Updated: July 22, 2025
In a Writing 201 course on poetry, assignment #6 had a word prompt of a Hero(ine) to be written in the form of a ballad using the device of anaphora/epistrophe.
Superman
Superman was extremely popular when I was growing up in the 1950’s. Here’s the introduction to the Adventures of Superman TV show which I watched all the time (58 sec).
This was the famous shield that he wore on his chest, along with the opening words to the TV show.
Faster than a speeding bullet!
More powerful than a locomotive!
Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound!
Look! Up in the sky!
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman!
Mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet is really the greatest superhero of them all who “fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way!”
Trying to fly
As a kid, I loved Superman on TV. He could do anything, which really impressed me. So I made a cape from a white towel and colored in a big red “S” on it to make it official. Then I tried to fly off the front steps of our house. But I just landed in the middle of the shrubs, and got yelled at by my mother. Oh well, so much for special powers!
Here is my poem:
Amazing, powerful, back then,
I loved the heroes, oh yes!
I was but just a kid back then,
I loved to watch, oh yes!
I made a cape and wondered why,
with dreams inside my head.
I made a jump, and tried to fly, but broke a bush instead.
Summary
This one was quite challenging. First, it was hard just composing a ballad, which usually has four lines with the second and fourth rhyming (“why” and “fly”, as well as “head” and “instead”).
But then you had to use anaphora with word repetition at front of lines (“I loved” and “I made”), as well as epistrophe for word repetition at ends of lines (“back then” and “oh yes!”) too.
It was necessary to use two stanzas so I could get all that incorporated into the poem. But I think it finally came together fairly well.
Photo credit: “Superman shield” by DC Comics, Inc. A subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery (c)2015., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
