ELEMENTS

OF
POETRY
 RHYTHM

This includes the syllables in the

lines. The best method of
understanding this is to read the
poem aloud, and understand the
stressed and unstressed syllables.
 "ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND
BEAUTIFUL“

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

Ce­cil­F.­Al­ex­an­der
 METER
The meter serves as the metrical
form of poetry. A poem is made
up of blocks of lines, which
convey a single strand of thought.
Within those blocks, a structure of
syllables which follow the rhythm
has to be included.
 "ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND
BEAUTIFUL“
7
The rich man in his castle, 6
The poor man at his gate, 7
He made them, high or lowly,6
And ordered their estate.

Ce­cil­F.­Al­ex­an­der
 RHYME
A poem may or may not have a
rhyme. When you write poetry
that has rhyme, it means that the
last words or sounds of the lines
match with each other in some
form. Rhyme is basically similar
sounding words. Free verse
poetry, though, does not follow
this system.
 "ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND
BEAUTIFUL“

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

Ce­cil­F.­Al­ex­an­der
 RHYME
SCHEME
Rhyme scheme is defined as the
pattern of rhyme. Either the last
words of the first and second lines
rhyme with each other, or the first
and the third, second and the
fourth and so on. It is denoted by
alphabets like AABB (1st line
rhyming with 2nd, 3rd with 4th)
etc.
 "ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND
BEAUTIFUL“
ABAB
All things bright and beautiful,
ABAB
All creatures great and small,ABAB
All things wise and wonderful:ABAB
The Lord God made them all.

Ce­cil­F.­Al­ex­an­der
 STANZA
Stanza in poetry is defined as a smaller
unit or group of lines or a paragraph in
a poem. A particular stanza has a
specific meter, rhyme scheme, etc.
Based on the number of lines, stanzas
are named as couplet (2 lines), Tercet
(3 lines), Quatrain (4 lines), Cinquain (5
lines), Sestet (6 lines), Septet (7 lines),
Octave (8 lines).
Example of Quatrain:

The purple headed mountains,

The river running by, Stanza­
The sunset and the morning 1
That brightens up the sky.

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,
Stanza­
All things wise and wonderful: 2
The Lord God made them all.
 THEME

This is what the poem is all about.

The theme of the poem is the
central idea that the poet wants
to convey. It can be a story, or a
thought, or a description of
something or someone.
 SYMBOLISM

Often poems will convey ideas

and thoughts using symbols. A
symbol can stand for many things
at one time and leads the reader
out of a systematic method of
looking at things.
 “My Heart Leaps Up When I
Behold“

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky
Spring and daisies means youth in
Sara Teasdale’s “Wild Asters”:
In the spring, I asked the daisies
If his words were true,
And the clever, clear-eyed daisies
Always knew.

A rainbow symbolizes hope and good

things that are coming
 IMAGERY
This device is used by the poet for
readers to create an image in
their imagination. Imagery
appeals to all the five senses. For
example, when the poet
describes, the flower is bright red,
an image of a red flower is
immediately created in the
readers mind.
 “LYRIC 17“

First, a poem must be magical,

Then musical as a sea-gull.
It must be a brightness moving
And hold secret a bird's
flowering.

Jose­Garcia­Villa