POETRY

POETRY

A 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

POET

The poet is the author

of the poem.

SPEAKER

The speaker of the

poem is the “narrator”

of the poem. Do not

assume that the voice

in the poem is the

poet’s, even when the

poem is written in first

person. The poet

creates the character of

the speaker.

Structure

Poetry Structure is the way the

words, lines, and groups of lines are

arranged.

Line-a group of words together on

one line of the poem

Let’s practice!

How many lines do you count?

I look around and start to write

About the guys: their hair, their height

Describing them I start to see

They’re not so bad. They’re just like me

STANZA

Lines may be grouped in stanzas.

Stanzas are logical sections of

ideas, like paragraphs in an essay.

STANZA cont.

from The City Is So Big

The city is so big

Its bridges quake with fear

I know, I have seen at night

The lights sliding from house to house

And trains pass with windows shining

Like a smile full of teeth

KINDS OF STANZAS

Couplet = a two line stanza

Triplet (Tercet) = a three line stanza

Quatrain = a four line stanza

Quintet = a five line stanza

Sestet (Sextet) = a six line stanza

Septet = a seven line stanza

Octave = an eight line stanza

**KNOW THE TERMS IN RED***

RHYME

Words sound alike

because they share the

same ending vowel

and consonant sounds.

(A word always

rhymes with itself.)

LAMP

STAMP

Share the short “a”

vowel sound

Share the combined

“mp” consonant sound

RHYME SCHEME

A rhyme scheme is a pattern of rhyme

(usually end rhyme, but not always).

Use the lower case 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.

HOW DID YOU DO?

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

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.

INTERNAL RHYME

A word inside a line rhymes with another

word on the same line.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I

pondered weak and weary.

From “The Raven”

by Edgar Allan Poe

SLANT RHYME

a.k.a half rhyme,

close rhyme

The final

consonant sounds

of the words

rhyme, but the

final vowel

sounds do not.

Example:

I heard a fly buzz when I died

The stillness in the room

Was like the stillness in the air

Between the heaves of storm.

METER

A pattern of stressed and unstressed

syllables.

Meter occurs when the stressed and unstressed

syllables of the words in a poem are arranged in a

repeating pattern.

When poets write in meter, they count out the

number of stressed (strong) syllables and

unstressed (weak) syllables for each line. They

they repeat the pattern throughout the poem.

METER cont.

TYPES OF FEET (cont.)

Iambic - unstressed, stressed

Trochaic - stressed, unstressed

Anapestic - unstressed, unstressed, stressed

Dactylic - stressed, unstressed, unstressed

METER cont.

FOOT - unit of meter.

A foot can have two or

three syllables.

Usually consists of

one stressed and one

or more unstressed

syllables.

TYPES OF FEET

The types of feet are

determined by the

arrangement of

stressed and

unstressed syllables.

(cont.)

STRESSED AND

UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES An accent mark indicates a stressed

syllable ꞌ A horseshoe symbol marks an

unstressed syllable ˇ Vertical lines divide each line into feet

POETIC FORMS

Form is the appearance of the words on the

page.

Usually defined by its purpose and

characteristics.

POETIC FORMS cont.

Formal Verse follows fixed, traditional

patterns that may include a specific rhyme

scheme, meter, line length, or stanza

structure.

POETIC FORMS cont.

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 POETRY

Three Main Categories of Poetry

1. LYRIC POEM

A short poem

Usually written in first person point of view

Expresses an emotion or an idea or

describes a scene

Do not tell a story and are often musical

(Many of the poems we read will be lyrics)

FORMS OF LYRIC POETRY

Sonnet

(usually compares two

things-often with love)

•fourteen-line poem of praise with a specific

rhyme scheme

Shakespearean

Petrarchan

Ode

(celebrate or honor

something)

•Formal poem of honor or celebration

•Often dignified or lofty in subject

•Often have regular meter and end rhyme

Elegy

(focus on death)

•Formal poem reflecting on death or another serious

theme

Haiku

(about nature)

•Japanese poem

• Unrhymed poem, often about nature

•Short, 3-line stanza that follows a 5-7-5 Syllabic

pattern

NARRATIVE POETRY

2.Narrative poetry tells a story. Generally longer

than the lyric styles of poetry b/c the poet needs to

establish characters and a plot.

Includes:

Ballads tell a story that may describe an important

event or a hero. Usually passed from one

generation to another.

Epic Poems are long stories about the exploits of a

hero or god. Usually paints a clear portrait of the

culture at the time it was written.

DRAMATIC POETRY

3. Dramatic poetry presents a drama in verse.

The action is told through the words the

characters speak.

HUMOROUS POETRY

LIMERICK A light or humorous verse of five lines in which lines one, two and five are of three feet and lines three and four are two feet, with a rhyme scheme of aabba. There was an old man of Khartoum Who kept a tame sheep in his room, “To remind me,” he said, “Of someone who’s dead But I never can recollect whom.” by W.R. Inge ( 1860-1954