POETRY-- Examples

Stanza Little Lamb who made thee

Dost thou know who made thee Gave thee life & bid thee feed. By the stream & o'er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing wooly bright; Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice! Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee

Verse

Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee Gave thee life & bid thee feed. By the stream & o'er the mead;

RHYME

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

(A word always rhymes with itself.)

LAMP STAMP

Share the short “a” vowel sound

Share the combined “mp” consonant sound

Rhyme

where there's ice and snow, there lived a penguin and his name was Joe."

Brown: [- clown, crown, down, drown, frown, gown, noun, town]

Slant rhyme

how, row lovely, funny. eyes, light; years, yours

eyes, light; years, yours

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. (See next slide for an example.)

Rhyme scheme

Bid me to weep, and I will weep, (A)

While I have eyes to see; (B)

And having none, yet I will keep (A)

A heart to weep for thee. (B) Sounds in orange are marked with the letter A Sounds in purple are marked with the letter B

SAMPLE RHYME SCHEME The Germ by Ogden Nash

A mighty creature is the germ, Though smaller than the pachyderm.

His customary dwelling place Is deep within the human race.

His childish pride he often pleases By giving people strange diseases. Do you, my poppet, feel infirm? You probably contain a germ.

a

a

b

b

c

c

a

a

RHYTHM

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

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

Rhythm

I hear the sound I love, the soung of the hyman voice, I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused, or following,

Allusion

Allusion comes from the verb “allude” which means “to refer to”

An allusion is a reference to something famous.

A tunnel walled and overlaid

With dazzling crystal: we had read

Of rare Aladdin’s wondrous cave,

And to our own his name we gave.

From “Snowbound”

John Greenleaf Whittier

Allusion "As the cave's roof collapsed, he was

swallowed up in the dust like Jonah, and only his frantic scrabbling behind a wall of rock indicated that there was anyone still alive".

Christy didn't like to spend money. She was no Scrooge, but she seldom purchased anything except the bare necessities".

ALLITERATION

Consonant sounds repeated at the beginnings of words

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

Alliteration

Don't delay dawns disarming display . Dusk demands daylight . Dewdrops dwell delicatelydrawing dazzling delight .Dewdrops dilute daisies domain. Distinguished debutantes . Diamonds defray delivereddaylights distilled daisy dance .

IMAGERY

Language that appeals to the senses. Most images are visual, but they can also

appeal to the senses of sound, touch, taste, or smell.

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather . . .

from “Those Winter Sundays”

Imagery sight: the rose is bright red hearing: it sounds like the chirping of several birds,

with their high voices. smell: the air smells like going to the countryside.

fresh and green. no smell of smoke but the fresh waters and the leaves.

touch: it feels bumpy yet gives off a welcoming warmth

taste: it tastes sweet yet spicy at once, with a tinge of orange taste

~IMAGES~

Appeal to the five senses

The bear in the back room is wormy

Its meat is all stinky and squirmy,

So I’m reading a book

About how to cook

And another about taxidermy.

Simile

My love is like a red, red rose —Robert Burns Her hair was like gravy, running brown off her

head and clumping up on her shoulders. You are like a hurricane: there's calm in your eye,

but I'm getting blown away —Neil Young The air-lifted rhinoceros hit the ground like a

garbage bag filled with split pea soup.

Simile“It seems to meYou’ve lived your lifeLike a candle in the wind”

Elton John

SIMILE

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

“She is as beautiful as a sunrise.”

SYMBOLISM

When a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself also represents, or stands for, something else.

= Innocence

= America

= Peace

Limerick

Old Man with a Beard

There was an Old Man with a beard,Who said, 'It is just as I feared! Two Owls and a Hen, Four Larks and a Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard!'

LYRIC

A short poem Usually written in first person point of view Expresses an emotion or an idea or

describes a scene Do not tell a story and are often musical (Many of the poems we read will be lyrics.)

Lyric poetry

Dying (I heard a fly buzz when I died )by Emily Dickinson

I heard a fly buzz when I died;The stillness round my formWas like the stillness in the airBetween the heaves of storm.

Lyric Poetry

Lyric poetry developed from an ancient Greek form of poetry that was accompanied by a musical instrument. These types of poems are like songs and have a musical quality about them. Lyric poems appeal to our senses and emotions. They are personal, subjective poems. By choosing words and phrases carefully, you can set the mood for a lyric poem. Lyric poems can rhyme or be in free verse.

AprilThe roofs are shining from the rain,

The sparrows twitter as they fly,And with a windy April grace

The little clouds go by.Yet the backyards are bare and brown

With only one unchanging tree-I could not be so sure of Spring

Save that it sings in me.-Sara Teasdale

AutumnThe morns are meeker than they were,

The nuts are getting brown;The berry's cheek is plumper,

The rose is out of town.The maple wears a gayer scarf,

The field a scarlet gown,Lest I should be old-fashioned,

I'll put a trinket on.-Emily Dickinson

NARRATIVE POEMS

A poem that tells a story.

Generally longer than the lyric styles of poetry b/c the poet needs to establish characters and a plot.

Examples of Narrative Poems

“The Raven”

“The Highwayman”

“Casey at the Bat”

“The Walrus and the Carpenter”

Narrative PoemsNarrative poems tell stories. These stories can be about real or fictional events or ordinary or famous people. Kings, queens, knights, explorers, adventurers, soldiers, travelers, and presidents have all been written about in narrative poems. They can rhyme or be free verse.Captain Kidd by Rosemary and

Stephen Vincent BenetThis person in the gaudy clothes

Is worthy Captain Kidd.They say he never buried gold,

I think, perhaps, he did.They say it's all a story that

His favorite little song,Was "Make these lubbers walk the plank!"

I think, perhaps, they're wrong.They say he never pirated

Beneath the Skull and Bones.He merely traveled for his health

And spoke in soothing tones.In fact, you'll read in nearly all

The newer history booksThat he was mild as cottage cheese

-But I don't like his looks.

Others:

Casey at the bat

The Listeners byWalter de la Mare

On the next page, read the poem aloud. As students listen and read the poem, ask them to imagine Abe as his mother describes him. When finished, have them create an original narrative poem of their own.

Irony Situational

– You break a date with your girlfriend so you can go to the ball game with the guys. When you go to the concession stand, you run into your date who is with another guy

Verbal– You are arguing with your

mother, who reprimands you for being "smart." Your reply is a sarcastic, "If you think I am smart, then why won't you let me make some smart decisions?"

DRAMATIC– In Hawthorne's "The Scarlet

Letter," when Hester is in the governor's garden to see to it that Pearl is not taken away from her, she asks the Reverend Dimmesdale to support her position. This is an example of dramatic irony as the reader knows that Dimmesdale and Hester are partners in sin, but the characters do not

Puns

Yesterday I rode my bike twice, I guess that makes me a recycler.

The untruthful deli clerk was full of baloney.

Little Jimmy told his teacher he never saw a humming bird but he had watched a spelling bee.

CONCRETE POEMS

In concrete poems, the words are arranged to create a picture that relates to the content of the poem.

PoetryIs like Flames,

Which areSwift and elusive

Dodging realizationSparks, like words on the

Paper, leap and dance in theFlickering firelight. The fieryTongues, formless and shiftingShapes, tease the imiagination.

Yet for those who see,Through their mind’s

Eye, they burnUp the page.

END RHYME

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

Hector the Collector Collected bits of string.

Collected dolls with broken heads And rusty bells that would not ring.

End rhyme

Whose woods these are I think I know,His house is in the village, though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow.

INTERNAL RHYME

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

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

From “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

Internal rhyme

Now, Jenny and me were engaged, you seeOn the eve of a fancy ballSo a kiss or two is nothing to youOr anyone else at all.

Now we had arranged, through notes exchangedEarly that afternoonAt number four to dance no more,But to sit in the dusk, and spoon.

Eye rhyme

move and love, bough and though, come and home, laughter and daughter

REFRAIN

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

“Quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore.’”

Refrain

There lived a lady by the North Sea shore,

Lay the bent to the bonny broom

Two daughters were the babes she bore.

Lay the bent to the bonny broom

As one grew bright as is the sun,

Lay the bent to the bonny broom

So coal black grew the other one.

Lay the bent to the bonny broom

Metermeter: the regular pattern of beats and stresses in a poem

stressed syllable unstressed syllable

the meter is named for the number of sets of stressed and unstressed syllables per line

tetrameter = four sets of stressed and unstressed syllablespentameter = five sets of stressed and unstressed syllables

To him who in the love of Nature holds

-William Cullen BryantShall I compare thee to a summer's day

- William Shakespear

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 they repeat the pattern throughout the poem.

METER cont.

FOOT - unit of meter. A foot can have two or

three syllables. Usually consists of

one stressed and one or more unstressed syllables.

TYPES OF FEET

The types of feet are determined by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables.

(cont.)

METAPHOR

A direct comparison of two unlike things

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

- William Shakespeare

~METAPHOR~

My brother is

A PIG!

~a direct comparison; does NOT use “like” or “as”

Metaphor

"My heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill."(William Sharp, "The Lonely Hunter")

"Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food."(Austin O'Malley)

"Words are bullets, and should be used sparingly, aimed toward a target."(Army Colonel Dick Hallock)

ONOMATOPOEIA

Words that imitate the sound they are naming

BUZZ OR sounds that imitate another sound

“The silken, sad, uncertain, rustling of each purple curtain . . .”

~ONOMATOPOEIA~

“Black is the clear glass now that he glides,

Crisp is the whisper of long, lean strides…”

from “The Skater of Ghost Lake”

by William Rose Benet

~when a word sounds like what it means

Onomatopoeia The moan of doves in immemorial elms,

And murmuring of innumerable bees."(Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Come Down, O Maid")

"I'm getting married in the morning!Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime."(Lerner and Loewe, "Get Me to the Church on Time," My Fair Lady)

"One of these days, Alice. Pow! Right in the kisser!"(Jackie Gleason, The Honeymooners

"Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is."(Advertising slogan of Alka Seltzer)

PERSONIFICATION

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

from “Ninki”by Shirley Jackson

“Ninki was by this time irritated beyond belief by the general air of incompetence exhibited in the kitchen, and she went into the living room and got Shax, who is extraordinarily lazy and never catches his own chipmunks, but who is, at least, a cat, and preferable, Ninki saw clearly, to a man with a gun.

Personification

"And indeed there will be timeFor the yellow smoke that slides along the street,Rubbing its back upon the window panes."(T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock")

"The operation is over. On the table, the knife lies spent, on its side, the bloody meal smear-dried upon its flanks. The knife rests."(Richard Selzer, "The Knife")

Couplet

"Morning Swim"

Into my empty head there comea cotton beach, a dock wherefrom

FREE VERSE POETRY

Unlike metered poetry, free verse poetry does NOT have any repeating patterns of stressed 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.

Free Verse

Winter Poem - Nikki Giovannionce a snowflake fellon my brow and i lovedit so much and i kissedit and it was happy and called its cousinsand brothers and a webof snow engulfed me theni reached to love them alland i squeezed them and they becamea spring rain and i stood perfectlystill and was a flower

HAIKU

A Japanese poem written in three lines

Five Syllables

Seven Syllables

Five Syllables

An old silent pond . . .

A frog jumps into the pond.

Splash! Silence again.

Haiku

Fog

On the mountain topThe fog fell down thick and fastIt was like pea soup.

Rain

Tip-tap goes the rain.As it hits the window paneI can hear the rain.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration often used for emphasis.

Hyperbole

"I think of you a million times a day" "The test was so hard, by the time I finished

it I was 100 years old!“ "That boy's eyes are so big, they look like

they're going to jump out and grab you! "My best friend is so forgetful, I sometimes

have to remind her what her name is!"

Idiom

"making a mountain out of a molehill."

Tongue-in-Cheek   Bend Over Backwards Jump Down

Someone's Throat Cough Up

Smell a Rat Scratch Someone's

Back Shoot Off One's

Mouth Go to the Dogs Get in Someone's hair Kick the Bucket

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 says.

Ex. It’s raining cats and dogs.