elements of poetry ms. field english iv

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Elements of Elements of Poetry Poetry www.about.com Ms. Field English IV

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Elements of Elements of PoetryPoetry

Elements of Elements of PoetryPoetry

www.about.com

Ms. Field English IV

Title• With many the title functions

as the first line• Some don’t have titles, so the

first line functions as the title• They add depth to a poem, or

help illuminate the meaning

Imagery• All the detail of the senses that

make a poem come alive• Includes the five senses: hear,

smell, taste, touch, sight• Can be used simply or

metaphorically

Plot•The underlying idea that

connects ideas and images arranging them in an effective way.

•Some seek to tell a story, while some seek answers to questions

Plot types•Image Progression Plot

–Deals with the images of the poem

–Images arranged to make sense

–Examples•Moving slowly like approaching a scene: seen, then heard, then smelt, then tasted, then touched. (does not have to go in that order)

•Vague, abstract images to clear concrete ones

•Gentle imagery to harsh (soft, misty, warm to sharp, loud, burning)

•Variations Plot–Uses a series of variations of images or ideas.

–Each variation adds to the subject

•Dialectic Plot–Statement and counterstatement (debate)•Can begin with a question•Can be dialogue•Does not have to answer the question

•Answer to question is not obvious

•Unanswered Question Plot–Use of an unanswered question to create suspense

–Question is not always answered or is not obvious

•Contrast Plot–Might begin with something appearing to be too good to be true, than contrasting it with reality

•Narrative Plot–Poem that tells a story–Think Beowulf– Plots can be combined in one poem.

Diction•The language used in the

poem

Rhythm• Composed mainly of stress and

pauses• Influences how the words are read

Meter• Patterns of rhythm• Arrangement of words in

patterned, rhythmic lines. The foot is the basic unit of metrical measurement in poetry

• Foot: a series of stressed and unstressed syllables.

• Monometer: a line of poetry has one foot. Rare in English poetry.

• Dimeter: has two feet• Trimeter: has three feet• Tetrameter: has four feet• Pentameter: has five feet

(Shakespeare's sonnets)• Hexameter: six feet• Heptameter: seven feet• Octameter: eight feet

Repetition• Used to emphasize a particular

idea• Can be words, phrases, or whole

stanzas• Think about the chorus to a song• All other lines are often comments

or elaborations of the repetition

–Incremental Repetition•Repeating lines that are changed slightly each time adding to the meaning each time.

•Common in folk Ballads

–Repetition of Line Structure•Line is used to set up rhythm that is almost like chanting.–“As the raven flies, so speed me to my destiny

As the eagle sees, so show me where to go.”

anonymous

–Repetition of Sounds•Rhymes

–End rhyme: placed at the end of a line

–Internal rhyme: placed within the lines

•Alliteration

•Assonance–Repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words with different consonants

•Consonance–Repetition of consonant sounds in nearby words with different vowel sounds

Rhyme• A poem or verse having a

regular correspondence of sounds, especially at the ends of lines.

• Like the beat of music

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of MayAnd summer's lease hath all too short a date.Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd.But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest.So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

-Shakespeare

Form• Structural formula dictating

how it is to be written• Refers to the rules of meter,

rhythm, rhyme and line length.• Can be loose with no rules or

strict

Abstract forms

–Sonnets, rondeau, roundel, rondel, triolet, pantoum and ballade

–A particular structure and a definite length

Obsessive Forms•Villanelle (15 lines, 5 three

line stanzas), sestina, canzone•Structured formula and set

number of lines•Contain lines and words

repeated in specific patterns which produces the effect of obsession

Obsessive FormTheocritus

O singer of Persephone!In the dim meadows desolateDost thou remember Sicily?

Still through the ivy flits the beeWhere Amaryllis lies in state;

O Singer of Persephone! Simaetha calls on Hecate

And hears the wild dogs at the gate;Dost thou remember Sicily?

Still by the light and laughing seaPoor Polypheme bemoans his fate;

O Singer of Persephone! And still in boyish rivalry

Young Daphnis challenges his mate;Dost thou remember Sicily?

Slim Lacon keeps a goat for thee,For thee the jocund shepherds wait;

O Singer of Persephone! Dost thou remember Sicily? -Oscar Wilde

Genre Forms• Ballad, ode and ecoluge• Have a structure but no set line

length• Limited subject matter• Satire, epic, elegy and lyric are

genre forms without a specific form

Art• Unconscious aspect of writing