Exploring the Fundamentals of Poetry: Rhyme, Rhythm, and Stanzas

1. Poetry Terms for the Journey

2. Rhyme • Use of matching sound patterns in two or more words: “tight” and “might” or “sleep” and “deep” • For rhyme to be perfect, the final vowel and consonant patterns must be the same • Imperfect rhyme occurs when the final consonant sounds are the same but the vowel pattern is different: “learn” and “barn” or “road” and “dead” • The most common type of rhyme is end rhyme, where the final words of each line rhyme

3. Rhythm • The regular occurrence of sounds • Beating of a heart, lapping of waves • Achieved through balanced structure and regular rhyme and meter • The way words are set up on a page can help achieve certain rhythm

4. Stanza • Group of two or more lines with the same metrical pattern – and often with a regular rhyme scheme as well – separated by blank space • Functions like a paragraph – groups related ideas

5. Types of Stanzas • Couplet – two line stanza with rhyming lines of similar length and meter • Quatrain – four line stanza with rhyming lines of similar length and meter • Heroic couplet – consists of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter – there is a weak pause after the first line and a strong pause after the second

6. Foot • See handout

7. Meter • The recurrence of regular units of stressed and unstressed syllables • A stress (or accent) occurs when one syllable is emphasized more than another • Ex. Basic, Illusion • Readers analyze meter by looking at the poem

8. Speaker • Like other literature, there is a speaker in poetry • Often not the author • Speaker is also called the persona • Sometimes a poem will have a speaker, but the author’s voice will shine through as well • Don’t ever assume that the author is naturally the poem’s speaker

9. Questions for finding the speaker • Is the speaker old or young? • Happy? Sad? Defiant? Angry? Distant? • Is the poem written in first person? Second? Third? • Title – sometimes this will tell who the speaker is • Is the speaker isolated? Without self control? • Is the speaker being blunt about what he / she has to say?

10. Situation • Often refers to the setting • Even though a poem is short, the audience should be able to identify where it takes place as well as time period

11. Assonance • Repetition of the same or similar vowels • Occurs especially in stressed syllables • Used to unify a poem • Can be distracting if used ineffectively

12. Alliteration • Repetition of consonant sounds in consecutive or neighboring words • Usually found at the beginning of words • Used to enhance sound in a poem

13. Onomatopoeia • The sound of a word echoes its meaning • Bang, crash, hiss • One of the earliest and most primitive ways of enhancing sound in a poem

14. Sonnet • Closed form poetry • 14 line poem with specific rhyme scheme • Shakespearean Sonnet • Three quatrains with concluding couplet • Iambic pentameter • abab, cdcd, efef, gg • Introduce in first quatrain, develop in next two, finish in couplet

15. Sonnet (cont.) • Petrarchan Sonnet • One octave and one sestet • Iambic pentameter • abba, abba, cde, cde • Present problem in octave, resolve in sestet

16. Ballad • Originally made to be sung • Uses repeated words and phrases to advance story • Narrative poetry • What does this mean?

17. Free Verse • No identifiable rhyme or meter • Sometimes odd breaks in lines • There are still certain things that unify a poem – repeated words and appearances of words on the printed page