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Elements of Poetry:

Structure and Forms

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Let’s start with some basics…

po·et·ry (n) writing chosen and arranged to create a certain emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythmprose (n) everything else! ordinary language that people use when they speak or write

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Lines

May be short or long. Are NOT necessarily complete

sentences or even complete thoughts! The arrangement of lines, spacing,

and whether or not the lines rhyme in some manner, can define the FORM of a poem.

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Stanza

A group of lines whose rhyme scheme is usually followed throughout the poem.

A division in poetry like a paragraph in prose.

Common stanza patterns include couplets, triplets, quatrains, etc.

Free-verse poems follow no rules regarding where to divide stanzas.

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And now several forms of poetry…

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Couplet

Two lines that rhyme. A complete idea is usually

expressed in a couplet, or in a long poem made up of many couplets.

Couplets may be humorous or serious.

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Couplet continued…

Example:

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,

All losses are restored and sorrows end.

Shakespeare

Chocolate candy is sweet and yummy

It goes down smoothly in my tummy!

Unknown

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Couplet continued…

Twinkle, twinkle little star,

How I wonder what you are,

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky.

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Narrative Poems Tell a story. It is a story told in verse, by

a speaker or narrator. There is a plot … something happens;

because of this, something else happens. Can be true or fictional. Poems vary in treatment of character

and setting. Forms of narrative poetry include:

balladepic

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Narrative Poems: Ballad

A narrative, rhyming poem or song. Characterized by short stanzas and

simple words, usually telling a heroic and/or tragic story (although some are humorous).

Can be long. Usually rich with imagery (emotionally charged visual images).

Originated from folk songs that told exciting or dramatic stories.

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Ballad continued…

Example from John Henry, a traditional American ballad in ten stanzas.

When John Henry was a tiny little baby

Sitting on his mama’s knee,

He picked up a hammer and a little piece of steel

Saying, “Hammer’s going to be the death of me, Lord, Lord,

Hammer’s going to be the death of me.”

John Henry was a man just six feet high.

Nearly two feet and a half across his chest.

He’d hammer with a nine-pound hammer all day

And never get tired and want to rest. Lord, Lord,

And never get tired and want to rest.

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Ballad continued…

Example from The Unquiet Grave. (an old ballad that would have been sung to an eerily catchy tune)

The wind doth blow today, my love,

And a few small drops of rain.

I never had but one true-love,

In cold grave she was lain.

I’ll do as much for my true-love

As any young man may.

I’ll sit and mourn all at her grave

For a twelvemonth and a day.

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Narrative Poems: Epic

Very long narrative (story) poem that tells of the adventures of a hero.

Purpose is to help the reader understand the past and be inspired to choose good over evil.

Usually focuses on the heroism of one person who is a symbol of strength, virtue, and courage in the face of conflict.

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Narrative Poems: Epic continued

Some are VERY long – for example, The Odyssey by Homer, (written as 12 books) has over 6,213 lines in the first half alone!

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Lyric Poetry

Always expresses some emotion. Poems are shorter than epic poems. Tend to express the personal feelings

of one speaker (often the poet). Give you a feeling that they could be

sung.

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Lyric Poetry continued…

Originally Greek poets sang or recited poems accompanied by music played on a lyre (a stringed instrument like a small harp).

In the Renaissance, poems were accompanied by a lute (like a guitar).

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Lyric Poetry: Sonnet

Most sonnets are in a fixed form of 14 lines of 10 syllables, usually written in iambic pentameter.

The theme of the poem is summed up in the last two lines. (English sonnet)

Can be about any subject, but usually are about love and/or philosophy.

Other sonnet info

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I talian or Petrarchan abbaabba cde cde abbaabba cc dd ee abbaabba cdcd ee

Spenserian abab bcbc cdcd ee

English or Shakespearean abab cdcd efef gg

Petrarchan- iambic pentameter 2 stanzas- 1 of 8 lines (octave) 1 of 6 lines (sestet) Spenserian- iambic pentameter 3 stanzas- 4 lines each (quatrains) 1 couplet Shakespearian- iambic pentameter 3 stanzas- 4 lines each (quatrains) 1 couplet

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Lyric Poetry: Sonnet continued…

Example from Sonnet 18Sonnet 18 by 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 dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

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Lyric Poetry: Ode

A tribute to someone or something. Often uses exalted language in praise

or celebration. Can be serious or humorous.

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Lyric Poetry: Ode continued…

Example from Ode to Pablo's Tennis Shoes by Gary Soto

They wait under Pablo's bed,Rain-beaten, sun-beaten,A scuff of greenAt their tipsFrom when he fell In the school yard.He fell leaping for a footballThat sailed his way.But Pablo fell and got up,Green on his shoes,With the footballOut of reach.

Now it's night.Pablo is in bed listeningTo his mother laughingto the Mexican novelas on TV.His shoes, twin petsThat snuggle his toes,Are under the bed.

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Elegy

to express grief or mourning for someone who has died

somber, serious, ending on a peaceful note

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Elegy for Anne Frankby Jessica Smith

You blossomed and grewbetween the quiet gray wallsof your attic home.A sidewalk-surrounded flowerpushed up through the cracks,petals straining forthe light, but yourroots held you down.In the dim light of your roomyou made family trees,the continuing livescomforting you in waysyour mother could not.While concentration campsbuilt bonfires with the bones of your neighbors, you dreamed of the sun andthe love you’d find when the doors of your prison were unlocked.When I took your short life from your diary,I could feel your heartbeatpulse with my own,and every breath you tookwent into my own lungs,every desire you felt,I felt, too.Your life was held by four silent years,surrounding you as the four walls did.And before the last bomb fell,destroying the last of your love and light,you died.And I am thankful.

Elegy example…

Sestina French origin Stanzas:

6 sestets 1 tercet: an envoi

Repetition and linking of talons: a/b/c/d/e/f f/a/e/b/d/c c/f/d/a/b/e e/c/b/f/a/d d/e/a/c/f/b b/d/f/e/c/a ba/dc/fe

Atmosphere ranges from cozy to claustrophobic

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Was blessed heaven once, more than an island The grand, utopian dream of a noble mind.In that kind climate the mere thought of snow Was but a wedding cake; the youthful natives,Unable to conceive of Rochester,Made love, and were acrobatic in the making.

Dream as we may, there is far more to making Do than some wistful reverie of an island,Especially now when hope lies with the Rochester Gas and Electric Co., which doesn't mind Such profitable weather, while the natives Sink, like Pompeians, under a world of snow.

The one thing indisputable here is snow,The single verity of heaven's making,Deeply indifferent to the dreams of the natives,And the torn hoarding-posters of some island.Under our igloo skies the frozen mind Holds to one truth: it is grey, and called Rochester. No island fantasy survives Rochester,Where to the natives destiny is snow That is neither to our mind nor of our making.

Here in this bleak city of Rochester,Where there are twenty-seven words for "snow,"Not all of them polite, the wayward mindBasks in some Yucatan of its own making,Some coppery, sleek lagoon, or cinnamon islandAlive with lemon tints and burnished natives,

And O that we were there. But here the natives Of this grey, sunless city of Rochester Have sown whole mines of salt about their land (Bare ruined Carthage that it is) while snow Comes down as if The Flood were in the making.Yet on that ocean Marvell called the mind

An ark sets forth which is itself the mind,Bound for some pungent green, some shore whose natives Blend coriander, cayenne, mint in makingRoasts that would gladden the Earl of Rochester With sinfulness, and melt a polar snow.It might be well to remember that an island

"Sestina d'Inverno" by Anthony Hecht

Villanelle French origin Originated with round dance Stanzas and Rhyme

5 tercets: aba aba aba aba aba

1 quatrain: abaa Line Repetition

1, 6, 12, 18 3, 9, 15, 19

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;I lift my lids and all is born again.(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,And arbitrary darkness gallops in:I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bedAnd sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:Exit seraphim and Satan's men:I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said.But I grow old and I forget your name.(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;At least when spring comes they roar back again.I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.(I think I made you up inside my head.)

Mad Girl's Love Song

by Sylvia Plath