you . Fill it with lots of detailed images or description about your personality, family history, childhood, dreams and hopes and wishes, and more. Who were you? Who are you? Who do you want to become?

Mythical can also mean magical. Magical can mean telling a truth about yourself through metaphors, exaggerations, symbolism, or wild imagination. You can be bold here. You want wings? Give yourself wings. You want to be a fire-breathing dragon? Be a fire-breathing dragon. Stay playful, trust your imagination. Your imagination knows you deeply.

Sharing (15-20 minutes):

Never force sharing, that’s my personal philosophy. Writing and art can be intensely personal and if the atmosphere is right, students will decide if it’s timely to share. So this section is simply to create an inviting space for those who do feel ready to share. You can invite students to read their own poems, have a friend read it for them, or even have the teacher read it for them.

Illustration and Extension Activities:

If the teaching artist wished to extend the lesson over multiple days, they could use the below prompts:

• Write an autobiographical poem that takes one word and rhymes it throughout the poem in a song-like way. Garcia uses words that end in “-ical” like magical, radical, biblical, comical. Another example would be words that end in “-azing”, such amazing, star-gazing, razing. End most of your lines with these rhyming words and sprinkle them in other places throughout the poem too.   
• Draw a self-portrait out of words. Instead of lines, use written words that describe who you are, who you want to be, who you were, who you could be, etc. Some words can be big, some small. Use regular handwriting, cursive, bubble letters, and more. The only rule is: you can’t draw lines. Words, words, and more words. Draw an outline with pencil and use pen to make the words follow the outline. When the portrait is done, erase the pencil outline so only the pen words remain.
• A challenge: Explore the villanelle aspect of Garcia’s poem! Learn more about villanelles here. Which lines or words are repeating in Garcia’s poem? Use several highlighters to color code repeating lines/words. Then write your own villanelle. You can use your poem from the initial autobiographical writing exercise in this lesson plan and modify it to fit the villanelle form.

Contributor: 

Objectives: , education level: , genre: , format: , time frame: , prior knowledge/skills: , required materials: , literary model: , lesson plan: .

• Teaching Resources
• Upcoming Events
• On-demand Events

Bio-Poem Examples

• English & Language Arts
• Culture & Identity
• facebook sharing
• email sharing

Get the Bio-Poem Examples Handout

Bio-poem examples pdf, bio-poem examples google doc.

Share these bio-poem examples with students to use as a guide when they write their own bio-poems . Jackson Friendly, silly, athletic, tall Son of John and Brenda Who loves chocolate chip ice cream, the Grizzlies, and Saturdays Who feels happy, tired, and lucky And who is scared of tests, thunderstorms, and failure Who learned how to shoot a three-point shot and won a basketball trophy Who hopes to see an NBA game and make his parents proud Lives in Memphis, Tennessee Tillman Emily Loud, short, gymnast, smiley, responsible Friend of Lila, Carly, and Grace Loves to do cartwheels, eat raw cookie dough, and write poetry Who feels excited on weekends and embarrassed at school Who learned how to do a handstand when she was three years old Who hopes that everyone could get along Resident of Tennessee Garner Martin Proud, courageous, eloquent, wise Leader to millions Who loved nonviolence, god, and humanity Who felt outraged by hate and prejudice And who was inspired by acts of kindness Who gained greater dignity for his people And hoped everyone could leave in peace He lives in our hearts Luther King, Jr.

How to Cite This Handout

Facing History & Ourselves, “ Bio-Poem Examples ”, last updated February 17, 2023.

You might also be interested in…

Identity and storytelling, three good things, slow down with the slowdown, take a stand, appreciation, apology, aha, closing challenge, looking back, looking ahead, our names and our place in the world, making meaning of community, community is… community isn’t, emoji emotions, picture this, inspiration, insights, & ways to get involved.

Autobiographical Poetry

• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 12 June 2021
• Cite this living reference work entry

• Mihye Bang 2  

42 Accesses

Victorian women poets wrote in diverse autobiographical modes. Victorian women’s autobiographical poetry was not confined to the “autobiography in verse” as defined by the male canon with explicitly autobiographical intentions, and an extended definition of it is necessary to illuminate their self-writing in verse. While prejudices about women self-exposure to public prevailed during the nineteenth century, women poets were not able to recount their private lives freely. Instead, they showed differing uses of self-reflexivity in their poems, including recollection of the poet’s past, appropriation of the poet’s biographical womanhood to create a lyric persona, and fictionalized self-reflection as the artist. Bourgeois women poets generally preferred to imply their biographical facts in their lyric poetry or mediate them through dramatization or fictionalization. Working-class women poets, in contrast, often explicitly revealed their nonnormative life experiences in an effort...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Anderson, Linda. 2001. Autobiography . London: Routledge.

Book   Google Scholar  

———. 2006. Autobiography and the feminist subject. In The Cambridge companion to feminist literary theory , ed. Ellen Rooney, 119–135. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Blain, Virginia. 1998. Caroline Bowles Southey 1786–1854: The making of a woman writer . Aldershot: Ashgate.

Google Scholar  

———, ed. 2001. Victorian women poets: A new annotated anthology . New York: Longman.

Boos, Florence. 2008. Working-class women poets in Victorian Britain: an anthology . Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press.

Brown, Susan. 2000. The Victorian poetess. In The Cambridge companion to Victorian poetry , ed. Joseph Bristow, 180–202. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Easley, Alexis. 2019. Publishing and reception. In The Cambridge companion to Victorian women’s poetry , ed. Linda K. Hughes, 97–113. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Friedman, Susan Stanford. 1988. Women’s autobiographical selves: Theory and practice. In The private self: Theory and practice of women’s autobiographical writings , ed. Shari Benstock, 34–62. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

Lejeune, Philippe. 1989. The autobiographical pact. In On autobiography. Trans. Katherine Leary, 3–30. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Pascal, Roy. 1960. Design and truth in autobiography . New York: Routledge.

Peterson, Linda H. 1999. ‘For my better self’: Auto/biographies of the poetess, the Prelude of the poet laureate, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh . In Traditions of Victorian women’s autobiography: the poetics and politics of life writing , 109–145. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.

Rosen, Judith. 2001. Class and poetic communities: The works of Ellen Johnston, ‘The Factory Girl.’. Victorian Poetry 39: 207–228.

Article   Google Scholar  

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mihye Bang .

Section Editor information

St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Emily Morris

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Cite this entry.

Bang, M. (2021). Autobiographical Poetry. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_340-1

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_340-1

Received : 13 April 2021

Accepted : 13 April 2021

Published : 12 June 2021

Publisher Name : Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-02721-6

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-02721-6

eBook Packages : Springer Reference Literature, Cultural and Media Studies Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences Reference Module Humanities

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

• National Poetry Month
• Materials for Teachers
• Literary Seminars
• American Poets Magazine

Main navigation

• Academy of American Poets

User account menu

Find and share the perfect poems.

Page submenu block

• literary seminars
• materials for teachers
• poetry near you

Autobiography

Add to anthology.

From A Coney Island of the Mind . Copyright © 1958 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

More by this poet

"the world is a beautiful place", a coney island of the mind, 28, a coney island of the mind, 20, newsletter sign up.

• Academy of American Poets Newsletter
• Academy of American Poets Educator Newsletter
• Teach This Poem

An Autobiographical Poem

• Students will learn to write an Autobiography Poem, which is a formula poem.
• Students will create a bulletin board display, especially fitting for an Open House.
• Sample of an Autobiography Poem read to students
• Sheets with the form of the poem on it for each student, or the formula written on the blackboard
• Photograph of each student or a self portrait
• Read a sample Autobiography Poem to students: Jaime Happy, nice, friendly, kind Daughter of Sarah and Mike Lover of my parents, dog, and reading Who feels summer is too short, school's great and bedtime comes too early Who fears being bitten by a dog, being thrown off a horse, and getting an F on a test Who would like to see Hawaii, the pyramids, and Disneyland Resident of Burnside Way, Stockton, California, USA Smith

_______________________

(First Name of Student)

________, __________, __________, __________

(Four adjectives to describe yourself)

Son or daughter of ____________________

Lover of _____________, ___________, ______________

Who feels ___________, ___________, ______________

Who fears ___________, _____________, _______________

Who would like to see ______________, _______________, _____________

Resident of ____________________________________

(Street, town, state, country)

________________

(Last Name)

• Proofread students' poems and let them write a final draft, a good penmanship lesson.

Featured Middle School Resources

Related Resources

Notice: This domain is no longer being updated and will expire in March, 2025.

Type:   Structure, Other Requirement, Simple   Description:   This poetic form seems to have come from some teacher’s lesson plan for studying a book with lots of characters and relationships; however, that’s no reason not to co-opt and extend it to daily life. The bio-poem is written about one of the main characters of a book or your life with the contents of the eleven lines of the poem as described in the schematic. Somewhere in the poem, refer to a symbol from the book or your life that helps define the individual’s actions, emotions, personality, etc.   Impressions:   Apparently used as a teaching tool.   Schematic:   Line 1: The character’s first name Line 2: Four words that describe the character Line 3: Brother or sister of… Line 4: Lover of…(three ideas or people) Line 5: Who feels…(three ideas) Line 6: Who needs…(three ideas) Line 7: Who gives…(three ideas) Line 8: Who fears…(three ideas) Line 9: Who would like to see… Line 10: Resident of Line 11: His or her last name   Rhythm/Stanza Length:   11   Line/Poem Length:   11 Pasted with permission from http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/000/18.shtml My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his years of work on the wonderful Poetrybase resource.

Lee Child’s Protagonist (Bio Poem)

Jack is his first name. Fearless, Large, Retired Army MP Major, Powerful with no siblings lover of justice, independent women, and his freedom who feels political correctness is nonsense, one should get their retaliation in first, and should observe the details, who needs little sleep, little warning, and no commitments, He gives bad guys bad times, women ideas, and motels false names. He fears no one he has yet met, and no situation with options. He would like to see a different place tomorrow. He has no permanent address. Reacher is what he’s called.

© Lawrencealot – October 10, 2014

Our Camelot: In Memory of Lawrencealot

• Search for: Search OK

Privacy Overview