intro to poetry types and terms

Poetry - A type of writing that uses language to express imaginative and emotional qualities instead of or in addition to meaning.

Poetry may be written as individual poems or included in other written forms as in dramatic poetry, hymns, or song lyrics.

Length Visual impressions Concentrated, intense language that makes deliberate sound effects which can involve rhythm, rhyme, or other sounds

Written in lines and stanzas rather than sentences or paragraphs

(Deeper) Meaning is gleaned from understanding the use of metaphor, symbol, imagery, etc.

Fixed or free form Fixed form is a poem that may be categorized by the pattern of its lines, meter, rhythm, or stanzas; a style of poetry that has set rules. Ex: sonnet, villanelle, limerick

Free Form is a poem that has neither regular rhyme nor regular meter. Free verse often uses cadences rather than uniform metrical feet.

Subject matter can cover the intellectually safe or the profane; the marginal or society…

Love Poem, Political Poem, Metaphysical Poem, Confessional Poem

Elegy (poem that reflects on death or solemn themes)

Epithalamion (poem that praises a wedding)

Proverb (a poem that imparts wisdom, learning, and aid memory)

Found poem (poems that are discovered in everyday life)

Pun (word play, humor, or cleverness--“Pasteurize: Too far to see.”)

Epigram (short, witty, concise saying—can be sarcastic or parodic, about a person or an idea— “Swans sing before they die--'twere no bad thing / should certain people die before they sing!”)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbtVepS53t0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpog1_NFd2Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LxKItHJ06E

Any Suggestions??

Look for punctuation in the poem telling you where sentences being and end.

Do not make a full stop at the end of a line if there is no period, comma, colon, semicolon, or dash there.

If a passage of a poem is difficult to understand, look for the subject, verb, and complement of each sentence.

Be alert for comparisons—for figures of speech.

Read the poem Read the poem slowly and out slowly and out loud to help hear loud to help hear the “musicality” the “musicality” of the poem.of the poem.

Be patient, for Be patient, for poems can be poems can be ambiguous or ambiguous or confusing. Talk confusing. Talk about it with about it with others who have others who have read it when read it when possible.possible.

Read the poem Read the poem several times!! Do several times!! Do outside research. outside research.

**Hearing the WordsRhyme (end, internal, approximate)

Rhyme scheme (Roses are red. . .abcb)

Neologism (a new word or expression)

Oxymoron

Lines - a single line of poetry. Stanzas - a group of lines set off from the other lines in a poem; the poetic equivalent of a paragraph in prose. In traditional poems, the stanza usually contains a unit of thought, much like a paragraph. Tercet

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,Each like a corpse within its grave, untilThine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Punctuation – used for emphasis Structure of images / symbols within the poem

Watch for colors, patterns, figurative language

**DICTION

Connotation Denotation

SnakeSnakeevil or danger any of numerous any of numerous scaly, legless, scaly, legless, sometimes sometimes venomous reptiles; venomous reptiles; having a long, having a long, tapering, tapering, cylindrical body cylindrical body and found in most and found in most tropical and tropical and temperate regionstemperate regions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR0jibFOuiY

FIXED FORM POEMS Sonnet

14-line poem with specific rhyme scheme English (a.k.a. Shakespearean)

ababcdcdefefgg (three quartrains and a couplet)

Italian (a.k.a. Petrarchan)abbaabbacdecde (octet, sestet, volta is between lines 8 and 9)

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (Sonnet 18)

by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate.Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date.Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmed;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

FIXED FORM POEMS Haiku – Japanese poem with 17 syllables -- first line has 5, second has 7, last line has 5. It combines form, content, and language in a meaningful, yet compact form

Haiku doesn't rhyme. A Haiku must "paint" a mental image in the reader's mind.

A Rainbow by Donna Brock

Curving up, then down.Meeting blue sky and green earthMelding sun and rain.

A Rainbow by Donna Brock

Curving up, then down.Meeting blue sky and green earthMelding sun and rain.

FIXED FORM POEMS Cinquain: a poem with five lines

Line 1 is one word (the title)Line 2 is two words that describe the title.Line 3 is three words that tell the actionLine 4 is four words that express the feelingLine 5 is one word that recalls the title

TreeStrong, Tall

Swaying, swinging, sighingMemories of summer

Oak

Villanelle - 19 lines long, but only uses two rhymes, while also repeating two lines throughout the poem. The first five stanzas are triplets, and the last stanza is a quatrain such that the rhyme scheme is as follows: "aba aba aba aba aba abaa." The tricky part is that the 1st and 3rd lines from the first stanza are alternately repeated such that the 1st line becomes the last line in the second stanza, and the 3rd line becomes the last line in the third stanza. The last two lines of the poem are lines 1 and 3 respectively, making a rhymed couplet. Confused? A villanelle needs no particular meter or line length. It is terribly obsessive and can bring out the emotions of any neurotic writer.

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,Because their words had forked no lightning theyDo not go gentle into that good night,

Good men, the last wave by, crying how brightTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night,

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sightBlind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.Do not go gentle into that good night,Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”

By Dylan Thomas

Dramatic Monologue: a poem in which a single speaker who is not the poet utters the entire poem at a critical moment. The speaker has a listener within the poem, but we too are his/her listener, and we learn about the speaker's character from what the speaker says. In fact, the speaker may reveal unintentionally certain aspects of his/her character.

Ode: usually a lyric poem of moderate length, with a serious subject, an elevated style, and an elaborate stanza pattern. There are various kinds of odes. The ode often praises people, the arts of music and poetry, natural scenes, or abstract concepts.

Elegy: a sad and thoughtful poem lamenting the death of a person.

Limerick: short sometimes bawdy, humorous poems consisting of five anapestic lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 of a limerick have seven to ten syllables and rhyme with one another. Lines 3 and 4 have five to seven syllables and also rhyme with each other.

There was an Old Person whose habits,Induced him to feed upon rabbits;When he'd eaten eighteen,He turned perfectly green,Upon which he relinquished those habits.

There was an Old Person whose habits,Induced him to feed upon rabbits;When he'd eaten eighteen,He turned perfectly green,Upon which he relinquished those habits.

http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/examples-of-limericks.htm

Concrete Poetry uses word arrangement, typeface, color or other visual

effects to complement or dramatize the meaning of

the words used.

Bird #3   by Don J. Carlson

                    Poe's                  raven told            him nothing nevermore                  and Vincent's circling                    crows were a threat to destroy                      sunlight. Now I saw a bird, black with a yellow                        beak, orange rubber legs                           pecking to kill the                             lawn, storm bird                              hates with claw,                                  evil beak,                                        s                                        u                                        n                                    and eye

From Wright Flyer Online

by Michael P. Garofalo

An Epic Poem is a long story told in verse which tells the great deeds of a hero.

Example: The Odyssey

by Homer

An Epic Poem is a long story told in verse which tells the great deeds of a hero.

Example: The Odyssey

by Homer

Narrative Poem is a poem that tells a

story.

Example: T’was the Night Before Christmas

by Clement C. Moore

Verse Fable is a brief story told in verse that illustrates a moral and features human-like animals, plants, objects, or forces of nature.

A Boy Cries Wolf

Once there was a foolish boy Whose job it was to guard some sheep         In case a hungry wolf might come         To pounce upon them in their sleep.

The owners told him: If a wolf Should come, be sure to give a cry         So we can come and save the sheep         And give that wolf a swift goodbye.

The foolish boy grew bored one night, And cried out Wolf! Wolf! just for jokes,         And farmers came from far and wide,         But left disgusted by his hoax.

But then at midnight that boy spied A savage wolf about to strike,          Wolf! Wolf! he screamed, but no one came         And sheep and shepherd died alike.

MORAL: Those who enjoy making fools of others often make fools of themselves.

from the book Aesop's Best: 80 Fables in Verse by William Cleary

Lyric Poetry portrays the poet's own

feelings, states of mind, ideas, and perceptions.

Acrostic poems use letter patterns to create multiple messages

Example: When the first letters of lines read downward form a separate phrase or word.

EnergeticRowdyIrritatingClown

-Mrs. Chi, 2/08

Figurative Language is the use of words outside of their literal or usual meaning to add beauty or

force.

It is characterized by the use of similes and

metaphors.

Metaphor is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two

unlike things, in which one thing becomes another without the use of the words like, as, than, or

resembles.

Love is a rose.

Simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two

unlike things, using words such as like, as, than, or resembles.

Example:My love is like a red, red rose.

- Robert Burns

Simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two

unlike things, using words such as like, as, than, or resembles.

Example:My love is like a red, red rose.

- Robert Burns

Onomatopeia is the use of a word or words whose sound imitates its

meaning.

Examples:crackle, pop, fizz, click,

chirp

Personification is a special kind of metaphor in which a

nonhuman thing is talked about as if it was human (given human characteristics).

Example:

This poetry gets bored of being alone,

It wants to go outdoors to chew on the wings,

To fill its commas with the keels of rowboats….

-Hugo Margenat, from”Living Poetry”

Example:

This poetry gets bored of being alone,

It wants to go outdoors to chew on the wings,

To fill its commas with the keels of rowboats….

-Hugo Margenat, from”Living Poetry”

Symbolism is when a person, place, thing or idea stands for itself and

for something else.

Example: Use of the bald eagle to represent

the United States.

Symbolism is when a person, place, thing or idea stands for itself and

for something else.

Example: Use of the bald eagle to represent

the United States.

Alliteration occurs when a series of words in a row (or

close to a row) have the same first consonant sound. For example, “She sells sea-

shells down by the sea-short” or “Peter Piper

Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers” are both

alliterative phrases.

Assonance, (or medial rime) is the agreement in the vowel sounds of two or more words, when the consonant sounds preceding and following these

vowels do not agree. Thus, strike and grind, hat and man, 'rime' with each other according to the laws of assonance.”

"Rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and consonance combined often produce tongue-twisting linguistics. Big Punisher's 'Twinz' includes this

couplet . . .: 'Dead in the middle of little Italy / Little did we know that we riddled a middle man who didn't know diddly.' . . . Keying in on a single sound, he runs a staggering series of rhyme variations ('middle,' 'little,'

'riddled,' 'middle,' 'diddly'), which he further builds upon with consonance (d) and assonance (i) and alliteration (d and l). This is what happens when

a poet is in complete control of his rhymes."

An iambic foot is an unstressed syllable

followed by a stressed syllable .

We could write the rhythm like this:

da DUM

Meter is the pattern of rhythm established

for a verse.

Rhythm is the actual sound that results from a line of poetry.

Iambic Pentameter is a line of poetry with

five iambic feet in a row This is the most

common meter in English poetry.

Example of Iambic pentameter Literary Term - Excerpt Paradise Lost by John Milton: Chapter 1 - Book 1

Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruitOf that forbidden tree whose mortal tasteBrought death into the World, and all our woe,With loss of Eden, till one greater ManRestore us, and regain the blissful seat,Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret topOf Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspireThat shepherd who first taught the chosen seedIn the beginning how the heavens and earthRose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hillDelight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowedFast by the oracle of God, I thenceInvoke thy aid to my adventurous song,That with no middle flight intends to soar

Rhyme is the placement of

identical or similar sounds at the ends of

lines or at predictable locations

within lines.

Poetry is separated into lines on a page. Lines may be based on the

number of metrical feet, or may stress a rhyme pattern at the ends of

lines.

Stanzas are groups of lines in a poem which are named by the number of

lines included.

Two lines is a couplet. Three lines is a triplet or tercet. Four lines is a quatrain. Five lines is a quintain or cinquain.

Six lines is a sestet. Eight lines is an octet.

Life Works Theory Audience Concepts:

Borderlands Border Art Hybrid vs. Binary Approaches to Identity Anti-colonialism:

Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism. Anti-imperialism includes opposition to wars of conquest, particularly of non-contiguous territory or people with a different language or culture; it also includes people opposing the expansion of a country beyond earlier borders

Themes: Chicano/a Life Identity Borders Spirituality Diversity Education Medicine

East vs West?Theory/Personal Writing

**Poetry Short Stories Theory Talks Interviews Art Journals Reflections