Elements of Poetry

SENSE
OF
A
POEM
1. Denotation vs. Connotation
Denotation is the dictionary meaning of the word while
connotation is the suggested or implied meaning/s
associated with the word beyond its dictionary definition.

Example:
Home is a place where one lives.
Home is where we find comfort and love.
 Connotation is very important to poetry for it is one
means that the poet can say more in a fewer words.
1. Denotation vs. Connotation
But the Western Stars
by Angela Manalang Gloria

Set me adrift on the sea tonight,

Tonight when the gray winds blow;
Over the waves to western stars;
My banca and I must go.
2. Imagery
Imagery is the use of sensory details or description that
appeal to one or more of the five senses: sight, hearing,
touch, taste and smell. These are otherwise known as
“senses of the mind.”
Imagery is the representation through language of sense
experience.
 visual imagery- a sight
 auditory imagery- a sound
 gustatory imagery- a taste
 tactile imagery- touch
 olfactory imagery- a smell
2. Imagery
But the Western Stars
by Angela Manalang Gloria

Set me adrift on the sea tonight,

Tonight when the gray winds blow;
Over the waves to western stars;
My banca and I must go.
First, A Poem Must Be Magical (Poem 10)
By Jose Garcia Villa

First, a poem must be magical,

Then musical as a seagull.
It must be a brightness moving
And hold secret a bird’s flowering
It must be slender as a bell,
And it must hold fire as well.
It must have the wisdom of bows
And it must kneel like a rose.
It must be able to hear
The luminance of dove and deer.
It must be able to hide
What it seeks, like a bride.
And over all I would like to hover
God, smiling from the poem’s cover.
3. Figurative Language
Figurative Language is a language used for
descriptive effect in order to convey the ideas
or emotions which are not literally true but
express some truth beyond the literal level.
SOUND
OF
A
POEM
1. Tone Color is achieved through repetition.
a. Repetition of Single Sounds
 Alliteration is the repetition of similar accented
sounds at the beginning of the words.
Examples: ripped and ragged steal the scene
lost love greedily grasped
 Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams
full-dazzling!
 Some papers like writers, some like wrappers.
Are you a writer or a wrapper?
 Assonance is the repetition of same vowel
sounds within words.
Examples: low moan get ready, get set
Example:
He who, from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread alone,
Will lead my steps aright.
 Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds
within and at the end of words.

Examples: late at night hard-hearted

short and sweet fire and water

Examples:
 And come to the front door mother, here’s a letter
from thy dear son,
 I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.
 Onomatopoeia is the use of words that imitate
sounds. It can add excitement to a poem.

Examples: buzz meow, splat, vroom, rat-a-tat

 And where the bugs buzz by in private cars

Across old peach cans ad old jelly jars.
 Rhyme is the repetition of the same stressed vowel
sounds and any succeeding sounds in two or more
words.
Example:
 I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
 For of all sad words of tongue and pen.
The saddest are these: “It might have been!”
Rhyme is called masculine when the rhyme sounds involve
only one syllable as in decks and sex or support and report.
It is feminine when the rhyme sounds involve two or more
syllables, as in turtle and fertile or spitefully and delightfully.
Types of Rhyme
1. Internal Rhyme- rhyme within the line
Example:
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage close and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes home with object won:
2. Terminal Rhyme/Ending Rhyme- rhyme found at the end of the
line
Example:
There are things I miss
that I shouldn’t
and those I don’t
that I should.
Sometimes we want
what we couldn’t
sometimes we love
who we could.
• Eye rhyme rhymes only when spelled, not when
pronounced. For example, “through” and “rough.”
• End rhyme, the most common type, is the rhyming
of the final syllables of a line.
• Identical rhyme employs the same word,
identically in sound and in sense, twice in rhyming
positions.
• Slant rhyme has two words share just a vowel
sound (assonance – e.g. “heart” and “star”) or in
which they share just a consonant sound
(consonance – e.g. “milk” and “walk”).
 Rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyme form that ends a
stanza or a poem. The rhyme is designated by the
assignment of a different letter of the alphabet to each
new rhyme.
Example:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, a
But I have promises to keep, a
And miles to go before I sleep. a
And o’er his heart a shadow a
Fell as he found b
No spot of ground b
That looked like Eldorado. a
 Xs and Os

Love is a game
of tic-tac-toe,
constantly waiting,
for the next x or o.
b. Repetition of Words
Example:
 My dreams are dreams of thee, fair maid.
 A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And no one can talk to a horse of course
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed.

c. Repetition of Sentences or Phrases

Example:
 I looked upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;
I looked upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.
 My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.
2. Rhythm is the pattern of beats created by the
arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables, which
gives musical quality and adds emphasis to certain
words and thus helps convey the meaning of the
poem. The effect is derived from the sounds employed,
the varying pitches, stresses, volumes, and durations.

3. Meter is a regular recurrences of stressed and

unstressed syllables that give a line of poetry a more or
less predictable rhythm. Its unit of measure is termed as
“foot” which usually contains an accented syllable and
one or two unaccented syllables.
Foot is the basic unit of meter consisting of a
group of two or three syllables.

Scansion is the process of determining the

prevailing foot in a line of poetry, identifying
the types and sequence of different feet. It is
also the process of measuring verse; that is,
marking accented and unaccented syllables,
dividing the lines into feet, identifying the
metrical pattern and noting significant
variations form the pattern.
STRUCTURE
OF
A
POEM
 Poetry form is more flexible in modernist
and post-modernist poetry, and continues
to be less structured than in previous
literary eras. Many modern poets avoid
recognizable structures or forms, and write
in free verse.
Major structural elements are the line,
the stanza or verse paragraph, and the
canto (larger combinations of stanzas or
lines).
Stanza – a group of lines connected by a
predominant meter or rhyme scheme.
• couplet – 2 lines blank verse – unrhymed
lines in a iambic
• tercet – 3 lines
pentameter not
• quatrain – 4 lines following a stanzaic
• cinquain – 5 lines pattern
• sestet – 6 lines free verse – avoids a
fixed pattern of meter,
• septet – 7 lines
melody, rhyme scheme
• octave – 8 lines and stanza.
1. Words and its Order is the grouping and choosing
of words in verses where more often, poets
arrange them in the unnatural order to achieve
an effect.
2. Syntax is an effect achieved where words are fractured
to have a desired effect.
Syntax is sentence structure: the sequence and connection
of the words, phrases, and clauses that constitute the
sentences in a word.
Writers/ poets sometimes reverse the subject-verb-object
order of the usual English sentence, to create inversion.
Example:
Rarely had she felt so awkward. (She had rarely felt so
awkward)
Lying beside the road was the injured collie. (The injured
collie was lying beside the road.)
 Had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime. (This coyness would not
be a crime if we had enough time and worldly life.)
3. Ellipsis is the omission of words or several words that
clearly identify the understanding of an expression.

The most common ellipsis consists

of three periods. A poem could
contain this kind of ellipsis for one
of several reasons -- namely a
pause, hesitation or unfinished
thought. Poets can use this tool to
emphasize their point and bring in
a more human voice to the
piece.
4. Punctuation is the use of meaningful symbol/s that helps
provide meaning clues.

PERIOD (.) - the period is used to show a final end to the

thought/sentence and indeed verse; after an abbreviation.
The reader will most likely stop to think about what has been
read so far.
Life is not a joke.
Those who live know

QUESTION MARK (?) - the question mark is used to indicate a

direct question at the end of a verse. When it is being read, the
reader asks himself the question, and pauses:
Is life a joke?
Does it not make you cry?
EXCLAMATION POINT/MARK (!) - the exclamation
point/mark is used to express a sudden outcry,
excitement, finality or just add emphasis. It affects how the
reader will view the verse or poem:
Life is not a joke!
Those who live know.
It is sometimes a yoke!“

COMMA (,) - the comma is used to show a separation of

ideas or elements within the verse. In a poem, you can
also use it to eliminate excess words. Eg "The sun, rain,
road flogged him to death" eliminating 'and the' twice. It is
also used to separate two or more complete,
independent clauses in a verse:
Life is a slaver,
life is a beast
How do you read a poem?
How to read a poem
1. Read the poem more than once. And if the
poem is a work of art, it will repay repeated and
prolonged examination. A poem is not like a
newspaper, to be hastily read and cast into the
waste basket. It is to be hung on the wall of
one’s mind.

2. Keep a dictionary by you and use it. A few

reference books also will be invaluable,
particularly a good book in mythology and a
Bible.
3. Poetry is written to be heard. Read as to hear
the sounds of the words in your mind. When you
cannot read a poem aloud so as to hear it
sounds, lip-read it.

4. Always pay careful attention to what the

poem is saying. Though you should be
conscious of the sounds of the poem, you
should never be so exclusively conscious of
them that you pay no attention to what the
poem means.
For some readers, reading a poem is like getting on
board a rhythmical roller coaster. The car starts, and
off they go, up and down, paying no attention to
the landscape flashing past them, arriving at the
end of the poem breathless, with no idea of what it
has been about.
5. Practice reading poems aloud.
(a) Read the poem affectionately, but not
affectedly.
(b) Of the two extremes, reading too fast
offers a greater danger than reading too slow.
(c) Read the poem so that the rhythmical
pattern is felt but not exaggerated.
Interpretational Hypothesis
a. Who is the speaker?
b. Who is the listener, if any?
c. What is the occasion of the poem?
d. What is the setting?
e. What state of mind is implied?
f. What connotations are suggested over and
above the plain sense of meanings?
g. What seems to be the point of the writer?
 Poetry doesn’t have to rhyme, it
just has to touch someone where
your hands couldn’t.
-Anonymous
END