Elements of Poetry
Figurative Language
Poets create imagery by using figurative Language, which conveys meaning beyond the literal meanings of words. "My heart sank when I heard that we were not writing a 10 page essay in class today"
Punctuation
Punctuation: Like syllable stresses and rhyme, punctuation marks influence the musicality of a line of poetry. When there is a break at the end of a line denoted by a comma, period, semicolon, or other punctuation mark, that line is end-stopped.
Pyrrhic
Pyrrhic: Two successive syllables with light stresses: "up to".
Quatrain
Quatrain: A four-line stanza. The most common form of English verse, the quatrain has many variants. One of the most important is the heroic quatrain, written in iambic pentameter with an ABAB rhyme scheme.
Refrain
Refrain: A phrase or group of lines that is repeated at significant moments within a poem, usually at the end of a stanza.
Repetition
Repetition: Words, sounds, phrases, lines, or elements of syntax may repeat within a poem. Sometimes, repetition can enhance an element of meaning, but at other times it can dilute or dissipate meaning.
Rhyme Schemes
Rhyme Schemes Rhymes do not always occur between two successive lines of verse. Here are some of the most common rhyme schemes: Couplet Heroic Couplet Quatrain Tercet Terza rima
Sestina
Sestina: Six six-line stanzas followed by a three-line stanza. The same six words are repeated at the end of lines throughout the poem in a predetermined pattern. The last word in the last line of one stanza becomes the last word of the first line in the next. All six endwords appear in the final three-line stanza. Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia contains examples of the sestina.
Shakespearean sonnet
Shakespearean sonnet: Also called the English sonnet or Elizabethan sonnet, this poetic form, which Shakespeare made famous, contains three quatrains and a final couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Example: That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. By William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 73"
simile
Simile: A comparison between two unlike things using the words like, as or as if. "I remember how you sang in your stone shoes light voiced as dusk or feathers". -from "Elegy for My Father" by Robert Winner
Slant rhyme
Slant rhyme: An imperfect rhyme, also called oblique rhyme or off rhyme, in which the sounds are similar but not exactly the same, as between "port" and "heart." Modern poets often use slant rhyme as a subtler alternative to perfect rhyme.
Sonnet
Sonnet: A single-stanza lyric poem containing fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter. In some formulations, the first eight lines (octave) pose a question or dilemma that is resolved in the final six lines (sestet). There are three predominant sonnet forms: Italian or Petrarchan sonnet Shakespearean sonnet Spenserian sonnet
Spenserian sonnet
Spenserian sonnet: A variant that the poet Edmund Spenser developed from the Shakespearean sonnet. The Spenserian sonnet has the rhyme scheme ABAB BCBCCDCD EE.
Spondee
Spondee: Two successive syllables with strong stresses: "stop, thief".
Tercet
Tercet: A grouping of three lines, often bearing a single rhyme.
Terza rima
Terza rima: A system of interlaced tercets linked by common rhymes: ABA BCB CDC etc. Dante pioneered terza rima in The Divine Comedy. The form is hard to maintain in English, although there are some notable exceptions. Example: O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing. -Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind."
The Italian (or Petrarchan) Sonnet
The basic meter of all sonnets in English is iambic pentameter.The Italian sonnet is divided into two sections by two different groups of rhyming sounds. The first 8 lines is called the octave. The remaining 6 lines is called the sestet The point here is that the poem is divided into two sections by the two differing rhyme groups. This change occurs at the beginning of L9 in the Italian sonnet and is called the volta,or "turn"; the turn is an essential element of the sonnet form, perhaps the essential element. It is at the volta that the second idea is introduced Wordsworth -"London, 1802"
Quantitative meter
The duration of sound of each syllable, rather than its stress, determines the meter.
The Foot
The foot is the basic rhythmic unit into which a line of verse can be divided. When reciting verse, there usually is a slight pause between feet. When this pause is especially pronounced, it is called a caesura. The process of analyzing the number and type of feet in a line is called scansion.
Accentual (strong-stress) meter
The number of stressed syllables in a line is fixed, but the number of total syllables is not.
Rhythm
The pattern of sound created by the varying length and emphasis on different syllables.
Meter
The rhythmic pattern created in a line of verse.
Trochee
Trochee: A stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable: " car ry".
Types of Rhyme
Types of Rhyme One common way of creating a sense of musicality between lines of verse is to make them rhyme. the most common types of Rhyme are the following: End rhyme Internal rhyme: Masculine rhyme Feminine rhyme Slant rhyme Perfect rhyme
Blank verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter with a close resemblance to the rhythms of ordinary speech.
Free verse
Verse that does not conform to any fixed meter or rhyme scheme but is still strict in its composition
Villanelle
Villanelle: A nineteen-line poem made up of five tercets and a final quatrain in which all nineteen lines carry one of only two rhymes. There are two refrains, alternating between the ends of each tercet and then forming the last two lines of the quatrain. Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is a famous example.
Poetry according to William Wordsworth
"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility".
Poetry
A literary form characterized by a strong sense of rhythm and meter and an emphasis on the interaction between sound and sense.
Lyric Poem
A type of poem characterized by a single speaker, brevity, compression, and the expression of feeling. A Lyric Poem contains the following: 1. a sense of rhythm and melody 2. imaginative language 3. exploration of a single feeling of thought
Types of Accentual-Syllabic Meter
Accentual-syllabic meter is determined by the number and type of feet in a line of verse. The four most common are the following: Iambic pentameter Blank verse Ballad Free verse
Alliteration
Alliteration: The repetition of sounds in initial stressed syllables.
Ballad
Alternating tetrameter and trimeter, usually iambic and rhyming.
Elegy
An elegy can be defined as a poem or song in the form of elegiac couplets, written in honor of someone deceased. It typically laments or mourns the death of the individual. "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" by Walt Whitman are the two most popular examples of elegy.
Epic Poem
An epic poem is a long, narrative poem that is usually about heroic deeds and events that are significant to the culture of the poet. Many ancient writers used epic poetry to tell tales of intense adventures and heroic feats. Examples: Vergil's Aeneid and Dante's Divine Comedy
Anapest
Anapest: Two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable: "it is time ".
Assonance
Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds
Consonance
Consonance: The repetition of sounds within and at the ends of words, especially consonants.
Couplet and Heroic Couplet
Couplet: Two successive rhymed lines that are equal in length. A heroic couplet is a pair of rhyming lines in iambic pentameter. In Shakespeare's plays, characters often speak a heroic couplet before exiting. "The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, / That ever I was born to set it right!" - Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Dactyl
Dactyl: A stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables: " diff icult".
End rhyme
End rhyme: A rhyme that comes at the end of a line of verse. Most rhyming poetry uses end rhymes.
Extended metaphor
Extended Metaphor :A metaphor (comparison) developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work.
Feminine rhyme
Feminine rhyme: A rhyme consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, as in the rhyme between "mother" and "brother."
Haiku
Haiku: A compact form of Japanese poetry written in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively.
Hyperbole
Hyperbole: An exaggeration for emphasis or humorous effect. "Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world." - from "The Concord Hymn" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Iamb
Iamb: An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable: "to day ".
Iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter: Each line of verse has five feet (pentameter), each of which consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (iamb).
Imagery
Imagery:Language that appeals to the five senses. "I can remember the wind-swept streets of the cities" - from "Memory" by Margaret Walker
Enjambment
In enjambment, a sentence or clause runs onto the next line without a break. Enjambment creates a sense of suspense or excitement and gives added emphasis to the word at the end of the line. "Thy plaintive anthem fades / Past the near meadows, over the still stream." John Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale"
Metaphysical conciet
In the metaphysical conceit, metaphors have a much more purely conceptual, and thus tenuous, relationship between the things being compared. A comparison becomes a conceit when we are made to concede likeness while being strongly conscious of unlikeness. An often-cited example of the metaphysical conceit is the metaphor from John Donne's "The Flea", in which a flea that bites both the speaker and his lover becomes a conceit arguing that his lover has no reason to deny him sexually, although they are not married: Oh stay! three lives in one flea spare Where we almost, nay more than married are. This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage-bed and marriage-temple is.
Internal rhyme:
Internal rhyme: A rhyme between two or more words within a single line of verse. "And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil." "God's Grandeur" by Gerard Manley Hopkins:
Italian or Petrarchan sonnet
Italian or Petrarchan sonnet: Developed by the Italian poet Petrarch, this sonnet is divided into an octave with the rhyme scheme ABBAABBA or ABBACDDC and a sestet with the rhyme scheme CDECDE or CDCCDC. Example: Being one day at my window all alone, So manie strange things happened me to see, As much as it grieveth me to thinke thereon. At my right hand a hynde appear'd to mee, So faire as mote the greatest god delite; Two eager dogs did her pursue in chace. Of which the one was blacke, the other white: With deadly force so in their cruell race. by Francesco Petrarch - "Visions"
Limerick
Limerick: A fanciful five-line poem with an AABBA rhyme scheme in which the first, second, and fifth lines have three feet and the third and fourth have two feet.
Line and Stanza
Line and Stanza: Poetry generally is divided into lines of verse. A grouping of lines, equivalent to a paragraph in prose, is called a stanza. On the printed page, line breaks normally are used to separate stanzas from one another.
Masculine rhyme
Masculine rhyme: A rhyme consisting of a single stressed syllable, as in the rhyme between "car" and "far."
metaphor
Metaphor:A comparison between two unlike things but without the words like or as. "The door of winter is frozen shut. -from "Wind Chill" by Linda Pastan
Metaphysical Poetry
Metaphysical Poetry is a term coined by the poet and critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of English lyric poets of the 17th century, whose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits (synonyms for conceit :image, imagery, metaphor, simile, trope; play on words, pun, quip, witticism). Topics usually include religion or love. Example The idea of "the wind's singing" is a prime romantic conceit.
Feet in Most English Poetry
Most English poetry has four or five feet in a line, but it is not uncommon to see as few as one or as many as eight. Feet commonly known are as follows: Monometer: One foot Dimeter: Two feet Trimeter: Three feet Tetrameter: Four feet Pentameter: Five feet
Ode
Ode: A complex lyric poem with complex stanza forms. The poem addresses a serious theme, such as, justice, truth or the passage of time.
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia: A word that imitates the sound it represents. "The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard".
Ottava rima
Ottava rima: In English, an eight-line stanza with iambic pentameter and the rhyme scheme ABABABCC. This form is difficult to use in English, where it is hard to find two rhyming triplets that do not sound childish. Its effect is majestic yet simple. Example: William Butler Yeats's poem "Among School Children" uses ottava rima.
Perfect rhyme
Perfect rhyme: An exact match of sounds in a rhyme.
Personification
Personification: A description of an object animal, or an idea in human terms. "Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so." - from Sonnet 10 by John Donne
Carpe Diem
Phrase first used by Roman poet and soldier Horace. Describes lyric poems that exemplify the idea of "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die." Common topic of Renaissance love poetry with the speaker exhorting his mistress to yield to love while she has her youth and beauty. To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles today Tomorrow will be dying.
Poetic Forms
Poetic Forms Certain traditional forms of poetry have a distinctive stanza length combined with a distinctive meter or rhyme pattern. Here are some popular forms. Haiku Limerick Ottava rima Sestina Sonnet Villanelle Ode
Poetic StylisticTechniques
Poetic Stylistic Techniques are as follows: Punctuation Enjambment Repetition Alliteration Assonance Consonance Refrain
