Poetic Forms

BalladBallads, one of the earliest forms of literature,

are narrative songs.

Traditionally passed down orally from generation to generation, they are divided into two major types: Folk Ballads which are meant to be sung and Literary Ballads which are meant to be printed and read.

Major themes found in ballads include love, especially unrequited love, revenge, courage, and death.

Ballads are usually tragic in tone and emphasize the story rather than the setting or characters.

Dialogue, refrains, and repetitions are common elements in ballads.

The ballad stanza is a quatrain with the second and fourth lines rhyming.

Musical ballads may or may not follow this pattern, but most tell a story about a person, and the story is often a touching one.

Ballad

Haiku and TankaThe Haiku form of Japanese poetry has 3

unrhymed lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables with a total of 17 syllables. Originally the poems referred to one of the seasons of the year, but now they are written on topics.

The Tanka is similar, except has 5 lines of 5,7,5,7,and 7 syllables, with a total of 31 syllables.

LimerickA Limerick is a poem(often

humorous) with five lines and a sing-song rhythm .

Each Limerick has the following typical rhyme pattern: a a b b a.

Pantoum

A Pantoum is a rhymed poetic form with stanzas of four lines each, according to a set pattern.

The unique line pattern is 1234, 2546, 5768, 7183.

The rhyme scheme is a b a b, b c b c, c d c d, d a d a.

Begin with a basic idea and fit it into the scheme.

Shakespearean Sonnet The Shakespearean sonnet is a fourteen line

poem.

The format of a Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (a four line stanza of verse) and ending in a couplet (a two line stanza of verse).

The rhyme scheme is as follows: abab cdcd efef gg.

The first three quatrains of the poem set up a conflict or situation for the poem which is usually resolved or explained in the final couplet.

The sonnet is written in Iambic Pentameter which is a line of meter consisting of 5 stressed and 5 unstressed syllables.

Concrete PoetryConcrete Poetry is also known as Poetic

Pictogram.

Concrete poetry is poetry that is arranged in lines that form a shape or make a picture about the subject.

It is also sometimes called a shape poem.

Lyric PoetryLyric Poetry is short poetry is short poetry

usually expressing on emotion.

Sonnets, elegies, odes, and songs are all examples of Lyric Poetry.

Elegy: a poem lamenting the death of a person or a situation.

Ode: Form a Lyric Poetry characterized by giving praise or showing appreciation for a person, place, thing, or idea.

Free VerseFree Verse : Also called Verse Libre.

Free verse is poetry without standard meter or rhyme, but rhythmical arrangement of lines for effect.

Figures of Speech

Figures of SpeechFigures of Speech: Use of arrangement of

words for specific effects.

Denotation: The dictionary definition of a word.

Connotation: This refers to the overtones associated with a word, including emotions, memories, ideas, and imaginative responses.

Imagery: Language that appeals to the senses. An image communicates a sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch sensation.

Metaphor and SimileMetaphor: An implied comparison between

things basically not alike, but not using comparison words such as like or as.

Simile: A comparison between things basically not alike , and using the word like or as.

Personification/Symbolism

Personification : is a kind of metaphor in which human characteristics are given to non-human things(creature/idea/object).

Symbol: A symbol is an object, person, place, or action that has a meaning of its own but also stands for something beyond itself such as a quality, concept, or value.

Symbolism: means using a person, object, situation, setting, or action to stand for something different or more than what it is.

Metonymy: Using a word to substitute for something else closely associated with it(the White House for the president).

Alliteration/Assonance/Hyperbole

Alliteration: Repetition of beginning consonant sounds in words(big, black bear).

Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds within words(road/toad).

Hyperbole: An overstatement or exaggeration(I died laughing).

Paradox/IronyParadox: Using words and phrases that seem

contradictory, but are actually true(love and hate are intertwined).

Irony: Involves a discrepancy, whether between intention and words(verbal irony)or between expectation and reality(irony of situation).