LITERATURETerminology

What is 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 writer of the poem.

Speaker/Persona

The speaker of the poem is the narrator. When the poet creates a character to be the speaker, that character is called the persona. The poet imagines what it is like to enter someone else's personality.

Example: Robert Browning's My Last Duchess, the persona is the Duke of Ferrara.

Poetry Form

Form The appearance of the words on the page

LineA group of words together on one line of the poem

StanzaA group of lines arranged together

Kinds of Stanzas

Couplet = a two line stanzaTriplet (Tercet) = a three line stanzaQuatrain = a four line stanzaQuintet = a five line stanzaSestet (Sextet) = a six line stanzaSeptet = a seven line stanzaOctave = an eight line stanza

Poetry Form

Couplet

A couplet is a pair of lines of verse that form a unit. Most couplets rhyme aa, but this is not a requirement.

aa bb cc dd ee ff... etc.

Example:

I THINK that I shall never see a

A poem as lovely as a tree. a

Poetry Form

Sonnet

The term sonnet is derived from the Provençal word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning little song.

By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines following a strict rhyme scheme and logical structure.

Poetry Form

Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet

In its original form, the Italian sonnet was divided into an octave followed by a sestet.

The octave stated a proposition and the sestet stated its solution with a clear break between the two.

Poetry Form

Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet

The octave rhymes a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a. For the sestet there were two different possibilities, c-d-e-c-d-e and c-d-c-c-d-c.

In time, other variants on this rhyming scheme were introduced.

Typically, the ninth line created a "turn" or volta, which signaled the change in the topic or tone of the sonnet.

Example: On His Blindness by John Milton

Poetry Form

Shakespearean Sonnet

The form consists of three quatrains and a couplet. The couplet generally introduced an unexpected sharp thematic or imagistic "turn".

The usual rhyme scheme was a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g.

Example: Sonnet 116

Poetry Form

Villanelle

• It is 19 lines long, but only uses two rhymes, while also repeating two lines throughout the poem.

• The first five stanzas are triplets, and the last stanza is a quatrain such that the rhyme scheme is as follows: "aba aba aba aba aba abaa."

Poetry Form

Villanelle

• The tricky part is that the 1st and 3rd lines from the first stanza are alternately repeated such that the 1st line becomes the last line in the second stanza, and the 3rd line becomes the last line in the third stanza.

• The last two lines of the poem are lines 1 and 3 respectively, making a rhymed couplet.

Example: Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

Poetry Form

Ballad

A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain.

Cinquain

A cinquain has five lines.

Elegy

A sad and thoughtful poem lamenting the death of a person.

Poetry Form

Epic

A long, serious poem that tells the story of a heroic figure.

Lyric

A short poem usually written in first person point of view

expresses an emotion or an idea or describes a scene. Does not tell a story.

Poetry Form

Pastoral

A poem that depicts rural life in a peaceful, idealized way for example of shepherds or country life.

Ode

A lyric poem, typically addressed to a particular person or a thing, usually of a serious or meditative nature and having an elevated style and formal stanzaic structure.

About Poetry

Poetry utilizes a broad range of figurative language, imagery, and symbolism—all devices requiring that the reader infer an unstated meaning.

We talk of the language as being "poetic" when it draws heavily on either indirect expression of ideas through imagery, symbolism, or figurative language or it draws heavily on the sound (whether rhythm or rhyme) of words. Both of these devices are more evocative than direct in their expression, catering more to the senses than to reason and intelligence.

Rhyme Scheme

Couplet

A couplet is a pair of lines of verse that form a unit. Most couplets rhyme aa, but this is not a requirement.

aa bb cc dd ee ff... etc.

Example:

I THINK that I shall never see a

A poem as lovely as a tree. a

Poetic Devices

• Rhyme

• Rhyme Schemes

• Rhythm

• Meter

• Line Length

• Onomatopoeia

• Alliteration

• Consonance

• Assonance

• Refrain

• Similes

• Metaphors

• Hyperbole

• Litotes

• Idioms

• Personification

• Allusions

• Symbolism

• Imagery

• Diction

Sounds in Poetry

• Rhyme • Rhyme

Scheme• Rhythm• Meter• Free Verse • Blank Verse• Onomatopoeia

• Alliteration• Consonance• Assonance• Refrain• Euphony• Cacophony

Rhyme

• A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words.

• Rhyme helps to unify a poem; it also repeats a sound that links one concept to another, thus helping to determine the structure of a poem.

• When two subsequent lines rhyme, it is likely that they are thematically linked, or that the next set of rhymed lines signifies a slight departure.

Rhyme

• A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words.

• Rhyme helps to unify a poem; it also repeats a sound that links one concept to another, thus helping to determine the structure of a poem.

• When two subsequent lines rhyme, it is likely that they are thematically linked, or that the next set of rhymed lines signifies a slight departure.

Rhyme: Types

End Rhymes

A word at the end of one line rhymes with a word at the end of another line

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

Rhyme: Types

Perfect Rhymes

A perfect rhyme — also called a full rhyme or true rhyme — is when the later part of the word or phrase is identical sounding to another.

– The vowel sound in both words are identical. — e.g. "sky" and high“

– Both words must have the same stresses.

Rhyme: Types

Perfect Rhymes

Perfect rhymes can be classified according to the number of syllables included in the rhyme.

•masculine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the final syllable of the words. (rhyme, sublime)

•feminine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the penultimate (second from last) syllable of the words. (picky, tricky)

Rhyme: Types

Internal Rhymes

Internal rhyme, or middle rhyme, is rhyme which occurs within a single line of verse.

The grains beyond age, the dark veins of her mother

- Dylan Thomas

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary.

-Edgar Allan Poe

Rhyme: Types

Imperfect/Half Rhymes

Occurs when words sound very similar but do not correspond in sound exactly.

The final consonants of stressed syllables agree but the vowel sounds do not match; thus a form of consonance.

frowned and friend, hall and hell.

Rhyme: Uses

• Half-rhymes allow a poet a more subtle range of rhyming effects, especially when combined with other rhyming schemes, and help to avoid the sing-song chiming of full rhymes.

• Moreover, half-rhymes can introduce a slight note of discord (a lack of complete harmony), an effect that has been subtly exploited by many 20th-century poets

Rhyme Scheme

• A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyme.

• Usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme.

• For example "A,B,A,B," indicates a four-line stanza in which the first and third lines rhyme, as do the second and fourth.

Rhyme Scheme

• Here is an example of this rhyme scheme from To Anthea, Who May Command Him Any Thing by Robert Herrick:

Bid me to weep, and I will weepA

While I have eyes to see; B

And having none, and yet I will keepA

A heart to weep for thee. B

Rhythm

• Rhythm is a musical quality produced by the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables.

• The beat created by the sounds of the words in a poem.

• Rhythm can be created by meter, rhyme, alliteration, line length and refrain/repetition.

Rhythm: Example

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we

sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all

exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel

grim and daring: But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

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 repeat the pattern throughout the poem.

Meter: Example

The unstressed syllables are in blue and the stressed syllables in red. 

Shall I comPARE thee TO a SUMmer’s DAY?

A pair of unstressed and stressed syllables makes up a unit called a foot.  

Meter

• Some feet in verse and poetry have different stress patterns.

For example, one type of foot consists of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one.

Another type consists of a stressed one followed by an unstressed one.

Meter

In all, there are five types of feet.Iamb (Iambic) Unstressed + Stressed

2 Syllables

Trochee (Trochaic) Stressed + Unstressed 2 Syllables

Spondee (Spondaic) Stressed + Stressed 2 Syllables

Anapest (Anapestic) Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed 3 Syllables

Dactyl (Dactylic) Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed 3 Syllables

Meter & Symbols

• stressed syllables are signified by /

• unstressed by u

iambic: u / Eg: Hello

trochaic: / u Eg: Under

spondiac: // Eg: Baseball

anapestic: u u / Eg: Understand

dactylic: / u u Eg: Canopy

Meter & Line Length

The length of lines–and thus the meter–can also vary. Following are the types of meter and the line length:•Monometer 1

Foot

•Dimeter 2 Feet

•Trimeter 3 Feet

•Tetrameter 4 Feet

•Pentameter 5 Feet

•Hexameter 6 Feet

•Heptameter 7 Feet

•Octameter 8 Feet

Meter & Line Length

The line contains five feet in all, as shown below.

    1         2              3         4            5 ShallI..|..comPARE..|..theeTO..|..aSUM..|..mer’s DAY?

A foot containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (as above) is called an iamb. Because there are five feet in the line, all iambic, the meter of the line is iambic pentameter.

Free Verse Poetry

• 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.

Blank Verse Poetry

• Is any verse comprised of unrhymed lines all in the same meter, usually iambic pentameter.

You stars that reign'd at my nativity,

Whose influence hath allotted death and hell,

Now draw up Faustus like a foggy mist

Into entrails of yon labouring clouds,

That when they vomit forth into the air,

My limbs may issue from their smoky mouths,

So that my soul may but ascend to Heaven.

- (Doctor Faustus)

Onomatopoeia

• Is a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes.

Example: Onomatopoeia by Eve Merriam

Alliteration

• Consonant sounds repeated at the beginnings of words

Tyger, tyger burning bright,

In the forest of the night;

What immortal hand or eye

Could name thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

Consonance

• Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds within words.

• Consonance is very similar to alliteration, but the distinction between the two lies in the placement of the sounds.

• If the repeated sound is at the start of the words, it is alliteration. If it is anywhere else, it is consonance. In most cases, consonance refers to the end sound

Example

Assonance

• Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line or lines of poetry.

• Like alliteration, it is the sound rather than the letter used that is important.

• (Often creates near rhyme.)

Lake Fate Base Fade

(All share the long “a” sound.)

Example

“Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep.”

- William Shakespeare

Refrain

• A refrain is a repeated part of a poem, particularly when it comes either at the end of a stanza or between two stanzas.

There lived a lady by the North Sea shore,Lay the bent to the bonny broomTwo daughters were the babes she bore.Fa la la la la la la la la.

As one grew bright as is the sun,Lay the bent to the bonny broomSo coal black grew the other one.Fa la la la la la la la.

Euphony

• When the sounds of words in a line create an effect that is pleasing to the ear.

• Euphony is refers to pleasant spoken sound that is created by smooth consonants such as "ripple'.

Example: To Autumn - by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

Cacophony

• A cacophony is a mix of harsh, displeasing, hissing or clashing sounds. Sometimes cacophony is accidental, and sometimes it is used intentionally for artistic effect.

Example: Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

Figurative Language

• When language is used this way, it is not intended to be interpreted literally or directly as the meaning is not equivalent to that of its component words.

• In our daily life, we use phrases such as “once in a blue moon” and “15 minutes of fame” which are not to be understood literally, although the actual meanings are derived from what is described.

Figurative Language

• Similes

• Metaphors

• Extended Metaphors

• Hyperbole

• Litotes

• Idioms

• Personification

Simile

Implied similarity between two things or people being compared, using ‘like’ or ‘as’.

A Red, Red Rose- Robert Burns

O My Luve's like a red, red rose,That's newly sprung in June;O My Luve's like the melodieThat's sweetly played in tune.

Metaphors

The thing that is described is referred to as the thing to which it is being compared.

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

- William Shakespeare

Extended Metaphor

A metaphor that goes several lines or possible the entire length of a work.

Example: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

Hyperbole

Is an exaggeration used to aid imagery, usually used in humorous poems or light-hearted prose. Hyperbole can make/emphasise a point in an entertaining way, or it can be used to make fun of someone or something.

Example: Shel Silverstein Hyperbole Poem

Litotes

Understatement - basically the opposite of hyperbole. Often it is ironic. The speaker's words convey less emotion than is actually felt.

Example: The grave's a fine a private place, But none, I think, do there embrace.

- Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress”"I'm really glad that you have come to visit," said the spider to ‘the fly. - Mary Howitt, ‘The Spider and the Fly

Idioms

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

Example: Idioms for Idiots

Personification

• This technique involves giving human traits (qualities, feelings, actions or characteristics) to inanimate objects, animals or natural phenomena.

Example: April Rain Song – Langston Hughes

Other Poetic Devices

• Allusions

• Symbolism

• Imagery

• Diction

• Denotation

• Connotation

• Euphemisms

• Caesura

• Enjambment

Allusion

• An allusion is the reference to a figure or event in history or literature that creates a mental image in the mind of the reader. It stimulates ideas, associations, and extra information in the reader's mind with only a word or two.

Example: Dover Beach – Matthew Arnold‘Sophocles long ago

Heard it on the A gaean, and it brought

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery.’

Symbolism

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

• Symbolism can take place by having the theme of a story represented on a physical level. A simple example might be the occurrence of a storm at a critical point, when there is conflict or high emotions. Similarly, a transition from day to night, or spring to winter, could symbolize a move from goodness to evil, or hope to despair.

Example: "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost

Imagery

• The creation of images using words. Poets usually achieve this by invoking comparisons by means of metaphor or simile or other figures of speech.

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

• In his famous line from ‘Sonnet 18’ Shakespeare creates an image by comparing his love to a 'summer's day'.

Example: ‘Sonnet 18’ by Shakespeare

Diction

• Refers to both the choice and the order of words. Can be split into vocabulary and syntax. The basic question to ask about vocabulary is "Is it simple or complex?" The question to ask about syntax is "Is it ordinary or unusual?“

• A work's diction forms one of its centrally important literary elements, as writers use words to convey action, reveal character, imply attitudes, identify themes, and suggest values and used to enhance the poem's meaning and effect.

Diction: Types

• Formal Diction:– Words that appear a bit more elegant or

extravagant. Often formal diction will contain

– words that are polysyllabic (many syllables).

• Neutral Diction:– Words that appear ordinary and that you hear

everyday. Contractions are often used in

– poetry that has neutral diction, as well as a simpler vocabulary.

Diction: Types

• Informal Diction:– Words and phrases that are slang expressions,

or the colloquial – the language of relaxed activities and friendly conversations.

• A poem that uses slang expressions can be just as powerful as a poem that uses a lot of big words.

• Word order matters—sometimes for clarity of meaning (a solo guitar isn't the same as a guitar solo) and sometimes for effect.

Denotation & Connotation• Denotation is when you mean what you say,

literally.

• Connotation is created when you mean something else, something that might be initially hidden. The connotative meaning of a word is based on implication, or shared emotional association with a word.

• Often there are many words that denote approximately the same thing, but their connotations are very different. Innocent and genuine both denote an absence of corruption, but the connotations of the two words are different.

Denotation & ConnotationExample

Innocent is often associated with a lack of experience, whereas genuine is not.

• Connotations are important in poetry because poets use them to further develop or complicate a poem's meaning.

Denotation & ConnotationExample

Innocent is often associated with a lack of experience, whereas genuine is not.

My Papa’s Waltz – Theodore Roethke

Euphemisms

Euphemism is the substitution of a soft agreeable expression instead of one that is harsh or unpleasant. For example 'pass away' as opposed to 'die'.

Example: My Last Duchess by Robert BrowningMuch the same smile? This grew; I gave

commands;

Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands

As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet

The company below, then. I repeat,

Caesura

• Is a grammatical pause or break in a line of poetry (like a question mark), usually near the middle of the line.

• A caesura is usually dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm rather than by metrics.

• In poetry scansion*, a caesura is usually indicated by the symbol //.

• The caesura can also be used for rhetorical effect, as in "To err is human; || to forgive, divine." by Alexander Pope

*analysis of verse into metrical patterns

Caesura

Example: An Essay on Man by Alexander Pope

Know then thyself II, presume not God to scan;

The proper study of Mankind II is Man.

Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,

A being darkly wise, and rudely great:

Enjambment

• A run-on line of poetry in which logical and grammatical sense carries over from one line into the next. An enjambed line differs from an end-stopped line in which the grammatical and logical sense is completed within the line.

• In the opening lines of Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," for example, the first line is end-stopped and the second enjambed:

Enjambment

Example:

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call

That piece a wonder, now....