Poetry

What is poetry?
Poetry is a literary genre written in lines and stanzas.
Line: the basic unit of a poem
Stanza: a collection of lines in a poem

Language of Poetry
Figurative language or meaning
- uses images that cannot be taken literal. (your dad saying that your room looks like a cyclone
hit it.)
- is when writers share experiences with intensity and clarity so the reader/listener has a sense of
the experience being expressed. In other words to communicate the ordinary in a fresh way.
There are 4 types of Figurative Language
1. Simile
- when words use like or as to make a comparison between two unlike things. )Im the sailor
like the sail, Im the driver as well as the wheel).
I.e the sea is like a hungry dog
2. Metaphor
- when two unlike things are compares without the use of like or as. Im the sailor and the sail,
Im the driver and the wheel).
I.e. the sea is a hungry dog.
3. Personification
- to give human qualities to an animal, object or concept. (in Lewis Carrolls poem all the oysters
are out of breath, And all of us are fat).
I.e. I looked at the sun straight in the eye
He put on dark glasses.
4. Hyperbole
- is exaggeration. It puts an unusual or especially vivid image into the readers mind. The images
created are sometimes ridiculous.
I.e. The whistle blast made me jump ten feet in the air
This suit is older than the hill.
Literal Language
- What the poem is actual saying.

Sound of the Poem

- what makes a poem different from other forms of writing.
- how does the arrangement of words help create feeling and meaning
1. Rhyme
- words that have matching sounds. (king, wing, chat, fat, that).
End rhyme - at the end of lines
i.e. There was a great swimmer named Jack
Who swam ten mile out- and nine back.
Internal rhyme - occurs within a single line.
i.e. see the mean gleam in his eyes .
2. Alliteration
- words that repeat the same beginning consonant sound. (sea, swerve, sway, speed)
i.e. wet streets
Shiny black like licorice
Twisting through the city
Traffic tastes its way home
3. Repetition
- repeat words, phrases, or lines that build rhythm or emphasize a thought. (Im the driver, Im
the sailor, Im the one).
- or you can have words that repeat the same vowel sound. ( swerve, curve, whirring).
I.e. what is poetry? Who knows?
Not a rose, but the scent of a rose
Not the sky, but the light in the sky
Not the fly, but the gleam of the fly
Not the sea, but the sound of the sea
Not myself, but what makes me
3. Onomatopoeia
- word where the sound suggests the meaning. (gurgle, slap, murmur).
4. Blank Verse
- a poem that has a regular rhythm but do not rhyme.

Forms of Poetry
- there are many different poetic forms. All over the world people of all ages have enjoyed singing,
chanting, reciting, writing and listening to poetry.
- the roots of modern poetry go back to prehistoric songs, chants and prayers.
- poets may choose a particular poetic form for the fun and challenge of fitting words, sounds and
meaning into the structure, while others will create a new form to fit what they want to say.
1. Haiku
- a three line form that captures a moment in nature.
- originated in japan.
- its 17 syllables are arranged in 3 lines in a 5-7-5 syllable pattern.
I.e. Haiku
In the bent birch tree (5)
Wind ruffles the fur and quills (7)
Of a porcupine (5)
Bruce Meyer
2. Free verse
- is a common form of modern poetry that does not follow a set pattern. It may include rhyme
and it my not.
I.e. Elephants
arent any more important
Than insects
But Im on the side
of elephants,
Unless one of them tries
To crawl up my leg.
John Newlove
3. Ballad
- is a short narrative poem told in songlike form.
- Many ballads have been passed down as folk songs that tell stories or tales about heroes or
historical events.
- Edgar Allan Poe, Frankie and Johnny.
I.e. Annabel Lee
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annaabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me ......
Edgar Allan Poe

4. Sonnet
- is a 14 line poem that usually follows a set rhyme scheme and metrical pattern.
3

- some famous sonnet writers are William Shakespeare, John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
I.e. If I should learn, in some quite casual way,
That you wee gone, not to return again Read from the back-page of a paper, say,
Held by a neighbor in a subway train,
How at the corner of this avenue
And such a street (so are the papers filled)
A hurrying man, who happened to be you,
At noon today had happened to be killed,
I should not cry aloud - I could not cry
Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place I should be watch the station lights rush by
With a more careful interest on my face;
Or raise my eyes and read with greater care
Where to store furs and how to treat hair.
Edna St. Vincent Millay

5. Lyric
- short and personal
6. Concrete
- shape on a page
7. Found
- magazine articles turned into a poem. i.e. rap

Other terms
Stanza (is something like a paragraph in prose. Its a group of lines standing together).
- division of a poem
- other times authors will repeat a rhyme scheme or metre pattern within a four or five line
stanza.
i.e. The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Line
- has length and direction
- lines can suggest movement, order, tension, division and emotion.
Couplet
- a pair of rhyming lines
Mood
- the feeling that a piece of writing produces in the reader.
Theme
- The underlying meaning of the poem.
Idiom
- an expression that has a meaning apart from the meaning of its individual words.
Diction
- choice of selection of words.
Imagery
- language that appeals to the senses of sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell.