Elements of Poetry

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The Speaker and The Poet

• Poets will often assumes a role or imitate the speech of a person in a particular situation.

• This “role” is referred to as the speaker, voice, mask, or persona.

• The voice speaking a poem may sound like it is the poet’s own, and it may be difficult to separate the two, but there is usually a distinction.

Diction and Tone

• Diction refers to the words and grammatical constructions that the poet uses in the creation of their persona.

• These choices may occur on a subconscious level.

• These choices give the reader insight into the persona of the poet.

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Diction and Tone• Speakers have attitudes toward

themselves, their subjects, and their audiences.

• They choose their words, pitch, and modulation based on these attitudes.

• These choices add up to the tone of the poem.

• To find the tone, it is a good idea to read the poem aloud. – The reader must try to catch “the speaking tone of voice

somehow entangled in the words and fastened to the page for the ear of the imagination.” (Frost)

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Figurative Language

• Words have their literal meanings, but they can also be used so that something other than the literal meaning is implied.

• Common types of figurative language:– Simile: items from different classes are

compared by a connective such as “like,” “as,” “appears,” or “seems.”

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Figurative Langaage

– Metaphor: Assert the identity, without a connective, of terms that are literally incompatible.

– Personification: The attribution of human feelings or characteristics or abstractions to inanimate objects.

– Apostrophe: Addressing a person or thing that is not literally listening.

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Usage of Figurative Language

• Figurative language forces the reader to confront the connotations rather than the denotations of written language. – Connotations: suggestions, associations– Denotations: dictionary definitions

• It is said to be different than ordinary language, but many of these expressions, due to repetition have become literal.

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Usage of Figurative Language

• Good figurative language is usually concrete, condensed, and interesting.

• It is not limited to literary writers. It is used by most anyone who is concerned with effective expression.

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• Imagery refers to any element of setting or character that takes on a figurative significance.

• Much of literary imagery is based on the patterned use of diction, such as word choice. – The types of figurative language

discussed previously are examples of these patterns.

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Imagery and Symbolism

Imagery and Symbolism

• Symbols: Images that are so loaded with significance that it is not simply literal, and it does not simply stand for something else; it is both itself and the something else that it suggests.

“The Infinite is made to blend with the Finite, to stand visible, and as it were, attainable there.” – Thomas Carlyle

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Imagery and Symbolism

• Conventional Symbols: people have agreed to accept them as standing for something other than their literal meanings. – Cross = Christianity– Rose = Love, Romance

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Verbal Irony and Paradox

• Verbal Irony: The speaker’s words mean more or less the opposite of what they say.– Overstatement (hyperbole)– Understatement

• Paradox: the assertion of an apparent contradiction

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Poetic Structure

• Rhythm: Stresses at regular intervals– Poets vary their rhythm according to

their purpose. These choices often contribute to the meaning of the poem.

“Rhythm must have meaning. It cannot be merely a careless dash off, with no grip and on real hold on the words and sense, a tumty tum tumty tum tum ta.” – Ezra Pound

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• Meter: the pattern of stressed sounds– Foot: basic unit of measurement – End-stopped line concludes with a

distinct pause– Run-on line has its sense carried over

into the next line with a pause– Meter produces rhythm – a poem with

end-stopped lines will have a different meter than one with run-on lines.

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Poetic Structure

• Rhyme: the repetition of identical or similar stressed sounds or sounds– While rhythm is a basic element of

poetry, rhyme is not. – Rhyme suggests order and may be

related to meaning. It brings two words together, implying a relationship that the reader may not have been aware of.

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Poetic Structure

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Poetic Structure

• Blank Verse and Free Verse– Blank verse: unrhymed iambic

pentameter– Free verse: rhythmical lines, varying in

length, adhering to no fixed metrical pattern, and usually unrhymed. The pattern is often based on repetition and parallel grammatical structure.