POETRY

WHAT IS A POEM?
• Is a piece of text that has been written in
a particular way.
• They are written so that the sound and
the meaning of the words make the
reader feel and think in certain ways.
• It can be long or short. They can tell a
story or just create a mood.
•A poem uses RHYTHM to have an
effect on the readers. A gentle
flowing rhythm might make the
reader feel calm and relaxed.

Example:
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s
day?”
(Sonnet 18, by William Shakespeare)
• Poem also involve RHYME – This means
that words at the end of some lines have
similar sounds.

Example: Nursery rhymes

“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses, And all the
King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again!”
 SONNET 154
The little Love-god lying once asleep
Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,
Whilst many nymphs that vow’d chaste life to keep
Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand
The fairest votary took up that fire
Which many legions of true hearts had warm’d;
And so the general of hot desire
Was, sleeping, by a virgin hand disarm’d.
This brand she quenched in a cool well by,
Which from Love’s fire took heat perpetual,
Growing a bath and healthful remedy
For men diseas’d; but I, my mistress’ thrall,
Came there for cure, and this by that I prove,
Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love.
 RHYTHM
• Make the poem sound very different to PROSE-
which is the type of language used in most
novels and short stories.
• When you hear a poem or listen to a song,
there is a pattern of sound that is repeated.
• Can make the poem flow well or it can have a
jerky, awkward effect that can make a reader
feel the way the poet wants them to.
 STANZA
• Is a group of lines that are separated
from other lines in the poem by a
space.
• It sometimes called a verse.
• Different types of stanzas have
different names, depending on the
number of lines in them.
 COUPLET
• A stanza that is made up of two lines.
• Usually have the same rhythm and often they
rhyme.

Example: Maggie and Milly and Molly and May

by E.E. Cummings
 RHYMING PATTERNS
• Rhyme Scheme
• Rhyming couplets – Written in pairs of rhyming
lines

Example:
I shot an arrow into the air
It fell to earth, I knew not where
By: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 EXAMPLE
I remember, I remember
Never mind I'll find
The house where I was someone like you
born,
The little window where I wish nothing but the best
the sun for you too
Came peeping in at Don't forget me I beg, I'll
morn. remember you said
Sometimes it lasts in love
By Thomas Hood but sometimes it hurts
instead
 USING SOUND IN POEMS
EFFECT HOW IT WORKS EXAMPLE
ALLITERATION Words in a poem Ghostly Galleon
start with the same wild whirling water
consonant.
ASSONANCE Words have vowel The mist swirled
sounds in them that and curled around
sound the same. the house
ONOMATOPOEIA Words sound “plop” sounds like
the noise stone
makes when it
plops into water
 FREE VERSE
• It doesn’t have any rules.
• This type of poem can give a lot more freedom
to express in original ways.
EFFECT HOW IT WORKS EXAMPLE

SIMILE Compares one As cold as ice

thing with another fog like a blanket

METAPHOR Describes His heart is ice

something as the fog was a
being another blanket.
thing
 PERSONIFICATION
• The attribution of a personal nature or human
characteristics to something nonhuman, or the
representation of an abstract quality in human
form.
Example:
The flame of the candle danced in the dark.
A day in the life of your shoes.
Opportunity knocks.
The stars winked at me.
 POEMS THAT TELL A STORY
Narrative poetry

- Is a is a form of poetry that tells

a story, often making the voices of a
narrator and characters as well
- Do not need rhyme
ANNABEL LEE
 BALLAD
• Tend to be narrative poems, poems that
tell stories, as opposed to lyric poems,
which emphasize the emotions of the
speaker.

• The traditional stanza consists of four

lines. (The key is that the second and
fourth lines rhyme)
EXAMPLE
 LIMERICK
• Is a form of verse, usually humorous and
frequently rude.

•It follows a strict rhyme AABBA, in which the

first, second and fifth line rhyme, while the
third and fourth lines are shorter and share a
different rhyme.
 EXAMPLE
There was a Young Lady
of Dorking,
Who bought a large
bonnet for walking;
But its colour and size,
So bedazzled her eyes,
That she very soon went
back to Dorking.

By Edward Lear
There was a Young Lady
whose chin
Resembled the point of a
pin;
So she had it made sharp.
And purchased a harp.
And played several tunes
with her chin.

By: Edward Lear

 POEMS WITH PATTERNS
• ACROSTIC POEM
- Is a poem where certain letters in
each line spell out a word or phrase.

- Typically, the first letters of each

line are used to spell the message.
 LIST POEM
• A list poem does exactly as described and
collects content in a list form. It can be purely
a list without transitional phrases.
• List poems don't have any fixed rhyme or
rhythmic pattern and the order of the list can
either serve to provide additional detail or to
show the author's state of mind.
• can be a list of either people, places, things
you do, items, even ideas you may have.
EXAMPLE
• HAIKU
- Originally written in Japan
- Have 3 lines (5-7-5) syllables

Examples:
 CALLIGRAM
• Is text arranged in such a way that it forms a
thematically related image.
 PERFORMANCE POETRY
• Are specially written to be
read out load to an audience.
• Poets performs their work it is
a bit like hearing music being
performed.
• Able to communicate directly
with the audience and add to
the effects of the language
with the way they speak and
move on the stage.