Transcript Introduction to Poetry

Introduction
to
Poetic Terminology
Definition of Poetry
• Poetry - A type of writing that uses
language to express imaginative
and emotional qualities instead of
or in addition to meaning.
• Poetry may be written as individual
poems or included in other written
forms as in dramatic poetry,
hymns, or song lyrics.
Literary Devices
Used in Poetry
Figurative Language
Figurative Language is the
use of words outside of their
literal or usual meaning to
add beauty or force.
It is characterized by the use
of similes and metaphors.
Metaphor
Metaphor is a figure of speech that
makes a comparison between two
unlike things, in which one thing
becomes another without the use
of the words like, as, than, or
resembles.
Example:
Love is a rose.
Simile
Simile is a figure of speech that
makes a comparison between two
unlike things, using words such as
like, as, than, or resembles.
Example:
My love is like a red, red rose.
- Robert Burns
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopeia is the use of a
word or words whose sound
imitates its meaning.
Examples:
crackle, pop, fizz, click, chirp
Personification
Personification is a special kind of
metaphor in which a nonhuman
thing is talked about as if it was
human (given human
characteristics).
Example:
This poetry gets bored of being alone,
It wants to go outdoors to chew on
the wings,
To fill its commas with the keels of
rowboats….
-Hugo Margenat, from”Living Poetry”
Symbolism
Symbolism is when a person, place,
thing or idea stands for itself and
for something else.
Example:
Use of the bald eagle to represent the
United States.
Alliteration
Alliteration is the use of
similar sounds at the
beginning or end of a
word.
Assonance Assonance is the use of
similar vowel sounds
within a word.
Poetic Structures
Iambic Foot
An iambic foot is an
unstressed syllable
followed by a stressed
syllable .
Example:
We could write the rhythm like
this:
da DUM
Meter
Meter is the pattern of
rhythm established for a
verse.
Rhythm
Rhythm is the actual
sound that results from a
line of poetry.
Iambic Pentameter
Iambic Pentameter is a
line of poetry with five
iambic feet in a row This
is the most common
meter in English poetry.
Example:
We could write the rhythm like this:
da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM
We can notate this with a ˘ mark
representing an unstressed syllable
and a '/' mark representing a stressed
syllable
Example Continued:
The following line from John Keats' Ode to
Autumn is a straightforward example:
˘
/
˘
/
˘
/
˘
/
˘
To swell the gourd, and plump the ha - zel
/
shells
Rhyme
Rhyme is the placement
of identical or similar
sounds at the ends of
lines or at predictable
locations within lines.
Lines
Poetry is separated into lines
on a page. Lines may be
based on the number of
metrical feet, or may stress
a rhyme pattern at the ends
of lines.
Stanza
Stanzas are groups of lines in a poem
which are named by the number of
lines included.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Two lines is a couplet.
Three lines is a triplet or tercet.
Four lines is a quatrain.
Five lines is a quintain or cinquain.
Six lines is a sestet.
Eight lines is an octet.
Couplet
Couplet is two lines of a poem that are
related by either rhyme or structure.
Rhyme Scheme
Rhyme Scheme is the use
rhyme in a pattern as a
structural element in a
poem.
Rhyme schemes are described
using letters that correspond
to sets of rhymes.
Example:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, A
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; A
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, B
Couldn’t put Humpty together again. B
------------------------------------------------The rhyme scheme for this poem is:
AABB
Example Continued:
A told B,
B told C,
“I’ll meet you at the top
of the coconut tree.”
A
A
B
A
“Whee!” said D
To E F G
“I’ll beat you to the top
of the coconut tree.”
A
A
B
A
Chicka chicka boom boom!
Will there be enough room?
Here comes H
Up the coconut tree
and I and J
and tagalong K,
All on their way
up the coconut tree.
E
E
E
A
-from Chicka, Chicka Boom Boom
by Bill Martian Jr., and
John Archambault
---------------------------------------------
Rhyme scheme:
C
C
D
A
A
A
C
E
A
A
C
E
BA
BA
DA
EA
Poetic Forms
Blank Verse
Blank Verse is poetry
written in unrhymed
iambic pentameter.
Example:
To be, or not to be: that is
the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the
mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a
sea of troubles,
And by opposing end
them?
To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep
to say we end
The heart-ache and the
thousand natural
shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a
consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.
From Hamlet
William Shakespeare
Free Verse
Free Verse is poetry that
does not have a regular
meter or rhyme scheme.
Example:
excerpt from Song of Myself
by Walt Whitman:
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good
belongs to you.
I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a
spear of summer grass.
Sonnet
A sonnet is a fourteen line
poem that is usually
written in iambic
pentameter.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (Sonnet 18)
by 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.
Haiku
Haiku is a popular form of
traditional Japanese poetry
consists of 17-syllables
comprising three metrical lines
of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.
Example
(5) Tree grow-ing old-er
(7) An-cient el-der shad-ing me
(5) Calm, cool, peace-ful day
- Mrs. Chi, 2/08
Acrostic poetry
Acrostic poems use letter
patterns to create multiple
messages
Example:
When the first letters of lines
read downward form a separate
phrase or word.
Example
Energetic
Rowdy
Irritating
Clown
-Mrs. Chi, 2/08
Concrete Poetry
Concrete Poetry uses word
arrangement, typeface, color
or other visual effects to
complement or dramatize the
meaning of the words used.
Example #1:
From Wright Flyer Online
Example #2:
by Michael P. Garofalo
Epic Poetry
An Epic Poem is a long story
told in verse which tells the
great deeds of a hero.
Example:
The Odyssey
by Homer
Narrative Poetry
Narrative Poem is a poem
that tells a story.
Example:
T’was the Night Before Christmas
by Clement C. Moore
Verse Fable
Verse Fable is a brief story told
in verse that illustrates a moral
and features human-like
animals, plants, objects, or
forces of nature.
A Boy Cries Wolf
Once there was a foolish boy
Whose job it was to guard some sheep
In case a hungry wolf might come
To pounce upon them in their sleep.
Example:
The owners told him: If a wolf
Should come, be sure to give a cry
So we can come and save the sheep
And give that wolf a swift goodbye.
The foolish boy grew bored one night,
And cried out Wolf! Wolf! just for jokes,
And farmers came from far and wide,
But left disgusted by his hoax.
But then at midnight that boy spied
A savage wolf about to strike,
Wolf! Wolf! he screamed, but no one came
And sheep and shepherd died alike.
MORAL: Those who enjoy making fools of others often make
fools of themselves.
from the book Aesop's Best: 80 Fables in Verse by William Cleary
Lyric Poetry
Lyric Poetry portrays the
poet's own feelings, states
of mind, ideas, and
perceptions.
Example:
Where the Sidewalk Ends
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.
by Shel Silverstein