Poetry Notes

1. Poetry Notes • Poetry is the most compact form of literature. • FORM – the way a poem looks- or its arrangement on the page is its form. • Poets deliberately chose arrangements of words and even plan spaces between words & letters to create the form. • Stanza – groups of lines combined together • Couplet – a pair of successive line which rhyme usually • Triplet – a three lined poem, some or all lines may rhyme

2. Poetry Notes cont.. • Sound – Poems are meant to be read aloud therefore poets choose & arrange words to create the sounds they want the listener to hear. Common ones are: • Rhyme – words that end with the same sound. • End rhyme The old moon is tarnished With smoke of the flood The dead leaves are varnished With color like blood,

3. There are many different rhyme patterns a writer can use • Example – AABB Robert Frost’s “Once by the Pacific” The shattered water made a misty din Great waves looked over others coming in, And thought of doing something to the shore That water never did before. The clouds hung low and hairy in the skies, Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes What literary device (figure of speech) is used in this poem?

4. There are many different rhyme patterns a writer can use • Example – ABAB T.S. Elliot’s “The Wasteland” She turns and looks a moment in the glass, Hardly aware of her departed lover, Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass: “Well now that’s done; and I’m glad its over.”

5. There are many different rhyme patterns a writer can use • Example – ABCABC T.S. Elliot’s “The Wasteland” On Margate Sands I can connect Nothing with nothing. The broken fingernails of dirty hands. My people humble people who expect Nothing

6. What rhyme pattern is used in Robert Frost’s poem Fire and Ice? Some say the world will end in fire Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold those who favor fire But if I had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction by ice Is also great And would suffice

7. Free Verse: Does not follow a specific rhyme or meter; even those the poets still write in a rhythmic pattern. This is done by repeating sentence patterns Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full dazzling Give me juicy autumnal fruit ripe and red from the orchard Give me a field where the unmowed grass grows Give me an arbor, give me the trellised grape “Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun “ by Walt Whitman

8. Poetry is music to your ears • So what else can a poet do to create music to your ears? • Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds in several words that are close together Ex. The swimmer's skin sizzled in the sun. • Assonance : Same thing except with vowels; anywhere in the words, there is a repetition of vowels • Ex. Please bake me a date cake. • Consonance – anywhere in words, there is repetition of consonant sounds • Ex. Write a great paper by the due date. • Onomatopoeia – words that sound like the name of the word • Ex. The cereal snapped, crackled, and popped.

9. Repetition – words or phrases are repeated • Ex. Because there is hope, because there is love, because there is beauty, I can go on • Rhyme – sound alike endings of words • End rhyme – At the end of lines, words rhyme. • EX. Jars and cans lined the rack; They tumbled down on my back • Internal rhyme – Words that rhyme are int the middle of the line. • EX. I carry a gold locket in my pocket

10. Poetry Devices • Simile – a comparison of two unlike things using like or as • Ex. She is beautiful like the morning sun. • Metaphor – a comparison of two unlike things without using like or as • Ex. Frank is a fox.

11. Poetry Devices • Personification – an inanimate object is given human like characteristic • Ex. The trees danced in the wind. • Hyperbole – a great exaggeration • Ex. She ate a mountain of mashed potatoes.

12. Types of Poems • Ballads: songlike poem that tells a story, often a sad story of betrayal, death, or loss Ballads usually have a regular steady rhythm, a simple rhyme pattern and a refrain, all of which make them easy to memorize. Example: The Cremation of Sam McGee. Most “country songs” are ballads.

13. Epic • Long narrative poem about the many deeds of a great hero. Epics are closely connected to a particular culture. The hero of an an epic embodies the important values of the society he comes from ( Heroes of epics have so far been males) Good example is : Beowulf, Casey at the Bat

14. Narrative Poems • Poems that tell a story- a series of related events Remember the word narrative means stories. Paul Revere’s Ride

15. Lyric Poems • Poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or emotions of the speaker. Example: Valentine for Ernest Mann . Lyric, short poem that conveys intense feeling or profound thought. In ancient Greece, lyrics were sung or recited to the accompaniment of the lyre. Elegies and odes were popular forms of the lyric in classical times. the Japanese verse called haiku is a lyric

16. Ode • Long lyric poem, usually praising some subject and written in dignified language. • Odes originally were songs performed to the accompaniment of a musical instrument.  • Example : Ode to Thanks/Oda a las gracias

17. Sonnet • Fourteen line lyric poem that follow strict rules of structure, meter and rhyme. • Italian sonnet: you make a point in the first eight lines, you ask a question, then the last six you answer the question • English or Shakespearean sonnet is made up of three units with four lines in each one. • John Keats was a famous English poet known for his sonnets. On the Grasshopper and the Cricket.

18. Elegy • It is a poem of mourning. Most elegies are about someone that has died. Some mourn a way of life that is gone forever. • O Captain! My Captain by Walt Whitman is a great example of elegy. It uses metaphor to compare Lincoln’s life.