Poetry Basics

What is Poetry Anyway?

• It is words arranged in a Rhythmic pattern with regular Accents (like beats in music)

• It is words carefully selected for sound, accent and meaning to express imaginatively ideas and emotions

“Imagination is not the talent of some,but the health of everyone.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everyone Uses Poetry…

• In conversation – “I’ve come to the end of my rope”

• In Songs – “Love is a many splendored thing”• In Speeches – “I am Canadian”

A Poet…

Example

Non Poet PoetI see a big tree and I see a it’s getting dark. Dark hand

is tearing the vault

of night

Is a person who tries to express an idea with words that give it form and beauty.

Every Poem Has…

• Rhythm• Melody• Imagery• Form/Structure

“Poetry lifts the veil from hidden beauty. It makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar and creates anew the universe.” ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Rhythm

• In a poem, rhythm is called a metric pattern (except in free ferse)

• The accents of the syllables in the words fall at regular intervals, like the beats of music.

• Example –

- / - /The stag / at eve/

de dum de dum

Four Most Used Metric PatternsNumber of Syllables per “Foot”

Technical Name Accented = / “Dumm”Unaccented = - “De”

Such As…

2 Iambic - /De Dumm

- / a way I will

2 Trochaic / -Dumm De

/ -Com ing Do it

3 Anapestic - - /De De Dumm

- - /Can non adeLet us in

3 Dactylic / - -Dumm De De

/ - -Vic to riesTwo of them

Less Used Metric PatternsSpondee = / / Dumm Dumm

Pyrraic = - - De De

Tribach = - - - De De De

Amphibrach = - / - De Dumm De

Amphimacer = / - / Dumm De Dumm

Note – Sometimes a pause (Caesura) may take the place of an Unaccented Syllable

The Beat of Poetry Feet is Called….Meter

- / - /Had drunk / his fill

this is a “foot”

Note: If meter should vary within a line, it is called “Inversion”

The Number of Feet in a Line is Expressed…

Number of Feet Name

1 Monometer

2 Dimeter

3 Trimeter

4 Tetrameter

5 Pentameter

6 Hexameter

7 Heptameter

8 Octameter

9 Nonameter

Except Free Verse

There is no metrical Pattern in free verse as It is based on naturalSpeech cadences

Like Music, Every Poem has Melody

• Melody in a poem is the use of sound devices• Primary sound device is Rhyme• Single Rhyme - love, dove• Double Rhyme - napping, tapping• Triple Rhyme - mournfully, scornfully

Note: Sometimes too many rhymes detract from a poem and make it sound too Jingly.

Other Rhyming Terms

• “Imperfect” Rhyme – two words look alike, but do not sound alike such as “Love” and “Jove”

• “Internal” Rhyme – the rhyme occurs inside a line such as “Let’s beat the heat”

• “Masculine” Rhyme – the last syllable is accented such as “rake” and “stake”

• “Feminine” Rhyme – more than one syllable is rhymed and not on the last syllable such as “weather” and “heather

Other Sound Effects Poets Use…• Assonance - resemblance of sound in words or

syllables such as “O harp and alter, of the fury fused”• Onomatopoeia – where words sound like meanings

such as drip, whisper, hiss, hoot, meow, murmur• Alliteration – words beginning with the same

consonant sound such as “In a summer season, where soft was sun”

Poems Also Have ImageryImagery by Comparison

• Simile - two unlike things compared using “like” and/or “as” such as “The man paced like a hungry lion.”

• Metaphor – two unlike things directly compared such as “The river is a snake which coils on itself.”

• Personification – giving human qualities to things such as “The trees danced in the breeze.”

• Apostrophe - addressing some abstract object such as “O world! Tell me thy pain.”

• Literary Allusions – referring metaphorically to persons, places, and to other literature

Imagery by Exaggeration

• Hyperbole – saying more than is true such as“ he wore his fingers to the bone.”• Understatement – saying less than is true such as “Losing his

job meant he could sleep late.”• Irony – saying the opposite to what is true or expected such

as “War is kind.”• Antithesis – using contrasts for effect such as “Deserts are

dry; oceans are wet.:• Synechdoche – using parts for the whole such as “All hands

on deck.”• Metonymy – substitution of one word for another such as

“The pot’s boiling.” “Lend me your ears.”

•Never mix metaphors, such as “He threw in the sponge before he hit the jackpot.”•Avoid comparisons that are too obvious or far-fetched.

Every Poem Has Form/Structure

Star,If you are

A love compassionate,You will walk with us this year

We face a glacial distance who are hereHuddl’d

At your feet.

Dr. William Burford, “A Christmas Tree” from the book Man Now (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1954)

Note how a poet can arrange the poem so

you will read it as he/she wants you to, and get its sound and

rhythm

Note each line starts

with a Capital Letter

END-STOP Line –completes a

thought

Run-on line – not end of sentence or

thought

Long lines often indicate distance

or direction; short lines indicate

brevity or speed.

What is “Poetic License”?

• It means that a poet is allowed to break rules of spelling to make his rhyme or his meter more perfect.

• Such as – soft – hope oft’ – ope’

Other Special Effects

• Caesura – a natural pause in or at the end of a line.

• Catalexis – an unstressed syllable omitted from the beginning of an iambic or anapestic line, or from the end of a trochaic or dactylic line

• Hypermeter – adding an unstressed syllable at the beginning of a trochaic or end of an iambic line

Rhyme Schemes

• Rhyme schemes are indicated by the use of letters such as abba, abba

Sound aTen = b Men bRound a

Stanzas• A long poem usually consists of a number of lines grouped into sets of lines called Stanzas

# of Lines What It’s Called What It Is

2 Rhymed Couplet Two lines with identical rhymes

2 Heroic Couplet two iambic pentameter lines with identical rhymes

3 Tercet, Triplet Three lines – any rhyme scheme or meter

4 Quatrain Four lines – any rhyme scheme (abab, abba, abcb) and any length and meter

4 Ballad Quatrain Rhyme scheme is abcb. The first and third lines are iambic pentameter, the second and fourth lines are iambic trimeter

5 Quintet, Cinquain Five lines – rare form

6 Sestet Six lines (often three sets of couplets)

7 Prime Royal Seven line Iambic Pentameter; Rhyme scheme abab, abcc

8 Octave Eight line stanza

8 Octava Rima Eight lines iambic pentameter, rhyme scheme abab, abcc

9 Spenserian Stanza Eight lines iambic pentameter, one line iambic hexameter, rhyme scheme ababbcbcc

14 Sonnet One form – three quatrains plus couplet, rhyme scheme ababcdcdefefggAnother form – eight lines rhyming (abba, abba), then six lines rhyming (cdecde or cdcdee)

Stanzas Continued…

• Blank Verse – usually iambic pentameter but no rhyme …see any Shakespearian play

• Free Verse - no regular rhythmic patter or use of rhyme ….see Walt Whitman

Types of Poems

Narrative – tells a story- A long poem about a hero such as Dante’s

“Divine Comedy” or Milton’s “Paradise Lost”- Or a long poem about a group of people such as

Homer’s “Odyssey” and “Beowulf”

Types of Poems Continued

Ballad – a very short story such as Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and much folk (and rock) music ancient and contemporary such as “American Pie” by Don McLean

Types of Poems Continued

Fable – a short story usually about animals with a moral such as those by Aesop

Groups of Poems - Lyric

• Ode – in praise or memory of someone• Elegy - a lament in memory of someone• Epitaph – A short elegy to inscribe on a

monument• Epigram – a satirical poem ending with a

witticism• Pastoral - a poem dealing with country life• Sonnet – a popular form of lyric poetry having

14 lines

Other Groups of Poems

• Didactic – for purposes of instruction/teaching such as Horace’s “Art of Poetry”

• Satirical – to attack folly via ridicule • Dramatic – telling a story through the

speeches of characters • Parody – imitations of an author’s

characteristic style for humour• Humorous – dialect, limerick, jingle

Poets and Poetry Have Their Own StylesSometimes these styles are called schools or movements

•Classical – poetry that is very formal in treatment such as poems by John Milton•Romantic – imaginative poetry dealing with nature, love etc. but in strict metrical patterns such as poems by John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley•Realistic – a candid representation of every day life such as poems by Walt Whitman•Psychological – realistic poetry concerned with man’s inner thoughts such as poems by Robert Frost and T.S. Eliot•Abstract – poems that are highly symbolic, the poet’s interpretation and extremely personal

To Remember

Every Poet is Influenced By:• His/her beliefs as they are usually reflected in

his/her themes• The period of time in which they lived as it

affects the style of his/her poems• The subject as it often affects the metrical

pattern• His/her creativity as it affects his/her use of

imagery