Introduction to Poetry

Basics

po·et·ry (n)

 writing chosen and arranged to create a certain emotional response through meaning, sound, and
rhythm

prose (n)

 everything else! ordinary language that people use when they speak or write

Elements of Poetry

Work together to create a total effect

Line
Imagery Stanza

Diction Form

Poetr
Figures y
of Meter
Speech

Tone /
Rhyme
Mood

Theme Rhythm

Lines

 May be short or long

 Are NOT necessarily complete sentences or even complete thoughts!
 The arrangement of lines, spacing, and whether or not the lines rhyme in some manner, can define
the FORM of a poem.

Stanza

 A group of lines whose rhyme scheme is usually followed throughout the poem
 A division in poetry like a paragraph in prose
o Examples: couplets, tercets, quatrains
 Contributes to form

Form

 A poem is written in a particular form.

 Poems are written in lines.
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  The lines may be grouped into stanzas (verses).
 Poems do not have to be divided into stanzas and may be written as a single entity. • A free verse
poem has no restrictions to the rhythm, rhyme or pattern. Poets use this technique to express
themselves more effectively.
 Enjambment or run-on lines are found only in poetry. They occur at the end of a line where there is
no punctuation.

Rhyme

 Rhyme
o A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words. Rhyming is particularly
common in many types of poetry, especially at the ends of lines, and is a requirement in
formal verse.
 Rhyme Scheme
o A rhyme scheme is the pattern according to which end rhymes (rhymes located at the end of
lines) are repeated in works of poetry.

Rhythm

 Poetry is similar to music because it often has a rhythm

 The rhythm sets the pace of the poem and should match the meaning
 A slow rhythm would reinforce a somber meaning and a quick-paced rhythm could reflect a happy
mood
 When reading the poem aloud, feel the change of pace and how this affects the mood of the poem
 Poetic sound devices such as onomatopoeia, alliteration and assonance influence the pace (tempo)
and the pause of poetry speaking.

Diction

 The poet’s use of words creates the mood / atmosphere of the poem.
 Word choice also influences the rhythm of the poem.
 In a rhyming poem, appropriate word choice is crucial.
 Repetition is also an effective device used.

Imagery

 Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For
instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking" contain imagery that
engages the senses of touch, movement, and hearing: "I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend. /
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin / The rumbling sound / Of load on load of apples coming in."

Theme

 Every poem has a theme or main idea.

 The poem conveys the messages or intentions of the poet

Tone / Mood

 Tone
o The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or
depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical, and so on. For
instance, an editorial in a newspaper that described its subject as "not even having the guts
to do the job himself," has a tone that is both informal and critical.
o HAS TO DO WITH THE SPEAKER’S VOICE
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  Mood
o The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in
short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect of a piece of writing
can influence its mood, from the setting and the imagery to the author's word choice
and tone For instance, a story that begins "It was a dark and stormy night" will probably have
an overall dark, ominous, or suspenseful mood.
o HAS TO DO WITH HOW THE READER FEELS

Figures of Speech

How they contribute to meaning in poetry

Let’s review some concepts:

 Simile
o Directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the
connecting words "like" or "as”,
 Metaphor
o A figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other.
They create meaning beyond the literal meanings of their words and make descriptions more
vivid or relatable
 Allusion
o An unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly
allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas, in
order to layer meanings from these sources onto their own work
 Personification
o Non-human things are described as having human attributes. Personification can help
writers to create more vivid descriptions, to make readers see the world in new ways, and to
more powerfully capture the human experience of the world
 Hyperbole
o A writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbolic statements are usually
quite obvious exaggerations intended to emphasize a point, rather than be taken literally.
 Rhetorical Question
o A question is asked for a reason other than to get an answer—most commonly, it's asked to
make a persuasive point.
 Verbal Irony
o Is the color of gold, butter and ripe lemons. In the spectrum of visible light, yellow is found
between green and orange.
 Pun
o Plays with words that have multiple meanings, or that plays with words that sound similar but
mean different things.
 Paradox
o A figure of speech that seems to contradict itself, but which, upon further examination,
contains some kernel of truth or reason.
 Oxymoron
o Two contradictory terms or ideas are intentionally paired in order to make a point—
particularly to reveal a deeper or hidden truth
 Apostrophe
o A speaker directly addresses someone (or something) that is not present or cannot respond
in reality. It can be an absent, dead, or imaginary person, an inanimate object, an abstract
idea (like love or fate), or a being (such as a Muse or god).

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 Sound devices

Name Definition Example Effect

Alliteration is the use of the same Fred fried fish for fifteen minutes. Betty The repetition of consonant sounds
Alliteration
sound at the beginning of words bakes butter biscuits. can create rhythm.

Focus on the sound the word makes

The repetition of vowel sounds His dry eyes were wide. One day I will rather than the actual vowels. Long
Assonance
within words. sail away vowel sounds can slow down the
pace of the poem.

The same consonant sound in the

The fat cat ate the rat. I stretched to The repetition of consonant sounds
Consonance middle or the end of words is
reach the latch can create rhythm and rhyme
repeated.

Think about the word ‘dizzy’- when you

Words that resemble what they The sound of the word dizzy helps to
Ideophone feel like everything is turning around,
mean. create this feeling in your mind.
you feel dizzy.

A type of ideophone. Words that The word crackle sounds just like the
Onomatopoeia sound like what they describe are sound it describes. Other examples are
examples of onomatopoeia. pop, whoosh and crunch

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Sonnet Forms

 A sonnet is a type of fourteen-line poem.

 Traditionally, the fourteen lines of a sonnet consist of an octave (or two quatrains making up a
stanza of 8 lines) and a sestet (a stanza of six lines).
 Sonnets generally use a meter of iambic pentameter, and follow a set rhyme scheme.
 The two most common sonnet variations are the Italian sonnet (also called a Petrarchan sonnet),
and the Elizabethan sonnet (also called a Shakespearean sonnet).
o The main difference between the Italian and Elizabethan sonnet is in the rhyme schemes
they use.

Iambic Pentameter

 Iamb
o A foot or beat consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
o Or another way to think of it is a short syllable followed by a long syllable.
 For example, deLIGHT, the SUN, forLORN, one DAY, reLEASE.
 Pentameter
o ‘Penta’ means five, so pentameter simply means five meters. A line of poetry written in
iambic pentameter has five feet = five sets of stressed syllables and unstressed syllables.
 Putting these two terms together, iambic pentameter is a line of writing that consists of ten syllables
in a specific pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, or a short syllable
followed by a long syllable.

Unit Vocabulary

 Quatrain
o Is a four-line stanza of poetry. It can be a single fourline stanza, meaning that it is a stand-
alone poem of four lines, or it can be a four-line stanza that makes up part of a longer poem.
 Tercet
o A poetic unit of three lines, rhymed or unrhymed
 Sestet
o A six-line stanza, or the final six lines of a 14-line Italian or Petrarchan sonnet. A sestet refers
only to the final portion of a sonnet, otherwise the six-line stanza is known as a sexain.
 Octave
o The word “octave” comes from the Latin word meaning “eighth part”. It is an eight-line stanza
or poem that can use any rhyme scheme or metrical pattern.
 Rhyming Couplet
o A couplet is a literary device featuring two consecutive lines of poetry that typically rhyme
and have the same meter.
o A couplet can be part of a poem or a poem on its own.
o A couplet must consist of two lines of verse that follow each other and create a complete
thought or idea

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 Two main types of sonnets:
Petrarchan Sonnet
 The Petrarchan sonnet, perfected by the Italian poet Petrarch, divides the 14 lines into two
sections: an eight-line stanza (octave) rhyming ABBAABBA, and a six-line stanza (sestet)
rhyming CDCDCD or CDECDE.
Elizabethan Sonnet
 This sonnet is comprised of three quatrains and a concluding couplet, rhyming ABAB CDCD
EFEF GG.
 This different sonnet structure allows for more space to be devoted to the buildup of a subject or
problem than the Italian/Petrarchan form, and is followed by just two lines to conclude or resolve
the poem in a rhyming couplet.

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