The Amazing

World of
Poetry

What is

Poetry is an imaginative awareness

of experience expressed through
meaning,
sound,
and
rhythmic
language choices so as to evoke an
emotional response.
Poetry is the chiseled marble of
language; it's a paint-spattered
canvas - but the poet uses words
instead of paint, and the canvas is
you.

Elements
of
Poetry

Elements of poetry can be

defined
as
a
set
of
instruments used to create a
poem. Many of these were
created thousands of years
ago and have been linked to
ancient story tellings. They
help
bring
imagery and emotion
to
poetry, stories, and dramas.

Stanza /Poetic Line

A unit of lines
grouped together
Similar to a
paragraph in prose

A Stanza consists of two or more lines of

poetry that together form one of the
divisions of a poem. The stanzas of a
poem are usually of the same length
and follow the same pattern of meter
and rhyme and are used like paragraphs
in a story. Some different types of
stanzas are as follows:
Couplets - Couplets are stanzas of only two lines which
usually rhyme

Tercets - Tercets are stanzas of

three lines. The three lines may
or may not have the same end
rhyme. If all three lines rhyme,
this type of tercet is called a
triplet.
Quatrains
Quatrains
are
stanzas of four lines which can
be written in any rhyme scheme.

FromSecond Satire
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42)
My mothers maids, when they did sew and
spin,
They sang sometimes a song of the field
mouse,
That for because their livelihood was but so
thin
Would needs go seek her townish sisters
house.
She thought herself endured to much pain:
The stormy blasts her cave so sore did souse...

Couplet
A stanza consisting of
two lines that rhyme
Whether or not we find what we
are seeking
is idle, biologically speaking.
Edna St. Vincent Millay (at the
end of a sonnet)

Quatrain
A stanza consisting of
four lines
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of
Spring
Your Winter garment of Repentance
fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.

Alternating Quatrain- a four line stanza

rhyming "abab." From W.H. Auden's "Leap Before
You Look"
The sense of danger must not disappear:
The way is certainly both short and steep,
However gradual it looks from here;
Look if you like, but you will have to leap.

a
b
a
b

Envelope Stanza- a quatrain with the rhyme

scheme "abba", such that lines 2 and 3 are
enclosed between the rhymes of lines 1 and 4.
Two of these stanzas make up the Italian Octave
used in the Italian sonnet. This is from Auden's
"Look Before You Leap"
The worried efforts of the busy heap,
The dirt, the imprecision, and the beer

a
b

Produce a few smart wisecracks every year;

Laugh if you can, but you will have to leap.

b
a

Tone
The attitude a poet
toward his/her subject

takes

*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.

Mood
The attitude a reader takes
toward his/her subject.
*is one element in the narrative structure
of a piece of literature. It can also be
referred to as atmosphere because it
creates an emotional setting enveloping
the reader. Mood is established in order to
affect
the
reader
emotionally
and
psychologically and to provide a feeling
for the narrative. It is a complex reading
strategy.

Imagery
Representation of the five senses:
sight, taste, touch, sound, and smell
Creates mental images
about a poems subject

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

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

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)

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
pierced, bitten, provoked
into
juice, and tart flesh. (1-8).

Diction
The Choice of words.
Connotative:figurative/metap
horical meaning.
Denotative: literal /dictionarybased

Persona/Voice

The speaker of the poem.

It is the way you present yourself

to the world, the character traits that
you let show and the way that people
will see you. If you are true to yourself,
then your persona should reflect who
you actually are.

Refrain
The repetition of one
more phrases or lines
certain intervals, usually
the end of each stanza
Similar
the chorus in a song

or
at
at
to

*The word 'Refrain' derives from

the Old French word refraindre
meaning to repeat.
*Refrain Poetry Term is a phrase,
line, or group of lines that is repeated
throughout a poem, usually after each
stanza.
*A famous example of a refrain
are the words " Nothing More" and
Nevermore which are repeated in
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.

The Raven
by
Edgar Allan Poe
And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting,
still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my
chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a
demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming
throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies
floating on the floor
Shall be lifted nevermore.

Repetition
A word or phrase
repeated within a line or
stanza
Sometimes, repetition reinforces or even
substitutes for meter (the beat), the other
chief controlling factor of poetry.

Example: gazed and

gazed

Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the King's horses and all the King's
men
Couldn't put Humpty together again
The repetition of a phrase in poetry may have an incantatory
effect as in the opening lines of T. S. Eliot's "AshWednesday":
Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn....

Sometimes the effect of a repeated phrase in a

poem will be to emphasize a development or
change by means of the contrast in the words
following the identical phrases. For example, the
shift from the distant to the near, from the less
personal to the more personal is emphasized in
Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by
such a repetition of phrases:
I looked upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;
I looked upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.

Rhyme Scheme
The pattern in which
end rhyme occurs
Rhymes are types of poems which have
the the repetition of the same or similar
sounds at the end of two or more words
most often at the ends of lines. This
technique makes the poem easy to
remember and is therefore often used in
Nursery Rhymes. There are several
derivatives of the term rhyme which
include Double rhyme, Triple rhyme,
Rising rhyme, Falling rhyme, Perfect and

Humpty Dumpty sat on a

wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a
great fall.
All the King's horses, And
all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty
together again!

Theme
The theme of the poem talks
about the central idea, the
thought behind what the poet
wants to convey. A theme can
be
anything
from
a
description about a person or
thing, a thought or even a
story. In short a theme stands
for whatever the poem is
about.

Symbolism
A poem often conveys feelings,
thoughts
and
ideas
using
symbols, this technique is known
as symbolism. A symbol in poetry
can stand for anything and makes
the reader take a systematic
approach which helps him/her
look at things in a different light.
A symbol is a poetry style that is
usually
thought
of
in
the
beginning.

Metaphor

When the
Author of a
poem writes
something,
but doesnt
really mean

Simile
Analogy
Imagery
Personification

A comparison
NOT using like
or as.

The
world
is a
stage!

Romeo, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

It is
the
East,
and
Juliet
is the
sun!

Similes

Assignment:
Find the similes in
Be Still My Beating Hea
rt

In a poem,
you can
often see
the
images
the author
writes
about

The spring flowers,

vibrant, electrified with
the newness of spring

When the
author
provides
visual
pictures as
you read.

 A COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO

APPARRENTLY DISSIMILAR THINGS
MADE TO CLARIFY A CERTAIN
POINT ABOUT ONE OF THEM.
EXAMPLES:
Glove is to hand as paint is to wall
Citizens are to president as solar system is to galaxy
Horses are to past societies as computers are to future
societies

When human like qualities are

given to an animal or object.
Example: An overly gregarious
puppy.
A decrepit old car.

Irony

When something
that wasnt
expected happens.
Or when the
opposite of what is
expected happens.
For example:
In
Incident in a Rose
Garden
The devil wasnt
coming for the
gardener, he was
coming for the
farmer!

Diction

Word

Connotation:
The way a word
makes us feel.

Choice/Diction

Words can give us

different feelings
when we hear
themsome
positive, some
negative, and
everything in
between!
Find some examples in
the poem

Denotation:
The actual
dictionary
definition of the
word.

Meeting at Night,

RHYME
RHYTHM
REPETITION
REFRAIN
ALLITERATION
ASSONANCE
ONOMATOPOEIA

 RHYME REPETITON OF
SIMILAR SOUNDS.
RHYTHM PATTERN OF
STRESSED AND UNSTRESSED
SYLLABLES IN EACH LINE. THE
POEM HAS A REGULAR BEAT.
RHYME SCHEME A PATTERN
OF RHYMES IN A POEM.

Musical Devices
Alliteration

Assonance

When the same

consonant sound is
used throughout a
piece of writing.

When the same vowel

sound is used in words
throughout a piece of
writing

candy covered coconuts.

That is the way we will

pray today, okay?

Onomatopoeia
word that expresses
sound
Zip,
zoom,
bang,
boom