What is Poetry?so much dependsupon a red wheelbarrow glazed with rainwater beside the whitechickens.

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r

whoa)s w(e loo)kupnowgath

PPEGORHRASS

eringint(o-aThe):l

eA!p:

S a(r

rIvInG .gRrEaPsPhOs)

torea(be)rran(com)gi(e)ngly,grasshopper;

Essential Questions

1. What is poetry?

2. How is poetry different from prose?

3. How do authors use stylistic devices to affect the emotions of their readers?

4. How does the performance of poetry affect its meaning?

5. How can poetry be used as a tool for social justice?

What is Poetry? Some ResponsesWebster’s Dictionary: “Imaginative

language or composition, whether expressed rhythmically or in prose.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “For poetry is the blossom and the fragrance of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions, emotions, language.”

Audre Lorde: “The difference between poetry and rhetoric / is being / ready to kill / yourself / instead of your children.”

What do these have in

common?

Prose version:         A woman stands on a mountain top with the cold seeping into her body. She looks on the valley below as the wind whips around her. She cannot leave to go to the peaceful beauty below.         In the valley, the sun shines from behind the clouds causing flowers to bloom. A breeze sends quivers through the leaves of trees. The water gurgles in a brook. All the woman can do is cry

Poetry version

            The Woman on the Peak         The woman stands upon the barren peak,         Gazing down on the world beneath.         The lonely chill seeps from the ground         Into her feet, spreading, upward bound.         The angry wind whistles ‘round her head,         Whipping her hair into streaming snakes,         While she watches, wishes, weakly wails.         Beyond the mountain, sunshine peeks,         Teasing flowers to survive and thrive.         The breeze whispers through the leaves,         Causing gentle quivers to sway the trees.         Laughter gurgles as the splashing brook         Playfully tumbles over rugged rocks,         While the woman above can only grieve.

Organizing Key TermsTypes of

PoemsSonnetLyricBalladElegy EpicIdyllPastoral

Figurative LanguageAlliterationAssonanceMetaphor SimileConceitHyperbolePersonificationMetonymyOnomatopoeia SimileSynecdoche

Allusion Imagery

Parts of a PoemVerse (Free and

Blank)StanzaCaesuraCoupletFootMeterRefrainStress

Key TermsAlliteration: the repetition of the same or similar

sounds at the beginning of words

Allusion: a reference to a famous person, thing, or work

Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds

Ballad: a poem that tells a story (such a folk tale or legend), often with a refrain

Caesura: a natural pause or break in a line of poetry

Conceit: a poetic image or metaphor that compares one thing to another that seems unlikely

Couplet: a pair of lines of the same length and that usually rhyme

Key TermsElegy: a poem written for the death of a person

Enjambment: the continuation of a sentence or idea across more than one line of poetry

Epic: a long, serious poem that tells the story of a heroic figure

Foot: two or more syllables that together make up the smallest unit of rhyme in a poem

Hyperbole: deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis

Idyll: a short poem depicting a peaceful, idealized country scene

Key TermsImagery: the use of language appealing to the

five senses

Lyric: a poem that expresses the thoughts or feelings of the poet

Metaphor: a comparison of two things when one is said to be the other

Meter: the arrangement of lines according to the number of syllables and rhythm

Metonymy: the substitution of one word for another closely associated word

Onomatopoeia: words used to imitate sounds

Pastoral: a poem that depicts rural life

Key TermsPersonification: giving human traits to non-

human objects or things

Refrain: a line or phrase repeated throughout the poem

Simile: comparison of two things using “like” or “as”

Sonnet: a 14-line lyric poem

Stanza: two or more lines organized to form the divisions of a poem

Stress: prominence or emphasis given to certain syllables

Key TermsSynecdoche: a part used to substitute for

the whole, or the whole is used to mean the part

Verse: a single metrical line of poetry, or poetry in general (as opposed to prose)

Free Verse: poetry with unrhymed lines or rhymed lines with no set meter

Blank Verse: poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Review

Literal Meaning:

Figurative Meaning:

Figurative DevicesSimile: Comparison using “like” or

“as”.

Metaphor: Comparison without using “like” or “as”.

Such devices make up...

Verse: a single metrical line of poetry, or poetry in general (as opposed to prose) Stanza: two or more lines organized to form the divisions of a poem

Stanza: two or more lines organized to form the divisions of a poem

HaikuHaiku grew from an early writing game

in which the first three lines of a poem were written by one person. A second person wrote the closing two lines. The great Japanese writer, Basho (1644-94) grew tired of this game. He felt that the first three lines could stand alone. In that way, haiku was born.

Issa

1811

春雨に大欠する美人哉

harusame ni ôakubi suru bijin kanain

the spring raina big yawn...pretty woman