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Poetry
Terminology
Forms
How to Read Poetry
What is poetry?
 Poetry is a type of literature in which
words are chosen and arranged to
create a certain effect.
 Poets use a variety of sound devices,
imagery, and figurative language to
express emotions and ideas.
Terminology
Alliteration
 The repetition of consonant sounds at
the beginnings of words.
 Example:
 “The angels, not half so happy in
Heaven, went envying her and me”
 Edgar
Allan Poe, “Annabel Lee”
Assonance
 The repetition of vowel sounds within
non-rhyming words.
 Example:
 “My grandmothers are full of memories /
Smelling of soap and onions and wet
clay”
 Margaret
Walker, “Lineage”
Ballad
 A poem that tells a story (a narrative
poem) and is meant to be sung or
recited.
Blank Verse
 Unrhymed poetry written in iambic
pentameter. That is, each line of blank
verse has five pairs of syllables.
 Blank verse, the most versatile of poetic
forms, imitates the natural rhythm of
English speech.
 Blank verse was commonly used by
Shakespeare.
Couplet
 A rhymed pair of lines.
Epic
 A long, narrative poem about the
adventures of a hero whose actions
reflect the ideals and values of a nation
or race.
Extended Metaphor
 A figure of speech that compares two
essentially unlike things at some length
and in several ways.
 It does not contain the word like or as.
Figurative Language
 Language that communicates ideas
beyond the ordinary, literal meanings of
words.
 Types of figurative language include
personification, hyperbole, simile, and
metaphor.
Form
 The way a poem is laid out on the page.
 The length and placement of the lines
and the grouping of lines into stanzas.
Free Verse
 Poetry that does not contain a regular
pattern of rhyme and meter.
 The lines of free verse poetry often flow
more naturally than do rhymed, metrical
lines.
Hyperbole
 A figure of speech in which the truth is
exaggerated for emphasis or for
humorous effect.
Iambic Pentameter
 A metrical line of five feet, or units, each
of which is made up of two syllables, the
first unstressed and the second
stressed.
 Iambic pentameter is the most common
form of meter used in English poetry; it
is the meter used in blank verse and the
sonnet.
Imagery
 Descriptive words or phrases that
recreate sensory experiences for the
reader.
 Imagery usually appeals to one or more
of the five senses: sight, hearing, smell,
taste, and touch.
Lyric Poem
 A short poem in which a single speaker
expresses personal thoughts and
feelings.
 Most poems other than dramatic
monologues or narrative poems are
lyrics.
Metaphor
 A figure of speech that makes a
comparison between two things that are
basically unlike but that have something
in common.
 Metaphors do not use like or as.
 “All the world’s a stage, and all the men
and women merely players”
 William
Shakespeare, “As You Like It”
Meter
 The regular pattern of accented and
unaccented syllables in a line of poetry.
The accented, or stressed, syllables are
marked with ´, while the unaccented, or
unstressed, syllables are marked with
˘.
Narrative Poem
 A poem that tells a story.
 They have characters, setting, plot, and
point of view, all of which combine to
develop a theme (just like a narrative
story).
Onomatopoeia
 The use of words such as pow, buzz,
and crunch whose sounds suggest their
meanings.
Personification
 A figure of speech in which human
qualities are attributed to an object,
animal, or idea.
Refrain
 The repetition of one or more lines in
each stanza of a poem.
Repetition
 A technique in which a sound, word,
phrase, or line is repeated for effect or
emphasis.
Rhyme
 The occurrence of a similar or identical
sound and the end of two or more
words.
 There are different types of rhyme, such
as internal rhyme, end rhyme, and slant
rhyme. We’ll talk about these later.
Rhyme Scheme
 The pattern of end rhyme in a poem.
 The pattern is charted by a single letter
of the alphabet, beginning with the letter
A. Lines that rhyme the same are given
the same letter.
Rhythm
 The pattern or flow of sound created by
the arrangement of stressed and
unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
 By definition, rhythm is similar to meter.
The terms are very closely related.
Simile
 A figure of speech that makes a
comparison between two things using
the word like or as.
Sonnet
 A lyric poem of 14 lines, commonly written in
iambic pentameter.
 The sonnet may be classified as Petrarchan
or Shakespearean.
 The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three
quatrains (four-line units), and a final couplet
(two-line unit) The typical rhyme scheme is
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
Sound Devices
 The use of words for their auditory
effect to convey meaning and mood or
to unify a work.
 Common sound devices are alliteration,
assonance, consonance,
onomatopoeia, repetition and rhyme.
Stanza
 A grouping of two or more lines in a
pattern that is repeated throughout a
poem.
 A stanza is comparable to a paragraph
in prose writing.
 Each stanza may have the same
number of lines, or the number of lines
may vary.
Structure
 In poetry, structure refers to the
arrangement of words and lines to
produce a desired effect.
 A common structural unit in poetry is the
stanza.
Symbol
 A person, place, activity, or object that
stands for something beyond itself.
Understatement
 A technique of creating emphasis by
saying less than is actually or literally
true.
 Understatement is the opposite of
hyperbole, or exaggeration.
Poetic Forms
Common Poetic Forms
 Sonnet (Italian and
 Jintishi (a Chinese
English)
Petrarchan
Shakespearean
Spenserian

 Ballad (English)

 Haiku (Japanese)





 Tanka (Japanese)
 Ode (Greek)
 Ruba’i
(Arabian/Persian)

poetry form)
Sestina (English)
Villanelle (English)
Rondeau (French)
Ghazal (Arabian,
Persian, Urdu and
Bengal)
Sijo (Korean)
Common Poetic Forms
 Most of these forms have faded from
popularity, and are not commonly used by
modern poets.
 A majority of the poetry we will study is
written in free-verse, which requires no
rhyme scheme, meter, or specific form.
 Most older forms, such as the ones
mentioned previously, have highly-structured
forms and rhyme schemes.
Did you know…
 There are actually 51 recorded forms of
poetry.
 Fortunately, we’re not studying them all!
How to Read Poetry
Understanding What Poetry
Means
 Most people find poetry more difficult to
understand than prose writing.
 This is most likely because the authors
manipulate word order and language to
create a desired effect, such as rhythm,
meter, or rhyme.
Understanding What Poetry
Means
 Do not treat poetry as poetry. Treat it as
prose.
 Do not interpret line-by-line. Instead, read
sentence-by-sentence, or read until the poet
inserts some form of end punctuation (a
semi-colon, period, etc.)
 Interpret the poetry in chunks. Interpret the
meaning of one stanza before moving on to
the next. Interpret individual stanzas before
trying to determine the meaning of an entire
poem.
Understanding the Form of
Poetry
 Observe the arrangement of words. Often,
this is done for a reason.
 Notice the length and arrangement of lines.
Are the lines short, simple phrases, or do they
resemble sentences? What visual effect
does this have on you?
 Note whether the lines are grouped into
stanzas. If they are, what idea, emotion, or
information does each stanza convey?
Understanding and Analyzing
Sound in Poetry
 Read the poem aloud, listening to how it
sounds.
 Notice any internal or end rhymes. Is there a
rhyme scheme?
 Analyze the rhythm. How does it add to the
effect of the poem?
 Look for other sound devices the poet uses,
such as alliteration, assonance, or
onomatopoeia.
Understanding the Speaker
 Look for clues that reveal something
about the speaker, or narrator.
 Connect the speaker’s feelings, ideas,
and values to your own to form an
impression of the speaker.
Understanding Imagery and
Figurative Language
 Visualize comparisons that are made, either
by means of similes or metaphors.

How do they contribute to the overall effect of the
poem?
 Look for the use of personification. Notice if
an animal or object is described as having
human features, characteristics, or emotions.

Often this can be spotted by words that are
capitalized that normally shouldn’t be.
Understanding Imagery and
Figurative Language
 Use a chart (like the one below) to keep track
of imagery. Determine which of the senses
(sight, touch, smell, taste, or hearing) the poet
is appealing to, as well as the effects the
imagery has on you.
Image
Sense It
Appeals To
Its Effect on
Me