Poetry

What is it?

A type of literature that expresses ideas, feelings, or tells a story in a specific form (usually using lines and stanzas.)

Poetry Form

Form = the appearance of the words on the page.

Verse/Line = a group of words together on one line of the poem.

Stanza = a group of lines arranged together.

Kinds of Stanzas

Couplet = two line stanza

Triplet = three line stanza

Quatrain = four line stanza

Quintet = five line stanza

Sestet or Sextet = six line stanza

Septet = seven line stanza

Octave = eight line stanza

Sound Devices

Rhyme and Rhythm

Rhyme

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

A word always rhymes with itself.

EX. The feel

Of an eel.

Rhyme Scheme

A rhyme scheme is a pattern of rhyme (usually end rhyme, but not always).

Use the letters of the alphabet to represent sounds to be able to visually “see” the pattern.

EX. aabbcc

Sample Rhyme Scheme

The Germ by Ogden Nash A mighty creature is the germ, a

Though smaller than the pachyderm. a

His customary dwelling place b

Is deep within the human race. b

His childish pride he often pleases c

By giving people strange diseases. c

Do you, my poppet, feel infirm? a

You probably contain a germ. a

End Rhyme

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

EX. Hector the Collector

Collected bits of string.

Collected dolls with broken heads

And rusty bells that would not ring.

Internal Rhyme

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

EX. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I wondered weak and weary.

From “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

Rhythm

The beat created by the sounds of the words in a poem.

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

Meter

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.

Alliteration

Consonant sounds repeated at the beginnings of words.

EX. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

Assonance

Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line or lines of poetry.

(Often creates near rhyme.)

Lake Fate Base Fade

(All share long “a” sound)

Assonance

Examples of Assonance:

“Slow the low gradual moan came in the snowing.”

- John Masefield

“Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep.”

- William Shakespeare

Consonance

Similar to Alliteration EXCEPT…

The repeated consonant sounds can be anywhere in the words.

EX.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain"

- “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

All mammals named Sam are clammy

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate the sound they are naming.

Buzz

Bang

Refrain or Repetition

A sound, word, phrase or line repeated regularly in a poem.

“’EX. Quoth the raven,

Nevermore.’”

Figurative Language

Words and phrases that help the reader picture things in a new way.

Allusion

Allusion comes from the verb “allude” which means “to refer to”

An allusion is a reference to something famous.

A tunnel walled and overlaid

With dazzling crystal: we had read

Of rare Aladdin’s wondrous cave,

And to our own his name we gave.

From “Snowbound”

John Greenleaf Whittier

Connotation

The range of secondary or associated significances and feelings which it commonly suggests or implies.

Example: The word home means the place where one lives, but by connotation, also suggests security, family, love, and comfort.

Denotation

The primary significance or reference, such as a dictionary mainly specifies.

Diction

The selection of words in a literary work. A work's diction forms one of its centrally important literary elements, as writers use words to convey action, reveal character, imply attitudes, identify themes, and suggest values.

Extended Metaphor

A metaphor which is drawn-out beyond the usual word or phrase to extend throughout a stanza or an entire poem, usually by using multiple comparisons between the unlike objects or ideas.

Hyperbole

Obvious and intentional exaggeration often used for emphasis.

EX. There are a million people here.

I have a ton of homework tonight.

Imagery

Representation of the five senses: sight, taste, touch, sound, and smell.

Creates mental images about a poem’s subject.

Example: “Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines / And often is his gold complexion dimm’d.”

William Shakespeare

Metaphor

A direct comparison of two unlike things. Like or as are NOT used.

(one thing is another)

EX. “All the world’s a stage, and we are merely players.”

-William Shakespeare

Oxymoron

An Oxymoron is a combination of contradictory words, such as 'Jumbo Shrimp' (Jumbo means 'large' while Shrimp means 'small'). It is a literary figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory words, terms, phrases or ideas are combined to create a rhetorical effect.

EX. Pretty Ugly

Personification

An animal given human-like qualities or an object given life-like qualities.

EX. My dog smiles at me.

EX. The house glowed with happiness.

Simile

A comparison of two things using “like, as than, or resembles.”

EX. “She is as beautiful as a sunrise.”

Symbolism

A word or object that has its own meaning and represents another word, object or idea.

Example: “Natures first green is gold...”

Robert Frost In Spring, the first green to appear is really gold as the buds break open.

Idiom

An expression where the literal meaning of the words is not the meaning of the expression. It means something other than what it actually means.

EX. You are pulling my leg.

Tone

The attitude a poet takes toward his/her subject.

Example: Loving, ironic, bitter, fanciful; are different forms of tone a poet may use.

Theme

The message, point of view and idea of the poem.

Example: The theme can be about death, beauty, love, jealousy, loneliness, and anything you can think of.

Types of Poems

Poems we will compare and contrast.

Free Verse

Ballad

Narrative

Narrative Poems

A poem that tells a story.

Generally longer than the lyric styles of poetry because the poet needs to establish characters and a plot.

Examples of Narrative poems.

“The Raven”

“The Highwayman”

“Casey at the Bat”

“The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”

Free Verse Poems

Free verse poetry does NOT have any repeating patterns of stress and unstressed syllables.

Does NOT have rhyme.

Free verse poetry is very conversational - sounds like someone talking with you.

A more modern type of poetry.

Example of Free Verse Poem

I Dream'd in a Dream by Walt Whitman

I DREAM'D in a dream I saw a city invincible to the

attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth,

I dream'd that was the new city of Friends, Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust

love, it led the rest,

It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city,

And in all their looks and words.

Example of Free Verse Poem

Fog by Carl Sandburg

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.

Ballad

A type of narrative poem that tells a story.

It is meant to be sung or recited.

It tells a story – has a setting, plot, and characters.

Most have regular patterns of rhythm and rhyme.

Example of a Ballad John Henry

John Henry said to his Captain I ain't nothing but a man, But before I'll let your steam drill beat me down, I'll die with my hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord, I'll die with my hammer in my hand."

John Henry got a thirt pound hammer, Beside the steam drill he did stand. He beat that steam drill three inches down, And he died with his hammer in his hand, Lord, Lord, He died with his hammer in his hand.

John Henry had a little woman, Her name was Julie Ann, She went down the track never lookin' back, Says, "John Henry, you have always been a man, Lord, Lord, John Henry, you have always been a man."

They took John Henry to the graveyard, And buried him in the sand, And ev'ry time that train comes roaring by, Says, "There lays a steel-drivin' man, Lord, Lord, There lays a steel-drivin' man.

Poetry

There is so much more to Poetry.

We have only scratched the surface!