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What is poetry?, you say
As you fix my eyes with yours of blue.
What is poetry! .... You ask me that?
Poetry... It is you!
Gustavo Adolfo Becquer
“Original combination of words, distinctive sound, and
emotional impact…"
 From
the Greek word for making or creating
 Literature in metrical (verse) form
 Literary art
 Carefully chosen words showing a great
depth of meaning
 A short piece of imaginative writing
 “The
spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings.” - William Wordsworth
 “If
I read a book and it makes my body so
cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is
poetry.” – Emily Dickinson
 “Poetry
is what makes me laugh or cry or
yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what
makes me want to do this or that or
nothing.” – Dylan Thomas


the way a poem looks or its arrangement on the page.

Line – a group of words arranged in a row

Stanza – a grouped set of lines in a poem
concrete poetry – arrangement of words is critical to the
poem
river
falling
crashing
thundering
rushing

into quiet pools
Free verse – open form with no fixed pattern
words that end with the same sound
heart / start

 Internal
rhyme: when the rhyme
occurs within a line
 End rhyme: when the rhyme happens
at the end of two lines
 slant
rhyme: sounds that are similar but
not exactly the same
heart / star
or
heart / dark

blank verse: no rhyme
heart / apple
A hippo sandwich is easy to make. A
All you do is simply take
A
One slice of bread,
B
One slice of cake,
A
Some mayonnaise,
C
One onion ring,
D
One hippopotamus,
E
One piece of string, D
A dash of pepper-F
That ought to do it. G
And now comes the problem...
H
Biting into it!
G
 Using
symbols to represent ideas or qualities
 When an object stands for something else
 Example:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
repeating
of sounds, words,
phrases or whole lines of a
poem (refrains)
Can You See the Pride In the Panther
As he grows in splendor and grace
Toppling obstacles placed in the way,
of the progression of his race.
Can You See the Pride In the Panther
as she nurtures her young all alone
The seed must grow regardless
of the fact that it is planted in stone.
Can You See the Pride In the Panthers
as they unify as one.
The flower blooms with brilliance,
and outshines the rays of the sun.

Repetition of beginning consonant sounds
Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Robert Frost – Nothing gold can stay
 The
repetition of vowel sounds
Example:
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of
each purple curtain…
- The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe
Words that imitate sounds
Crash
WHOOSH
boom
bang
CLICK
meow
QUACK
 word
pictures – when a reader can
easily visualize what they are
reading about
 often
appeals to the 5 senses
you know when you were digging
ditches with your hands
your hands blistered suns
your lips camels with two humps
did you ever imagine
the parade would end in
a bonfire of stupidity …
…how could you
laughing your tongue
into your lungs
a sea slug on the
ocean floor
unable to scream through
fathoms and currents
how could you
your mind a
dark cloud
no place to hide from the
rain of soldier’s bodies
 Words
and phrases that help a reader picture
ordinary things in new ways
 Simile:
comparison using “like” or “as”
Life is like a box of chocolates.
His eyes were as angry as a storm.
 Metaphor:
comparison that does NOT use
“like” or “as”
Life is a box of chocolates.
His eyes were an angry storm.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
 Extended
metaphor: a sustained comparison
developed throughout a piece of writing.
 Personification:
giving a non human object
human qualities
The rain danced on the roof and knocked on
the windows.
The frigid air crept in under the door and
attacked me as I walked by.
 Hyperbole
– an exaggeration used to create
strong feelings or a strong impression; not
meant to be taken literally

Example:
In a house the size of a postage stamp
lived a man as big as a barge.
His mouth could drink the entire river
You could say it was rather large
For dinner he would eat a trillion beans
And a silo full of grain,
Washed it down with a tanker of milk
As if he were a drain.
So I sneak out to the garden to see you
We keep quiet cause we're dead if they know
So close your eyes
Escape this town for a little while
Cause you were Romeo I was a scarlet letter
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
But you were everything to me
I was begging you please don't go and I said:
Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story baby just say yes
 The
message or meaning of a poem
 What
does the poet want you to take
from the poem?
 Why did he/she write it?