The Elements of Poetry: Teaching the Structure of a Poem

Are you introducing poetry to your students? One of the best ways to teach poetry is to
explore the structure of the poem. These structures are also known as the elements of
poetry. The basic elements of poetry include meter, rhyme scheme, form, and stanza. In
order to dive deeper into poetry, students will first need to understand these structural elements.

What is the importance of teaching poetry?

If you are preparing students for post-secondary education or for the workplace, you might be
wondering why teaching poetry is important. Similarly, students might question the
importance of poetry in a workforce that values hard skills. The truth is, even if your
students never go on to study or write poetry, it is still a very useful skill for them to explore.

You can emphasize to students that various forms of literature and writing include elements of
poetry. Poetry is more than just clever rhyme schemes; it is a mode of deep and impactful
expression. At its core, poetry is an art – but this art lends itself to other aspects of culture and
society. If you look closely, you can find connections between poetry and politics, persuasion,
music, and more!

For example, your students likely agree that persuasion is an important skill. But do they know
that poetic devices lend themselves to great arguments? In his revolutionary “Letter from
Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. argues for equal rights for African Americans. He
captivates his audience by showing them how inequality in America looks and feels. He
does so through the use of several poetic strategies including imagery, rhythm, and metaphor.

Poetry can therefore serve as a deep dive into the artful expression of language. Your students
will benefit from studying the elements of poetry in isolation because it will help them to apply
this knowledge to the world around them.

Strategies for Teaching Poetry

One of go-to strategies for teaching poetry involves scaffolding prerequisite knowledge. This
includes teaching essential terminology and simply identifying how poetry is different from
other forms of writing.

One way to do this is through inquiry-based learning. Prompt your students with the following
questions:

“What comes to mind when you think of poetry?”

“How is poetry different from a persuasive essay? An expository essay?”

These questions will lead students to common conceptions of poetry, like the idea that poems
rhyme or serve the purpose of entertainment. Students may also identify differentiating
factors from other forms of writing like grammar and structure.
Once students begin to identify the characteristics of poetry, a teacher can introduce them to the
basic elements of poetry.

What are the elements of poetry?

The elements of poetry are the different aspects that characterize this form. Different to
techniques, such as symbolism and imagery, which are a personal choice for the poet, the
elements of poetry are the things that categorize a piece as a poem. These include things such as
the poetic metre used, or stanzas, or rhyme scheme. Like in all works of art, the artist is free to
express themselves however they desire, but there are certain qualities that must be present in the
work for it to fall into the category of poetry.

The elements that will be discussed are:

 Meter/Metre

 Rhyme Scheme

 Stanza

 Form

Meter/Metre

Poets use a range of different techniques when crafting their works, and one of the essentials that
are employed in all poetry is metre. This aspect of a poem governs the length and rhythm of
every line and is essential to the flow of the overall piece. Metre is made use of by paying
attention to the syllables in each word of the line and then forming a pattern through these
syllables. Meter refers to the number of feet used in each line. The poet has the ability to
control the sound of the entire poem and create a harmonious relationship between each word
and syllable by paying attention to their individual sounds.

To do this, the writer would break down each line, which is technically known as feet. An
individual unit of feet is known as foot. A foot is “a unit of stressed and unstressed syllables in a
line of poetry. Feet are individual units in every line of a poem and can be categorized depending
on the number of syllables and which syllable gets stressed. Some examples of feet in poetry are:

Trochee: A trochee denotes a two-syllable word in which the first syllable is stressed and the
second syllable is unstressed or stressed less. The flow of the words would appear like DUH-duh.
An example of a trochee is the word "garden," in which the syllables are stressed as GAR-den.
Using this metrical foot will make a line trochaic. More examples: Forest, Tiger.

Iamb: An iamb is the opposite of a trochee as it’s a two-syllable word in which the second
syllable is stressed whereas the first remains unstressed, creating a duh-DUH sound whereas the
first one will be unstressed. An example of an iamb is the word "delight," in which the latter
syllable is stressed in its pronunciation as de-LIGHT. Using this foot will make a line iambic.
More example: Amuse, Return.

Spondee: A spondee is a two-syllable word in which both syllables are equally stressed to create
a DUH-DUH sound. An example of this would be the word "bookmark," which is pronounced as
BOOK-MARK, and this line or word would be classified as spondaic. More example: Headache,
Textbook.

Dactyl: A dactyl foot is a three-syllable word in which the first syllable is stressed more than the
latter two or the first syllable is stressed and the latter two remains unstressed to create a DUH-
duh-duh sound. An example of a dactylic word is the word "poetry," which is pronounced as PO-
e-try. More example: Fabulous, Elephant.

Anapest: An anapestic word is a three-syllable word in which the final syllable is emphasized
more than the first two or The final syllable is stressed whereas the previous two syllables remain
unstressed to create a duh-duh-DUH sound. An example of an anapestic word is "unaware",
which is pronounced like un-a-WARE. More example: Underfoot, Contradict.

These feet are employed and repeated over the course of an entire line of poetry. By doing this,
you, in turn, create a poetic metre. These metres are categorized by the number of feet in a line.

One foot: monometer, Two feet: dimeter, Three feet: trimeter, Four feet: tetrameter, Five
feet: pentameter, Six feet: hexameter, Seven feet: heptameter, Eight feet: octameter

An example of this being used is in William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, which contains the
famous line, "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?" This line is written in iambic pentameter,
meaning there are ten syllables that can be divided into five feet. This line is also in the iambic
metre as the latter of each syllable in each foot is stressed. For example:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

This line contains ten syllables, so it is a pentameter as it can be divided into five feet.

Shall I | compare | thee to | a sum | mer’s day

In each foot, it is the latter syllable that is stressed, meaning it’s written in iambic pentameter!

Shall I | compare | thee to | a sum| mer’s day

Rhyme Scheme

A rhyme scheme in poetry is one of the main elements of poetry and one of the most commonly
used techniques to create a poem. There are a number of different ways to approach creating a
rhyme scheme, such as Alternate Rhyme scheme, Coupled Rhyme scheme, Monorhyme scheme,
and Enclosed Rhyme scheme. By structuring these repeated patterns and sounds throughout the
lines, your stanzas flow into each other and create a rhythm.

Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? By William Shakespeare

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.

Identifying and constructing rhyme schemes is usually done so by using the letters of the
alphabet. This is done by matching the lines that rhyme with the same letter, such as ABAB or
AABBCC. Some examples of the different types of rhyme schemes are:

Alternate rhyme: In a poem, an alternate rhyme refers to the matching of alternating lines. For
example, the first and third-lines would rhyme, as would the second- and fourth-line. This would
create the rhyme pattern ABAB. For example:

"I come from haunts of coot and her, (A)

I make a sudden sally (B)
And sparkle out among the fern, (A)
To bicker down a valley." (B)

-The Brook, Alfred Tennyson

Coupled rhyme: In a poem, a coupled rhyme is made up of a series of two-lined stanzas known
as a rhyming couplet. These poems follow the rhyme scheme AA BB CC and continue with
rhyming couplets until the final stanza.

Monorhyme: With monorhymes, all the lines in a stanza, or sometimes even the entire poem,
end with the same rhyme.
Enclosed rhyme: In an enclosed rhyme scheme, the first and fourth-lines rhyme, as do the
second and third-lines. This creates an ABBA pattern and creates the effect of the BB rhyme
scheme being enclosed within the AA rhyme scheme. For example:

"Beloved, my Beloved, when I think (A)

That thou was in the world a year ago, (B)
What time I sat alone here in the snow (B)
And saw no footprint, heard the silence sink." (A)

-Sonnet 29, Elizabeth Barret Browning

Form

Poetic form is an element of poetry that governs the overall piece. While aspects such as rhyme
scheme and metre are more specific to line to line and stanza to stanza, the form of a poem
encapsulates the entire structure, rhyme scheme, and metre of the piece.

There are numerous poetic forms for one to adopt in their writing, and each seems favourable to
a specific end, such as a sonnet being typically written as a love poem. These forms have
evolved over time, but some forms date back to the earliest and most prolific poems, such as
Homer’s Illiad or Milton’s Paradise Lost. Here are some examples of poetic form:

Epic: An epic poem is one that is known for its length and narrative. It follows a story
throughout the poem and often details a variety of characters, such as heroes and gods, and their
tales. Famous works of this form are The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey.

Sonnet: A sonnet is a poetic form that follows the structure of a set of fourteen-lines and is
typically centred around the theme of love. However, there are a variety of different sonnet
forms one can use for different rhyme schemes. For example, a Shakespearean Sonnet divides
the fourteen lines into three quatrains and a final couplet and uses the rhyme scheme ABAB
CDCD EFEF GG. Alternatively, a Petrarchan Sonnet divides the fourteen lines into an octave
and a sestet, with the octave following the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA and the sestet following
either CDE CDE or CDC CDC.

Ode: An ode is a poem that pays tribute to something. This subject can be anything, living or
deceased, or a non-sentient object or place.

Elegy: The elegy is a form of poetry in which the poet or speaker expresses grief, sadness, or
loss. The elegy began as an ancient Greek metrical form and is traditionally written in response
to the death of a person or group. The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss.
First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration
of the idealized dead, and finally consolation and solace.

Ballad: The ballad is one of the oldest poetic forms in English. A ballad is a type of poem that
tells a story and was traditionally set to music. English language ballads are typically composed
of four-line stanzas that follow an ABCB rhyme scheme. Many ballads have a refrain (a line or
stanza that repeats throughout the poem), much like the chorus of modern day songs.

Lyric Poetry: It refers to a short poem, often with songlike qualities, that expresses the speaker’s
personal emotions and feelings. Historically intended to be sung and accompany musical
instrumentation, lyric now describes a broad category of non-narrative poetry, including elegies,
odes, and sonnets.

Haiku: The haiku form has its roots in Japan and is structured as a three-line poem. This brief
poem is characterised by a 5-7-5 structure, with the first and third-lines having five syllables
each and the second-line having seven.