“In a poem the words should be as pleasing to the ear as the meaning is to the mind.” -- Marianne Moore

POETRY

What is Poetry?

“Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.” –Plutarch

• Poetry is OLD—pretty much as old as humanity itself. In a sense, good poetry is “word magic” because words are power. They can make people do things, feel things, see things…you can create illusions with words. Good poets use the elements of poetry enough to cast “spells” on their audience and make them feel the power in their words.

Poetry vs. Prose • Poetry noun

1.the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts.

2.literary work in metrical form; verse.

• Prose noun

1.the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse.

2.matter-of-fact, commonplace, or dull expression, quality, discourse, etc.

Prose is the way we write in our everyday lives. Whether it be an email, an essay, or a Ph.D. dissertation, the rules of the English language must be followed; it is straightforward, without much decoration or reflection.

Poetry allows for the rules of English to be broken

It is meant not to be read, but to be spokenLanguage in a fresh new wayNever bland or cliché The art of words that allows us to expressSo to poetry I say yes, Yes, YES!

Speaker• “The speaker of a poem is the voice that communicates with the reader of a poem. Remember, the voice is not necessarily the poet—it could be, but it doesn’t have to be. A poem’s speaker can be the voice of another person, an animal, or even an object.”

-McDougal Littell Anthology

VOICE TONE PERSONA DICTION (word choice) SYNTAX (word order)

Sight Effects“IMAGERY is the language that appeals to the reader’s sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste or touch….FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE communicates ideas besides the ordinary, literal meaning of the words.”

-McDougal Littell Anthology

•Some figures of speech include: SIMILE METAPHOR PERSONIFICATION HYPERBOLE OXYMORON SYMBOLS (They ain’t going away EVA!!!!!!)

Sound Effects“The effect that a poem has on a reader frequently depends on the sounds of its words.” -

-McDougal Littell Anthology

• The following are some techniques that poets use to achieve different sound effects: RHYME RHYTHM REPETITION ALLITERATION ASSONANCE CONSONANCE ONOMATOPOEIA

Form• “The distinctive way a poem is laid out on the page is called the poem’s FORM.

Poems are usually divided into LINES, which may or may not be sentences. In some poems the lines are arranged in groups, called STANZAS.”

-McDougal Littell Anthology

• A poem’s stanzas may have no set rhyme or pattern, or they may have very rigid guidelines that categorize the poem as a certain form. Some forms include:

• FREE VERSE• COUPLET• BLANK VERSE• HAIKU• BALLAD• BLUES• LYRICS• SONNETS• EPIC • ETC., ETC., ETC. (The list could go on and on.)

Introduction to Poetry I ask them to take a poemand hold it up to the light like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poemand watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's roomand feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterskiacross the surface of a poemwaving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to dois tie the poem to a chair with ropeand torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hoseto find out what it really means.

--Billy Collins