Line and Imagery

Imagery

• The author's use of description and vivid language deepening the reader's understanding of the work by appealing to the senses

• Uses all five senses to create a vivid picture in the reader's mind

• Other literary devices like similes, personification, metaphors, and hyperbole can all contribute to the images of the poem

How does a poet utilize imagery?

• Specific word choice

  • Uses specific words to help the audience understand exactly what the poet is trying to convey

  • Similar definitions but leave different impressions to the reader

• Connotation - the emotional definition to a word

• Other literary devices like metaphors, similes, personification, and hyperboles can help

Line

• Line - unit of language into which a poem is divided

  • The use of a line operates on principles which are distinct from and not necessarily dependent on grammatical structures, such as the sentence or single clauses in sentences

Line break

The termination of a line in a poem and the beginning of a new line

Lineation

• Lineation - process of arranging words using lines and line breaks

  • One of the defining features in poetry

Stanza

A distinct numbered group of lines in a verse

What is one of the biggest choices a poet has to make?

Where to end a line

What are lines different from?

• Sentences

  • Ignores syntax and grammar for interesting effect

What are things that can impact the length of a poem line?

1. Number of syllables

2. Rhythm of the poem, including rhyme (true, slant, eye) or repetition

3. Visual appearance of the poem on the page

4. Change of movement or thought, emphasis

5. To increase or decrease the pace of the poem

6. A poet's individual style

Enjambment

A line that does not end with punctuation, usually leaving the thought to continue on the next line

End-stopped

When a line ends with a form of punctuation or a complete phrase

Caesura

• A metrical pause of break in verse where one phrase ends and another begins

• Expressed by various punctuation

Turn

When the speaker changes in thought, emotion, or rhetoric

Poems where the length of line is significant

• Ballad

• Sonnet

• Limerick

• Villanelle

Ballad

• Ballad - a poem that tells a story or legend

  • Originally a narrative song passed on through speech or set to music

  • Made of stanzas that are called quatrains (4 lines)

  • Follows ABCB rhyme scheme

  • Alternates between iambic tetrameter (4 feet) and trimeter (3 feet)

Sonnet

• Sonnet - a lyric poem that consists of 14 lines which usually have one or more conventional rhyme scheme

  • 14 lines

  • Iambic pentameter - each line has 10 syllables in an unstressed stressed pattern

  • Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet - Split the 14 lines into a group of 8 and a group of 6, following an abba-abba-cdc-dcd rhyme scheme

  • Shakespearean sonnet - follows the rhyme scheme of abab-cdcd-efef-gg

  • Other types of sonnets - Spenserian sonnet, Miltonic Sonnet, Terza Rima sonnet, Curtal Sonnet

Limericks

• Limericks - humorous, often tawdry poems that originated in the nineteenth century

  • Five lines

  • AABBA rhyme scheme

  • First two lines contain seven to ten syllables

  • Third and fourth lines contain five to seven syllables

  • Final line contains seven to ten syllables

Villanelle

• Villanelle - A poetic form that originated in France, initially as a variation of pastoral poetry. Villanelles are specifically about obsessions

  • 19 lines

  • Five tercets (three lines)

  • One quatrain

  • ABA-ABA-ABA-ABA-ABA-ABAA

  • Line 1 repeats in lines 6, 12, and 18

  • Line 3 repeats in lines 9, 15, and 19

How to analyze a poem of line and imagery

1. Read the poem (silently to self)

2. Read the poem again, looking at each individual stanzas. Summarize what each stanza means

3. Read the poem out loud. Note areas that are particularly descriptive

4. Note the lengths of lines. Are they consistent (same number of syllables or words) or irregular?

5. Note the lengths of stanzas. Are they consistent (same number of lines), do they follow a pattern, or are they irregular?

6. Is there a rhyme scheme? Note it.

7. What words have a strong emotional impact?

8. What vivid descriptions or details are used in the poem? Are those reinforced by any literary devices to note (metaphor, smile, personification, hyperbole)