AN INTRODUCTION

Poetry

WHAT DO YOU THINK POETRY IS?

DISCUSS

What is poetry?

A term applied to the many forms in which human beings have given rhythmic

expression to their most intense perceptions of the world, themselves, and

the relationship of the two.

Poets on Poetry

Robert Frost: “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words”.

Plutarch: “Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks”.

Thomas Gray: “Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn”.

Emily Dickinson: “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry”.

The Poet

The Poet – The author of the poem.

The Poetic Process

“…imagination bodies forthThe forms of things unknown, the poet’s penTurns them to shapes and gives to airy nothingA local habitation and a name.Such tricks hath strong imagination,That if it would but apprehend some joy,It comprehends some bringer of that joy”.

- William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Poet Speaker

The poet is the author of the poem.

The speaker of the poem is the “narrator” of the poem.

Point of View

Technical Aspects of Poetry

FORM - The appearance of the words on the page

LINE - Groups of words on one line of the poem

STANZA - A group of lines arranged together

Kinds of Stanzas

Couplet = a two line stanza

Triplet = a three line stanza

Quatrain = a four line stanza

Quintet = a five line stanza

Sestet = a six line stanza

Septet = a seven line stanza

Octave = an eight line stanza

Rhythm

Definition: The beat created by the sounds of the words in a poem

Rhythm can be created by meter, rhyme, alliteration and refrain.

The use of rhythm in poetry arises from the need that some words are to be produced more strongly than others.

Moreover, rhythm captivates the audience and readers alike by giving musical effect to a speech or a literary piece.

Meter

Definition: A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

• Meter occurs when the stressed and unstressed syllables of the words in a poem are arranged in a repeating pattern.

• When poets write in meter, they count out the number of stressed (strong) syllables and unstressed (weak) syllables for each line. They repeat the pattern throughout the poem.

Meter Cont.

FOOT: Unit of meter. A foot can have two or three syllables.Usually consists of one stressed and one or more

unstressed syllables.

TYPES OF FEET: The types of feet are determined by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Iambic - unstressed, stressed Trochaic - stressed, unstressed

Anapestic - unstressed, unstressed, stressed Dactylic - stressed, unstressed, unstressed

Meter Cont.

Kinds of Metrical Linesmonometer = one foot on a line

dimeter = two feet on a linetrimeter = three feet on a line

tetrameter = four feet on a linepentameter = five feet on a linehexameter = six feet on a line

heptameter = seven feet on a lineoctometer = eight feet on a line

Rhyme

Definition: Words sound alike because they share the same ending vowel and consonant sounds.

Example

LAMP& STAMP

Share the short “a” vowel sound

Share the combined “mp” consonant sound

Rhyme Scheme

Definition: A rhyme scheme is a pattern of rhyme (usually ending with a rhyme, but not always). The Germ – Ogden Nash

A mighty creature is the germ, Though smaller than the pachyderm.

His customary dwelling place Is deep within the human race.

His childish pride he often pleases By giving people strange diseases. Do you, my poppet, feel infirm? You probably contain a germ.

End Rhyme

Definition: A word at the end of one line rhymes with a word at the end of another line.

Do you like green eggs and ham?

I do not like them, Sam-I-am.I do not like green eggs and ham!

Would you like them here or there?

I would not like them here or there.I would not like them anywhere.

Dr. Seuss

Internal Rhyme

Definition: A word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line.

Near Rhyme

Definition: The words share either the same vowel or consonant sound, but not both. Also known as imperfect rhyme, close rhyme.

Not any higher stands the grave For heroes than for men;Not any nearer for the child Than numb three-score and ten. (Perfect Rhyme)

This latest leisure equal lulls The beggar and his queen;Propitiate this democrat By summer's gracious mien. (Near Rhyme)

Refrain

Definition: A sound, word, phrase or line

repeated regularly in a poem.

Example:

Quoth the Raven‘Nevermore’

From: Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven

Shakespearean Sonnet

Definition:

A fourteen line poem with a specific rhyme scheme.

The poem is written in three quatrains and ends with a couplet.

The rhyme scheme isabab cdcd efef gg