A Handbook of English Literature By Faizal Risdianto 2014

CHAPTER V

P OETRY

Poetry (from the Greek "ποίησις", poiesis, a "making" or "creating") is a form of

literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition
to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. Poetry may be written independently, as discrete
poems, or may occur in conjunction with other arts, as in poetic drama, hymns or lyrics.
Poetry, and discussions of it, have a long history. Early attempts to define poetry,
such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and
comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition and rhyme, and
emphasised the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from prose. From the mid-20th
century, poetry has sometimes been more loosely defined as a fundamental creative act
using language.

Poetry often uses particular forms and conventions to expand the literal meaning
of the words, or to evoke emotional or sensual responses. Devices such as assonance,
alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or
incantatory effects. Poetry's use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic
elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations.
Similarly, metaphor and simile create a resonance between otherwise disparate
images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred
forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or
rhythm.
Some forms of poetry are specific to particular cultures and genres, responding to
the characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. While readers accustomed
to identifying poetry with Dante, Goethe, Mickiewicz and Rumi may think of it as being
written in rhyming lines and regular meter, there are traditions, such as those of Du Fu
and Beowulf, that use other approaches to achieve rhythm and euphony. In today's
globalized world, poets often borrow styles, techniques and forms from diverse cultures
and languages.

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There are several elements which make up a good poem. In brief, they are
described below.
1. Figurative language
2. Imagery
3. Rhythm
4. Rhyme and alliteration
5. Tone
Some important elements of poetry are:
5.1 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Figurative language is wording that makes explicit comparisons between unlike
things using figures of speech such as metaphors and similes.
5.1.1 SIMILE
Simile: direct comparison between two unlike things usually delivered with the
word "like," "as," or "so.". A simile so common as to be a cliché indicates great haste
with the expression "like a bat out of hell": When Marcia's parents came home early, Bill
went flying out the back door like a bat out of hell.
The words indicating simile are: like, as, so, appear, seem and more than.
O my love, is like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June.
O my love is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
(Robert Burns)
Emily Dickinson’s There is no frigate like a book
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry:
Note: frigate=kapal perang gerak cepat, courses=kuda-kuda yang lari cepat,
rancing=berjingkrak-jingkrak.

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5.1.2 METAPHOR
Metaphor: a figurative analogy or comparison between two things where the
comparison is indicated directly, without the "like" or "as" customary in similes.
Metaphors suggest literally that one thing is something else which it clearly is not in
reality.
In the sentence, "He is like a tiger," the expression "like a tiger” is a metaphorical
expression meaning "having a bravery or courage like a tiger" or in the sentence, "Mr.
Johnson yelled out the back door, 'Bill, I'm going to kick your butt from here clear into
the next county!'" the expression "kick your butt" is a metaphor: Mr. Johnson means that
he will cause physical harm to Bill, but not necessarily by applying his foot to Bill's
backside.
Robert Herrick’s A Meditation For His Mistress (kekasih) .
You are a tulip seen today
But, dearest, of so short a stay (tak berumur panjang)
That were you grow scarce man can say
You are a lovely July-Flower,
Yet one rude wind or ruffling shower (hujan gerimis yang mengganggu)
Will force you hence, and in an hour.

5.1.3 HYPERBOLE
Hyperbole: an extreme exaggeration, such as in the expression "from here clear
into the next county" in the previous example, or the expression "after hell freezes over"
in the sentence, "Bill, you'll be welcome in my house again about ten minutes after hell
freezes over!"
1. . Why, man, if the River were dry, I am able to fill it with tears.
2. For a falling in love couple the attack of tsunami is just like a splash of water.
3. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten the smell of bloods in this little hand.

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5.1.4 PERSONIFICATION
Personification: a figurative comparison endowing inanimate things with human
qualities.
Example: The stars above wept and the pale moon sighed as Bill trudged across
the Andersons' yard with the cries of Marcia's father echoing through the night. Stars
are personified as weeping here, and the moon is said to sigh, things humans can do
but not inanimate bodies in the heavens.
Personification is the attribution of personal nature or character to inanimate
objects or abstract entities.

 The old train crept along the narrow path

 Flames ate the house
 That leaves look pale, dreading (takut oleh)the winter’s near (Shakespeare)

5.1.5 APOSTHROPE
figure of speech in which some absent or nonexistent person or thing is addressed
in a dialogue or conversation as if present and capable of understanding.
John Donne’s Holy Sonnet
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee (you)
Mighty and dreadful, for you art(are) not so.

5.1.6 PARADOX
An apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true (Perrine :1974:649)

 and death shall be no more: death thou shall die

 The world’s laziest workaholic.
 Silent scream

5.1.7 SYNECDOCHE
Is a part is used to designate the whole.
He has many mouth to feed ”ia 34ember makan banyak mulut”
A hundred wings(birds) flashed by.

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5.1.8 SYMBOL
Something that means more than what it is (Perrine: 1974:628)
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
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.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Note:
*harness=pakaian kuda

5.2 IMAGERY
As applied to poetry, imagery is the use of words to convey vivid, concrete sensory
experiences. The word "image" suggests most obviously a visual image, a picture, but
imagery also includes vivid sensory experiences of smell, sound, touch, and taste as well.
Imagery goes beyond mere description to communicate an experience or feeling so

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vividly that it encourages the creation of images in the mind of the reader and readers
experiences for themselves the specific sensations that the poet intends.

5.2.1 VISUAL IMAGERY

Visual imagery: visual descriptions so vivid they seem to come to life in the
reader's mind's when they are read, as in the description of a very old fish in Elizabeth
Bishop's poem titled "The Fish":
Here and there
His brown skin hung in strips
Like ancient wall-paper,
And its pattern of darker brown
Was like wall-paper:
Shapes like full-blown roses
Strained and lost through age.
He was speckled with barnacles,
Fine rosettes of lime,
And infested
With tiny white sea-lice,
And underneath two or three
Rags of green weed hung down. (9-21).

5.2.2 AUDITORY IMAGERY

Auditory imagery: descriptions of sound so vivid the reader seems almost to hear
them while reading the poem. For example, Alexander Pope contrasts the gentle sounds
of a whispering wind and a soft-running stream with the harsher sound of waves
crashing on the shore in "Sound and Sense":
The sound must seem an echo to the sense:
Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently bows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flow;
But when the loud surges lash the sounding shore,

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The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar. (365-69)

For another example see "What the Motorcycle Said," on pp. 970-71 in our Norton
text. This poem opens, "Br-r-r-am-m-m, rackety-am-m, OM, Am: / All-r-r-room, r-r-ram,
ala-bas-ter" (1-2).

5.2.3 OLFACTORY IMAGERY

Images of smell (olfactory imagery): descriptions of smells so vivid they seem
almost to stimulate the reader's own sense of smell while reading, as in the poem, "Root
Cellar," by Theodore Roethke:
And what a congress of stinks!—
Roots ripe as old bait,
Pulpy stems, rank, silo-rich,
Leaf-mold, manure, lime, piled against slippery planks.
Nothing would give up life:
Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath. (5-11).

5.2.4 TACTILE IMAGERY

Tactile or "physical" imagery: descriptions conveying a strong, vivid sense of touch
or physical sensation that the reader can almost feel himself or herself while reading, as
in Robert Frost's description of standing on a ladder in "After Apple Picking": "My instep
arch not only keeps the ache, / It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round. / I feel the
ladder sway as the boughs bend" (21-23). Or in the sensation of touch (and possibly
taste) in the fourth stanza of Helen Chasin's poem, "The Word Plum":
The word plum is delicious
pout and push, luxury of
self-love, and savoring murmur
full in the mouth and falling
like fruit
taut skin

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pierced, bitten, provoked into

juice, and tart flesh. (1-8).

5.3 RHYTM

The term rhythm refers to any wave like recurrence of motion or sound. Meter is the
kind of rhythm we can tap our foot to. Metrical language is called verse; non metrical
language is prose.

Trochee trips from long to short;

From long to long in solemn sort
Slow Spondee stalks; strong foot yet ill able
Ever to come up with Dactylic trisyllable.
Iambics march from short to long -
With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The foot is the metrical unit by which a line of poetry is measured; it usually consists of
one stressed or accented ( ' ) and one or two unstressed or unaccented syllables ( - ).

Name of Foot Name of Meter Measure

Iamb Iambic -'

Trochee Trochaic '-

Anapest Anapestic --'

Dactyl Dactylic '--

Spondee Spondaic ''

Pyrrhus Pyrrhic --

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The secondary unit of measurement, the line, is measured by naming the number of
feet in it. A line that ends with a stressed syllable is said to have a masculine
ending and a line that ends with an extra syllable is said to have a feminine ending. A
pause within a line is called a caesura and is identified by a double vertical line (||). A
line with a pause at its end is called end-stopped line, whereas a line that continues
without a pause is called run-on line or enjambment. The following metrical
names are used to identify the lengths of lines:

Length Name

one foot Monometer

two feet Dimeter

three feet Trimeter

four feet Tetrameter

five feet Pentameter

six feet Hexameter

seven feet Heptameter

eight feet Octameter

The third unit, the stanza, consists of a group of lines whose metrical pattern is
repeated throughout the poem.

The process of measuring verse is referred to as scansion. To scan a poem we do these

three things: 1. we identify the prevailing meter, 2. we give a metrical name to the
number of feet in a line, and 3. we describe the stanza pattern or rhyme-scheme.

Basic elements of Rhythm

1. Syllable (suku kata)
2. Foot (pola syllable)
3. Verse (verse)

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4. Stanza (bait)
Syllable
One syllable: I, go
Two syllables: sym-bol, slen-der
Three syllables: yes-ter-day, re-vol-ver
Elements of syllable recitation:
Loudness (keras-lembut suara)
Duration (panjang-pendek suara)
e.g: I will neeeeeeeever do it again.
It soooooo awesome!
It read it whoooooooooole night

a. Monometer b. Dimeter
U ------ U --- U _____
Good night, Give me one word
U ----- ----- U -------
Fair one; And no more;

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U ------ U ---- U -----

The day If so be, this
U ----- ------ U -------
Is done Makes you poor,

c. Trimeter
U --- U ----- U ---- U
When I was one and twen- ty

U ---- U - ---- U - ------

I heard a wise man say,
U ----- U ------ U ----- U
Give crowns and pounds and gui neas
U ----- U ----- U ------
But not your heart a- way
d. Tetrameter
U ---- U ---- U ------ U ------
Some say the world will end in fire
U ----- U ----------
Some say in ice
U ----- U ---- ------ U ------ U -------
From what I ’ve tes ted of de- sire
U --- U ---- U --- U ----
I hold with those who fa vour fire

e. Pentameter
U ---- U ---- U ---- U ----- U -----
That time of year thou mayst in me be- hold
U --- U ---- U ---- U ----- U ----
--

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When ye llow leaves , or none, or few, do hang

U --- U --- U --- U ---- U ---
Upon those boughs which shake againts the cold,
U --- U --- U ---- U ---- U --
------
Bare ruin - ed choirs where late the sweet birds sang

5.4 RHYME
The basic definition of rhyme is two words that sound alike. The vowel sound of
two words is the same, but the initial consonant sound is different. Rhyme is perhaps
the most recognizable convention of poetry, but its function is often overlooked. 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. Especially in modern poetry, for which conventions aren't as rigidly
determined as they were during the English Renaissance or in the eighteenth century,
rhyme can indicate a poetic theme or the willingness to structure a subject that seems
otherwise chaotic. Rhyme works closely with meter in this regard. There are varieties of
rhyme: internal rhyme functions within a line of poetry, for example, while the more
common end rhyme occurs at the end of the line and at the end of some other line,
usually within the same stanza if not in subsequent lines. There are true rhymes (bear,
care) and slant rhymes (lying, mine). There are also a number of predetermined rhyme
schemes associated with different forms of poetry. Once you have identified a rhyme
scheme, examine it closely to determine (1) how rigid it is, (2) how closely it conforms to
a predetermined rhyme scheme (such as a sestina), and especially (3) what function it
serves.
Rhyme, likeness of the terminal sounds of words, frequently used in versification
either at the end of a line of verse or within the line. Rhyme appeared only occasionally

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in classical Greek and Latin poetry; it was used more extensively later, in songs of the
medieval Roman Catholic church. Rhyme was not established as a technique in English
poetry until the 14th century. Since then not all styles of poetry have employed rhyme,
but it has never fallen entirely into disuse. Rhyme functions as an element of rhythm,
emphasizing poetic beat. There are three types of true rhymes: masculine rhymes, in
which the final syllable of the word or line is stressed ("spring," "bring"); feminine
rhymes, in which two consecutive syllables, the first of which is accented, are alike in
sound ("certain," "curtain"); and triple rhymes, in which all three syllables of a word are
identical ("flowery," "showery"). Words in which the vowel and the following consonants
in a stressed syllable are identical in sound, even if spelled differently, are called perfect
rhymes ("two" and "too," or "spring" and "bring"). In eye, or sight, rhyme the words look
as if they rhyme, but do not: "move," "love." Slant, or oblique, rhyme uses words with an
imperfect match of sounds. Within this category, consonance relies on the similarity of
consonant sounds: "shift," "shaft"; assonance relies on the similarity of vowel sounds:
"grow," "home." A pair of rhyming lines is called a couplet; three lines that rhyme are
called a triplet.
Traditional poetic forms have prescribed rhyming patterns; for example, sonnets
usually follow the Italian rhyme scheme, abba abba cde cde, or the English rhyme
scheme, abab cdcd efef gg. Blank verse is regular in meter but does not rhyme; free
verse is irregular in meter and also does not rhyme.

5.5 TONE AND IRONY

Speaker: By convention we refer to the speaking persona in poetry where specific
characters are not indicated as "the speaker" (not "the narrator" as would be the case in
fiction). In some poems, Anne Bradstreet's "To My Dear and Loving Husband," for
instance, we may know that the speaking voice is actually the poet's, but in the great
majority of poems we cannot assume that speaker and poet are the same individual,
and quite often the speaker is clearly not the poet himself or herself. For more on the
speaker in poetry, see chapter 14 in the Norton text (pp. 861-81).
Always refer to the speaking persona in lyric poetry as "the speaker."

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TONE: As a literary term, tone refers to the writer's attitude towards the subject of
a literary work as indicated in the work itself. One way to think about tone in poetry is to
consider the speaker's literal "tone of voice": just as with tone of voice, a poem's tone
may indicate an attitude of joy, sadness, solemnity, silliness, frustration, anger,
puzzlement, etc.
IRONY: The word "irony" has a number of different meanings, but in the most
general terms irony involves a marked difference between what one says or expects and
what is actually meant or what actually happens. More precisely, verbal irony occurs
when there is an appreciable difference between what is said and what is actually
meant, often where what is meant is the opposite of what is said.
For example, a person who dreads going to the dentist might say with great irony,
"I just love having someone put needles and small power tools in my mouth. I wish I
could get cavities filled every month."
The tone of a poem is ironic if there is some apparent discrepancy between the
literal substance of the speaker's words and the attitude actually conveyed. The tone is
ironic in Alexander Pope's famous poem, The Rape of the Lock, for instance, where the
speaker describes the relatively trivial cutting off of a lock of a frivolous young lady's
hair as a matter of grand, tragic, and earth-shattering consequence.

SOME EXAMPLES OF FAMOUS AND INTERESTING POEMS:

Death by John Donne

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
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Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

If by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,

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And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

A PRAYER
ALLAH, we thank Thee for the night
And for the pleasant morning light
For rest and food and loving care,
And all that makes the world so fair.
Help us to do the things we should,
To be to others kind and good.
In all we do, in all we say,
To grow more loving everyday.

Metaphor
by Eve Merriem
Morning is
a new sheet of paper
for you to write on.
Whatever you want to say,
all day,
until night

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folds it up
and files it away.
The bright words and the dark words
are gone
until dawn
and a new day

to write on.

ALLAH
Say, Allah is ONE,
Like HIM there is none.
No son or daughter has HE,
Nor born to any is HE.
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures so, so wonderful.
All things, big and small,
Allah alone made them all.

ROAD NOT TAKEN

Robert Frost's
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there

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Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

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