Poetry What is it? A type of literature that expresses ideas, feelings, or tells a story in a...

Poetry

What is it?A type of literature that expresses ideas, feelings, or tells a story in a specific form (usually using lines and stanzas.)

Point of View in Poetry

Poet = The poet is the author of the poem.

Speaker = The speaker of the poem is the “narrator” of the poem.

Poetry Form

Form = the appearance of the words on the page.

Line = a group of words together on one line of the poem.

Stanza = a group of lines arranged together.

Kinds of Stanzas

Couplet = two line stanza Triplet = three line stanza Quatrain = four line stanza Quintet = five line stanza Sestet or Sextet = six line stanza Septet = seven line stanza Octave = eight line stanza

Sound Effects

Rhyme and Rhythm

Rhyme

Words sound alike because they share the same ending vowel and consonant sounds.

A word always rhymes with itself.

EX. The feel Of an eel.

End Rhyme

A word at the end of one line rhymes with a word at the end of another line.

EX. Hector the Collector Collected bits of string.

Collected dolls with broken headsAnd rusty bells that would not ring.

Internal Rhyme

A word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line.

EX. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary.

From “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

Rhyme Scheme

A rhyme scheme is a pattern of rhyme (usually end rhyme, but not always).

Use the letters of the alphabet to represent sounds to be able to visually “see” the pattern.

EX. aabbcc

Sample Rhyme Scheme

The Germ by Ogden NashA mighty creature is the germ, a

Though smaller than the pachyderm. aHis customary dwelling place bIs deep within the human race. bHis childish pride he often pleases cBy giving people strange diseases. cDo you, my poppet, feel infirm? aYou probably contain a germ. a

Rhythm

The beat created by the sounds of the words in a poem.

Rhythm can be created by meter, rhyme, alliteration, and refrain.

Meter

A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Meter occurs when the stressed and unstressed syllables of the words in a poem are arranged in a repeating pattern.

When poets write in meter, they count out the number of stressed (strong) syllables and unstressed (weak) syllables for each line. They repeat the pattern throughout the poem.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate the sound they are naming.

Buzz

Bang

Alliteration

Consonant sounds repeated at the beginnings of words.

EX. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

Assonance

Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line or lines of poetry.

(Often creates near rhyme.)

Lake Fate Base Fade(All share long “a” sound)

Assonance

Examples of Assonance:“Slow the low gradual moan came

in the snowing.”- John Masefield

“Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep.”

- William Shakespeare

Consonance

Similar to Alliteration EXCEPT… The repeated consonant sounds can be

anywhere in the words.EX.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain"

- “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

All mammals named Sam are clammy

Refrain or Repetition

A sound, word, phrase or line repeated regularly in a poem.

“’EX. Quoth the raven,Nevermore.’”

Figurative Language

Words and phrases that help the reader picture things in a new way.

Simile

A comparison of two things using “like, as than, or resembles.”

EX. “She is as beautiful as a sunrise.”

Metaphor

A direct comparison of two unlike things. Like or as are NOT used.(one thing is another)

EX. “All the world’s a stage, and we are merely players.”

-William Shakespeare

Hyperbole

Obvious and intentional exaggeration often used for emphasis.

EX. There are a million people here.I have a ton of homework tonight.

Idiom

An expression where the literal meaning of the words is not the meaning of the expression. It means something other than what it actually means.

EX. You are pulling my leg.

Personification

An animal given human-like qualities or an object given life-like qualities.

EX. My dog smiles at me.

EX. The house glowed with happiness.

Oxymoron

An Oxymoron is a combination of contradictory words, such as 'Jumbo Shrimp' (Jumbo means 'large' while Shrimp means 'small'). It is a literary figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory words, terms, phrases or ideas are combined to create a rhetorical effect.

EX. Pretty Ugly

Types of Poems

Poems we will compare and contrast.

Free VerseBallad

Narrative

Narrative Poems A poem that tells a

story. Generally longer

than the lyric styles of poetry because the poet needs to establish characters and a plot.

Examples of Narrative poems.

“The Raven”“The Highwayman”“Casey at the Bat”

“The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”

Free Verse Poems Free verse poetry

does NOT have any repeating patterns of stress and unstressed syllables.

Does NOT have rhyme.

Free verse poetry is very conversational - sounds like someone talking with you.

A more modern type of poetry.

Example of Free Verse Poem

I Dream'd in a Dreamby Walt Whitman

  I DREAM'D in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the

    whole of the rest of the earth,  I dream'd that was the new city of Friends,

  Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love, it led    the rest,

  It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city,

  And in all their looks and words.

Example of Free Verse Poem

Fogby Carl Sandburg

The fog comeson little cat feet.

It sits lookingover harbor and cityon silent haunchesand then moves on.

Ballad A type of narrative

poem that tells a story.

It is meant to be sung or recited.

It tells a story – has a setting, plot, and characters.

Most have regular patterns of rhythm and rhyme.

Example of a Ballad John Henry

John Henry said to his CaptainI ain't nothing but a man,But before I'll let your steam drill beat me down,I'll die with my hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord,I'll die with my hammer in my hand."

John Henry got a thirt pound hammer,Beside the steam drill he did stand.He beat that steam drill three inches down,And he died with his hammer in his hand, Lord, Lord,He died with his hammer in his hand.

John Henry had a little woman,Her name was Julie Ann,She went down the track never lookin' back,Says, "John Henry, you have always been a man, Lord, Lord,John Henry, you have always been a man."

They took John Henry to the graveyard,And buried him in the sand,And ev'ry time that train comes roaring by,Says, "There lays a steel-drivin' man, Lord, Lord,There lays a steel-drivin' man.

Poetry

There is so much more to Poetry.

We have only scratched the surface!