1.

POETRY is
a type of literature that expresses ideas and feelings, or tells a story in a specific
form
(usually using lines and stanzas)
2. TYPES OF POETRY
o Types

Lyric (songlike expression of the poets thoughts and feelings)

Narrative (aims to tell in the form of a story actual or fictional events.)

Dramatic (includes poems intended to be presented on stage)

3. LYRICAL POEMS
o Short poem (only a few lines, 1-2 stanzas)
o Usually written in first person point of view
o Expresses an emotion or an idea, or describes a scene
o Does not tell a story and are often musical
o Many of the poems we read will be lyrical
o Types of Lyric Poetry

Song short lyric adapted for singing.

Ode praised object or person.

Elegy mournful poem addressed to the dead.

Sonnet is a poem composed of 14 lines

Dramatic Lyric a lyric poem in which the speaker is an imagine character

rather than the poet.
4.
o
o
o

5.
6.

NARRATIVE POEMS
Longer and tells a story, with a beginning, middle, and end
Generally longer than the lyric styles of poetry because the poet needs to
establish characters and a plot
Types of Narrative Poetry
Epic deeds and adventures of heroes with supernatural powers
Ballad is a poem intended to be sung and which tells a sad story
Tale is a poem full of fiction and exaggeration
Types of Dramatic Poetry
Comedy a form of poetry with a happy ending.
Tragedy a form of poetry which ends sadly
Dramatic Monologue one-sided conversation
Melodrama a play of highly sensational events accompanied with music
Farce a short comedy
OTHER FORMS
OF POETRY
CONCRETE POEMS

Words are arranged to create a picture that relates to the content of the poem

7.
o

Example: See Shoes by Morghan Barnes

ACROSTIC POEMS
The first letter of each line forms a word or phrase (vertically). An acrostic
poem can describe the subject or even tell a brief story about it.
After an extensive winter
Pretty tulips
Rise from the once
Icy ground bringing fresh signs of
Life.

8.
o
o
o

-April by Anonymous
FREE VERSE POEMS
Does NOT have any repeating patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables
Does NOT have rhyme
Very conversational - sounds like someone talking with you
Example: See Fog by Carl Sandburg

Fog

BY CARL SANDBURG
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

o
o
o

BLANK VERSE POEMS

Does have a regular meter, usually iambic pentameter (five sets of
stressed/unstressed)
Does NOT have rhyme
Used by classical playwrights, like Shakespeare
/
/

/ /
/
To swell the gourd, and plump the ha-zel shells
-from Ode to Autumn by John Keats

9.

COUPLET

o
o
o

10.
o
o
o

A poem of only two lines

Both lines have an end rhyme and the same meter
Often found at the end of a sonnet
~ / ~ / ~ /
~ / ~ / ~
Whether or not we find what we are seeking
~ /~ /~/~/ ~ / ~
is idle, biologically speaking.
-at the end of a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay
HAIKU
Japanese style poem written in three lines
Focuses traditionally on nature
Lines respectively are 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and 5 syllables
Whitecaps on the bay:
A broken signboard banging
In the April wind.

-untitled haiku by Richard Wright

11. QUATRAIN
o Stanza or short poem containing four lines
o Lines 2 and 4 must rhyme, while lines 1 and 3 may or may not rhyme
o Variations in rhyming patterns (abab, abcb)
12. CINQUAIN

Stanza or short poem containing five lines

1 word, 2 words, 3 words, 4 words, 1 word

Patterns and syllables are changing!

13. CINQUAIN cont
Cinquain Pattern #1
Line1: One word
Line2: Two words
Line 3: Three words
Line 4: Four words
Line 5: One word
14. CINQUAIN cont
Cinquain Pattern #2
Line1: A noun
Line2: Two adjectives
Line 3: Three -ing words
Line 4: A phrase
Line 5: Another word for the noun
Mules
Stubborn, unmoving
Braying, kicking, resisting
Not wanting to listen

People
-by Cindy Barden
15. CINQUAIN cont
Cinquain Pattern #3
Line1: Two syllables
Line2: Four syllables
Line 3: Six syllables
Line 4: Eight syllables
Line 5: Two syllables
16. LIMERICK
o A five line poem with rhymes in line 1, 2, and 5, and then another rhyme in
lines 3 and 4
What is a limerick, Mother?
It's a form of verse, said Brother
In which lines one and two
Rhyme with five when it's through
And three and four rhyme with each other.
17.
o
o
o

- untitled and author unknown

BALLAD
Tells a story, similar to a folk tale or legend
Usually set to music
simple repeating rhymes, often with a refrain
Oh the ocean waves may roll,
And the stormy winds may blow,
While we poor sailors go skipping aloft
And the land lubbers lay down below, below, below
And the land lubbers lay down below.
-from The Mermaid by Anonymous
Diamante
A diamante is a seven line poem, shaped like a diamond.

one word (subject/noun that is contrasting to line 7)

two words (adjectives) that describe line 1

three words (action verbs) that relate to line 1

four words (nouns)

first 2 words relate to line 1 last 2 words relate to line 7

three words (action verbs) that relate to line 7

two words (adjectives) that describe line 7

one word ( subject/noun that is contrasting to line 1)

Diamante
square
symmetrical, conventional
shaping, measuring, balancing

o
o

boxes, rooms, clocks, halos

encircling, circumnavigating, enclosing
round, continuous
circle
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET
Fourteen lines with a specific rhyme scheme

Written in 3 quatrains and ends with a couplet

Rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg

18. PERSONA POEMS

o a poem written in the 1st person point of view
o writer imagines s/he is an animal, an object, a famous person - anything s/he
is not
19. POINT OF VIEW
POET
the author of the poem, the person who actually wrote it
VS
SPEAKER
the narrator of the poem, the voice telling us the thoughts/feelings/story
20. POETIC SOUND EFFECTS
21. POETIC FORM
o FORM - the appearance of the words on the page
o

LINE - a group of words together on one line of the poem

STANZA - a group of lines arranged together

A word is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just
Begins to live

That day.
- Emily Dickinson

22. RHYTHM
The beat created
by the sounds of the words in a poem. Rhythm can be created by using, meter,
rhymes, alliteration, and refrain.

o The Congo by Lindsay

Fat black bucks in a wine-barrel room,
Barrel-house kings, with feet unstable,
Sagged and reeled and pounded on the table,
Pounded on the table,
Beat an empty barrel with the handle of a broom,
Hard as they were able,
Boom, boom, BOOM,
With a silk umbrella and the handle of a broom,
Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM.
THEN I had religion, THEN I had a vision.
I could not turn from their revel in derision.
THEN I SAW THE CONGO, CREEPING THROUGH THE BLACK,
CUTTING THROUGH THE FOREST WITH A GOLDEN TRACK.
o
o
o
o
o
23.

The Congo
best-known poems by American poet Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931)
revolutionary in its use of sounds and rhythms as sounds and rhythms
poems imagery is racist
rhythmical chant
METER
A pattern of stressed (strong) and unstressed (weak) syllables

Each unit or part of the pattern is called a foot

o Table of Metrical Feet
o SAMPLES
Iambic (~ /)
~
/
~
/ ~ / ~ /
Whose woods/ these are/ I think/ I know
Trochaic (/ ~)
/ ~ / ~
/
~
Swift of /foot was/ Hia watha
ANAPESTIC (~ ~ /)
~ ~ /
~~
/
~ ~
For the moon / never beams/ without
/
~ ~ /
bring/ing me dreams
o Dactylic ( ~ ~ /)
o ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~
This is the / forest pri/ meval

o Table of line lengths

o A Scan of Lines 1 and 2
To scan a poem, we mark each stressed and each unstressed syllable with a mark.
Here, well use / for stressed and ~ for unstressed.
~
/ ~ ~
/ ~ /
~/
~ /
Aunt Jennifers tigers prance across the screen

-The Germ by Ogden Nash

26. END RHYME
o A word at the end of one line rhymes with a word at the end of another line

~
/ ~ / ~ ~
/ ~ /
~
/
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.

Then we count the stressed syllables in a single line. Here there are 5 stressed
syllables in each line.
o Common rhythms
The iamb is very common in the English language: we often speak in iambic
pentameter without realizing it:
/ ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ /
Id like to have you meet a friend of mine.

~ / ~
/ ~ / ~ / ~ /
Did you take out the garbage yesterday?
24. RHYMES
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

25. RHYME SCHEME

a pattern of rhyming words or sounds (usually end rhyme, but not always).

Use the letters of the alphabet to represent sounds to be able to visually see
the pattern.
SAMPLE RHYME SCHEME

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.

Hector the Collector

Collected bits of string.

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

-Hector the Collector by Shel Silverstein

27. INTERNAL RHYME
o A word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line.

Do you, my poppet, feel infirm?

You probably contain a germ.

Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December

- The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

28. NEAR RHYME
o Also known as imperfect or close enough rhyme. The words share
EITHER the same vowel or consonant sound BUT NOT BOTH

ROSE

LOSE

29.
30.
o

Different vowel sounds (long o and oo sound)

Share the same consonant sound (s)
OTHER TYPES OF POETIC DEVICES
REFRAIN
A sound, word, phrase or line repeated regularly in a poem, usually at the
end of each stanza or verse, such as the chorus in a song.
There lived a lady by the North Sea shore,
Lay the bent to the bonny broom
Two daughters were the babes she bore.
Fa la la la la la la la.
As one grew bright as is the sun,
Lay the bent to the bonny broom
So coal black grew the other one.
Fa la la la la la la la.

-The Cruel Sister by Francis J. Child

31. TONE

Used in poetry to convey feeling and emotion, and set the mood for the
work. This can be done through word choice, the grammatical arrangement
of words (syntax), imagery, or details that are included or omitted.
I met a traveler from an antique land.
-from "Ozymandias by Shelley

This line immediately generates a story-telling atmosphere, just as it is with the

phrase, "Once upon a time." An audience is clearly implied.
CONNOTATION vs
DENOTATION
o Connotation: an emotional or social association with a word, giving
meaning beyond the literal definition
o Denotation: the specific, literal image, idea, concept, or object that a word
or phrase refers to
Word
Denotation
Connotation
a star ball of light/gas in the sky
a wish
a family group of related individuals love, trust, closeness
a dog four legged mammal
friend, protector, pet
32. FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE
o SIMILARITY
o is an effective way of communicating a complex abstract idea/ notion is to
emphasize how it resembles something else- preferably something is familiar
and concrete.
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

Similarity
Simile
Metaphor
Allegory
personification
SIMILE
Simile is derived from a Latin word similis meaning like.

So are you to my thoughts as food to life Shakespeare

33. SIMILE
o Comparison of two unlike things using like or as
Friends are like chocolate cake,
you can never have too many.
Chocolate cake is like heaven always amazing you with each taste or feeling.
Chocolate cake is like life

with so many different pieces.

Chocolate cake is like happiness,
you can never get enough of it.
o
o

- Chocolate Cake by Anonymous

METAPHOR
Metaphor is derived from a Greek term transference/meta = involving
change + Pherein= to bear, carry). Implied /direct comparison between two
unlike things/objects.
I am a Santa to the helpless and less fortunate.
My teacher is a tiger.

34. METAPHOR
o Comparison of two unlike things where one word is used to designate the
other (one is the other)
A spider is a black dark midnight sky.
Its web is a Ferris wheel.
It has a fat moon body and legs of dangling string.
Its eyes are like little match ends.
o
o

- Spider by Anonymous
ALLEGORY
Allegory is a metaphor (or series linked metaphors) expanded into a tale. Its
purpose is to teach by illustrating some abstract truth (e.g. morality or
religious).Allegory is from a Greek term allegoria: allo= other + agoria= to
make a speech in public.
Aunt Lourdes is a good Samaritan to my nephew
He is a perfect Solomon.
PERSONIFICATION
Personification refers to endowment of human
characteristics or qualities to inanimate things or abstract
ideas (life, thoughts, speech, feelings, tec. Personification if
from Latin persona= actors mask, character in a play, or
human being.

The computer commanded him to absent from his

classes.
The sunlight zigzagged across the hospital bed.
Wisdom calls aloud in the street.

35. PERSONIFICATION
o A nonliving thing given human of life-like qualities
Hey diddle, Diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

-from The Cat & the Fiddle by Mother Goose

CONTRAST
stresses difference in order to communicate our meaning to others. This word
is from Latin contra=against; staer=stand which means stand against.
CONTRAST
Antithesis
Oxymoron
Epigram
Irony
hyperbole
ANTITHESIS
Antithesis is the opposition or contrast of words and ideas to make the
meaning more emphatic. This is derived from the Greek word anti=
against/titherm=place, putting.
To err is human; to forgive is divine A. Popes Epigrams
He wept for joy.
Speech is silver; Silence is golden.

A deafening silence
The little giant
Bitter sweet.
EPIGRAM
Epigram is a pointed saying; a short poem with a witty
ending; a thing written upon. If this was inscribed in stone, it
obviously had to be brief, pointed expression of the persons
qualities showing a contrast. Epigram is from a Greek term
epi= upon/above; gram= a thing written or recorded.
Here lies a man whose word no man relies on; who never
said a foolish thing, and never did a wise one
He replied in like vein:
True; my words are my own;
My actions, my ministers Charles II
o

36. OXYMORON
o Combines two usually contradictory terms in a compressed paradox, as in the
word bittersweet or the phrase living death
And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true
-from Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

I do here make humbly bold to present them with a short account of themselves...
-from A Tale of a Tub by the poet and author Jonathan Swift

Work entitled "She's All My Fancy Painted Him" by the poet and author Lewis
Carroll
o OXYMORON

Oxymoron is a statement which, on the surface, seem to contradict itself- a

kind of concise paradox. It is an incongruous or contradictory term are
combined. This word is a Greek term oxus=sharp/moron=foolish which
means pointedly foolish.

IRONY
Irony refers to the use of words to express something
different from and often opposite to their literal meaning. The
effect of irony; however, can depend upon the tone of voice
and the context. Irony is derived from a Greek term which
means pretend ignorance or saying the opposite of what is
meant.
Ive got high score. (failing score)
Youre so beautiful. (ugly face)
Mark Anthony: Brutus is an honorable man.

37. HYPERBOLE
o An intentional exaggeration or overstatement, often used for emphasis
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world
o

-from "The Concord Hymn" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

ASSOCIATION OF WORDS

is done when the two elements of comparison are fused.

o
o

METONYMY
SYNECDOCHE

METONYMY
Metonymy refers to the substitute allocation of an object or idea for that
closely related to it. This is from a Greek which means substitute naming:
meta involving transfer + onoma a name.
Malacanang granted scholarship to the bereaved family of the plane crush.
T.S. Eliot is difficult reading.
SYNECDOCHE
Synecdoche refers to the substitution usually of a part for
the whole and sometimes of the whole for the part.
Synecdoche is from a Greek word syn= with, together,
alike; ekdokhe to take up, or understand, with another.

Not yet Rizal, not yet!

Our Father, who art in HeavenHallowed be thy name

Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink.

ARRANGEMENTS OF WORDS
Interrogation
Apostrophe
Repetition
Climax
allusion

Arrangement of words.
Interrogation is a rhetorical question. It is asked not in the hope of getting
an answer, but for effect. This is from a Latin word inter between, among;
rogare= ask.
What kind of fool am I?
To be or not to be? That is the question
How long is a piece of string?

Apostrophe. An address to the dead ad if living, to the absent as if present,

and to the non-human as if they were persons.

Education, education, education. (Tony Blair)

Climax is the arrangement of a series of statements in order of ascendancy.
I saw, I came, I conquered.
In form and motion, how express and admirable!

o
o

He has nimble feet.

Lets count heads.
The next speaker will take the floor.
o
o
o
o
o
o

Repetition is a mode of emphasizing a point by saying it more than once.

This word is from Latin re=gain, back; petere=seek.

ALLUSION
Allusion. A reference made to a particular person, place, incident, historical
which is to convey a vivid picture in the mind of the readers.
John came from an odyssey. (journey)
As a nursing student, a Herculean task is expected.

38. ALLUSION
o From the verb allude which means to refer to
o A reference to someone or something famous.
A tunnel walled and overlaid
With dazzling crystal: we had read
Of rare Aladdins wondrous cave,
And to our own his name we gave.
-from Snowbound by John Greenleaf Whittier

Liberty! Give me freedom.

o
o
o
o

OTHERS
Alliteration
Assonance
onomatopoeia

39. ALLITERATION
o 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?

40. ASSONANCE
o Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line (or lines) of a poem
o Often creates Near Rhyme

A leal sailor even

In a stormy sea
Drinks deep Gods Name
In ecstasy

-Peaceful Assonance by Sri Chinmoy

41. ASSONANCE cont.
Slow the low gradual moan came in the snowing.
- From Dauber: a poem by John Masefield
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep.
- From Othello by William Shakespeare
42. CONSONANCE
o Similar to alliteration EXCEPT:

repeated consonant sounds can be anywhere in the words, not just at

the beginning!
And frightful a nightfall folded rueful a day
How a lush-kept plush-capped sloe
Will, mouthed to flesh-burst,
Gush!
- From The Wreck of the Deutschland by Gerald Manley Hopkins
43. ONOMATOPOEIA
o
Words that imitate the sound that they are naming
Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it?

The horse-hoofs ringing clear;

Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance?
Were they deaf that they did not hear?
- from The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes
o The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe
Hear the sledges with the bells Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that over sprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
o
o

The bells
Images:

clamoring of myriad church bells

representation of life from the nimbleness of youth to the pain of

age

passing of the seasons, from spring to winter

mourning over a lost wife, courted in sledge, married and then killed
in a fire as the husband looks on

iron bells reflects the final madness of the grief-stricken husband