The Intro To Various Poetry Terms

Meter
Is the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up a line of poetry. Meter gives rhythm and regularity to poetry. Example : Shall I com PARE thee TO a SUM mers DAY?

Types of Meters in Poetry

Iamb (Iambic) Unstressed + Stressed = Two Syllables Trochee (Trochaic) Stressed + Unstressed = Two Syllables Spondee (Spondaic) Stressed + Stressed = Two Syllables Anapest (Anapestic) Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed = Three Syllables Dactyl (Dactylic Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed= Three Syllables Pyrrhic Unstressed + Unstressed = Two Syllables.

Monometer Dimeter Trimeter Tetrameter Pentameter Hexameter Heptameter Octameter

One Foot Two Feet Three Feet Four Feet Five Feet Six Feet Seven Feet Eight Feet.

Iambic

1 2 3 4 5 There WAS..|..a TIME..|..when MEAD..|..ow, GROVE,..|..and STREAM,

1 2 3 4. The EARTH,..|..and EV..|..ry COM..|..mon SIGHT, 1 2 3 4. 5 6 The THINGS..|..which I..|..have SEEN..|..I NOW..|..can SEE..|..no MORE. 1 2 By NIGHT..|..or DAY,

Rhyme
two words, or lines of poetry rhyme, the end with the same sounds. Ex :

"Here lies Sam Shay, Smoked six packs a day. He started smoking when he was five. Now that fool is no longer alive."

Blank Verse
Unrhymed metered verse. In the English tradition, the lines are usually in iambic pentameter. The Ball Poem by John Berryman What is the boy now, who has lost his ball, What, what is he to do? I saw it go Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then Merrily over-there it is in the water!

Free verse
name given to poetry that does not conform to any metrical pattern. Although free verse often discards rhyme, the absence of rhyme is not a sign of free verse. Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loaf and invite my soul, I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

Ryhme verse
Rhymed verse has to rhyme.

Rhythm
occurs whenever there is regular and repeated alternation between recognisably different events (left-right, left-right; on-off, on-off, etc).

Types of rhythm: (a) rising duple: one-two, one-two (iambic) (b) falling duple: one-two, one-two (trochaic) (c) rising triple: one-two-three, one-two-three (anapestic) (d) falling triple: one-two-three, one-two-three (dactylic)

 Example : this is an example of a rhymed iambic pentameter)

Away, the lads. Your deathless chants will be heard in these bars and streets long after we are dead (for lads are mortal too); your sons will never feel the need for different ones. ('The Lads', 37-40) - Brown

Enjambment
the continuation of a complete idea (a sentence or clause) from one line or couplet of a poem to the next line or couplet without a pause. That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now....

Alliteration
Two or more words with the same initial sound occur in a line or phrase. the repetition of initial sounds (usually consonants) Example : Fall Windy, winding walking ways Streets snaking, singing sways Descending deeper, darker days Migrating, meandering, misty maze

Assonance
The repetition or resemblance of similar accented vowel sounds occurs when vowels are repeated in words that are close to each other. Ex :
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. Hear the mellow wedding bells. And murmuring of innumerable bees.

Onomatopoeia
is a figure of speech in which words are used to imitate sounds of what they describe. Ex :
Swoosh, swish paddling down a creek splish, splash, whump a fish jumps on me

Flick, the lights go on, Clap! Shout! The show must go on Screech, bump, the microphone's gone! Click, clack, goes the shoes Swoosh, creak, the curtains open Ding, dong, the bells ring Ting, Tang, the triangles go, "And they lived happily ever after." Laughter, cheering, "encore" the show is done

Simile
figure of speech in which two things are compared using the word "like" or "as" to draw attention to similarities about two things that are seemingly dissimilar.
Ex :
"Good coffee is like friendship: rich and warm and strong." "He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow."

Metaphor
a pattern equating two seemingly unlike objects compares something abstract to something concrete

Ex : Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Personification
A figure of speech in which an inanimate object (or an abstraction) is given a human attribute. Ex : The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky. The run down house appeared depressed. The first rays of morning tiptoed through the meadow. She did not realize that opportunity was knocking at her door. He did not realize that his last chance was walking out the door.

Sonnets
English (or Shakespearean) sonnets are lyric poems that are 14 lines long falling into three coordinate quatrains and a concluding couplet. Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are divided into two quatrains and a six-line sestet.

 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

 Quatrain
is a stanza or poem of four lines

Sestet
is also six lines of poetry forming a stanza or complete poem.

Ex :

So answerest thou; but why not rather say: Hath man no second life? Pitch this one high! Sits there no judge in Heaven, our sin to see? More strictly, then, the inward judge obey! Was Christ a man like us? Ah! let us try If we then, too, can be such men as he!

Lyric Poetry
consists of a poem, such as sonnet, that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet. now commonly referred to as the words to a song. lyric poet addresses the reader directly, portraying his or her own feeling, state of mind, and perceptions.

Example
I heard a fly buzz when I died; The stillness round my form Was like the stillness in the air Between the heaves of storm.
The eyes beside had wrung them dry, And breaths were gathering sure For that last onset, when the king Be witnessed in his power. I willed my keepsakes, signed away What portion of me I Could make assignable,-and then There interposed a fly, With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, Between the light and me; And then the windows failed, and then I could not see to see.

Epic
An epic is a long narrative poem celebrating the adventures and acheivements of a hero... epics deal with the traditions, mythical or historical, of a nation. Some of the most famous epic poems are the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer. The Odyssey (about the misadventures of Odysseus trying to return from the Trojan War and the shenanigans of the suitors trying to usurp his place back in Ithaca),

The Iliad (about the role of Achilles in the Trojan War), a

Ex :
The Iliad Odyssey: The Summary Of A Man Odysseus indeed in spoils of war with cunning brave heart, cleverly won, many a fair desirable noble women while his wife loyally waited, on Ithaca, for warrior hero's fleet bloodied blade in the hand of a Hellene king in duress, foremost ever in corpse reaping battle renowned for guile deceit resourcefulness, will storm many fortified rampart hearts enchant many fair young, innocent maids, before finally ends an epic tragic Odyssey decade upon a decade in event, laden journey, for renown upon renown in famed Trojan War an epic travails in trials score upon score as virile Odysseus tries to spoils laden return fara reassert his place as rightful king of Ithaca.

Limericks
A limerick has five lines. The last words of lines one, two, and five rhyme. The last words of lines three and four rhyme. A limerick has to have a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Ex : "There was an old man from Peru Who dreamed he was eating his shoe He awoke in the night With a terrible fright To discover it was totally true."

 Examples of Limericks by Edward Lear There was an Old Man of Vienna, Who lived upon Tincture of Senna; When that did not agree, He took Camomile Tea, That nasty Old Man of Vienna. There was an Old Person whose habits, Induced him to feed upon rabbits; When he'd eaten eighteen, He turned perfectly green, Upon which he relinquished those habits.

There was an Old Man of the West, Who wore a pale plum-coloured vest; When they said, 'Does it fit?' He replied, 'Not a bit!' That uneasy Old Man of the West.

 There was an Old Man in a tree, Who was horribly bored by a Bee; When they said, 'Does it buzz?' He replied, 'Yes, it does!' 'It's a regular brute of a Bee!' There was an Old Man in a boat, Who said, 'I'm afloat, I'm afloat!' When they said, 'No! you ain't!' He was ready to faint, That unhappy Old Man in a boat.

Haiku
Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Haiku poetry originated in the sixteenth century Haiku is Japanese poetry that reflects on nature and feelings. You use your observation skills to write what you see in a new or different way.

 Nature's Dance A flower in bloom Music to the bumble bee Beauty to the eye The Bee

Buzzing in the spring Hovering over flowers Honey is its trade Water Flowing through the pipes Rushing out of the faucet Refreshing and cool

Question
1. Do you think that dowry in the society should be abolished? Give opinion. 2. Give examples that shows Mrs. Ramachandran doesnt give respect to her husband?

3.How the dowry system gets erased from our society?

4. Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide.
What kind of tree is mentioned in the poem? In your opinion, are the trees already bearing fruits? Why? Explain the figurative line of wearing white for eastertide? Cite two reasons on why the poem could be describing the spring season?

5. Create an iambic pentameter poem.