Poetry Forms Poetry Boot Camp Day 2. The Red Wheelbarrow so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.

Poetry Forms

Poetry Boot Camp Day 2

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.

The Red Wheelbarrow (William Carlos Williams)

so much dependsupona red wheelbarrowglazed with rainwaterbeside the whitechickens.

so much dependsupon

a red wheelbarrow

glazed with rainwater

beside the whitechickens.

so much depends upon a red wheel barrowglazed with rain water beside the white chickens.

so much depends upona red wheel barrowglazed with rain waterbeside the white chickens.

A

B

C

D

Form matters!Form is the overall structure of the poem, which frequently

follows an established design. This includes meter, lines, stanzas, and rhymes.

The shape of a poem, the placement of words, the spatial setup, patterns, and writing rules all

make a difference in the meaning of a poem. ALWAYS note when these rules are broken or

shifted!

A STANZA—a division of a poem based on thought or form. Stanzas based on form are marked by their

rhyme scheme. Stanzas are known by the number of lines they contain. The basic stanza forms are:

• couplet: two-line stanza• triplet or tercet: three-line stanza• quatrain: four-line stanza• cinquain: five-line stanza• sestet: six-line stanza• septet: seven-line stanza• octave: eight-line stanza

2 Major Types of Rhyme

Internal

Words rhyme in the middle of a line

External

Words rhyme at ends of lines

2 Kinds of RhymeINTERNAL

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he flutteredEdgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”

EXTERNALWhat this grim, gaunt, and ominous bird of yoreMeant in croaking `Nevermore.‘Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”

Annotating End Rhyme Schemes

• Start with the letter A and assign it to the end of line 1

• Ask yourself if the end of line 2 rhymes with line 1. If it does, write A next to the end of line 2. If it doesn’t, give it the next letter – b.

• And so on…

Different Rhyme Schemes

• pattern of rhyme between lines of a poem or song

• For example:

–Roses are Red–Violets are Blue–Pencils have lead–Sabolcik loves all of you.

A

B

A

B

KINDS OF RHYME: The kinds of rhyme based on the number of syllables presenting a similarity of sound are:

MASCULINE RHYME—occurs when one syllable of a word rhymes with another word:

(effect tends to be decisive and bold; complete)

bend and send; bright and light FEMININE RHYME—occurs when the last two syllables of a word rhyme with another

word: (effect tends to be more lyrical, elegant, and free)

lawful and awful; lighting and fighting; Some lines really should stay single: / Feminine rhymes can make them jingle.

TRIPLE RHYME—occurs when the last three syllables of a word or line rhyme:

victorious and glorious; quivering and shivering; battering and shattering; A serious effect is often killable / By rhyming with too much more than one syllable.

Other Rhyme Forms

• NEAR, OFF, or SLANT RHYME: A rhyme based on an imperfect or incomplete correspondence of end syllable sounds.

• Common in the work of Emily Dickinson, for instance:

It was not death, for I stood up,And all the dead lie down.It was not night, for all the bellsPut out their tongues for noon.

Enjambment vs. End-Stopped

• ENJAMBMENT—in poetry, the running over of a sentence from one verse or stanza into the next without stopping at the end of the first. When the sentence or meaning does stop at the end of the line it is called—END-STOPPED LINE.

A line can be end-stopped, just like this one,Or it can show enjambment, just like thisOne, where the sense straddles two lines: you feelAs if from shore you’d stepped into a boat.

ENJAMBED

END-STOPPED

Stanza Forms

• HEROIC COUPLET—(sometimes called a closed couplet) consists of two successive rhyming verses that contain a complete thought within the two lines. It usually consists of iambic pentameter lines. Popular in classics.

Heroic couplets, classical and cold,Can make new matters smack of something old.

• TERZA RIMA—is a three-line stanza form with an interlaced or interwoven rhyme scheme: a-b-a, b-c-b, c-d-c, d-e-d, etc. Usually iambic pentameter.

• Effect of the interlacing/interwovenness?

1. The unrhymed middle line, in the tight schema2. Of tercets spinning out a lengthy text3. (Dante gave us this form, called terza rima),

4. Rhymes, after all, with the start of the next5. Tercet, then helps set up a new unrhymed6. That, sure of foot and not at all perplexed, 7. Walks across blank space, as it did last time.8. (A couplet ends this little paradigm.)

• BALLAD STANZA—consists of four lines with a rhyme scheme of a-b-c-b. The first and third lines are tetrameter and the second and fourth are trimeter.

1. The ballad stanza’s four short lines A2. Are very often heard; B3. The second and the fourth lines rhymeC4. But not the first and third. B

• LIMERICK—is a five-line nonsense poem with an anapestic meter. The rhyme scheme is usually a-a-b-b-a. The first, second, and fifth lines have three stresses; and the third and fourth have two stresses.

1. This most famous of forms is a fiddle A2. That we rub with a curious riddle; A3. But the best of a limerick— B4. Though in Dutch or in Cymric— B5. Are the little short lines in the middle. A

• RIME ROYAL—is a stanza consisting of seven lines in iambic pentameter rhyming a-b-a-b-b-c-c. It is called so because King James I used it. Below is an example from William Shakespeare.

1. A thousand lamentable objects there, A2. In scorn of nature, art gave lifeless life: B3. Many a dry drop seem’d a weeping tear, A4. Shed for the slaughter’d husband by the wife; B5. The red blood reek’d to show the painter’s strife, B6. And dying eyes gleam’d forth their ashy lights, C7. Like dying coals burnt out in tedious nights. C

• OTTAVA RIMA—consists of eight iambic pentameter lines with a rhyme scheme of a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c. It is a form that was borrowed from the Italians. Below is an example from George Gordon, Lord Byron.

1. Perfect she was, but as perfection is A2. Insipid in this naughty world of ours, B3. Where our first parents never learned to kiss A4. Till they were exiled from their earlier bowers, B5. Where all was peace, and innocence, and bliss A6. (I wonder how they got through the twelve hours)

B7. Don José like a lineal son of Eve, C8. Went plucking various fruit without her leave.

C

• SPENSERIAN STANZA—is a nine-line stanza consisting of eight iambic pentameter lines followed by an alexandrine, a line of iambic hexameter. The rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b-b-c-b-c-c. The form derives its name from Edmund Spenser, who initiated the form for his Faerie Queene.

1. A true Spenserian stanza wakes up well A2. With what will seem a quatrain first; in time B3. The third line rings its “a” rhyme like a bell, A4. The fourth, its “b” resounding like a dime B5. In a pay telephone—this paradigm B6. Demonstrating the kind of interlocking C7. Of quatrains doubling back on the same rhyme B8. Ends in an alexandrine, gently rocking C9. The stanza back to sleep, lest the close be too shocking. C

VILLANELLE—consists of five tercets and a quatrain in which the first and third lines of the opening tercet recur alternately at the end of the other tercets and together as the last two lines of the quatrain.- Look for shifts in meanings of repeated phrases. • The Home on the Hill

Edward Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)

They are all gone away,The house is shut and still,There is nothing more to say

Through broken walls and gray,The wind blows bleak and shrill,They are all gone away

Nor is there one today,To speak them good or illThere is nothing more to say

Why is it then we strayAround the sunken sill?They are all gone away

And our poor fancy playFor them is wasted skill,There is nothing more to say

There is ruin and decayIn the House on the Hill:They are all gone away,There is nothing more to say.

SONNETS• Petrarchan or Italian Sonnet—is

divided between eight lines called the octave, using two rhymes arranged a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a, and six lines called the sestet, using any arrangement of either two or three rhymes: c-d-c-d-c-d and c-d-e- c-d-e are common patterns.

• The division between octave and sestet in the Italian sonnet usually corresponds to a division of thought. The octave may, for instance, present a situation and the sestet a comment, or the octave an idea and the sestet an example, or the octave a question and the sestet an answer. Thus, structure reflects meaning.

• English or Shakespearean Sonnet—is composed of three quatrains and a concluding couplet, rhyming a-b-a-b c-d-c-d e-f-e-f g-g.

• Again the units marked off by the rhymes and the development of the thought often correspond. The three quatrains, for instance, may present three examples and the couplet a conclusion or the quatrains three metaphorical statements of one idea and the couplet an application.

The two major sonnet forms:Petrarchan (Italian)

ABBA Octave (8 lines)ABBA The TURN

(the VOLTA)CDEC Sestet (6 lines)DE

ShakespeareanABABCDC 3 quatrainsDEF The TURNE (the VOLTA)FG RhymingG Couplet*Sometimes, the turn takes place after line 8. Sometimes after line 12. But usually not both.

The Turn of the SonnetA sonnet’s turn is the point in the

sonnet where the poet changes perspective or alters his/her approach to description. This often results in a sonnet following a “position-contrasting position” type of structure, or occasionally a “change of heart” in the poet at the end of the verse. Look at this sonnet as an example:

Notice that the poem’s turn is a change from discussing what Sleep itself is to what the poet will offer Sleep as tribute if Sleep comes to him.

“Come Sleep, O Sleep!”

Come, Sleep! O Sleep, the certain knot of peace,The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe,The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release,Th' indifferent judge between the high and low;With shield of proof shield me from out the pressOf those fierce darts Despair at me doth throw!O make in me those civil wars to cease! - I will good tribute pay if thou do so.Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed,A chamber deaf of noise and blind of light,A rosy garland, and a weary head;And if these things, as being thine in right,Move not thy heavy grace, thou shalt in me,Livelier than elsewhere, Stella's image see.

Nothing is ever easy.

• Note that at times the turn does NOT occur in the traditional spot. Instead of occurring at the normal line 12-13 in this sonnet by Shakespeare, the turn instead occurs between lines 8-9—where you’d normally find the turn for an Italian sonnet.

Sonnet 29

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd, Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think on thee, and then my state, Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate; For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Blank Verse

• Unrhymed iambic pentameter– du DUM du DUM du DUM du DUM du DUM– Shakespeare Plays

–But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,

Just a couple more forms…

• ELEGY—usually a poem that mourns the death of an individual, the absence of something deeply loved, or the transience of mankind.

• ODE—an exalted, complex, rapturous lyric poem written about a dignified, lofty subject—a hero, an aspect of nature, etc.

• PASTORAL—a poem, play or story that celebrates and idealizes the simple life of shepherds and shepherdesses. The term has also come to refer to an artistic work that portrays rural life in an idyllic or idealistic way.

• NARRATIVE POEM—a poem that tells a story.

Just a couple more forms…

• LYRIC—is the most widely used type of poem, so diverse in its format that a rigid definition is impossible. However, several factors run common in all lyrics:

• limited length intensely subjective• personal expression of emotion highly imaginative• expression of thoughts and feelings of one speaker• regular rhyme scheme

• CONCRETE POETRY - form a picture of the topic or follows the contour of a shape that is suggested by the topic.