A type of literature that expresses ideas and feelings.
Tells a story in a specific form, usually using lines and stanzas.
Poetic Form
FORM - The appearance of the words on the page.
LINE - A group of words together on one line of the poem.
STANZA - A group of lines arranged together.
Example:
"A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day." - Emily Dickinson
Poetic Sound Effects
RHYTHM: The beat created by the sounds of the words in a poem.
Created by meter, rhymes, alliteration, and refrain.
METER:
A pattern of stressed (strong) and unstressed (weak) syllables.
Each unit/part of the pattern is called a “foot.”
Types of Feet:
Iambic: unstressed, stressed
Trochaic: stressed, unstressed
Anapestic: unstressed, unstressed, stressed
Dactylic: stressed, unstressed, unstressed
RHYMES:
Words sound alike because they share the same ending vowel and consonant sounds.
A word always rhymes with itself.
Example: LAMP, STAMP
Share the short “a” vowel sound.
Share the combined “mp” consonant sound.
RHYME SCHEME:
A pattern of rhyming words or sounds (usually end rhyme, but not always).
Use letters of the alphabet to represent sounds and visually see the pattern.
Example:
"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
“The Germ” by Ogden Nash
END RHYME:
A word at the end of one line rhymes with a word at the end of another line.
Example:
”Hector the Collector A
Collected bits of string. B
Collected dolls with broken heads C
And rusty bells that would not ring.” B
-”Hector the Collector” by Shel Silverstein
INTERNAL RHYME:
A word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line.
Example:
Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December - “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
NEAR RHYME:
Also known as imperfect or “close enough” rhyme.
The words share EITHER the same vowel or consonant sound BUT NOT BOTH.
Example: ROSE, LOSE
Different vowel sounds (long “o” and “oo” sound).
Share the same consonant sound (“s”).
Other Types of Poetic Devices
REFRAIN:
A sound, word, phrase, or line repeated regularly in a poem, usually at the end of each stanza or verse, such as the chorus in a song.
Example:
"There lived a lady by the North Sea shore,
Lay the bent to the bonny broom
Two daughters were the babes she bore.
Fa la la la la la la la.
As one grew bright as is the sun,
Lay the bent to the bonny broom
So coal black grew the other one.
Fa la la la la la la la."
-”The Cruel Sister” by Francis J. Child
TONE:
Used in poetry to convey feeling and emotion, and set the mood for the work.
This can be done through word choice, the grammatical arrangement of words (syntax), imagery, or details that are included or omitted.
Example:
I met a traveler from an antique land. -from \"Ozymandias” by Shelley
This line immediately generates a story-telling atmosphere, just as it is with the phrase, \"Once upon a time.\" An audience is clearly implied.
CONNOTATION vs DENOTATION
Connotation: an emotional or social association with a word, giving meaning beyond the literal definition
*Example:
*a star ball of light/gas in the sky a wish
*a family group of related individuals love, trust, closeness
*a dog four legged mammal friend, protector, pet
Denotation: the specific, literal image, idea, concept, or object that a word or phrase refers to
Figurative Language
ALLITERATION:
Consonant sounds repeated at the beginnings of words
Example: If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?
ALLUSION:
From the verb “allude” which means “to refer to”
A reference to someone or something famous.
Example:
"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” by John Greenleaf Whittier
ANALOGY:
Comparison of two or more unlike things to show a similarity.
Two main types: Simile and Metaphor.
SIMILE:
Comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as.”
Example: Friends are like chocolate cake; you can never have too many.
METAPHOR:
Comparison of two unlike things where one word is used to designate the other (one is the other).
Example: A spider is a black dark midnight sky.
EXTENDED METAPHOR:
Continues for several lines or possibly the entire length of a work.
Example:
The fog comes on little cat feet.
It sits looking over the harbor and city on silent haunches
and then, moves on.
- “Fog” by Carl Sandburg
ASSONANCE:
Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line (or lines) of a poem.
Often creates Near Rhyme.
Example:
A leal sailor even
In a stormy sea
Drinks deep God’s Name
In ecstasy
-”Peaceful Assonance” by Sri Chinmoy
Examples:
Slow the low gradual moan came in the snowing. - From “Dauber: a poem” by John Masefield
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep. - From Othello by William Shakespeare
CONSONANCE:
Similar to alliteration EXCEPT repeated consonant sounds can be anywhere in the words, not just at the beginning!
Example:
And frightful a nightfall folded rueful a day
How a lush-kept plush-capped sloe
Will, mouthed to flesh-burst, Gush!—
- From “The Wreck of the Deutschland” by Gerald Manley Hopkins
IDIOM:
The literal meaning of the words is not the meaning of the expression; it means something other than what it actually says.
Examples:
Feeling under the weather.
You could have knocked me down with a feather.
It was like a bolt out of the blue when I met you.
an English rose, in the flower of youth.
-from “My Sweet Idiom” by Paul Williams
IMAGERY:
Language that provides a sensory experience using sight, sound, smell, touch, taste.
Example:
Soft upon my eyelashes
Turning my cheeks to pink
Softly falling, falling
Not a sound in the air
Delicately designed in snow
Fading away at my touch
Leaving only a glistening drop
And its memory
- “Crystal Cascades” by Mary Fumento
HYPERBOLE:
An intentional exaggeration or overstatement, often used for emphasis
Example:
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world
-from "The Concord Hymn" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
LITOTE
* Intentional understatement, used for humor or irony (Example- naming a slow moving person “Speedy”)
ONOMATOPOEIA:
Words that imitate the sound that they are naming.
Example:
Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it?
The horse-hoofs ringing clear;
Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance?
Were they deaf that they did not hear?
- from “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes
OXYMORON:
Combines two usually contradictory terms in a compressed paradox, as in the word bittersweet or the phrase living death
Example:
And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true…
-from Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
I do here make humbly bold to present them with a short account of themselves…
-from A Tale of a Tub by the poet and author Jonathan Swift
Work entitled \"She's All My Fancy Painted Him\" by the poet and author Lewis Carroll
PERSONIFICATION:
A nonliving thing given human of life-like qualities.
Example:
Hey diddle, Diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
-from “The Cat & the Fiddle” by Mother Goose
SYMBOLISM:
The use of a word or object which represents a deeper meaning than the words themselves.
It can be a material object or a written sign used to represent something invisible.
Example:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-from “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
Some Types of Poetry That We Will Be Studying
NARRATIVE POEMS:
Longer and tells a story, with a beginning, middle, and end.
Generally longer than lyric styles because the poet needs to establish characters and a plot.
Example: “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes
LYRICAL POEMS:
Short poem (only a few lines, 1-2 stanzas).
Usually written in the first person point of view.
Expresses an emotion or an idea, or describes a scene.
Does not tell a story and are often musical.
Many of the poems we read will be lyrical.
CONCRETE POEMS:
Words are arranged to create a picture that relates to the content of the poem.
Example: See “Shoes” by Morghan Barnes
ACROSTIC POEMS:
The first letter of each line forms a word or phrase (vertically).
An acrostic poem can describe the subject or even tell a brief story about it.
Example:
After an extensive winter
Pretty tulips
Rise from the once
Icy ground bringing fresh signs of
Life.
-”April” by Anonymous
FREE VERSE POEMS:
Does NOT have any repeating patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables.
Does NOT have rhyme.
Very conversational; sounds like someone talking with you.
Example: See “Fog” by Carl Sandburg
BLANK VERSE POEMS:
Does have a regular meter, usually iambic pentameter (five sets of stressed/unstressed).
Does NOT have rhyme.
Used by classical playwrights, like Shakespeare.
Example:
˘ / ˘ / ˘ / ˘ / ˘ /
To swell the gourd, and plump the ha-zel shells
-from “Ode to Autumn” by John Keats
Other Forms of Poetry
COUPLET:
A poem of only two lines.
Both lines have an end rhyme and the same meter.
Often found at the end of a sonnet.
Example: Whether or not we find what we are seeking is idle, biologically speaking. -at the end of a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay
HAIKU:
Japanese style poem written in three lines.
Focuses traditionally on nature.
Lines respectively are 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and 5 syllables.
Example:
Whitecaps on the bay:
A broken signboard banging
In the April wind.
-untitled haiku by Richard Wright
QUATRAIN:
Stanza or short poem containing four lines.
Lines 2 and 4 must rhyme, while lines 1 and 3 may or may not rhyme.
Variations in rhyming patterns (abab, abcb).
Example:
O, my luve's like a red, red rose, A
That's newly sprung in June: B
O, my luve's like the melodie C
That's sweetly played in tune. B
-from “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns
CINQUAIN:
Stanza or short poem containing five lines.
1 word, 2 words, 3 words, 4 words, 1 word.
Patterns and syllables are changing!
Cinquain Pattern #1
Line1: One word
Line2: Two words
Line 3: Three words
Line 4: Four words
Line 5: One word
Example:
Dinosaurs
Lived once,
Long ago, but
Only dust and dreams
Remain
-by Cindy Barden
Cinquain Pattern #2
Line1: A noun
Line2: Two adjectives
Line 3: Three -ing words
Line 4: A phrase
Line 5: Another word for the noun
Example:
Mules
Stubborn, unmoving
Braying, kicking, resisting
Not wanting to listen
People
-by Cindy Barden
Cinquain Pattern #3
Line1: Two syllables
Line2: Four syllables
Line 3: Six syllables
Line 4: Eight syllables
Line 5: Two syllables
Example:
Baseball
Bat cracks against
The pitch, sending it out
Over the back fence, I did it!
Homerun
-by Cindy Barden
LIMERICK:
Example:
What is a limerick, Mother?
It's a form of verse, said Brother
In which lines one and two
Rhyme with five when it's through
And three and four rhyme with each other.
- untitled and author unknown
A five-line poem with rhymes in lines 1, 2, and 5, and then another rhyme in lines 3 and 4 AABBA
BALLAD:
Example:
Oh the ocean waves may roll,
And the stormy winds may blow,
While we poor sailors go skipping aloft
And the land lubbers lay down below, below, below
And the land lubbers lay down below.
-from “The Mermaid” by Anonymous
Tells a story, similar to a folk tale or legend.
Usually set to music.
Simple repeating rhymes, often with a refrain.
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET:
Fourteen lines with a specific rhyme scheme.
Written in 3 quatrains and ends with a couplet.
Rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg
Example: See sonnet in notes
PERSONA POEMS:
A poem written in the 1st person point of view.
Writer imagines s/he is an animal, an object, a famous person - anything s/he is not
Example:
I still remember the sun on my bones.
I ate pomegranates and barley cakes.
I wore a necklace of purple stones.
And sometimes I saw a crocodile
Slither silently into the Nile.
-from “The Mummy’s Smile” by Shelby K. Irons
POINT OF VIEW
POET the author of the poem, the person who actually wrote it
SPEAKER the “narrator” of the poem, the voice telling us the thoughts/feelings/story