Poetry 101—The Basics of Poetry

1. Poetry 101—The Basics of Poetry “Introduction to Poetry,” Literary Terms, How to Read a Poem, and Helpful Websites

2. Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to water ski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.

3. Literary Terms • Allegory - sometimes called an extended metaphor, is the representation of abstract ideas by characters or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form. • Alliteration - Alliteration is the succession of similar consonant sounds. They are not recognized by spelling, but rather by sounds. • Allusion - Referencing a person place or thing, usually indirectly, that is believed to be known by the reader. Sometimes these references are footnoted or glossed. • Analogy - The use of words of phrases that share meaning but are dissimilar. • Anaphora - A word or expression used repeatedly at the beginning of successive phrases. This is usually used for poetic or rhetorical effect. • Antithesis - Placing a pair of words, phrases, clauses, or sentences side by side in contrast and opposition. • Apostrophe - the addressing of an absent or imaginary person • Assonance - The succession of similar vowel sounds that are not recognized by spelling, rather by sound. Do not confuse this with alliteration which is the repetition of consonants.

4. Literary Terms • Ballad - A form of verse to be sung or recited and characterized by its presentation of a dramatic or exciting EPISODE in simple narrative form. • Blank Verse - Simply defined as unrhymed verse or unrhymed iambic pentameter. • Close Rhyme - A rhyme of two close words. • Conceit - An ingenious, logically complicated image, or an elaborate metaphor. • Consonance - The close repetition of the same end consonants of stressed syllables with differing vowel sounds. • Couplet - Two lines of VERSE with similar END-RHYMES. Formally, the couplet is a two-line STANZA with both grammatical structure and idea complete within itself. • Diction - choice of words esp. with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness • Dirge - A poem of grave meditation, or lament. The dirge is a song of lamentation that is apt to be less meditative than the elegy. • Dramatic Poem - A composition of verse that portrays the story of life or character, involving conflict and emotions.

5. Literary Terms • End Rhyme – A rhyme occurring in the terminating word or syllable of one line of poetry with that of another line, as opposed to internal rhyme. • Epic - An Epic is a long narrative poem celebrating the adventures and achievements of a hero...epics deal with the traditions, mythical or historical, of a nation. • Epigram - Epigrams are short satirical poems ending with either a humorous retort or a stinging punch-line. • Extended Metaphor - A metaphor which is drawn-out beyond the usual word or phrase to extend throughout a stanza or an entire poem, usually by using multiple comparisons between the unlike objects or ideas. • Foot – A rhythmic or metrical unit; the division in verse of a group of syllables, one of which is long or accented. • Free Verse - Poetry that is based on the irregular rhythmic CADENCE or the recurrence, with variations, of phrases, images, and syntactical patterns rather than the conventional use of METER. RHYME may or may not be present in free verse, but when it is, it is used with great freedom.

6. Literary Terms • Haiku - A form of Japanese poetry which states in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables a clear picture designed to arouse a distinct emotion and suggest a specific spiritual insight. • Homonym - One of two or more words that have the same sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning. • Hyperbole - A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect • Iambic - A metrical foot consisting of an unaccented syllable (noted by "x") and an accented or stressed one. • Imagery – Elements in literature used to evoke mental images of the visual sense, and sometimes of sensation and emotion as well. • Internal Rhyme – a rhyme occurring in mid-line • Line - A formal structural division of a poem, consisting of one or more feet arranged as a separate rhythmical entity. • Meter – A measure of rhythmic quantity organized into groups of syllables at regular intervals in a line of poetry • Metaphor - Used to suggest a relationship between an object or idea

7. Literary Terms • Ode - An elaborately composed verse that is enthusiastic in tone. It often has varying iambic line lengths with no fixed system of rhyme schemes. It often addresses a praised person or object. • Onomatopoeia - Words used in place of where a reader should hear sounds. • Oxymoron - The joining of two words that seem to be contradictory (opposites), but offer a unique effect. • Pattern (Concrete) Poetry – Poetry written with words, letters, and lines to produce a visual image to help convey the idea or topic of the poem • Personification - A form of metaphor where an inanimate object, animal, or idea is given human-like characteristics • Pun - A play on words that sound similar for a humorous effect. • Repetition - Repetition of a sound, syllable, word, phrase, line, stanza, or metrical pattern is a basic unifying device in all poetry. It may reinforce, supplement, or even substitute for meter, the other chief controlling factor in the arrangement of words into poetry.

8. Literary Terms • Rhetorical Question – A question asked for effect, but not demanding an answer • Rhyme - A recurrence of similar ending sounds at the ends of a poetic line/verse • Rhythm - The rise and fall of stress (stressed and unstressed syllables); a metrical pattern or flow of sound in verse • Sonnet - A lyric poem of fourteen lines, following one or another of several set rhyme-schemes. • Sight Rhyme - A rhyme consisting of words with similar spellings but different sounds. Also called eye rhyme. • Simile - A comparison between two unlike things using like or as, etc. • Stanza - One of the divisions of a poem, composed of two or more lines of verse usually characterized by a common pattern of meter, rhyme, or number of lines. • Style - The poet's individual creative process, through figurative language, sounds, and rhythmic patterns • Symbol - An image or icon that represents something else by association. • Theme – The central idea, topic, or subject of artistic representation. • Tone - the pitch of a word often used to express differences of meaning; a particular pitch or change of pitch constituting an element in the intonation of a phrase or sentence {high ~} {low ~} {mid ~} {low-rising) {falling ~}, style or manner of expression in speaking or writing

9. How to Read a Poem Read on –until there’s a punctuation mark. A poem’s line breaks indicate thought groupings, but don’t break at the end of each line. If you’re baffled, find the subject and verb. Sometimes, when passages are difficult to understand, you can clarify the meaning by finding the subject, verb, and complement of each sentence. Try to paraphrase. Look for figures of speech—and think about them. Figurative language is part of what makes poetry, poetry.

10. Still Reading that Poem… Listen to the sounds. Always read a poem aloud to yourself. Poets choose evocative words for their sound as well as their meaning. One reading isn’t enough. Respond to a poem on first meeting it, and then talk about the poem with other readers before you read it carefully again. On your second reading, you’ll notice new details and develop new insights; and when you read it for the third time, the poem will feel comfortably “yours.” Perform the poem. When you give a poem a dramatic reading for an audience, you can emphasize the mood and feelings the words and evoke images. Then the poem really comes alive.

11. Helpful Websites • http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/poetic-terms.html Click on these terms for an excellent definition of these poetic terms, some from the Oxford English Dictionary. Includes types of poetry as well as terms. • http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/handbook/a.html This A-Z "poetry handbook" is really an extensive, online glossary of the terminology used to describe and discuss the structure and content of poetry. • http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/a_glossary_of_terms.htm An exhaustive list of literary terms and techniques with explanations that often include examples. The terms are presented in the order in which the author's students would be exposed to them in a semester of English literature, so you would need to scroll or do a "Find" for a specific term. • http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/display_rpo/poetterm.cfm The terms and definitions might seem different, as this is a British site, but they are all easily understood, and it's a fairly extensive list. Scroll down to view the long list of terms to choose from.

12. More Helpful Websites • http://www.newi.ac.uk/englishresources/workunits/ks4/poetry/buzzwords.html Discover the definitions for the buzz words in poetry through this site. • http://www.poeticbyway.com/glossary.html Calling itself "unique," Bob's is easy to use, with cross-links throughout, phonetic pronunciation guides when necessary, and many examples and quotations. Click on the letter and scroll for the word. • http://www.english.emory.edu/classes/Handbook/Handbook.html This site, designed to help students who are writing about poetry, defines many significant terms related to poetry, including figurative language, poetic genres, and the mechanics of rhythm and meter. Examples are also provided in addition to the definitions. • http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Terms/ This glossary defines many common literary terms. • http://www.gale.com/free_resources/glossary/index.htm An extensive glossary of literary terms provided in alphabetical format with hyperlink cross references from a major library publisher.