POETRY

Poetry contains both literary and musical features. On the literary side, poetry can use
any combination of metaphor, simile, imagery, symbolism, allegory, even narrative or
storyline. Denotation (direct meaning) and connotation (indirect meaning) help to further
sculpt the literary meaning or sense of a poem. On the musical side, poetry uses rhyme,
meter, assonance (similar vowels) and alliteration (similar consonants) to strike an aural
mood or tone. Poetry can be ironic or humorous, attractive or ugly and mystical.

Poetry has the power to move hearts, win minds, and inspire people to action.

When approaching a poem, listen. What is the poem saying and how is it being said?
What types of musical elements do you hear? Consider also the context in which the poem
was written. Oftentimes if you know something about the poet herself--how she grew up or
what she does for a living, for example--you will be better prepared to catch subtle allusions
where otherwise you might only have found obscurity.

POETRY ASSUMPTIONS

Readers of poetry often bring with them many related assumptions:

 That a poem is to be read for its "message,"

 That this message is "hidden" in the poem,
 The message is to be found by treating the words as symbols which naturally do not
mean what they say but stand for something else,
 You have to decipher every single word to appreciate and enjoy the poem

Characteristics of Classical Poetry

Classical poems typically consist of a combination of thought and passion. Emotions

are analyzed from an intellectual standpoint and passion is balanced out with reasoning and
rationalizations. The result is a blending of emotions, intellect and often love. Classical
poems frequently imply colloquial speech because the text diction may be grandiose. 

Elements of Poetry

POETRY ASSUMPTIONS

Readers of poetry often bring with them many related assumptions:

 That a poem is to be read for its "message,"

 That this message is "hidden" in the poem,
 The message is to be found by treating the words as symbols which naturally do not
mean what they say but stand for something else,
 You have to decipher every single word to appreciate and enjoy the poem.
 
FIRST APPROACHES

Read the poem (many students neglect this step). Identify the speaker and the situation.
Feel free to read it more than once! Read the sentences literally. Use your prose reading skills
to clarify what the poem is about.Read each line separately, noting unusual words and
associations. Look up words you are unsure of and struggle with word associations that may
not seem logical to you.Note any changes in the form of the poem that might signal a shift in
point of view. Study the structure of the poem, including its rhyme and rhythm (if any). Re-
read the poem slowly, thinking about what message and emotion the poem communicates to
you.

STRUCTURE and POETRY

An important method of analyzing a poem is to look at the stanza structure or style of a

poem. Generally speaking, structure has to do with the overall organization of lines and/or the
conventional patterns of sound. Again, many modern poems may not have any identifiable
structure (i.e. they are free verse), so don't panic if you can't find it!

STANZAS:

Stanzas are a series of lines grouped together and separated by an empty line from other
stanzas. They are the equivalent of a paragraph in an essay. One way to identify a stanza is to
count the number of lines. Thus:

 couplet (2 lines)

 tercet (3 lines)

 quatrain (4 lines)

 cinquain (5 lines)

 sestet (6 lines) (sometimes it's called a sexain)

 septet (7 lines)

 octave (8 lines) 
FORM: A poem may or may not have a specific number of lines, rhyme scheme and/or
metrical pattern, but it can still be labeled according to its form or style. Here are the three
most common types of poems according to form:

1. Lyric Poetry: It is any poem with one speaker (not necessarily the poet) who
expresses strong thoughts and feelings. Most poems, especially modern ones, are lyric
poems. 

2. Narrative Poem: It is a poem that tells a story; its structure resembles the plot line of a
story [i.e. the introduction of conflict and characters, rising action, climax and the
denouement].

3. Descriptive Poem: It is a poem that describes the world that surrounds the speaker. It

uses elaborate imagery and adjectives. While emotional, it is more "outward-focused" than
lyric poetry, which is more personal and introspective. 

SOUND PATTERNS

Three other elements of poetry are rhyme scheme, meter (ie. regular rhythm) and word

sounds (like alliteration). These are sometimes collectively called sound play because they
take advantage of the performative, spoken nature of poetry.
 

RHYME
 

Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds. In poetry, the most common kind of rhyme is
the end rhyme, which occurs at the end of two or more lines. It is usually identified with
lower case letters, and a new letter is used to identify each new end sound. Take a look at the
rhyme scheme for the following poem :
 

I saw a fairy in the wood,

He was dressed all in green.
He drew his sword while I just stood,
And realized I'd been seen.
 

The rhyme scheme of the poem is abab.

Internal rhyme occurs in the middle of a line, as in these lines from Coleridge, "In mist or
cloud, on mast or shroud" or "Whiles all the night through fog-smoke white" ("The Ancient
Mariner"). Remember that most modern poems do not have rhyme.

End Rhyme occurs at the end of the line.

SONNET

Traditionally, the sonnet is a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, which

employs one of several rhyme schemes and adheres to a tightly structured thematic
organization. 

From the Italian sonetto, which means “a little sound or song," the sonnet is a
popular classical form that has compelled poets for centuries. Traditionally, the sonnet is a
fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, which employ one of several rhyme
schemes and adhere to a tightly structured thematic organization.

Two sonnet forms provide the models from which all other sonnets are formed: the
Petrarchan and the Shakespearean.

Shakespearean Sonnet

Shakespearean, or English sonnet, follows a different set of rules. Here, three

quatrains and a couplet follow this rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The couplet plays a
pivotal role, usually arriving in the form of a conclusion, amplification, or even refutation of
the previous three stanzas, often creating an epiphanic quality to the end. In Sonnet
130 of William Shakespeare’s epic sonnet cycle, the first twelve lines compare the speaker’s
mistress unfavorably with nature’s beauties.

Shakespeare's sonnets are written predominantly in a meter called iambic pentameter,

a rhyme scheme in which each sonnet line consists of ten syllables. The syllables are divided
into five pairs called iambs or iambic feet. An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one
unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. An example of an iamb would be good
BYE. A line of iambic pentameter flows like this: 

baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM. 

Here are some examples from the sonnets:

When I / do COUNT / the CLOCK / that TELLS / the TIME (Sonnet 12)

When IN / dis GRACE / with FOR / tune AND / men's EYES

I ALL / a LONE / be WEEP / my OUT/ cast STATE (Sonnet 29)

Shall I / com PARE/ thee TO / a SUM / mer's DAY? 

Thou ART / more LOVE / ly AND / more TEM / per ATE (Sonnet 18)
SONNET 18

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 ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; 
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 

Petrarchan Sonnet

The first and most common sonnet is the Petrarchan, or Italian. Named after one of its
greatest practitioners, the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch, the Petrarchan sonnet is divided
into two stanzas, the octave (the first eight lines) followed by the answering sestet (the final
six lines). The tightly woven rhyme scheme, abba, abba, cdecde or cdcdcd, is suited for the
rhyme-rich Italian language, though there are many fine examples in English. Since the
Petrarchan presents an argument, observation, question, or some other answerable charge in
the octave, a turn, or volta, occurs between the eighth and ninth lines. This turn marks a shift
in the direction of the foregoing argument or narrative, turning the sestet into the vehicle for
the counterargument, clarification, or whatever answer the octave demands.

It is a sonnet form popularized by Petrarch, consisting of an octave with the rhyme

scheme abbaabba and of a sestet with one of several rhyme schemes, as cdecde or cdcdcd.

The rhyme scheme for the octave is typically a b b a a b b a. The sestet is more flexible.
Petrarch typically used c d e c d e or c d c d c d for the sestet. Some other possibilities for the
sestet include c d d c d d, c d d e c e, or c d d c c d (as in Wordsworth's "Nuns Fret Not at
Their Convent's Narrow Room" [a sonnet about sonnets]). This form was used in the earliest
English sonnets by Wyatt and others. For background on the pre-English sonnet, see Robert
Canary's web page, The Continental Origins of the Sonnet.. In a strict Petrarchan sonnet, the
sestet does not end with a couplet (since this would tend to divide the sestet into a quatrain
and a couplet). However, in Italian sonnets in English, this rule is not always observed, and c
d d c e e and c d c d e e are also used.

The octave and sestet have special functions in a Petrarchan sonnet. The octave's
purpose is to introduce a problem, express a desire, reflect on reality, or otherwise present a
situation that causes doubt or a conflict within the speaker's soul and inside an animal and
object in the story. 

The sonnet is split in two groups: the "octave" (of 8 lines) and the "sestet" (of 6 lines),
for a total of 14 lines.

The octave (the first 8 lines) typically introduces the theme or problem using a rhyme
scheme of abba abba. The sestet (the last 6 lines) provides resolution for the poem and
rhymes variously, but usually follows the schemes of cdecde or cdccdc.

Example of a Petrarchan sonnet: William Wordsworth's "London, 1802

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: - A

England hath need of thee: she is a fen - B
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, - B Octave -
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, - A introduces
the theme
Have forfeited their ancient English dower - A or problem

Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; - B

Oh! raise us up, return to us again; - B
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. - A
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; - C
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: - D
Sestet -
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, - D solves the
problem
So didst thou travel on life's common way , - E
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart - C
The lowliest duties on herself did lay. - E
 How Do I Love Thee?
(Sonnet 43)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806 – 1861

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.