POETRY

Poetry derives its name from the Greek verb poiêin which means ‘to
create’. It was born as an oral art, generally accompanied by
dancing and music and is the oldest form of literature.
Poetry is mainly evocative and if we have to choose an adjective to
describe it, it would be “ambiguous” since it can have different
meanings depending on the reader.

BASIC STRUCTURAL UNITS

The structural units of the poetry are :

- the line : usually long from eight to twelve syllables
- the stanza : it consists of several lines usually from two to
twelve lines
- the canto or book

TYPES OF STANZAS

The types of stanzas are:

● the couplet : usually are two lines rhymed AA

● the tercet : three lines stanza
● the quatrain : four lines stanza which rhyme scheme can be
alternate (ABAB) or enclosed (ABBA)
● the sestet : six line stanza made of two tercet
● the octave : eight line stanza made of two quatrains

Some poems can also be formed by only two lines, in this case is
an “epigram” .
Narrative poems can be long also thousands of miles.
RHYTHM

Usually the word “rhythm” refers to the speed of a poem.

Rhythm is the pattern of stresses in a line of verse. When we
speak, we stress some syllables and leave others unstressed.
Traditional forms of verse use established rhythmic patterns called
“meters” and these are patterns containing both stressed and
unstressed syllables.

STRESSED SYLLABLES

Are usually content words such as: adjectives, nouns, verbs and
adverbs.

UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES

Are usually grammatical words such as : articles, auxiliaries,

conjunctions, prepositions and pronouns

METRE

The metre is usually measured in foot and there exist two types of
feet :
- unstress-stress or called iamb
- stress-unstress or called trochee

The iambic pentameter has been the most common metre in

English poetry.
Ex. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’. This line of poetry
has five feet, so it’s written in pentameter
(Shakespeare sonnet 18).
RHYME

Poems usually “rhyme” when the last word of two or more line
have the same ending sound.

"Roses are red, violets are blue, / Sugar is sweet, and so are
you."

We can sometimes find the rhyme not at the end of the line but in
the middle and in this case is called “internal rhyme” :

“I see a red boat that has a red flag. / Just like my red coat and
my little red pail.”

Moreover, Rhymes are identified by letters of the alphabet and the

pattern they create is called “rhyme scheme”.

BLANK VERSE

The blank verse is composed by unrhymed lines and has extreme

flexibility. It can be found in Elizabethan drama.
The words in a poem are carefully chosen to create an image in
the reader’s mind. Different element of a word bring to this result,
these are :
- The denotation : that’s the dictionary definition
- The connotation : feelings and associations provoked in
reader’s mind
- The sound

To obtain an effective result, poets use the “language” or “poetry”

devices

LANGUAGE DEVICES

These are used to communicate meaning more effectively to their

readers. There exist different language devices in English poetry for
example the simile, the metaphor, the hyperbole, the onomatopoeia
etc.

SIMILE

A simile is the comparison between two things usually made by

using words as “like”,”than”,”as” or “resembles”.

Ex : ‘My love is like a red rose.’ ‘A red red rose’ written by John
Burns.

METAPHOR

A metaphor describes something as if it were something else,

without connective words (such, as..).

Ex : “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely
players.” - As You Like It, William Shakespeare
PERSONIFICATION

It attributes the characteristics of a living being to abstract things or

to inanimate objects. Usually a personification is seen bythe use of
capital letters, possessive adjectives and verbs that refer to human
actions.

Ex : “The cave mouth yawned.”

SYMBOL

A symbol is anything, person, place or action that stands for

something else such as a quality, an attitude, a belief or a value.

Ex. the rose is a symbol of love and beauty

Some symbols are only an individual creation of the poet.

ALLEGORY

Allegory combines different symbols together, usually forming a

story.
An example of allegory is Animal Farm, by George Orwell. On its
surface, Animal Farm is a story about farm animals that rebel
against their farmer. The underlying story, however, concerns
Orwell's disillusionment with the Bolshevik Revolution and is an
indictment of the Russian government.

OXYMORON

It’s a combination of two contradictory things and is usually used to

express extreme feelings.

Ex : “Big baby”
HYPERBOLE

The hyperbole is an exaggeration of a quantity, a quality or a

concept.

Ex : “I'm so hungry I could eat a horse”

LITOTES

It’s the contrary of hyperbole and here the negative of the opposite
meaning is used.

Ex : “No, 'tis not so deep as a well nor so wide as a

church-door, but 'tis enough, 'twill serve” - Romeo and Juliet, W.
Shakespeare

SOUND DEVICES

ENJAMBEMENT

This is when the line ends in the middle of a phrase and the
meaning break comes in the next line. This is also called “run- on
line”

Ex : “To be, or not to be—that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”
- Hamlet, W. Shakespeare

END - STOPPED LINE

Lines are usually end-stopped and marked by a punctuation mark.

CAESURA

It’s a pause, usually in the middle of a line and shown by a

punctuation mark.

Ex : “To be or not to be, that is the question” - Hamlet, W.

Shakespeare

ASSONANCE

The repetition of the same vowel sound.

Ex : "Hear the mellow wedding bells" - "The Bells" by Edgar Allen

Poe

ALLITERATION

Differently from the assonance, the alliteration is the repetition of

the same initial consonant sound.

Ex : “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”

ONOMATOPOEIA

It refers to a word whose sound illustrates its meaning.

Ex : “cip, cip” “bang” “crack” ..

REPETITION

It’s the repetition of lines of phrases to create a musical effect. It’s

also called “refrain”.

Ex : “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Oh, woeful, oh woeful,

woeful, woeful day!” - Romeo and Juliet, W. Shakespeare