Elements of Poetry

When you read a poem, pay attention to some basic ideas:

- Voice (Who is speaking ? How are they speaking?)
- Stanzas (how lines are grouped)
- Sound (includes rhyme, but also many other patterns)
- Rhythm (what kind of "beat" or meter does the poem have?)
- Figures of speech (many poems are full of metaphors and other figurative language)
- Form (there are standard types of poem)

-
Voice

Voice is a word people use to talk about the way poems "talk" to the reader.
Lyric poems and narrative poems are the ones you will see most. Lyric poems express the feelings of the writer. A narrative
poem tells a story.

Some other types of voice are mask, apostrophe, and conversation. A mask puts on the identity of someone or something
else, and speaks for it. Apostrophe talks to something that can't answer (a bee, the moon, a tree) and is good for
wondering, asking, or offering advice. Conversation is a dialogue between two voices and often asks us to guess who the
voices are.

- Stanza

A stanza is a group within a poem which may have two or many lines. They are like paragraphs.
Some poems are made of REALLY short stanzas, called couplets--two lines that rhyme, one after the other, usually equal in
length.

- Sound
One of the most important things poems do is play with sound. That doesn't just mean rhyme. It means many other things.
The earliest poems were memorized and recited, not written down, so sound is very important in poetry.

- Rhyme

Rhyme means sounds agree. "Rhyme" usually means end rhymes (words at the end of a line). They give
balance and please the ear. Sometimes rhymes are exact. Other times they are just similar. Both are okay.

- Rhythm
Meter (or metrics) - When you speak, you don't say everything in a steady tone like a hum--you'd sound funny. Instead,
you stress parts of words. You say different parts of words with different volume, and your voice rises and falls as if you
were singing a song. Mostly, we don't notice we're doing it. Poetry in English is often made up of poetic units or feet. The
most common feet are the iamb, the trochee, the anapest, and the dactyl. Each foot has one stress or beat.
Depending on what kind of poem you're writing, each line can have anywhere from one to many stressed beats, otherwise
known as feet. Most common are:
Trimeter (three beats)
Tetrameter (four beats)
Pentameter (five beats)
Figures of speech
Figures of speech are also called figurative language. The most well-known figures of speech are are simile, metaphor, and
personification. They are used to help with the task of "telling, not showing."
(a) Simile - a comparison of one thing to another, using the words "like," "as," or "as though."
(b) Metaphor - comparing one thing to another by saying that one thing is another thing. Metaphors are stronger
than similes, but they are more difficult to see.
(c) Personification - speaking as if something were human when it's not.
Poetic forms
There are a number of common poetic forms. .
Ballad - story told in verse. A ballad stanza is usually four lines, and there is often a repetitive refrain. As you might guess,
this form started out as a song. An example of a traditional Scottish ballad is Lord Randal at
http://www.bartleby.com/243/66.html
Haiku - a short poem with seventeen syllables, usually written in three lines with five syllables in the first line, seven in the
second, and five in the third. The present tense is used, the subject is one thing happening now, and words are not
repeated. It does not rhyme. The origin of the haiku is Japanese.
Cinquain - a five-line poem with two syllables in the first line, four in the second, six in the third, eight in the fourth, and
two in the fifth. It expresses one image or thought, in one or possibly two sentences.
Villanelle - a 19-line poem with five tercets and one quatrain at the end. Two of the lines are repeated alternately at the
ends of the tercets, and finish off the poem: the first line and the third line of the first tercet. Although it sounds very
complicated, it's like a song or a dance and easy to see once you've looked at a villanelle.
Limerick - A five-line poem, usually meant to be funny. The rhythm is anapests. Lines 1, 2, and 5 rhyme with one another,
and lines 3 and 4 rhyme with one another. Lines 1, 2, and 5 have three feet, lines 3 and 4 have two feet. An iamb can be
substituted for an anapest in the first foot of any line. The last foot can add another unstressed beat for the rhyming effect.
Sonnet - There are different types of sonnet. The most familiar to us is made of three quatrains and ends with a couplet.
They tend to be complicated and elegant. William Shakespeare wrote the most well-known sonnets.

Free verse (or open form) - Much modern poetry does not obviously rhyme and doesn't have a set meter. However, sound
and rhythm are often still important, and it is still often written in short lines.
Concrete poetry (pattern or shape poetry) is a picture poem, in which the visual shape of the poem contributes to its
meaning.

B. Drama
Drama is a display of emotions, a representation of relationships and the portrayal of the different phases of human life. It
sketches different personalities and represents a wide variety of emotions through the different characters it portrays.
Which of its components are identified as the elements of drama? Let us see.

Aristotle, a philosopher who wrote on a variety of subjects like poetry, theater, music, rhetoric and handled subjects like
biology, physics, logic and politics, writes that there are six elements of drama, According to him, plot, theme, character,
dialog, music and the visual element of a play make up the six elements of drama. Let us look at each of them.

The components of drama :

1. Theme: The theme of a drama refers to the central idea of the play. It can either be clearly stated through dialog or
action or can be inferred after watching the entire performance.

2. Plot: The order of events occurring in a play is referred to as the plot of the drama. It is the basic storyline that is
narrated through a play. The entertainment one derives from a play depends largely on the sequence of events that occur
in the story. The logical connection between the events and the characters, which enact the story form an integral part of
the plot of drama.

3. Characters: The characters that form a part of the story are interwoven with the plot of the drama. Each character in a
play has a personality of its own and has a distinct set of principles and beliefs. Actors who play various roles in a drama
have the very important responsibility of bringing the characters to life.

4. Dialog: The story of any play is taken forward by means of the dialog. The story is narrated to the audiences through the
dialog written by the playwright. The success of a drama depends hugely on the contents of the dialog and the quality of
dialog delivery by the actors of the play.

5. Music: This element of drama comprises the melody in the use of sounds and rhythm in dialogs as well as melodious
compositions, which form a part of many plays. The background score, the songs and the sound effects that are used in a
play make up the musical element of drama. Music composers and lyricists sit together to create music that can go well
with the theme of the play. If the scenes of a play are accompanied by well-suited pieces of music, they become more
effective on the audiences. Hence, music forms a very important element of drama.

6. Visual Element: While the dialog and music constitute the audible aspect of drama, the visual element deals with the
scenes, costumes and special effects used in it. The visual element of drama, also known as the spectacle, renders a visual
appeal to it. The costumes worn by the artists must suit the characters they are playing. Besides, it is important for the
scenes to be dramatic enough to hold the audiences to their seats. The special effects used in a play add to the visual
appeal. Thus, the spectacle forms an essential component of drama.

Apart from these elements of drama as given by Aristotle, the structure of the story, a clever use of symbolism and
contrast and stagecraft form some of the other important elements of drama.

The structure of the story comprises the way in which the story is put forth to the audience. The way in which the
characters play their roles and the framework of the story constitute the drama structure. Direction is an essential
constituent of a play. A well-directed story can help in fetching greater mass appeal. Stagecraft plays a vital role in
increasing the visual appeal of a drama. The use and organization of different stage properties and the stage setup
constitute the stagecraft, which is an essential component of a play.

The use of symbols implies the use of indirect suggestions in a drama. Logically used symbols help in making a scene more
effective. The use of contrast is about using stillness followed by activity or silence followed by noise. It can also mean the
use of contrasting colors to add to the visual appeal. It can mean the clever use of contrasting scenes following each other
that enhance the dramatic element of a play.

An enthusiastic audience is perhaps one of the very essential elements of drama. A play needs a live and lively audience
who can constructively criticize performances and generously appreciate quality work.