Elements of Poetry

1. Elements of Poetry

2. What is poetry? • Poetry is not prose. Prose is the ordinary language people use in speaking or writing. Elements of Poetry • Poetry is a form of literary expression—musical language. • Prose is like talking, poetry is like singing.

3. Distinguishing Characteristics of Poetry • Unlike prose which has a narrator, poetry has • A speaker, or voice, talks to the reader. The speaker is not necessarily the poet. It can also be a fictional person, an animal or even a thing Example But believe me, son. I want to be what I used to be when I was like you. from “Once Upon a Time” by Gabriel Okara

4. Distinguishing Characteristics of Poetry • Poetry is also formatted differently from prose. • A line is a word or row of words that may or may not form a complete sentence. • A stanza is a group of lines forming a unit. The stanzas in a poem are separated by a space. Example Open it. Go ahead, it won’t bite. Well…maybe a little. from “The First Book” by Rita Dove

5. Figures of Speech • A figure of speech or figurative language is a word or expression that is not meant to be read literally. • A simile is a figure of speech using a word such as like or as to compare seemingly unlike things. Example Does it stink like rotten meat? from “Harlem” by Langston Hughes

6. Figures of Speech • A metaphoralso compares seemingly unlike things, but does not use like or as. Example the moon is a white sliver from “I Am Singing Now” by Luci Tapahonso • Personificationattributes human like characteristics to an animal, object, or idea. Example A Spider sewed at Night from “A Spider sewed at Night” by Emily Dickinson

7. Figures of Speech • Imagery (sensory details) is descriptive language that applies to the senses—sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell. Some images appeal to more than one sense.

8. Sound Devices • Alliterationis the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. • Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within a line of poetry. • Consonance repetition of consonant sounds within a line • Onomatopoeia is the use of a word or phrase, such as “hiss” or “buzz” that imitates or suggests the sound of what it describes.

9. Example of Sound Devices “In the steamer is the trout seasoned with slivers of ginger” from “Eating Together” by Li-Young Lee And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes from “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe

10. Rhyme • Rhymeis the repetition of the same stressed vowel sound and any succeeding sounds in two or more words. • Internal rhyme occurs within a line of poetry. • End rhyme occurs at the end of lines. • Rhyme scheme is the pattern of end rhymes that may be designated by assigning a different letter of the alphabet to each new rhyme

11. Example “All mine!" Yertle cried. "Oh, the things I now rule! I'm king of a cow! And I'm king of a mule! I'm king of a house! And what's more, beyond that, I'm king of a blueberry bush and cat! I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me! For I am the ruler of all that I see!” from “Yertle the Turtle” by Dr. Seuss A A B B C C

12. “Penelope” by Dorothy Parker A B A B C D D E E C In the pathway of the sun, In the footsteps of the breeze, Where the world and sky are one, He shall ride the silver seas, He shall cut the glittering wave. I shall sit at home, and rock; Rise, to heed a neighbor’s knock; Brew my tea, and snip my thread; Bleach the linen for my bed. They will call him brave.

13. Rhythm and Meter • Rhythm is the pattern of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. • Meter is a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables which sets the overall rhythm of certain poems. Typically, stressed syllables are marked with / and unstressed syllables are marked with  . • In order to measure how many syllables are per line, they are measured in feet. A foot consists of a certain number of syllables forming part of a line of verse.

14. Iambic Pentameter • The most common type of meter is called iambic pentameter • An iambisa foot consisting of an initial unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. For example, return, displace, to love, my heart. • A pentameter is a line of verse containing 5 metrical feet.

15. Significance of Iambic Pentameter • Iambic Pentameter is significant to the study of poetry because • 1. It is the closest to our everyday speech • 2. In addition, it mimics the sound of heart beat; a sound common to all human beings. • 3. Finally, one of the most influential writers of our times uses iambic pentameter in all that he writes – William Shakespeare.

16. Examples Example #1 And death is better, as the millions know, Than dandruff, night-starvation, or B.O from “Letter to Lord Byron” by W.H. Auden Example #2 When you are old and grey and full of sleep And nodding by the fire, take down this book. W.B. Yeats

17. Connotation and Denotation Connotation - the emotional and imaginative association surrounding a word. Denotation - the strict dictionary meaning of a word. Example: You may live in a house, but we live in a home.

18. Which of the following has a more favorable connotation? thrifty penny-pinching pushy aggressive politician statesman chef cook slender skinny

19. Elements of Poetry When we explore the connotation and denotation of a poem, we are looking at the poet’s diction. Diction – the choice of words by an author or poet. Many times, a poet’s diction can help unlock the tone or mood of the poem.

20. Elements of Poetry: Tone and Mood Although many times we use the words mood and tone interchangeably, they do not necessarily mean the same thing. Mood – the feeling or atmosphere that a poet creates. Mood can suggest an emotion (ex. “excited”) or the quality of a setting (ex. “calm”, “somber”) In a poem, mood can be established through word choice, line length, rhythm, etc. Tone – a reflection of the poet’s attitude toward the subject of a poem. Tone can be serious, sarcastic, humorous, etc.

21. Narrative Poetry • Narrative poetry is verse that tells a story. • Two of the major examples of narrative poetry include: • Ballads – a song or poem that tells a story. • Epics – a long narrative poem on a great and serious subject that is centered on the actions of a heroic figure

22. Dramatic Poetry • Dramatic poetry is poetry in which one or more characters speak. • Each speaker always addresses a specific listener. • This listener may be silent (but identifiable), or the listener may be another character who speaks in reply. • Usually the conflict that the speaker is involved with is either an intense or emotional.

23. Lyric Poetry • Lyric poetry is poetry that expresses a speaker’s personal thoughts and feelings. • Lyric poems are usually short and musical. • This broad category covers many poetic types and styles, including haikus, sonnets, free verse and many others.

24. Haikus • The traditional Japanese haiku is an unrhymed poem that contains exactly 17 syllables, arranged in 3 lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables each. • The purpose of a haiku is to capture a flash of insight that occurs during a solitary observation of nature.

25. Examples of Haikus Since morning glories hold my well-bucket hostage I beg for water - Chiyo-ni First autumn morning: the mirror I stare into shows my father’s face. - Kijo Murakami

26. Structure of Sonnets The traditional Elizabethan or Shakespearean sonnet consists of fourteen lines, made up of three quatrains (stanzas of 4 lines each) and a final couplet (two line stanza). Sonnets are usually written in iambic pentameter. The quatrains traditionally follow an abab rhyme scheme, followed by a rhyming couplet.

27. Example Sonnet 18 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.

28. Free Verse • Free verse is poetry that has no fixed pattern of meter, rhyme, line length, or stanza arrangement. • a poet is free to vary the poetic elements (repetition, metaphor, sound devices, etc.) to emphasize an idea or create a tone.

29. Example of Free Verse O Me! O Life! BY WALT WHITMAN Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring, Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish, Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?) Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d, Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me, Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined, The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?   Answer. That you are here—that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.