Poetry

Poetry A poem is created by putting words

together in an interesting way to express a feeling, create a mental picture, tell a story, or make a sound.

Poetry entertains the ears and the eyes.

Poems Everywhere Poems can be found in many places. You might have a collection of

poems in one book all written by the same author, like this book by Shel Silverstein.

Or, you might find a collection of poems written by various authors but printed in the same book. This is called an anthology.

Poetry Parts

Stanza A stanza in a poem is

like a paragraph in an essay.

A stanza is usually separated by some blank space.

Common stanza lengths are two, three, four, six, or eight lines.

Winter Songby Katherine Mansfield

Rain and wind, and wind and rain.Will the Summer come again?Rain on houses, on the street,Wetting all the people's feet,Though they run with might and main.Rain and wind, and wind and rain.

Snow and sleet, and sleet and snow.Will the Winter never go?What do beggar children doWith no fire to cuddle to,P'rhaps with nowhere warm to go?Snow and sleet, and sleet and snow.

Hail and ice, and ice and hail,Water frozen in the pail.See the robins, brown and red,They are waiting to be fed.Poor dears, battling in the gale!Hail and ice, and ice and hail.

How many stanzas does this poem have?

Line A line in a poem is like

a sentence in a paragraph.

Sometimes, poets use punctuation to mark the end of a line. Sometimes, they do not.

Winter Songby Katherine Mansfield

Rain and wind, and wind and rain.Will the Summer come again?Rain on houses, on the street,Wetting all the people's feet,Though they run with might and main.Rain and wind, and wind and rain.

How many lines does this stanza have?

Refrain A refrain is a line or

group of lines in a poem that are repeated.

This line is a refrain.Winter Song

by Katherine Mansfield

Rain and wind, and wind and rain.Will the Summer come again?Rain on houses, on the street,Wetting all the people's feet,Though they run with might and main.Rain and wind, and wind and rain.

Elements of Poetry

Rhyme The repetition of end

sounds is called rhyme.

Winter Songby Katherine Mansfield

Snow and sleet, and sleet and snow.Will the Winter never go?What do beggar children doWith no fire to cuddle to,P'rhaps with nowhere warm to go?Snow and sleet, and sleet and snow.

These words rhyme.

Rhyme Scheme The rhyme

scheme of a poem can be determined by marking rhyming lines of the poem with a letter of the alphabet.

Winter Songby Katherine Mansfield

Snow and sleet, and sleet and snow.

AWill the Winter never go? AWhat do beggar children do BWith no fire to cuddle to, BP'rhaps with nowhere warm to go? ASnow and sleet, and sleet and snow.

A

So, the rhyme scheme is A-A-B-B-A-A

Find the rhyme scheme.

Rhythm/Meter Rhythm is a

regular, patterned repetition of sounds in a poem.

Rhythm is like the beat in music, and can give poetry a musical sound.

Poets often use syllables of words to create a rhythm.

The Winter Evening Settles DownT. S. Eliot

The winter evening settles downWith smell of steaks in passageways.Six o’clock.The burnt-out ends of smoky days.And now a gusty shower wrapsThe grimy scrapOf withered leaves about your feetAnd newspapers from vacant lots;The showers beatOn broken blinds and chimney-pots,And at the corner of the streetA lonely cab-horse steams and stamp.

And then the lighting of the lamps.

How many syllables are in each line?Why do you think the poet changed the rhythm of the last line?

Free Verse or Unrhymed Verse Free verse or

unrhymed poems do not rhyme or have regular rhythm.

Winter TreesWilliam Carlos Williams

All the complicated detailsof the attiring andthe disattiring are completed!A liquid moonmoves gently amongthe long branches.Thus having prepared their budsagainst a sure winterthe wise treesstand sleeping in the cold.

Haiku A haiku is an

unrhymed three-line poem with a very specific rhythm.

The pattern of syllables looks like this:Line 1: 5 syllablesLine 2: 7 syllablesLine 3: 5 syllables

Snow upon the Crows’ NestsRimei

The heavy winter snowsHave capped with white the pine-tree

topsWhere sleep the big black crows

A Heavy SnowfallRiu

Now all the world is white,But where is one to find a spot

To view the lovely sight?

A Wintry LandscapeIssa

The trees are frozen deepIn snowy garb, and now and then

A bird chirps in its sleep.

Do these poems follow the pattern of a haiku?

Figurative LanguagePoets and other writers use figurative language to make their writing more interesting and expressive.

Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is

the imitation of sounds in word form.

The Fourthby Shel SIlverstein

OhCRASH!

myBASH!

it’sBANG!

theZANG!Fourth

WOOSH!of

BAROOOM!July

WHEW!

Alliteration Alliteration is

when almost all of the words in the line have the same beginning sound.

Winter from a windowRobert Arthur Miller

With windows we watch winters whispering windswhile we wear whatevers warm,while we wait we wonder whether ,weather will slowwith what was the worst winter storm.

Where we were, within warming wallswe watched winters weather wind down.without windows we woud'nt see what was winterswhitest snow on the ground.

Similes Poets use similes to compare two

objects or ideas. Similes use the words “like” or “as”.

Metaphors Metaphors also compare two objects or

ideas, but do not use “like or “as”.