POETRY

POETRY

POETRYA type of

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

POINT OF VIEW IN POETRY

POETThe poet is the writer of the poem.

SPEAKERThe speaker of the poem is the voice of the poem.

POETRY 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

A word is dead When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just Begins to live

That day.

SOUND DEVICES

RHYTHM The beat created

by the sounds of the words in a poem

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

RHYME

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

END RHYME A word at the end of one line

rhymes with a word at the end of another line:

Hector the Collector Collected bits of string.

Collected dolls with broken heads And rusty bells that would not ring.

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. (See next slide for an example.)

SAMPLE RHYME SCHEME

The Germ by 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.

a

a

b

b

c

c

a

a

REFRAIN A sound, word,

phrase or line repeated regularly in a poem.

“Quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore.’”

ALLITERATIONConsonant sounds repeated at

the beginnings of words If Peter Piper picked a peck of

pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

ONOMATOPOEIA Words that imitate the sound they are

naming BUZZ

OR sounds that imitate another sound

“The silken, sad, uncertain, rustling of each purple curtain . . .”

FIGURATIVELANGUAGE

SIMILE

A comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as”

Ex: “She is as beautiful as a sunrise.”

METAPHOR

A direct comparison of two unlike things

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

- William Shakespeare

EXTENDED METAPHORA metaphor that goes on for several lines or possibly the entire length of a work.

HYPERBOLE

Exaggeration often used for emphasis.

Ex: “I studied for 500 hours and still failed the test!”

Screamin’ Millieby Shel Silverstein

Millie McDeevit screamed a screamSo loud it made her eyebrows steam.She screamed so loud her jawbone broke,Her tongue caught fire, her nostrils smoked,Her eyeballs boiled and then popped out,Her ears flew north, her nose went south,Her teeth flew out, her voice was wrecked,Her head went sailing off her neck—Over the hillside, ‘cross the stream,Into the skies it chased the scream.And that’s what happened to Millie McDeevit(At least I hope all you screamers believe it).

IDIOMAn expression where the literal

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

Ex: “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

PERSONIFICATION

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

EX: from “Ninki”by Shirley Jackson

“Ninki was by this time irritated beyond belief by the general air of incompetence exhibited in the kitchen, and she went into the living room and got Shax, who is extraordinarily lazy and never catches his own chipmunks, but who is, at least, a cat, and preferable, Ninki saw clearly, to a man with a gun.

OTHERPOETIC DEVICES

IMAGERY

Language that appeals to the senses.

Most images are visual, but they can also appeal to the senses of sound, touch, taste, or smell.

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather . . .

from “Those Winter Sundays”

SYMBOLISM

Often used in poetry

A person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself also represents, or stands for, something else.

= Innocence

= America

= Peace

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

TYPES OF POETRY

IMAGERY POEMS

Draw the reader into poetic experiences by touching on the images and senses which the reader already knows.

The use of the five senses in this type of poetry serves to intensify the impact of the work.

Imagery Poem ExampleThe Red Wheelbarrow  

by William Carlos Williams

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

HAIKU

A Japanese poem written in three lines

FORM:Five Syllables

Seven SyllablesFive Syllables

Defines a single moment in time in nature

Does not rhyme!

Haiku ExamplesThe Rose

Donna Brock

The red blossom bends

and drips its dew to the ground.

Like a tear it falls

A Rainbow

Donna Brock

Curving up, then down.

Meeting blue sky and green earth

Melding sun and rain.

COUPLET

A stanza of only two lines which usually rhyme.

Shakespearean (also called Elizabethan and English) sonnets usually end in a couplet and are a pair of lines that are the same length and usually rhyme and form a complete thought.

Couplet Example

By Shakespeare: (two excerpt form his sonnets)

Blessed are you whose worthiness gives scope,

Being had, to triumph; being lacked, to hope.

You still shall live, such virtue hath my pen,

Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.

LIMERICK A five-line poem written with one

couplet and one triplet. If a couplet is a two-line rhymed poem,

then a triplet would be a three-line rhymed poem.

The rhyme pattern is a AABBA*Lines 1, 2 and 5 containing 3

beats and rhyming *Lines 3 and 4 having two beats and rhyming

More About Limericks…

Limericks are meant to be funny.

They often contain hyperbole, onomatopoeia, idioms, puns, and other figurative devices.

The last line of a good limerick contains the PUNCH LINE or "heart of the joke."

Example of Limerick

There was an Old Man with a beard,Who said 'It is just as I feared! -Two Owls and a Hen,Four Larks and a Wren,Have all built their nests in my beard!‘

~ Edward Lear

How to write a Limerick!There was an old man from Peru, (A) da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (3 DUMS)

who dreamed he was eating his shoe. (A) da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (3 DUMS)

He awoke in the night (B)da DUM da da DUM (2 DUMS)

with a terrible fright, (B)da da DUM da da DUM (2 DUMS)

and found out that it was quite true. (A) da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (3 DUMS)

FREE VERSE Unlike metered

poetry, free verse poetry does NOT have any repeating patterns of stressed 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.

Free Verse Example

Song of Myself (excerpt)by Walt Whitman

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.I loaf and invite my soul,I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

CONCRETE POEMS

In concrete poems, the words are arranged to create a picture that relates to the content of the poem.

PoetryIs like

Flames,Which are

Swift and elusiveDodging realization

Sparks, like words on thePaper, leap and dance in theFlickering firelight. The fiery

Tongues, formless and shiftingShapes, tease the imiagination.

Yet for those who see,Through their mind’s

Eye, they burnUp the page.

Example of Concrete

SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET

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

Sonnet Example

Shakespeare:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometimes declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

DIAMANTE

A seven-line, diamond-shaped poem which contrasts two opposites. It is more a visual poem than one to be read aloud.

It follows this format: (Next Page)

DIAMANTE FORM: 1st line and 7th line - Name the opposites.

2nd and 6th lines - Two adjectives describing the opposite nearest it.

3rd and 5th lines - Three participles (ing words) describing the nearest opposite.

4th line – 2 two-word phrases (each must include a noun) for each of the opposites.

(the poem changes from one of the opposites to the other.)

Example of Diamante

Peaks,Snowcapped, windswept,

Reaching, waiting, challenging mountain ranges, ocean trenches,

Obscuring, waiting, daunting Dark, black

Depths.

CINQUAINA short, five-line, non-rhyming poem which follows this format:

1st line - The title (one word)

2nd line - Describes the title (two words)

3rd line - Express action (three words)

4th line - A feeling or thought (four words)

5th line - A synonym for the title or a word close in meaning to it.

Example of Cinquain

HumpbacksMajestic mammals Sing sweet songs

Sometimes make me cry Whales

QUATRAIN Always has four lines.

Rhymes in one of four ways.

The four types of rhyme for a quatrain are: AABB

ABAB ABBA ABCB

Example of Quatrain (AABB)

Tyger! Tyger! burning brightIn the forests of the night,What immortal hand or eyeCould frame thy fearful symmetry? -From William Blake's "The Tyger"

Example of Quatrain (ABAB)

My wings shall ride the silken morn,Covering the silent sunlit sky,Under Cancer and Capricorn,Flying where no bird can fly.

- From Ryter Roethicle’s “My Wings”

LYRIC POEMS

Usually written in first person point of view

Express the thoughts and feelings of the poet

Often have a musical quality

Lyric Example

I Felt a Funeral in my Brain (excerpt)

By Emily DickinsonI felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading - treading - till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through - 

And when they all were seated,

A Service, like a Drum –

Kept beating - beating - till I thought

My Mind was going numb

NARRATIVE POEMS

A poem that tells a story.

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

Example of Narrative Poem

Annabel Lee (excerpt)

By Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,In a kingdom by the sea,That a maiden there lived whom you may knowBy the name of ANNABEL LEE;And this maiden she lived with no other thoughtThan to love and be loved by me.