4PICS IN 1 WORD

ELEMENTS OF POETRY
ELEMENTS OF
POETRY

Presented by: ALLYSSA

MAE VALDERRAMA
 W H AT A R E T H E E L E M E N T S O F P O E T RY ?

❑ Structure & Form

❑ Meter
❑ Rhyme & Rhyme Scheme
❑ Sound & Rhythm
❑ Subject
❑ Speaker
❑ Figurative Language & Poetic Devices
❑ Theme
❑ Tone & Mood
❑ Syntax
W H AT I S P O E T RY ?

• Poetry is a type of literature

that uses the sounds, rhythms,
and meanings of words to
describe the world in striking
imaginative ways.

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“FIRE AND ICE” BY ROBERT FROST

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
 STRUCTURE AND FORM
The form of a poem refers to its type or style, while the structure of a poem refers to the way it is organized and
the relationship between its different parts.
The structural elements found in poetry are:

• Stanza: is a group of lines set off from others by a blank line or indentation.

• Verse: are stanzas with no set number of lines that make up units based on sense.

• Canto: is a stanza pattern found in medieval and modern long poetry.

E L E M E N T S O F P O E T R Y

LINES AND STANZA

1. Poetry is divided into lines, or groups of words.

2. Lines are organized in units of meaning called

stanzas. The lines in a stanza work together to
express one key idea.

3. A blank line, called a stanza break, signals that

one stanza has end and a new stanza is beginning.

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SOME OF THE IMPORTANT POETRY FORMS INCLUDE :
1. Sonnet- a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in
English typically having ten syllables per line.
Ex.
SOME OF THE IMPORTANT POETRY FORMS INCLUDE:

2. Limericks- a type of poem where the first, second and fifth lines have the same
rhyme and rhythm.
Ex.
SOME OF THE IMPORTANT POETRY FORMS INCLUDE:

3. Concrete- poems are objects composed of words, letters, colors, and typefaces,
in which graphic space plays a central role in both design and meaning
Ex.
“Swan and Shadow” by John Hollander
FORMS OF POETRY

2. Haiku- three-line Japanese form that describes something in

nature. The first and third lines each have five syllables, and the
second line has seven.
Ex.

Remember: (about nature)

1st line – 5 syllables

2nd line – 7 syllables
3rd line – 5 syllables
E L E M E N T S O F P O E T R Y

METER

Meter –the basic rhythmic structure of a line within a work of

poetry.
Some of the important metrical feet in English poetry include:

• Trochee. Pronounced DUH-duh, as in “ladder.”

• Iamb. Pronounced duh-DUH, as in “indeed.”
• Spondee. Pronounced DUH-DUH, as in “TV.”
• Dactyl. Pronounced DUH-duh-duh, as in “certainly.”
• Anapest. Pronounced duh-duh-DUH, as in “what the heck!” (Anapestic poetry typically
divides its stressed syllables across multiple words.)
RHYME AND RHYME SCHEME

1. Rhyme – the • Rhyme scheme – the pattern of

rhymes at the end of each line of a
repetition of vowel and poem or song.
consonant sounds at the
• For example:
ends of words How doth the little crocodile A
• For example: tin and Improve his shining tail, B
pin / hand and sand And pour the waters of the Nile A
On every golden scale! B
SOUND AND RHYTHM
1. Sound - a poetic text means how a line or what sounds some specific words evoke in readers’
minds
2. Rhythm- refers to the metrical rhythm that involves the arrangement of syllables into
repeating patterns called feet.
For example, the following lines from William Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 116’ ‘Let me not to the
marriage of true minds ’contain an iambic rhythm with a few variations:

Let me/ not to/ the mar/-riage of/ true minds

Ad-mit/ im-pe/-di-ments./ Love is/ not love
Which al/-ters when/ it al/-te-ra/-tion finds,
Or bends/ with the/ re-mo/-ver to/ re-move:
SUBJECT
The subject of a poem might also be called the main idea, goal, or thing about which
the poem is concerned. In order to understand the subject of a poem, there is one
very important thing that has to be accomplished first: finding it.
 SPEAKER

Speaker- is one who narrates the poem.

For example:
Shakespeare's “Sonnet 130,” where the narrator is describing the woman he loves.

This sonnet compares the speaker’s lover to a

number of other beauties—and never in the
lover’s favor. Her eyes are “nothing like the sun,”
her lips are less red than coral; compared to white
snow, her breasts are dun-colored, and her hairs
are like black wires on her head.
F I G U R AT I V E L A N G UAG E A N D P O E T I C D E V I C E S

Figurative Language – language that is not meant to be taken literally

3 COMMON TYPES
1. Simile – uses the word like or as to compare two seemingly unlike things
Ex. His hands were as cold as steel. The pillow is like a cloud.

2. Metaphor - describes an object or action in a way that isn't literally true, but helps
explain an idea or make a comparison.
Ex. She's got a heart of gold.
3. Personification – human qualities are given to nonhuman objects
Ex. The light danced on the surface of the water..
ADDITIONAL SOUND DEVICES
• Alliteration- when two or more words
in a line or verse of a poem start with the
same letter or sound
Ex. A sable, silent, solemn forest stood
(James Thomson, "The Castle of
Indolence").
• Assonance- the repetition of the vowel
sound across words within the lines of
the poem creating internal rhymes
Ex. No pain, no gain (Repetition of the /ai/
vowel sound)
• Onomatopoeia- is the use of words
that imitate sounds.
Ex.
Vocal sounds: murmur, growl, whine.
• Euphony- is a literary device that refers
to the musical, or pleasing, qualities of
words.
Ex. The words mists, mellow, close, sun,
bless, vines
THEME
Poetry themes include some common ideas such as love, nature, beauty, and as
complex as death, spirituality, and immortality.
For example:

‘A Red, Red Rose’ by Robert Burns

“O my Love is like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June;

O my Love is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
TONE AND MOOD
It refers to the language, sound, and form used in a particular piece of poetry. The tone
or attitude of a poem’s speaker and the mood of the entire text is part of poetic diction.
Explore these lines from Keats’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale’:
“ My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
‘Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated case.
S YNTAX

The syntax is the ordering of words into meaningful patterns.

For example:
‘A Narrow Fellow in the Grass, by Emily Dickinson
A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him-did you not
His notice sudden is,
TIC TAC TOE CHALLENGE