types of poetry

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Types of Poetry

BY MARY KOMLOFSKE

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Objectives:

Given an instructional powerpoint informing students about different types of poetry, students will be able to answer quiz questions that require identifying these poems and their characteristics with 100% accuracy.

Learners and Learning Environment

Learners: High school age – likely freshman Familiar with the basic idea of poetry and some poems

Learning Environment: High School level English classroom Smaller class, working individually Each have access to their own version of this powerpoint

Why Poetry?

Objectives:

Given an instructional powerpoint informing students about different types of poetry, students will be able to answer quiz questions that require identifying these poems and their characteristics with 100% accuracy.

Why Poetry?

Haiku Limerick Ballad

Acrostic Villanelle Sonnet

EpicConcrete

PoetryCinquain

Practice Quiz Quiz Title PageVideo

Haiku

A Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that does not rhyme.

It is composed of three lines: 5 syllables in the first, 7 in the second, and 5 again in the third.

Haiku poets are called “Haijin”.

Haiku

Haikus are easy,

But sometimes they don’t make sense.

Refrigerator.

-Anonymous

In the twilight rain,

These brilliant-hued hibiscus—

A lovely sunset.

-Basho

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5

7

10

There is no third line.

A Haiku has how many syllables in its third line?

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5

7

10

There is no third line.

A Haiku has how many syllables in its third line?

A haiku has a 5-7-5 pattern. Five syllables in the first line, seven in the second line, and five again in the last line.

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Limerick

A Limerick is a poem where lines 1, 2, and 5 have 7-10 syllables and all rhyme with one another, and lines 3 and 4 are a 5-7 syllable rhyming couplet.

Due to its silly rhythm, it is often used for (sometimes vulgar) humor.

Limerick

1) There once was a man from Peru,

2) Who dreamed he was eating his shoe.

3) He woke with a fright

4) In the middle of the night

5) To find that his dream had come true.

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Romance

Humor

Narrative

None of the Above

What kind of poetry is the Limerick used for?

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Romance

Humor

Narrative

None of the Above


Due to its silly-sounding nature, Limericks are primarily used for humor.

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Ballad

A ballad is a short narrative poem, intended to be sung. It can be about any number of things, as long as it tells a story.

They can be serious or humorous, but often have a moral at the end.

The ballad can rhyme, but it doesn’t have to.

Ballad

So you woke up face down on the street And you don't know the time or day of the week And want me to serve you a hair of the dog To steady your nerves and clear out the fog.

If the last thing you remember from the night before Is the bird she that she flipped as she walked through the door And she wasn't suggesting you was her number one You got a whole lot of crawling ahead of you son.

Now I ain't no expert on God's fairer sex You can check, here's thenumber you can go call my ex But you musta done something to make the girl sad Cos the bird is reserved for the baddest of bad

You better pick up the phoneand hitch up your jeans And beg her forgiveness for being so mean Some flowers wouldn't hurt, even throw in a nice dinner Cos from where I was standing she looked like a winner.

The Bird Don’t Mean You’re Number One – Joe Murphy

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It rhymes.

It has 10 lines.

It tells a story.

It’s in iambic pentameter.

What is the only requirement for a Ballad?

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It rhymes.

It has 10 lines.

It tells a story.

It’s in iambic pentameter.


A Ballad’s only requirement is it tells a story. Anything else is variable.

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Acrostic

An Acrostic poem is any poem where the first letter of each stanza spell out a word when looked at vertically.

These poems can vary from the simple name-poems most people did in kindergarten to sophisticated high-level poetry.

There is wide variation in Acrostic poems.

AcrosticElizabeth it is in vain you say"Love not" — thou sayest it in so sweet a way:In vain those words from thee or L.E.L.Zantippe's talents had enforced so well:Ah! if that language from thy heart arise,Breath it less gently forth — and veil thine eyes.Endymion, recollect, when Luna triedTo cure his love — was cured of all beside —His follie — pride — and passion — for he died.

-Edgar Allen Poe, “An Acrostic”

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A name

The title of the poem

A hidden message

All of the above

What can the first letter of each acrostic line spell?

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A name

The title of the poem

A hidden message

All of the above

What can the first letter of each acrostic line spell?

There is a wide variation in acrostic poems. It can spell out anything as long as it’s relevant.

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Villanelle

A Villanelle is a poem with a particularly complicated set of rules. Each line is in iambic pentameter, and each stanza contains

three lines, with the exception of the final stanza. The first and third lines of each stanza must always rhyme. The first and third lines of the first stanza alternate as the

final lines of the next three stanzas. The final stanza has four lines, with the first line of the first

stanza being the third line and the third line of the final stanza being the last line.

VillanelleDo not go gentle into that good night,Old men should rant and rave at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men in the end know dark is right,Because their words had forked no lightning theyDo not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how brightTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,Do not go gentle into that good night.

And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.Do not go gentle into that good night.Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

-”Do not go gentle into that good night”, Dylan Thomas

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Just the first line

Just the third line

No lines are repeated

Both the first and third lines

Which lines get repeated in a villanelle?

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Just the first line

Just the third line

No lines are repeated

Both the first and third lines

Which lines get repeated in a villanelle?

The first and the third lines alternate as the ends of all other stanzas.

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Sonnet

The sonnet is one of the most popular forms of poetry, and comes in a few different varieties.

A sonnet consists of 14 lines, in iambic pentameter. They usually have a simple rhyme scheme, but modern sonnets sometimes don’t.

Though he is famous mostly for his plays, Shakespeare wrote a collection of 154 sonnets. “Shakespearean sonnet” is a subcategory of the sonnet.

SonnetShall 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.

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Shakespeare

Shel Silverstein

Oscar Wilde

Dylan Thomas

Who is the most famous writer of sonnets?

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Shakespeare

Shel Silverstein

Oscar Wilde

Dylan Thomas


Shakespeare wrote over one hundred sonnets, and they are only slightly less famous than his plays.

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Epic

An Epic is a long, narrative poem. It does not necessarily have a particular format, but is often read orally.

The Odyssey and The Iliad by Homer are the quintessential epics.

Epics were most popular in earlier ages, but there are still modern epics today.

Epic… “So I spake, and quickly they [the men] hearkened to my words. But of Scylla I told them nothing more, a bane none might deal with, lest haply my company should cease from rowing for fear, and hide them in the hold. In that same hour I suffered myself to forget the hard behest of Circe, in that she bade me in nowise be armed; but I did on my glorious harness and caught up two long lances in my hands, and went on the decking of the prow, for thence methought that Scylla of the rock would first be seen, who was to bring woe on my company. Yet could I not spy her anywhere, and my eyes waxed weary for gazing all about toward the darkness of the rock.” …

-Excerpt from The Odyssey

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The Iliad

Hamlet

Harry Potter

The Giving Tree

Which of the following is an epic poem?

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The Iliad

Hamlet

Harry Potter

The Giving Tree


The Iliad is one of the most famous epic poems from Ancient Greece.

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Concrete Poetry

Concrete poetry is also known as pattern or shape poetry. This poetry is focused not only on the words used, but how

they are formed. Poems often take specific shapes or have specific structures to convey meaning.

This sort of poetry has been around a long time, but the term is relatively new.

Concrete Poetry

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Shape

Color

Rhyme

Audience

Concrete poems focus more on ______ than language.

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Shape

Color

Rhyme

Audience

Concrete poems focus more on ______ than language.

Concrete poems are also called shape poems because they focus on the structure of the poem rather than the poem itself.

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Cinquain

A Cinquain is a poem with five lines in a specific pattern.

The lines are structured like this: Line 1: One Word. Line 2: Two Words. Line 3: Three Words. Line 4: Four Words. Line 5: One Word.

Cinquain“My Bed’s Just Here For The Cat”:

Fatcat,

Hairy nuisance

Sprawling over bedsheets

Crowding limited sleepspace with

Blubber.

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Four

One

Three

Six

A Cinquain’s first and last line have how many words?

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Four

One

Three

Six

A Cinquain’s first and last line have how many words?

A Cinquain’s first and last line each contain one word.

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Practice Question 1: Identify the type of poem.

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Villanelle

Limerick

Cinquain

Acrostic

Hockey is good exercise. Och!I got hit.Come and play.Kind of ruff.Evening of hockey.Yoch!I got checked.

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