the elements of poetry

Every aspect of a poem– including line, white space, and language – is purposeful and creates the overall effect of the poem.

Poets say more with less words.

The poet paints images with words for the reader.

These images help the reader to visualize the poem.

Figurative Language

Sensory Details

Tools for Imagery

Painting images with the five senses:

Those Winter Sundays

Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather made

banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he’d call,

and slowly I would rise and dress,

fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Let’s look at the sensory details in

beginning of “Those Winter

Sundays”

Painting images with comparisons.

You should be familiar with these comparisons as metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, and more.

Comparisons using like or as.

› The river is peaceful, like a sleeping newborn.

› The river is as peaceful as a sleeping newborn.

FogCarl Sandburg

 The fog comes on little cat

feet.   It sits looking over harbor and

city on silent haunches and then

moves on.

How are metaphors used

in the poem, “Fog”

Direct comparisons that do NOT use like

or as.

“It is the

East, and

Juliet is the

sun!”

“Oh, bright angel, speak

again!”

Romeo, “Romeo and Juliet”, William Shakespeare

Comparison made by giving human traits to non-human things.

the clock’s hands the table’s legs

The Vacuum

The house is quiet now

The vacuum cleaner sulks in the corner closet,

Its bag limp as a stopped lung, its mouth

Grinning into the floor, maybe at my

Slovenly life, my dog-dead youth.

I’ve lived this way long enough,

But when my old woman died her soul

Went into that vacuum cleaner, and I can’t bear

To see the bag swell like a belly, eating the dust

And the woolen mice, and begin to howl

How does Howard Nemerov

personify a vacuum in the

beginning of this poem?

Comparisons using exaggeration, usually with humor

Written words that are comparable to sounds

Wind SongBy Lilian Moore

When the wind blows the quiet things speak.Some whisper, some clang, some creak.

Grasses swish. Treetops sigh.Flags slap and snap at the sky.

Any type of writing must have something to hold it together and give it shape.

Form is the term used to describe the poem’s structure.

FormsTechniques

Tools for Structure

A stanza in poetry is like a paragraph in prose.

The author organizes the poem by grouping lines into 1 or more stanzas.

Stanzas are named by the number of lines they contain:› 2 lines = couplet 3 lines = tercet› 4 lines = quatrain 5 lines = cinquain› 6 lines = sestet 8 lines = octave

Rhythm is the beat of a poem.

It is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

› I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

Exact rhyme words have the exact same ending sounds, like cat and hat

Slant rhyme words sound similar, but aren’t exact, like one and down.

There was an old man from Peru, da DUM da da DUM da da DUM

who dreamed he was eating his shoe. da DUM da da DUM da da DUM

He awoke in the nightda da DUM da da DUM

with a terrible fright, da da DUM da da DUM

and found that it all was quite true. da DUM da da DUM da da DUM

Let’s look at the following limerick and see if we can

identify the rhythmic and

rhyming pattern

Practice…A

A

B

B

A

We Real Coolby Gwendolyn Brooks

THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.

We real cool. WeLeft school. We

Lurk late. WeStrike straight. We

Sing sin. WeThin gin. We

Jazz June. WeDie soon.

Repetition of initial consonant sounds in a poem is called alliteration.› Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

Repetition of other consonant sounds is called consonance.› All mammals named Sam are clammy

Repetition of vowel sounds is called assonance.› Hear the mellow wedding bells

FogCarl Sandburg

 The fog comes on little cat

feet.   It sits looking over harbor and

city on silent haunches and then

moves on.

How is repetition used in the poem,

“Fog”?

1. Read it once silently and again aloud. What do you think is happening in the poem? Jot down your first impressions.

2. Read again slowly. What elements of poetry can you find (sensory detail, figurative language, structure techniques and form)? Mark your text! What new ideas are your getting about the poem’s meaning?

3. Read it again with new awareness of the poet’s craft. What’s the big idea? What do you think he/she is trying to express about life? What questions do you have?

Analyze this poem

using the close reading

steps on the previous slide.

Fueledby a millionman-madewings of fire-the rocket tore a tunnelthrough the sky-and everybody cheered,Fueledonly by a thought from God-the seedlingurged its way through the thickness of black-and as it piercedthe ceiling of the soil-and launched itselfup into outer space-nooneevenclapped

FueledBy Marcie Hans