1 Elements of Poetry

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Elements of PoetryI. POETRY ASSUMPTIONS

Readers of poetry often bring with them many related assumptions:

That a poem is to be read for its "message," That this message is "hidden" in the poem, The message is to be found by treating the words as symbols which naturally

do not mean what they say but stand for something else, You have to decipher every single word to appreciate and enjoy the poem.

There are no easy ways to dispel these biases. Poetry is difficult because very oftenits language is indirect. But so is experience - those things we think, feel, and do. The

lazy reader wants to be told things and usually avoids poetry because it demandscommitment and energy. Moreover, much of what poetry has to offer is not in the formof hidden meanings. Many poets like to "play" with the sound of language or offer an

emotional insight by describing what they see in highly descriptive language. In fact,there can many different ways to enjoy poetry; this reflects the many different styles

and objectives of poets themselves. Finally, if you are the type to give up whensomething is unclear, just relax! Like we just said, there can be many differentapproaches to examining poetry; often these approaches (like looking for certainpoetic devices or examining the meaning of a specific phrase) do not require acomplete and exhaustive analysis of a poem. So, enjoy what you do understand!

FIRST APPROACHESRead the poem (many students neglect this step). Identify the speaker and the situation.

Feel free to read it more than once! Read the sentences literally. Use your prosereading skills to clarify what the poem is about. Read each line separately, notingunusual words and associations. Look up words you are unsure of and struggle withword associations that may not seem logical to you. Note any changes in the form ofthe poem that might signal a shift in point of view. Study the structure of the poem,

including its rhyme and rhythm (if any). Re-read the poem slowly, thinking about whatmessage and emotion the poem communicates to you.

II. STRUCTUREAn important method of analysing a poem is to look at the stanza structure or style ofa poem. Generally speaking, structure has to do with the overall organization of linesand/or the conventional patterns of sound. Again, many modern poems may not haveany identifiable structure (i.e. they are free verse), so don't panic if you can't find it!

STANZAS: Stanzas are a series of lines grouped together and separated by an


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empty line from other stanzas. They are the equivalent of a paragraph in an essay.One way to identify a stanza is to count the number of lines. Thus:

couplet (2 lines) tercet (3 lines) quatrain (4 lines) cinquain (5 lines)

sestet (6 lines) (sometimes it'scalled a sexain)

septet (7 lines) octave (8 lines)

III. FORMA poem may or may not have a specific number of lines, rhyme scheme and/or metricalpattern, but it can still be labelled according to its form or style. Here are the three

most common types of poemsaccording to form:

I. Lyric Poetry:It is any poem with one speaker (not necessarily the poet) whoexpresses strong thoughts and feelings. Most poems, especially modernones, are lyric poems.

II. Narrative Poem:It is a poem that tells a story; its structure resembles theplot line of a story [i.e. the introduction of conflict and characters, risingaction, climax and the denouement].

III. Descriptive Poem:It is a poem that describes the worldthat surrounds thespeaker. It uses elaborate imagery and adjectives. While emotional, it is

more "outward-focused" than lyric poetry, which is more personal andintrospective.

In a sense, almost all poems, whether they have consistent patterns of sound and/orstructure, or are free verse, are in one of the three categories above. Or, of course,

they may be a combination of 2 or 3 of the above styles! Here are some more typesof poems that are subtypes of the three styles above:

Ode:It is usually a lyricpoem of moderate length, with a serious subject, an elevatedstyle, and an elaborate stanza pattern.

In today's common usage, often in jokes, an ode is a song or poem of tribute.As you might guess, "ode" means something more specific in poetic terminology, but

the informal uses of the word do retain some of the general associations of the form.

Odes tend to be lyricpoems, spoken by a single voice. They tend to address serious,public themes with dignified language. Beyond those general characteristics, odes varywidely, but the following will explain some of the ode's traditional forms and practices.

The Pindaric Ode: Named for the ancient Greek lyric poet Pindar, the Pindaricode retains some traces of the Ode's roots as a part of ancient Greek drama.In the Greek context, a chorus performed an ode by moving first on one


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direction to sing the strophe, which involved varying metrical patterns and dancesteps, then in another direction to sing the antistrophe, which reversed the steps,and one or more epodes, in which the chorus stood still.The Pindaric ode translates the strophe and antistrophe into its verse form. In aPindaric ode, the strophes and antistrophes share the same verse form, but the

opposing movements of the Greek chorus become two positions that the narratorexplores, with the epode or epodes using a different verse form and oftenfinding some kind of resolution of the strophe and antistrophe. You can look forthese characteristics in one an eighteenth-century example, Thomas Gray's "TheProgress of Poesy."

The Horiatian Ode: The Horatian ode is named for the Latin lyric poet Horace.Unlike the Pindaric ode, the Horatian uses only one stanza type. Often, a poet

invents a stanza form using complex variations of rhyme and meter for thepurpose of a Horatian ode. Horatian odes tend to be more personal and solemn

than Pindaric odes. For an example, see Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations ofImmortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.

The Irregular Ode: Some poems, generally written after 1900, identifythemselves as odes but do not reflect the formal characteristics of Pindaric orHoratian odes. Such irregular odes are odes only in that they share theseriousness and imaginative qualities of traditional odes.

Elegy:It is a lyricpoem that mourns the dead. [It's not to be confused with a eulogy.]It

has no set metric or stanzaic pattern, but it usually begins by reminiscing about thedead person, then laments the reason for the death, and then resolves the grief byconcluding that death leads to immortality. It often uses "apostrophe" (calling out to

the dead person) as a literary technique. It can have a fairly formal style, and soundsimilar to an ode.

Good-hearted people deserve to be remembered in special words. You musthave come across beautiful words as a tribute to the deceased, sometimes as an elegy,at others, a simple eulogy. There is, however a subtle difference.

An elegyis a lamenting poem, couplet or a song written in the memory of adeceased person. If used in a musical context, it refers to a composition that hasa melancholy tone to it. An elegy has a tone of remorse for the loss of a person.

A eulogyis a tribute in the form of an essay or short prose, written in praise ofthe dead. A eulogy has a tone of respect and accolades as to how good theperson was while s/he lived.


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Comparison between an Elegy and an EulogyElegy Eulogy

ToneMelancholic: Expressing remorse or regretfor a loss.

Reminiscing: Expressing praise and respectto a person; remembering how they werewhile they lived.

Timing Written any time after the death ofsomeone close or prominent; could beright after death or years later.

Generally written soon after someone's

death, usually suring the funeral. Eulogy ismostly written for a late family member,friend or someone of acquaintance.

Etymology:

1514, from M. French elegie; Latinelegia; Greek elegeia. ode "an elegaicsong," from elegeia, fem. of elegeios"elegaic," from elegos "poem or song oflament," perhaps from a Phrygian word.

Mid-15c., from Greek eulogia "praise,"from eu- "well" + -logia "speaking," fromlogos "discourse, word;" legein "speak." Eulegein meant "speak well of."

UsageThe poetess in Lucy wanted to write anelegy for her dear grandmother, whomshe missed so much.

The expressive eulogy by Laura revealedthe soft, caring side of the person herseemingly stern father really was.

DefinitionA lamenting poem or couplet to honor the

deceased.

An essay or a piece of writing, written to

honor the dead.LiteraryForm

Poetry Prose

Origin Greek & Latin Classic Greek

An Elegy written by Thomas Gray:

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,

The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,

And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Eulogy written for comedian Bob Hope by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein:

On the desk of the Oval Office, President Truman kept under glass the

one-word telegram Bob sent him following his dramatic upset of Tom

Dewey. It read: "unpack." When another President - Abraham Lincoln -

died in the house across the street from Ford's Theater, his Secretary

of War, Edwin Stanton, standing at Lincoln's side, said "Now he

belongs to the ages." The same is equally true of Bob Hope. He is not

America's - he is the world's. He belongs not to our age, but to all

ages. And yet, even though he belongs to all time and to all peoples,

he is our own, for he was quintessentially American. - U.S. Senator

Dianne Feinstein Aug. 27, 2003

Sonnet:It is a lyricpoem consisting of 14 lines and, in the English version, is usuallywritten in iambic pentameter. There are two basic kinds of sonnets: the Italian (orPetrarchan) sonnet and the Shakespearean (or Elizabethan/English) sonnet. TheItalian/Petrarchan sonnet is named after Petrarch, an Italian Renaissance poet. ThePetrarchan sonnet consists of an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). The


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Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (four lines each) and a concludingcouplet (two lines). The Petrarchan sonnet tends to divide the thought into two parts(argument and conclusion); the Shakespearean, into four (the final couplet is thesummary).

Much of the nature of sonnetsarises from one simple characteristic of their form:

sonnets are short. Sonnets therefore develop a single, self-contained topic, often as afirst-person expression of the speaker's emotions. When a poet chooses to write asonnet, he or she participates in a tradition of writers who have spent centuriesexploring the limits and possibilities that a fourteen-line form creates. Every word andbeat of a sonnet, even more than those of other traditional verse, carries a heavyburden of tradition and association, calling to mind an Italian tradition identified withPetrarch, an English tradition identified largely with Shakespeare and Milton, and

generations of later sonneteers who have revised and adapted the sonnet tradition.In its most conventional form, a sonnet in English contains fourteen lines of iambic

pentameter--a meter whose typical lines have five feet of two syllables each, with the

second syllable stressed in each foot. Poets and critics tend to group sonnets into thetwo major categories mentioned above: Petrarchanand Shakespearean(also called

Italian and English, respectively). The following explain those categories.

The Petrarchan (or Italian) Sonnet: The sonnet form developed first in Italianpoetry; at one time, the term "Italian Sonnet" would have been redundant. One

variant of the Italian form, one used by Petrarch and Dante, came to berecognized as the form we now call Petrarchan or Italian. (I will hereafter use"Petrarchan.")

The Petrarchan sonnet's defining characteristic is a strong division between

the first eight lines of the sonnet and the last six. The first eight lines, the octave,establish the subject of the poem in a certain way, and the next six, the sestet,

counter the octave by shifting the perspective of the poem in some way. Theplace where the poem turns from the octave to the sestet is therefore calledthe volta, which is Italian for "turn."

The rhyme scheme of the most traditional Petrarchan sonnet consists of twosets of four lines rhymed abba (each of these is called an Italian quatrain),

followed by rhymes of cdecdein the sestet. While the rhymes of the octave arerelatively stable in Petrarchan sonnets, poets tend to vary the rhymes of thesestet, using many different combinations of the c, d, and erhymes to round out

the poem.Because Petrarch's sonnets often expressed a male speaker's desire for a

woman, the Petrarchan sonnet form carries associations with that mode ofaddress. Perhaps predictably, many later writers have used the Petrarchanform in ways that subvert the content inherited from Petrarch. For example, take

this sonnet, number 22, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's book Sonnets from thePortuguese:


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When our two souls stand up erect and strong,

Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,

Until the lengthening wings break into fire

At either curved point, -- what bitter wrong

Can the earth do to us, that we should not long

Be here contented? Think. In mounting higher,

The angels would press on us, and aspire

To drop some golden orb of perfect song

Into our deep, dear silence. Let us stay

Rather on earth, Beloved, -- where the unfit

Contrarious moods of men recoil away

And isolate pure spirits, and permit

A place to stand and love in for a day,

With darkness and the death-hour rounding it.

Note the ways in which Barrett Browning's sonnet uses and departs from the Petrarchan

tradition.

The Shakespearean (or English) Sonnet: The English language, with its widevariety of word endings and vowel sounds, does not produce musical, effortless

rhymes as easily as Italian does. A density of rhyme that works in Italian poetrycan therefore sound strained in English. As a result, English variants of Italianpoetic forms will tend to increase the poet's flexibility in rhyme; the Englishversion of the sonnet, for instance, features seven rhymes rather than five, thusrequiring less repetition of the poem's rhyming sounds.

Conventional Shakespearean sonnetsare easy to spot. Once you see a

poem of fourteen lines--by now, "sonnet!" should leap into your head at thatpoint--you can look at the last two lines to see if they rhyme. If they do, you arealmost certainly beholding the closing couplet of a Shakespearean sonnet. Thatcouplet closes the Shakespearean sonnet with a bang, replacing or

supplementing the Italian volta with a break between the first twelve lines(divided into three quatrains) and the final two, which give a brief summarizingor retrospective statement. The Shakespearean sonnet's rhyme schemereads abab cdcd efef gg; the volta comes after the twelfth line.

As a clever reader, you have probably deduced by now that this sonnetform is associated with Shakespeare. You can see the form in action through this,

one of the most famous of Shakespeare's sonnets (number 130):


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My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red:

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound.

I grant I never saw a goddess go:

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

(In the final line, note the archaic use of the pronoun "she," which functions as a synonym

for "woman.")

Ballad:It is a narrativepoem that has a musical rhythm and can be sung. A ballad isusually organized into quatrains or cinquains, has a simple rhythm structure, and tells

the tales of ordinary people.Balladshave strong associations with childhood: much children's poetry comes in

ballad form, and English poets traditionally associated ballads with their national

childhood as well. Ballads emphasize strong rhythms, repetition of key phrases, andrhymes; if you hear a traditional ballad, you will know that you are hearing a poem.Ballads are meant to be song-like and to remind readers of oral poetry--of parentssinging to children, for instance, or of ancient poets reciting their verse to a live

audience.Ballads do not have the same formal consistency as some other poetic forms,

but one can look for certain characteristics that identify a ballad, including these:

Simple language. Some ballads, especially older traditional ballads, werecomposed for audiences of non-specialist hearers or (later) readers.Therefore, they feature language that people can understand withoutspecialist training or repeated readings. When later poets choose to write

ballads, regardless of their intended audience, the choice of the ballad formgenerally implies a similar emphasis on simple language. Sometimes poetswrite ballads specifically to react against poetry they see as overly

intellectual or obscure. Stories. Ballads tend to be narrativepoems, poems that tell stories, as

opposed to lyricpoems, which emphasize the emotions of the speaker.

Ballad stanzas. The traditional ballad stanza consists of four lines,rhymed abcb(or sometimes abab--the key is that the second and fourth linesrhyme). The first and third lines have four stresses, while the second and


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fourth have three. Here is a stanza from "Sir Patrick Spens," a medievalballad:

'I saw the new moon late yestreen

Wi' the auld moon in her arm;

And if we gang to sea, master,I fear we'll come to harm.'

Repetition. A ballad often has a refrain, a repeated section that dividessegments of the story. Many ballads also employ incremental repetition, inwhich a phrase recurs with minor differences as the story progresses. For aclassic example of incremental repetition, see the first two lines of eachstanza in "Lord Randal."

Dialogue. As you might expect in a narrative genre, ballads oftenincorporate multiple characters into their stories. Often, since changes of

voice were communicated orally, written transcriptions of oral ballads givelittle or no indication that the speaker has changed. Writers of literaryballads, the later poems that imitate oral ballads, sometimes play with thisconvention.

Third-person objective narration. Ballad narrators usually do not speak in thefirst person (unless speaking as a character in the story), and they often donot comment on their reactions to the emotional content of the ballad.

Epic:It is a long narrativepoem in elevated style recounting the deeds of alegendary or historical hero.

o Qualities of an Epic Poem: narrative poem of great scope; dealing with the founding of a

nation or some other heroic theme requires a dignifiedtheme requires an organic unity requires orderly progress of theaction always has a heroic figure or figures involves supernatural

forces

written in deliberately ceremonial styleThe phrase "heroic couplets" itself can tell us a lot about the associations of this verseform. First, it consists of couplets, pairs of rhymed lines (of iambic pentameter) that givea sense of balance between the two lines and often within each line as well. That thecouplets are "heroic" signals, in the words of Jack Lynch, their "use in epic poetry inEnglish, especially Dryden's translation of Virgil (1697) and Pope's translation ofHomer (1715-26)."


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Due primarily to the abilities and influence of Dryden and Pope, the eighteenthcentury is now understood to be the time of the heroic couplet's dominance of Englishpoetry, after which the more experimental Romantic poets abandoned heroic verse formore flexible, modern forms. Though exceptions to that rule abound, it is nonethelessdifficult to dispute J. Paul Hunter's point that "in the century and a half between Jonson

and Churchill (from the 1630s to the 1780s) the couplet covered the British andAmerican literary landscapes like the dew and dominated poetry like a tyrant."

Part of the couplet's attraction for writers in English has been a sense that thecouplets were the form of the greatest work of the proverbial "father of Englishpoetry": Chaucer. Take the famous opening of the General Prologue to the Canterbury,for example:

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote

The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour

Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Note that none of these lines contain any punctuation except at the end. As a rule,Chaucer's couplets create a smooth, flowing effect that lets the rhythm of thepentameter lines carry through long sentences without many dramatic stops, orcaesurae, in the middle of lines.

In the heyday of the couplet, Alexander Pope became the form's acknowledgedmaster and most dogged practitioner; nearly all of Pope's poetry consists of heroiccouplets. Pope's couplets tend to be balanced and regular, even by the standards ofthe couplet form. When you find a caesura in Pope's verse, it will most often come inthe middle of a line, after the fourth, fifth, or sixth syllable. Using ostentatious rhymes,

heavy end-stopping, and inverted sentence structures, Pope's couplets create humorousparallels and contrasts between high and low subjects, often reserving a witty rhymefor the couplet's close.

Much of Pope's verse engages in satirical mockery of human folly, as illustratedby this passage describing Belinda's "toilet" (dressing and makeup table, that is) in TheRape of the Lock:

And now, unveil'd, the toilet stands display'd,

Each silver vase in mystic order laid.

First, rob'd in white, the nymph intent adoresWith head uncover'd, the cosmetic pow'rs.

A heav'nly image in the glass appears,

To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears;

Th' inferior priestess, at her altar's side,

Trembling, begins the sacred rites of pride.

Unnumber'd treasures ope at once, and here

The various off'rings of the world appear;

From each she nicely culls with curious toil,


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And decks the goddess with the glitt'ring spoil.

This casket India's glowing gems unlocks,

And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.

The tortoise here and elephant unite,

Transform'd to combs, the speckled and the white.

Here files of pins extend their shining rows,

Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billet-doux.Now awful beauty puts on all its arms;

The fair each moment rises in her charms,

Repairs her smiles, awakens ev'ry grace,

And calls forth all the wonders of her face;

Sees by degrees a purer blush arise,

And keener lightnings quicken in her eyes.

As you look at the passage above, consider ways in which Pope parallels serious andtrivial subjects within the couplet structure to create humor.

In some ways, the Romantic period (which began in the late 1700s in Britain andcontinued well into the nineteenth century in Britain, Europe, and the United States) sawthe downfall of the couplet as writers turned to more flexible and variable forms.Certainly, the most canonical Romantic poets rarely employed couplets. Though John

Keats did write rhymed couplets, even he rebelled against the conventions of Pope'swriting by using open couplets, which do not adhere to the strictly balanced structureof heroic couplets. Some poets of the Romantic period did use heroic couplets,generally to adopt a satirical tone about public events (as in Anna LtitiaBarbauld's Eighteen Hundred and Eleven) or to address a particularly conservative

audience--I found researching Romantic-era prize poems that every Oxford prize

poem through at least 1834 was written in heroic couplets.The best couplets written during and after the Romantic period do, however, tend to

use open couplets. Here is a famous example from the nineteenth century, RobertBrowning's "My Last Duchess":

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call

That piece a wonder, now: Fr Pandolfs hands

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

Willt please you sit and look at her? I said

Fr Pandolfby design, for never read

Strangers like you that pictured countenance,

The depth and passion of its earnest glance,

But to myself they turned (since none puts by

The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,

How such a glance came there; so, not the first

Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, twas not

Her husbands presence only, called that spot


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Of joy into the Duchesscheek: perhaps

Fr Pandolf chanced to say Her mantle laps

Over my ladys wrist too much,or Paint

Must never hope to reproduce the faint

Half-flush that dies along her throat: such stuff

Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enoughFor calling up that spot of joy. She had

A hearthow shall I say?too soon made glad,

Too easily impressed; she liked whateer

She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

Sir, twas all one! My favour at her breast,

The dropping of the daylight in the West,

The bough of cherries some officious fool

Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule

She rode with round the terraceall and each

Would draw from her alike the approving speech,

Or blush, at least. She thanked men,good! but thanked

SomehowI know not howas if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

With anybodys gift. Whod stoop to blame

This sort of trifling? Even had you skill

In speech(which I have not)to make your will

Quite clear to such an one, and say, Just this

Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,

Or there exceed the markand if she let

Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,

Een then would be some stooping; and I choose

Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,

Wheneer I passed her; but who passed without

Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands

As if alive. Willt please you rise? Well meet

The company below, then. I repeat,

The Count your masters known munificence

Is ample warrant that no just pretence

Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

Though his fair daughters self, as I avowed

At starting, is my object. Nay, well go

Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,

Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,

Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

Many readers do not notice Browning's subtle couplets when first reading or hearingthis poem. Consider the ways in which Browning's couplet form departs from Pope's inits use of enjambment, caesura, and parallelism. What does it mean for your reading


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of the poem that the Duke, who claims not to have "skill / in speech," creates thesesubtle couplets as he addresses the Count's envoy?

Haiku:It has an unrhymedverse form having three lines (a tercet) and usually5,7,5 syllables, respectively. It's usually considered a lyric poem.

A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written ina 5/7/5 syllable count. Often focusing on images from nature, haiku emphasizessimplicity, intensity, and directness of expression.

Haiku began in thirteenth-century Japan as the opening phrase of renga, an

oral poem, generally 100 stanzas long, which was also composed syllabically. Themuch shorter haiku broke away from renga in the sixteenth-century, and was mastereda century later by Matsuo Basho, who wrote this classic haiku:

Kanji Romaji

Romaji Traduccion

fu-ru-i-ke ya (5)

ka-wa-zu to-bi-ko-mu (7)

mi-zu no o-to (5)

An old pond!

A frog jumps in--

the sound of water.

Among the greatest traditional haiku poets are Basho, Yosa Buson, Kobayashi Issa,and Masaoka Shiki. Modern poets interested in the form include Robert Hass, Paul

Muldoon, and Anselm Hollo, whose poem "5 & 7 & 5" includes the following stanza:

round lumps of cells grow

up to love porridge later

become The Supremes

Haiku was traditionally written in the present tense and focused on associationsbetween images. There was a pause at the end of the first or second line, and a

"season word," or kigo, specified the time of year.As the form has evolved, many of these rules--including the 5/7/5 practice--

have been routinely broken. However, the philosophy of haiku has been preserved:the focus on a brief moment in time; a use of provocative, colourful images; an abilityto be read in one breath; and a sense of sudden enlightenment and illumination.

This philosophy influenced poet Ezra Pound, who noted the power of haiku'sbrevity and juxtaposed images. He wrote, "The image itself is speech. The image is the


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word beyond formulated language." The influence of haiku on Pound is most evidentin his poem "In a Station of the Metro," which began as a thirty-line poem, but waseventually pared down to two:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

Limerick:It has a very structured poem, usually humorous & composed of five lines (acinquain), in anaabbarhyming pattern; beat must be anapestic(weak, weak, strong)

with 3 feet in lines 1, 2, & 5 and 2 feet in lines 3 & 4. It's usually a narrative poembased upon a short and often ribald anecdote.

A limerick is a poem of a nonsense or humorous theme consisting of fivestructured lines. The poem has a regular rhythm and rhyme pattern and lends itself topuns and plays on words.

The rhyming pattern of the limerick is (a a b b a). This means that lines 1, 2, and5 rhyme together and lines 3 and 4 rhyme together.

Each line in the limerick has a specified number of syllables. Lines 1, 2, and 5may have anywhere from 7 to 9 syllables. Lines 3 and 4 may have anywhere from 4to 6 syllables.

Each line in the limerick also has a specified number of accented syllables. Inlines 1, 2, and 5 there are three accented syllables. In lines 3 and 4 there are twoaccented syllables.

The following is a diagram of the limerick form:

Line 1 - 7-9 beats/syllables with 3 stresses/accented syllablesLine 2 - 7-9 beats/syllables with 3 stresses/accented syllablesLine 3 - 4-6 beats/syllables with 2 stresses/accented syllables

Line 4 - 4-6 beats/syllables with 2 stresses/accented syllablesLine 5 - 7-9 beats/syllables with 3 stresses/accented syllables

The following is an example of a limerick. Use the example to talk about the differentparts of a limerick.

There was a Faith Healer of Deal,

Who said, "Although pain isn't real,

If I sit on a pin,

And it punctures my skin,

I dislike what I fancy I feel."

IV. SOUND PATTERNSThree other elements of poetry are rhyme scheme, meter(ie. regular rhythm)and word sounds (like alliteration). These are sometimes collectively called sound

play because they take advantage of the performative, spoken nature of poetry.


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RHYME: Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds. In poetry, the most common kind ofrhyme is the end rhyme, which occurs at the end of two or more lines. It is usuallyidentified with lower case letters, and a new letter is used to identify each new endsound. Take a look at the rhyme scheme for the following poem :

I saw a fairy in thewood,

He was dressed all in green.

He drew his sword while I just stood,

And realized I'd been seen.

The rhyme scheme of the poem is abab.Internal rhymeoccurs in the middle of a line, as in these lines from Coleridge,

"In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud" or "Whiles all the nightthrough fog-smoke white"("The Ancient Mariner"). Remember that most modern poems do not have rhyme.

NOTE: Rhyme(above) and rhythm(below) are two totally different concepts!

RHYTHM AND METER

I. METER: the systematic regularity in rhythm; this systematic rhythm (or sound pattern)is usually identified by examining the typeof "foot" and the numberof feet.

1. Poetic Foot:The traditional line of metered poetry contains a number of rhythmicalunits, which are called feet. The feet in a line are distinguished as a recurringpattern of two or three syllables ("apple" has 2 syllables, "banana" has 3

syllables, etc.). The pattern, or foot, is designated according to the numberofsyllables contained, and the relationship in each foot between the strong andweak syllables. Thus:

__ = a stressed (or strong, or LOUD) syllableU = an unstressed (or weak, or quiet) syllable

In other words, any line of poetry with a systematic rhythm has a certain number offeet, and each foothas two or three syllableswith a constant beat pattern.

a. Iamb (Iambic) -weak syllable followed by strong syllable. [Note that thepattern is sometimes fairly hard to maintain, as in the third foot.]


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b. Trochee (Trochaic) - strong syllable followed by a weak syllable.

c. Anapest (Anapestic)- two weak syllables followed by a strong syllable.

e.g.In her roomat the prowof the house

Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed...

From "The Writer", by Richard Wilbur

d. Dactyl (Dactylic)- a strong syllable followed by two weak syllables.

Here's another (silly) example of dactylic rhythm.Awas an / archer, who / shotat a / frog

Bwas a /butcher, and / hada great / dog

Cwas a / captain, all / covered with / lace

Dwas a / drunkard, and / hada red / face.

e. Spondee (Spondaic): two strong syllables (not common as lines, but appearsas a foot). A spondee usually appears at the end of a line.

II. THE NUMBER OF FEET: The second part of meter is the number of feet contained ina line.

Thus:one foot = monometertwo feet = dimeter

three feet = trimesterfour feet = tetrameterfive feet = pentametersix feet = hexameter (when hexameter is in iambic rhythm, it is called an

alexandrine)


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Poems with an identifiable meter are therefore identified by the type of feet (e.g.iambic) and the number of feet in a line (e.g. pentameter). The following line is iambicpentameter because it (1) has five feet [pentameter], and (2) each foot has twosyllables with the stress on the second syllable [iambic].

That time| of year| thoumayst| inme| behold

Thus, you will hear meter identified as iambic pentameter, trochaic tetrameter, and soon.

III. IRREGULARITY: Many metered poems in English avoid perfectly regular rhythmbecause it is monotonous. Irregularities in rhythm add interest and emphasis to the lines.

In this line:

The first foot substitutes a trochee for an iamb. Thus, the basic iambic pentameter isvaried with the opening trochee.

IV. BLANK VERSE:Any poetry that does havea set metrical pattern (usually iambicpentameter), but does not haverhyme, is blank verse. Shakespeare frequently usedunrhymed iambic pentameter in his plays; his works are an early example of blank

verse.

V. FREE VERSE:Most modern poetry no longer follows strict rules of meter orrhyme,

especially throughout an entire poem. Free verse, frankly, has no rules aboutmeter or rhyme whatsoever! [In other words, blank verse hasrhythm, but norhyme,while free verse has neitherrhythm norrhyme.] So, you may find it difficult to find

regular iambic pentameter in a modern poem, though you might find it in particularlines. Modern poets do like to throw in the occasional line or phrase of metered poetry,particularly if theyre trying to create a certain effect. Free verse can also apply to a

lack of a formal verse structure.

How do I know if a poem has meter? How do I determine the meter?To maintain a consistent meter, a poet has to choose words that fit. For example, if apoet wants to write iambic poetry, s/he has to choose words that have a naturallyiambic rhythm. Words like betray and persuadewill work in an iambic poem because


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they are naturally iambic. They sound silly any other way. However, candleand muscle will work best in a trochaic poem, because their natural emphasis is on thefirst syllable. (However, a poet can use trochaic words if s/he places a one syllableword in front of them. This often leads to poetic feet ending in the middle of words -after one syllable - rather than the end.) It's not surprising that most modern poetry is

not metered, because it is very restrictive and demanding.Determining meter is usually a process of elimination. Start reading everything

in iambicby emphasizing every second syllable. 80 to 90% of metered poetry isiambic. If it sounds silly or strange, because many of the poem's words do not soundnatural, then try trochaic, anapaestic or dactylic rhythms. If none of these sounds natural,then you probably do not have metered poetry at all (i.e. it's free verse).

If there are some lines that sound metered, but some that don't, the poem has

an irregularrhythm.

VI. WORD SOUNDS

Another type of sound play is the emphasis on individual sounds and words: Alliteration: the repetition of initial sounds on the same line or stanza

- Big bad Bob bounced bravely.

Assonance: the repetition ofvowelsounds (anywhere in the middle or end of aline or stanza) - Tilting at windmills

Consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds (anywhere in the middle or endof a line or stanza) - And allthe air a solemn stillness holds. (T. Gray)

Onomatopoeia: words that sound like that which they describe - Boom! Crash!Pow! Quack! Moo!Caress...

Repetition: the repetition of entire lines or phrases to emphasize key thematicideas.

Parallel Stucture: a form of repetition where the order of verbs and nouns isrepeated; it may involve exact words, but it more importantly repeats sentencestructure - "I came, I saw, I conquered".

V. MEANING and POETRYWe said earlier that poetry is not always about hidden or indirect meanings(sometimes called meaning play). Nevertheless, it often is a major part of poetry, so

here are some of the important things to remember:

I. CONCRETENESS and PARTICULARITYIn general, poetry deals with particular things in concrete language, since our

emotions most readily respond to these things. From the poem's particular situation, thereader may then generalize; the generalities arise by implication from the particular.


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In other words, a poem is most often concrete and particular; the "message," if there isany, is general and abstract; it's implied by the images.

Images, in turn, suggest meanings beyond the mere identity of the specific object.Poetry "plays" with meaning when it identifies resemblances or makes comparisonsbetween things; common examples of this "figurative" comparison include:

ticking of clock = mortality hardness of steel = determination white = peace or puritySuch terms as connotation, simile, metaphor, allegory, and symbol are aspects of

this comparison. Such expressions are generally called figurativeor metaphorical

language.

II. DENOTATION AND CONNOTATIONWord meanings are not only restricted to dictionary meanings. The full meaning of aword includes both the dictionary definition and the special meanings and associations

a word takes in a given phrase or expression. For example, a tiger is a carnivorousanimal of the cat family. This is the literal or denotativemeaning. But we have certainassociations with the word: sinuous movement, jungle violence, and aggression. These

are the suggestive, figurative or connotativemeanings.

III. FIGURATIVE/CONNOTATIVE DEVICES1. Simile is the rhetorical term used to designate the most elementary form of

resemblances: most similes are introduced by "like" or "as." These comparisonsare usually between dissimilar situations or objects that have something incommon, such as "My love is like a red, red rose."

2. A metaphorleaves out "like" or "as" and implies a direct comparison betweenobjects or situations. "All flesh is grass."

3. Synecdoche is a form of metaphor, which in mentioning an important (andattached) part signifies the whole (e.g. "hands" for labour).

4. Metonymyis similar to synecdoche; it's a form of metaphor allowing an objectclosely associated (butunattached) with an object or situation to stand for thething itself (e.g. the crown or throne for a king or the bench for the judicial

system).5. A symbolis like a simile or metaphor with the first term left out. "My love is like

a red, red rose" is a simile. If, through persistent identification of the rose with

the beloved woman, we may come to associate the rose with her and herparticular virtues. At this point, the rose would become a symbol.

6. Allegorycan be defined as a one to one correspondence between a series ofabstract ideas and a series of images or pictures presented in the form of a


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meaning. These associations or connotations afford a few indirections that enrich theentire poem. For example, "small rain" at once describes the kind of rain that the loverwants to fall and suggests the joy and peace of lover's tears, and "small" alone mightsuggest the daintiness or femininity of the beloved.

Sources:

http://learn.lexiconic.net/elementsofpoetry.htm http://learn.lexiconic.net/poetry.htm http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5782

(Last time accessed: January 19th, 2014)

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1 Elements of Poetry