CONVENTIONS OF

POETRY
GENRE-CROSSING TEXTS
At the end of the discussion the students will
be able to:
• Determine specific forms and conventions of
poetry
• Write a short poem applying the various
elements, techniques, and literary devices
 BATH
The day is fresh-washed and fair, and there is a smell of tulips and narcissus in the
air.
The sunshine pours in at the bath-room window and bores through the water in the
bath-tub in lathes and planes of greenish-white. It cleaves the water into flaws like a
jewel, and cracks it to bright light.
Little spots of sunshine lie on the surface of the water and dance, dance, and their
reflections wobble deliciously over the ceiling; a stir of my finger sets them whirring,
reeling. I move a foot, and the planes of light in the water jar. I lie back and laugh,
and let the green-white water, the sun-flawed beryl water, flow over me. The day is
almost too bright to bear, the green water covers me from the too bright day. I will lie
here awhile and play with the water and the sun spots.
he sky is blue and high. A crow flaps by the window, and there is a whiff of tulips and
narcissus in the air.
PROSE POETRY
Prose poetry is a poem written in paragraph form, it applies
the natural flow of speech and the grammatical structure. If
one would look a prose poem, it looks like an ordinary
paragraph but when you will look deeper, prose poetry
contains alliteration, repetition, rhyme, and literary devices.
Prose poetry is more focused on the images rather than
narratives, plot, and characters.
 Example:
• Kills bugs dead. Redundancy is syntactical overkill. A pin-prick of peace at the
end of the tunnel of a nightmare night in a roach motel. Their noise infects the
dream. In black kitchens, they foul the food, walk on our bodies as we sleep
over oceans of pirate flags. Skull and crossbones, they crunch like candy. When
we die they will eat us unless we kill them first. Invest in better mousetraps.
Take no prisoners on board ship, to rock the boat, to violate our beds with
pestilence. We dream the dream of extirpation. Wipeout a species, with God at
our side. Annihilate the insects. Sterilize the filthy vermin.
 ELEMENTS OF PROSE POETRY

• ALLITERATION
• REPETITION
• METER AND RHYME
• LITERARY DEVICES
• FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
TYPOGRAPHY
This technique has a different structure when being
compared to the traditional form. This maybe deviates
from the conventional structure of a poem but modern
poets use typography because of its unique
arrangement or layout of words.
PERFORMANCE
POETRY
Performance poetry is intended to be performed by a poet
before an audience where the occasion is formal or
informal. When doing a performance poem or slam poem
the poet can wear costumes and props, he can also sing or
dance the part of the poem and in the slam poem, there is
an interaction with the audience.
Video of performance poetry
 SOME ARTIST OF PERFORMANCE
POETRY

An online slam poetry sensation, interwines the

He is one slam poem artist in the
Marc Kelly Smith is an American poet and personal and the political in her poem,
Philippines. One of his famous piece was
founder of the poetry slam movement, with
“Ang Huling Tula na Isusulat ko Para Sa Hiroshima is one of her famous piece.
his performance of “Nobody is here” 
Iyo”.