LESSON 3:

UNDERSTANDING
PROSE, POETRY,
and DRAMA
PREPARED BY: PAULINE BARCE
 PROSE

An expression (whether written or spoken)

Prose does have rhythm, but its rhythm lacks any
sustained regularity and is not meant to be scanned

POETRY

An expression that is written in verse, often with some

form of regular rhythm
The basis of poetic expression is a heightened sense of
perception or consciousness.
 Both prose and poetry share many
elements. As a result, prose and poetry can be
seen as two levels or planes, each going in
opposite directions, but partially overlapping at
their common ends.
Eventually prose pulls elements from
poetry and poetry pulls elements from prose until
each reaches a finite point at which prose
becomes poetry and poetry becomes prose
• PROSE consists of those written
within the common flow of
conversation in sentences and
paragraphs, while POETRY
refers to those expressions in
verse with measure and rhyme,
line and stanza and has a
melodious tone.
PROSE POEM

A poem without
traditional line divisions
or lengths
 BE DRUNK
By: Charles Baudelaire

You have to be always drunk. That’s all there is to it- it’s the
only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks
Your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually
drunk.

But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be

drunk

And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch , in the mournful
solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask
the
wind, the wave , the star, the bird , the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is
groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is
speaking.
.. ask what time it is and wind, wave , star, bird, clock will answer you: “It is time to be
drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On
wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish.”
 MAJOR POETIC
ELEMENTS

• PERSONIFICATION
• APOSTROPHE
• ASYNDETON
• ALLITERATION
CHARACTERISTIC OF POETRY

•SYMBOLISM
•HYPERBOLE
 DIFFERENCES
PROSE POETRY
Most everyday writing is in prose Typically reserved for expressing
form something special in artistic way
Language is straightforward Language tend to be more
without much decoration expressive and decorated , with
comparisons, rhyme, and rhythm
contributing to a different sound
and feel.
There are no sounds breaks. Uses lines breaks to follow a
Sentences run to the right margin formatted rhythm or to
emphasize an idea.
Lines can run extremely long or
be as short as one word or letter
The first word of each sentence is The first letter of every line is
capitalized capitalized, but many modern
 TYPE OF PROSE
1. NOVELS – long narrative divided into chapters and events
are taken from true-to-life stories
2. SHORT STORY - this is a narrative involving one or more
characters, one plot and one single impression
3. PLAYS – presented on stage, divided into acts and each act
has many scenes
4. LEGENDS – these are fictitious narratives, usually about
origins
5. FABLES – these are also fictitious, and they deal with
animals and inanimate things who speak and act like
people and their purpose is to enlighten the minds of
children to events that can mold their ways and attitudes
 TYPE OF PROSE
6. ANECDOTES – these are merely products of the writer’s
imagination and the main aim is to bring out lessons to the
reader.
7. ESSAY – this expresses the viewpoint or opinion of the writer
about a particular problem or event.
8. BIOGRAPHY – deals with the life of a person which may be about
himself, his autobiography or that of others
9. NEWS – a report of everyday events in society, government,
science and industry, and accidents, happening nationally or not
10. ORATION – a formal treatment of a subject and is intended to be
spoken in public. It appeals to the intellect, to the will or to the
emotions of the audience
 THREE TYPES OF POETRY
A. NARRATIVE POETRY – this form describes important events in
life either real or imaginary.
There are classified into different variety:
1. EPIC – an extended narrative about heroic exploits often under
supernatural control
2. METRICAL TALE – a narrative which is written in verse and can
be classified either as ballad or a metrical romance
3. BALLADS – considered as the shortest and simplest. It has a
simple structure and tells of a single incident. In the early time
this referred to a song accompanying a dance
Ex: love ballads, war ballads, and sea ballads, humurous, moral and
historical or mythical ballads.
 THREE TYPES OF POETRY
B. LYRIC POETRY – poetry that is meant to be sung to the
accompaniment of a lyre, but now this applies to any type of
poetry that expresses emotions and feelings of the poet. They
are usually short, simple and easy to understand
DIFFERENT VARIETIES
1. FOLKSONGS (Awiting Bayan)
2. SONNETS – lyric poem of 14 lines dealing with an emotion
3. ELEGY – expresses feelings of grief and melancholy and whose
theme is death
4. ODE – poem of a noble feeling, expressed with dignity, with no
definite number of syllables or definite lines in a stanza
5. PSALMS (Dalit) – a song praising God or
the Virgin Mary and containing a
philosophy life
6. AWIT (Song) – these have measures of
twelve syllables (dodecasyllabic) and
slowly sung to the accompaniment of a
guitar or banduria
7. CARRIDE (Kuridos) – have measures of
8 syllables (octosyllabic) and recited to a
martial beat
THREE TYPES OF POETRY
C. DRAMATIC POETRY
• COMEDY
• MELODRAMA
• TRAGEDY
• FARCE
• SOCIAL POEMS
DRAMA
DRAMA
• A story intended to be acted out on a
stage. Some critics include
PANTOMIME( silent acting) but
others specify that drama requires
dialogue.
• Plot, setting, and characters
• Drama is divided into two very
broad categories: TRAGEDY and
COMEDY
 TRAGEDY
 One of the oldest forms of drama
 The theme is usually revolves around the
rains of a dynasty, downfall of man,
emotional betrayals, moral setback,
personal loss, death and denials.
 Protagonists often have a tragic flaw
 A characteristic that leads them to their
downfall.
 This form of drama rarely has happy
endings
 COMEDY

Lighter in tone than tragedy and provides a

happy ending
The intention of comic playwrights is to
make their audience laugh
They use highly improbable situations,
stereotyped characters, extravagant
exaggeration, and violent horseplay
FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
• A type of language that varies
from the norms of literal
language
• Also known as the “ ornaments”
of language”
• Forces the reader to make an
imaginative leap in order to
comprehend the author’s point
 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
• Can be divided into three categories:
• FIGURES OF THOUGHT, FIGURES OF SPEECH, AND
FIGURES OF SOUND

• Figures of Thought are also called tropes

• A trope is the meaning a word has other than its literal
meaning
• Trope refers to change or turn, in other words using a
word in other than its literal sense, such as comparison
• Examples: Simile, Metaphor, Irony, and Personification
• Figures of Speech are also called
rhetorical figures or schemes
• Rhetorical figures depart, not from
the literal meaning of the words , but
from the standard usage or order of
the words( or some other departure
other than in meaning), thus making
a special effect
• Examples: Apostrophe, Chiasmus,
Anithesis and Rhetorical Questions
•Figures of Sound include
the sound effect
•Examples: Alliteration,
Assonance, Consonance
and Onomatopoeia
 FIGURES OF SPEECH BASED ON
ANALOGY
1. SIMILE
- a stated comparison (usually
formed with “like”, “than”, or “as”)
between two fundamentally
dissimilar or unlike things that have
certain qualities in common
2. METHAPOR
3. PERSONIFICATION
• An inanimate object, animal, or an idea is
endowed with human qualities or abilities.
4. ALLUSION
5. REIFICATION
6. METONYMY
• A word or phrase is substituted for another with
which it is closely associated; also, the rhetorical
strategy of describing something indirectly by
referring to the things around it.
7. SYNECDOCHE
• A part is used for the whole, the whole for a part,
the specific for the general, the general for the
specific, or the material for the thing made from
it.
8. SYMBOL
• An object or action that means something more
than its literal meaning
9. SYNESTHESIA
• Synesthesia is a figure of speech in
which one sense is described using
terms from another
• Examples of synesthesia often are
in the form of a simile, as this is an
easy way to link two previously
unconnected images.
• For example, you might say, “The
silence was as thick as a forest.”
 FIGURES OF SPEECH BASED ON
RHETORIC
DELIBERATE
• Rethoric traditionallyFORENSIC
has three main categories EPIDEICTIC
or types.
RHETORIC RHETORIC THETORIC
Aimed at moving Aimed at proving Aimed at
the readers to someone’s guilt or displaying
some action either innocence rhetorical skills at
pro or con about some special
some public occasion by
policy praising (or
perhaps
condemning) a
person or group
1. RHETORICAL QUESTION
• A question that is asked not to get an
answer, but instead to emphasize a point.
2. ANACHRONISM
• An error of chronology or timeline in a
literary piece.
• Anything that is out of time and out of
place.
• Anachronism can also be used for
purposes of rhetoric, comedy, or shock.
Unintentional anachronisms may occur
when a writer, artist, or performer is
unaware of differences in technology,
language, customs, attitudes, or fashions
between different historical eras
3. LITOTES
4. HYPERBOLE
• An exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis
5. MEIOSIS

•A deliberate underplaying
or undervaluing of a thing
and mutes the expression
of an emotion, idea or
situation
6. PARADOX
7. IRONY
 FIGURES OF SPEECH BASED ON
SYNTAX
• SYNTAX is a set of rules in a language
• It dictates how words from different parts of speech are
put together in order to convey a complete thought
• The general word order of an English sentence is
“SUBJECT+VERB+OBJECT”
• In poetry, achieve certain artistic effects such as
producing rhythm or melody in the lines, achieving,
emphasis, heightening connection between two words
etc.
• The unique syntax used in poetry makes it different from
prose
FIGURES OF SPEECH BASED ON
SYNTAX
1. ANTITHESIS – the juxtaposition of
contrasting ideas in balanced phrases or
clauses.
FIGURES OF SPEECH BASED ON
SYNTAX
2. APOSTROPHE
FIGURES OF SPEECH BASED ON
SYNTAX
3. ASYNDETON- the deliberate omission of
conjunctions from a series of related clauses.
FIGURES OF SPEECH BASED ON
SYNTAX
4. CHIASMUS
FIGURES OF SPEECH BASED ON
SYNTAX
5. OXYMORON – two opposite ideas are
joined to create an effect.
FIGURES OF SPEECH BASED ON
SYNTAX
5. PUN
FIGURES OF SOUND
1. ALLITERATION
FIGURES OF SOUND
2. ANAPHORA- the repetition of a sequence of
words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses,
thereby lending them emphasis
FIGURES OF SOUND
3. ASSONANCE
 FIGURES OF SOUND
4. CACOPHANY- the juxtaposition of words
producing harsh sounds. The word
cacophany originates from the Greek word
meaning “ bad sound” . The term in poetry
refers to the use of words that combine
sharp, harsh, hissing, or unmelodious
sounds.
FIGURES OF SOUND
5. CONSONANCE
FIGURES OF SOUND
6. EUPHONY
FIGURES OF SOUND
7. ONOMOTAPOEIA
 FIGURES OF SOUND
8. REPETITION
• The repeating of a word or phrase
• A common rhetorical device used to add emphasis and
stress in writing and speech
• Widely used in both poetry and prose; throughout all
genres and forms and literature and oral tradition
• Aside from helping stress or highlight important
thoughts and points, repetition can be a key tool for
authors and speakers in developing style, tone and
rhythm
FIGURES OF SOUND
9. RHYME – a close similarity
of sound as well as an exact
correspondence between
words or the ending of words
THANK YOU
!!!!!