Poetry and Prose: Whats the Difference?

Nearly all writing shares the goal of communicating a message to an audience, but how that message
is communicated can differ greatly.
The divisions between poetry and prose arent clear-cut, but here are some generally accepted
differences.

STRUCTURE
Prose
written in the form of:
Paragraph
e.g.: novels, everyday speech, essays,
news articles, the law
grammar:
Grammatically correct
sentences are written in
Ordinary language or natural language
they dont need
Rhythm

Poetry
written in:
Verse
- a metrical composition
- a group of lines that form a unit in a poem
or song
- a stanza
form:
Linear
- line breaks that completely go against the
Rule of grammar
grammar:
Not Required
must have
Rhythm
- a regular, repeated pattern of sounds

PURPOSE
Prose
generally
Straightforward
Could be beautiful
aspirations:
Effectively communicate or
Pass along information
driven by:
Narrative Qualities

Poetry
aspirations:
Be beautiful or aspire for aesthetic beauty
focus:
Emotions or feelings
driven by:
Imagery
- visually descriptive or figurative language

- plot, characters, story arch

Prose version:
A woman stands on a mountain top with the cold seeping into her body. She looks on the valley below as the wind whips around
her. She cannot leave to go to the peaceful beauty below.
In the valley, the sun shines from behind the clouds causing flowers to bloom. A breeze sends quivers through the leaves of trees.
The water gurgles in a brook. All the woman can do is cry.
Poetry version
The Woman on the Peak
The woman stands upon the barren peak,
Gazing down on the world beneath.
The lonely chill seeps from the ground
Into her feet, spreading, upward bound.
The angry wind whistles round her head,
Whipping her hair into streaming snakes,
While she watches, wishes, weakly wails.
Beyond the mountain, sunshine peeks,

Teasing flowers to survive and thrive.

The breeze whispers through the leaves,
Causing gentle quivers to sway the trees.
Laughter gurgles as the splashing brook
Playfully tumbles over rugged rocks,
While the woman above can only grieve.

Prose

Poetry

Most everyday writing is in prose form.

Poetry is typically reserved for expressing

something special in an artistic way.

The language of prose is typically

straightforward without much decoration.

The language of poetry tends to be more

expressive or decorated, with comparisons,
rhyme, and rhythm contributing to a different
sound and feel.

Ideas are contained in sentences that are

arranged into paragraphs.

Ideas are contained in lines that may or

may not be sentences. Lines are arranged
in stanzas.

There are no line breaks. Sentences run to

the right margin.

Poetry uses line breaks for various reasons

to follow a formatted rhythm or to
emphasize an idea. Lines can run extremely
long or be as short as one word or letter.

Traditionally, the first letter of every line is

capitalized, but many modern poets choose
not to follow this rule strictly.

The shape of poetry can vary depending on

line length and the intent of the poet.

Verses
Linear
Rhythm
Imagery
Emotional Effect

The first word of each sentence is

capitalized.

Prose looks like large blocks of words.

Paragraphs
Grammatically correct
Natural language (everyday speech)
Narrative Qualities
Effectively Communicate

Elements of Poetry
Alliteration is a repetition of the same consonant sounds in a sequence of words, usually at the
beginning of a word or stressed syllable: descending dew drops; luscious lemons. Alliteration is
based on the sounds of letters, rather than the spelling of words; for example, keen and car
alliterate, but car and cite do not.
Assonance is the repetition of similar internal vowel sounds in a sentence or a line of poetry, as in I
rose and told him of my woe.
Figurative language is a form of language use in which the writers and speakers mean something
other than the literal meaning of their words. Two figures of speech that are particularly important for
poetry are simile and metaphor. A simile involves a comparison between unlike things using like or as.
For instance, My love is like a red, red rose. A metaphor is a comparison between essentially unlike
things without a word such as like or as. For example, My love is a red, red rose. Synecdoche is a
type of metaphor in which part of something is used to signify the whole, as when a gossip is called a
wagging tongue. Metonymy is a type of metaphor in which something closely associated with a
subject is substituted for it, such as saying the silver screen to mean motion pictures.
Imagery is the concrete representation of a sense impression, feeling, or idea that triggers our
imaginative ere-enactment of a sensory experience. Images may be visual (something seen), aural
(something heard), tactile (something felt), olfactory (something smelled), or gustatory (something
tasted). Imagery may also refer to a pattern of related details in a poem.
Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar concluding syllables in different words, most often at the
ends of lines. Rhyme is predominantly a function of sound rather than spelling; thus, words that end
with the same vowel sounds rhyme, for instance, day, prey, bouquet, weigh, and words with the same
consonant ending rhyme, for instance vain, rein, lane. The rhyme scheme of a poem, describes the
pattern of end rhymes. Rhyme schemes are mapped out by noting patterns of rhyme with small
letters: the first rhyme sound is designated a, the second becomes b, the third c, and so on.
Rhythm is the term used to refer to the recurrence of stressed and unstressed sounds in poetry.
Poets rely heavily on rhythm to express meaning and convey feeling. Caesura is a strong pause within
a line of poetry that contributes to the rhythm of the line. When a line has a pause at its end, it is called
an end-stopped line. Such pauses reflect normal speech patterns and are often marked by
punctuation. A line that ends without a pause and continues into the next line for its meaning is called
a run-on line or enjambment.
Stanza is a grouping of lines, set off by a space, which usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme.
Tone conveys the speakers implied attitude toward the poems subject. Tone is an abstraction we
make from the details of a poems language: the use of meter and rhyme (or lack of them); the
inclusion of certain kinds of details and exclusion of other kinds; particular choices of words and
sentence pattern, or imagery and figurative language (diction). Another important element of tone is
the order of words in sentences, phrases, or clauses (syntax).

Date:
San Fabian National High School
______________
ENGLISH 7
Second Quarter (Output # 3 )
Name: _______________________________
Score: ________
Section: ______________________________
Teacher: _______________________

A. Directions: Pronounce the following words correctly. Then put them in the column where they
belong.
does

clock
psalm

have
was

thumb
cup

stop
maam

calm
laugh

bomb
ask

//

/a/

blood
had

//

B. In the graphic organizer below, write the differences of prose and poetry.

PROSE

_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________

POETRY

_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________