ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF POETRY

1. Theme
✓Is the central idea of a literary work, often referred to as
the “message” or the “meaning” that provides profound
insight about an aspect of humanity.

Try to decipher the theme of this poem. It was written by

Robert Herrick and published in 1640s.
Analysis
✓The phrase “carpe diem” means seize the day. This is the main
theme of the poem above.
✓It is about not wasting time while one still has it, especially during
youth. However, “seizing the day” is actually just one small theme
of this poem.
✓Notice the use of “virgins” in the title. The poem is addressing
young unmarried women.
✓Therefore, the bigger theme is about how single women are
encouraged to get married while they are still in their youthful
prime.
Analysis
✓In assessing the theme of a literary piece, one must also
consider the era when it was written.
✓Are these themes from the 1600s still relevant in the 21st
century? Is it even proper to suggest that young women need to
be married?
✓While the poem is a classic because of the way it was written, its
themes might not be that meaningful anymore in modern day
context: Women today have more choices other than marriage,
and there are women who do not want to raise a family.
✓Thus, the poem’s themes might be interpreted as outdated and
sexist because they could be seen as limiting the role of women
in society.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF POETRY
2. Tone
✓Is the general attitude or behavior of a literary piece,
and it is indeed related to mood in poetry.
✓Refers to how the writer communicates the feeling he
or she has about the poem’s subject matter through
imagery and sensory details.
✓The emotion the author intends for the poem to have.
✓Going back to Robert’s Herrick’s carpe diem poem,
“To the virgins, to Make Much of Time,” since its
encouraging young people to seize the day and make
the most of living and of life, it is safe to say that its tone
is encouraging, positive, and also cheerful and
optimistic.
✓This is evident in the upbeat tone of action in saying
“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” and hopeful
reminders like “That age is best when which is the
first,/When youth and blood are warmer.”
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF POETRY
3. Mood
✓In poetry, mood refers to the feeling of the reader
about the poem, often as a result of the tone that was set
up by the writer.
✓A reader’s basic reactions and feelings about the poem
✓If the writer can creatively communicate the mood he
or she wants the reader to feel, then the writer is indeed
a good poet to have done that.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF POETRY
4. Point of view
✓The perspective taken by the persona of a verse
or prose work.
✓readers “hear” the voice of a certain person as
he or she generally looks at the world—and this
world is presented through the persona’s eyes.
Take a look at this poem by Filipino poet Marra Lanot. Try to see
which point of view the persona is taking, in relation to its theme and
tone.
Half My Life
(for Serafin)

My father left without saying goodbye

for somewhere I shall also travel
and took with him memories
of guava trees, kamansi, mango, chesa
rambutan, of flame trees, saraka, million-dollar
bougainvillaea, of roses, rosal, dama de noche,
sampaguita, jasmin and a thousand other scents
that surrounded our house
and filled my childhood,
✓After reading this poem, readers immediately get a clue about
the persona “talking” in the poem.
✓Since it’s obvious from the first line that the persona talked
about a father’s figure, it could be inferred that the persona is
that of the father’s offspring.
✓However, it might not be easy to tell if the persona is that of a
man or a woman.
✓Often, readers associate the gender of the poem’s persona with
the gender of the poet who wrote it.
✓The poet was able to take readers back to her childhood
through the various recollection of her memories.
✓If the readers are familiar with the plants and trees mentioned in the
first part, it is easier to imagine the aroma of the sampaguita, the
appearance of guava trees, and the other items familiar to the
readers.
✓It is also easy to imagine the kind of house they had. It is safe to say
that, given the effectiveness of the imagery in this poem, readers are
able to closely relate with the poem’s persona.
✓Readers were also children with fathers and mothers, and people
automatically know how it feels to be close to a parent like how the
persona felt.
✓The universality of such emotions and experiences make the poem
more relatable to many readers sharing the same emotions, feelings,
and experiences.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF POETRY
5. Stanza
✓Verse compositions consists of lines
while prose compositions consists of
paragraphs.
✓Is defined as “a group of lines of
verse forming one of the divisions of
a poem or song.”
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF POETRY
6. Line
✓Is a “sequence of words printed as a
separate entity on the page.”
✓Even if poets work on shorter forms
compared to prose writers, they put in
much detail and extra care when creating
poetic lines.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF POETRY
7. Rhyme
✓is “when the sounds at the ends of lines sound
alike” but it does not necessarily mean that the
rhyming sounds are also spelled alike. It is the
sound that matters in poetry.
✓Depending on the type of poem, rhymes
appear in various forms or in various
placements within the poem.
Read this last stanza from Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” as an
example. This piece has words that features both external rhymes and
internal rhymes.

Annabel Lee (excerpt)

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by side
Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
✓Notice the lines that end with “side” and “bride”—the
two words rhyme at the end of the lines. This end rhyme
is called the external rhyme since it is found at the
end of the word.
✓Poems that rhyme at the end of the line often use
external rhymes. However, lines that have rhyming
words inside the line and at the end of the line could
also be found in poetry.
✓Notice how the third line has the rhyming words “rise”
inside the line and “eyes” at the end of the line.
✓Words with internal rhymes could be found within
one line or within several lines of a poem.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF POETRY
8. Rhythm
✓To demonstrate rhythm, try tapping your
finger once, then repeat that again. Tap
them twice, then repeat that. Try a
variation: tap them once then twice, then
once and twice, then repeat those.
✓This is how sound creates a pattern, and that pattern
has something to do with the principle of rhythm.
✓To define, rhythm is “a regular pattern of sound, time
intervals, or events occurring in poetry.”
✓Rhythm is the beat of the poem.
✓Musicians use rhythm to compose beats for their
songs; poems compose rhythm using syllables, words,
or lines to form the beat, too.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF POETRY
9. Symbolism
✓a symbol is meant to represent a more imaginative
meaning than what it literally is as it stands for
something else that fits within the context of the
literary work's imagery or storytelling
✓symbolism now becomes the art or practice of using
symbols especially by investing things with a
symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or
intangible by means of visible or sensuous
representations
✓In poetry, symbolism is very common since one concrete word
could represent an abstract concept or idea unraveled in the
poem. In short, poets use a lot of symbols to represent an
abstract concept using a concrete word.
✓For example, poets can use colors to symbolize two concepts If
they say “blue,” it could symbolize calmness, but it could also
mean sadness.
✓Seasons are some of the favorite symbolisms of poets wherein
each season represents a concept it suggests: winter is often
seen as harsh so it symbolizes barrenness or even death,
autumn could symbolize near-death experiences, or spring
could symbolize hopeful beginnings since it is the season when
flowers bloom.
LESSON 3.1: WRITING POETRY
✓After reading several poems in depth it is now time to
closely analyze how these poems are written
✓It is noticeable that different poems are presented in
different ways Different types of poems may also have their
own respective writing rules.
✓For the purpose of a general approach in creative writing
this lesson will focus on four categories that could help
beginning poets to unleash literary potential form
measurement sound and verse These also encompass the
concept of poetic techniques.
LESSON 3.1: WRITING POETRY
1. Form
✓“The pattern or construction of a work” of literary pieces
that is identifiable and distinguishable from one another.
✓The first distinguishable from earlier discussed in
introducing creative writing was between the verse and the
prose.
Poetry can generally be grouped into these common forms:
❖Lyric Poetry – poems that have one speaker or persona
expressing very strong feelings and thoughts belong to this
group.
oIn terms of form, lyrics poetry is very melodic because
during ancient times, it was meant to be read aloud with
musical accompaniment.
oSimple stated, lyric poets are more concerned with
expressing inner thoughts, self-reflections, and
introspections.
❖Narrative Poetry – this poetry form also narrates a story
with clear plot but written in verse.
oNarrative poems could be very short or very long.
 oA very good example of this is the epic poetry “Beowulf.”
oIn terms of form, narrative poetry follows a more formal
structure of rhyme and meter.
❖Descriptive Poetry
oIf a poem is concerned with portraying descriptions of the
outside world that surrounds the poem’s persona, that is
considered as descriptive poetry.
oIt could also be emotionally laden like lyric poetry. But
unlike the inward focus of thoughts in lyrics poetry,
descriptive poetry is more concerned with portraying
imagery that is focused outside of the poet.
❖ Dramatic Poetry
oThe reason why the stage play exists within the hybrid verse
and prose intersection is partly because of dramatic poetry.
oIt is the kind of poetry that has elements of drama such as
dialogue and conflict.
oThough it may appear like narrative poetry, the difference is
that dramatic poetry is meant to be spoken out loud or even
sung like a song.
oEarly Greek dramatists like Euripides and Sophocles wrote
certain stage plays in verse form.
oA recognizable sub-form of dramatic poetry is the dramatic
monologue, often spoken by one character in the form of
speech expressing the character’s inner thoughts.
LESSON 3.1: WRITING POETRY
2. Measurement
✓Since poetry writing evolved centuries ago, certain forms
of measurements were created as guidelines in creating
poems.
✓However, measurements are not applied to all types of
poetry, and some modern-day poets choose not to follow
such measurements at all.
❖Syllable – is “a single unit of sound in a word” so the
emphasis is more on the sound it produces rather than how
many letters are in it, or how long is the word that carries
it/them.

❖Repetition
✓The reason why certain poems are memorable is due to the
various kinds of repetition happening inside of it.
✓Repetition becomes the main ingredient of certain poems in
which sounds, words, phrases, and lines are repeated to give a
poem its structure and rhythm.
✓To further define it, repetition is a basic artistic device
fundamental to any conception of poetry, as it is a highly
effective unifying force through the repetition of sound, syllables,
words, elements, lines, stanza, forms,and metrical patterns…
❖Meter – is the “rhythmic structure of the verse” which
pertains to basically how a syllable is stressed or
unstressed.
✓Stress is “the relative force or prominence of word
sounds or syllable in verse, meaning the ‘degree of
accent’ placed on a syllable as it is pronounced.
✓Stressed syllable is the one that makes a long vowel
sound and is considered as a strong or loud syllable
marked with a (/).
✓Unstressed syllable is the one that makes a short
vowel sound is considered as the weaker or the quieter
syllable—marked with (U) or (x)
✓Foot – “smallest unit of rhythm in a line of poetry”
one foot – monometer
two feet – dimeter
three feet – trimeter
four feet – tetrameter
five feet – pentameter
six feet – hexameter
seven feet – heptameter
eight feet – octameter
From these types of feet, a meter can have further classifications if
the kinds of syllables are added into the equation. Lines with a
rising meter means the syllables start from unstressed/weak to
stressed/strong, and can appear in two forms:
Iamb (iambic foot) = weak syllable + strong syllable (U/)
Example from “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare:

/ U / U / U / U /
If music be the food of love, play on;

Anapest (anapestic foot) = weak syllable + weak syllable + strong syllable

Example from “The Destruction of Sennacherib) by Lord Byron:

U U / U U / U U / U U /
The Assyrian came down like the world of the fold,
Lines with a falling meter mean the syllables start from
stressed/strong to unstressed/weak, and can appear in two
forms:

Trochee (trochaic foot) = strong syllable + weak syllable (/U)

Example from “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe”

/ U / U / U / U / U / U
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered,
/ U / U
weak and weary,
Dactyl (dactylic foot) = strong syllable + weak syllable + weak
syllable (/UU)
Example from “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred
Lord Tennyson:

/ U U / U U
Cannon to right of them

/ U U / U U
Cannot to left of them,
Lines that feature both types of stresses can appear in
two forms:

Spondee = strong syllable + strong syllable ( / / )

Example from “Troilus and Cressida” by William Shakespeare:

/ / / /
Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go.
 Pyrrhic = weak syllable + weak syllable (U U)
Example from “The Garden” by Andrew Marvell:

U U U U
To a green thought in a green shade.

While such measurements lend a specific form to a poem, various poets

still utilize them differently, producing poetry that has varied effects and
intentions.
The most commonly used measurement in Western poetry, though, is the
iambic pentameter.
❖Rhyme – is the repetition of similar sounds; the most common kind of
rhyme is the end rhyme which occurs at the end of two or more lines.

Example:
The mountain is high
But you can’t take me higher.
The leaves are dry
And your hands are colder.

The rhyme scheme of the poem is abab.

LESSON 3.1: WRITING POETRY
3. Verse
✓Verse could be another word for a poem.
✓The line in poetry is as important as the paragraph in a
prose work.
✓A poem need not to be too long; there are actually some
poems that only have two lines.
✓Some poets also play with how the use words and
punctuation marks in their verse.
Take this for example from poet Ezra Pound:

Papyrus

Spring …….
Too long ……
Gongula ……

Yes, that is indeed a poem. Ezra Pound was an American modernist

poet who continuously challenged how poetry could be written during
his lifetime. If you do not immediately understand a poet’s work, try to
do some research and interpret it on your own.
❖Line Break and Enjambment

✓Are two important poetic devices that affect the rhythm and
flow of a poem.
• Line Break:

This refers to the point where a line of poetry ends and a new
line begins. It can be a subtle or dramatic pause, depending on
the poet's intent. Think of it like the punctuation in a sentence.
• Enjambment:
• This occurs when a line of poetry continues onto the next line
without any punctuation or pause. This creates a sense of
momentum and can be used to emphasize certain words or
phrases.
Without enjambment: ✓ Notice how the enjambment in the second
The sun sets slowly. example makes the poem feel more
continuous and flowing.
The sky turns red. ✓ Line breaks and enjambment are powerful
The birds fly home. tools that poets use to create different
effects in their work. They can be used to:
o Create rhythm and pace
With enjambment: o Emphasize certain words or phrases
o Control the reader's attention
The sun sets slowly, o Create a sense of suspense or
the sky turns red, anticipation
o Reflect the poem's subject matter
the birds fly home. By understanding these devices, you can
gain a deeper appreciation for the artistry of
poetry.
CREATIVE PROMPT: TRY RHYMING!
Test your rhyming skills by inventing a poem that
rhymes following certain rhyme schemes. Then,
practice how to critique poetry after. Here are the
guidelines:

A. Copy this exercise in your writing journal

(notebook) and write your poem there. Fill in the
blanks to create your poem. Use the rhyme
scheme provided.
 Poem 1: (ABAB ABAB) Poem 2: (AABB CCDD)
___________________(a) ___________________(a)
___________________(b) ___________________(a)
___________________(a) ___________________(b)
___________________(b) ___________________(b)

___________________(a) ___________________(c)
___________________(b) ___________________(c)
___________________(a) ___________________(d)
___________________(b) ___________________(d)
B. In any creative writing class, everyone writes an
assignment and then their written pieces are read by all
their classmates. This is called the workshop, a procedure
of critiquing and analyzing a literary text. The point is to
give constructive criticism about the work, meaning one
needs to tell if the written text is effective or not. One
needs to explain why it is effective, or why it is not.
Practice your workshop skills by exchanging poem with
your seatmate. Read each other’s work, then give
comments about it. List down three good things about it
and three things that could be improved. Write these
observations on each other’s journal below the rhyming
poem.