Poetry Terms

&Examples

Genuine poetry can communicate before

it is understood

- T.S. Elliot

Sonnet-•A fixed form of lyric poetry that consists of 14 lines, usually written in iambic pentameter

•Two forms: English (Shakespearean) and Petrarchan (Italian/Modern)

• Also known as “English Sonnet” • Has a three quatrains (4 lines each), and

a couplet (2 lines)• More flexibility with rhyme scheme and

thematic breaks (format for story in sonnet)

• Rhyme scheme: ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG• More flexibility, because there are fewer

rhyming words in English, than in Italian (Petrarchan/Modern)

Turn to page 687 in your textbook.

Shakespearean Sonnet

•Also known as Italian Sonnets, or Petrarchan Sonnets

•Has an octave (8 lines) followed by a sestet (6 lines)

•Can have varying rhyme patterns

Modern Sonnet

•A form of Japanese poetry•Fixed poetic form: 5 lines, 31 syllables. 1st and 3rd lines have 5 syllables, 2nd, 4th and 5th have 7 syllables

Tanka

•A Japanese style of lyric poetry that typically presents an intense emotion or vivid image of nature, meant to lead to a spiritual insight.

•Fixed poetic form: 17 syllables organized into 3 unrhymed lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables.

Haiku

•A poem that tells a story

•Can be short or long•Story can be simple or complex

Narrative Poem

“Out, Out”

PENTAD ANALYSIS

• Who is involved?

• Where and when?

• What happened?

• How or why?

• So what? (What is the message or theme?)

Ballad-•A story told in verse. The authors are known.

•Usually very long!

Epic-• A long narrative poem that tells a story.

•EX: The Odyssey•Filled with mythology and adventure.

•Any poetry that uses the discourse of the characters involved to tell a story or portray a situation.

•Usually blank verse

Dramatic Poetry

Lyric Poem -

•A short poem in which the expression of personal emotion is more important than any idea or Information given.

Turn to page 649 in textbook.

• A long lyric poem that often expresses lofty emotions in a dignified style (with a formal tone)

• Serious topics, such as truth, art, freedom, justice, or the meaning of life

• No set pattern (some odes repeat the same pattern in each stanza, others have a new pattern in each stanza)

Ode

Elegy -• A formal poem setting forth the poet’s meditation upon death or some grave subject.

Winter Nightfall

The day begins to droop,-- Its course is done: But nothing tells the place Of the setting sun. The hazy darkness deepens, And up the lane You may hear, but cannot see, The homing wain. An engine pants and hums …

Free Verse-

•Poetry that does not have a fixed rhyming pattern.

Winter Poem – by: Nikki Giovanni

once a snowflake fell

on my brow and i loved

it so much and i kissed

it and it was happy and called its cousins

and brothers and a web

of snow engulfed me then

i reached to love them all

and i squeezed them and they became

a spring rain and i stood perfectly

still and was a flower

Villanelle-•A highly structured poem with 19 lines, 2 rhymes, and 2 refrains (repeated lines).

•Originated in Italy and Spain as dance songs.

•A sustained comparison in which part or all of a poem consists of a series of related metaphors.

Extended Metaphor

Stanza-•A group of lines, or verse, varying in number, and usually arranged according to some chosen rhyme scheme and forming a section of a poem.

Whose woods these are I think I know. a His house is in the village though; a He will not see me stopping here b To watch his woods fill up with snow. a

My little horse must think it queer b To stop without a farmhouse near b Between the woods and frozen lake c

The darkest evening of the year. b

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” Robert Frost

Ballad Stanza -

•Has four lines. Lines two and four rhyme.

•EX: In Scarlet Town, where I was bornThere lived a fair maid dwellin';Made many a youth cry well-a-day,And her name was Barbara Allen.

Couplet-

•Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.

•EX: An apple is sweet.It makes a good treat.

Rhyme-

•Words that have the same ending sound.

•EX: cat & hat, cold & behold

EX: Ode to JoyI've had cabbage, lettuce, blackberriesPasta, oats and strawberriesBagels, beans and hot dogsEggplant, ham and cheese logsI've had pumpkin and potatoTruffles and tomatoDiced, sliced, cubed and ricedBoiled and friedSoaked and driedBurgers, tacos, ice cream tooRadishes red and berries blueDespite all this, I'm feeling thinner...Still, that was lunch, now what's for dinner?-By: Baxter Buster

Rhyme Scheme-

• The pattern of sequence in which rhyme occurs.

Roses are red a Violets are blue b

Sugar is sweet cAnd so are you b

Internal Rhyme -

•Rhyme that comes within a single line of poetry.

•EX: “the evidence lies in the skies”

Rhythm-•A pattern of strong or weak beats.

•EX: The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron

Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,

That host with their banners at sunset were seen:

Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,

That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

Meter -

•The established pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

Foot-•A unit of measure.•EX: The five most common types of foot

in English poetry are iamb (v –), trochee (– v), dactyl (– vv), spondee ( –– ), and anapest (vv –); the symbol v stands for an unstressed syllable and – for a stressed one.

Personification-

•An animal, object, or idea that is treated as if it had human qualities.

•EX: “The flowers danced about the lawn.”

Onomatopoeia-

•The use of a word whose sound imitates its meaning.

•EX: buzz, bang, clang, gush, splat

Consonance-

•A repetition of consonant sounds of words.

•EX: blank and think or strong and string

Assonance-•The repetition of vowel sounds.

• EX: “tea leaf,” • "Tune" and "June" are rhymes; "tune" and

"food" are assonant. "I sipped the rim with palatable lip." The "i" sound is repeated in sipped, rim and

lip.

Alliteration-•The repetition of initial consonant sounds.

•EX: “on scrolls of silver snowy sentences” (Hart Crane) & busy bees buzzing

Imagery -•Words or phrases that create a picture in the mind.

•EX: “He could still hear her in his imagination."

Figurative Language-

•Language that is always based on some kind of comparison that is not literally true.

•EX: "All the world's a stage"

Figure of Speech-•Allows a writer to say one thing and mean another.

•EX: It’s raining cats and dogs. – literal meaning – it is raining very hard.

Symbol -•A word or image that signifies something other than what is represented.

•EX: rose = love, clouds =danger

Hyperbole -

•An extreme exaggeration.•EX: “I could cry a bucket of tears.”

George ate so many doughnuts, we had to widen the front doorway and roll him through the door .

Simile -•A comparison between two different things using like or as.

•EX: happy as a clam, easy as pie

Metaphor-

•A comparison between two different things without using like or as.

•EX: For ever since that time you went awayI've been a rabbit burrowed in the wood —Maurice Sceve

• Life is a beach.

I pledge allegiance to the floor,the walls and ceiling, classroom door.I pledge allegiance to my books,to desk and papers, coat-rack hooks.I pledge allegiance to my bag,to Joni’s pigtails—and the flag.

Giggle Poem