What is

Poetry?
March 13th, 2020
Poetry • “…literary work in which special intensity is given to the
expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive
style and rhythm…” (Oxford)
• Type of literature characterized by figurative language,
rhyme, and meter
• Rhyme scheme
• Meter
• Figurative language
• Metaphor
• “She is a rose.”
• Simile
• “She is like a rose.”
• “She is as pretty as a rose.”
• Personification
• Giving human-like qualities to an object
Poetry is Music!
How is • Prose – written or spoken language in its
Poetry ordinary form, without metrical structure
Different • Basically, everything but poetry
• No rhyme scheme
from • No meter/rhythm
Prose? • Can use straight-forward language or
figurative language
• Poetry
• Has rhyme scheme
• Meter/rhythm
• Almost always uses figurative language
Famous
Poets
• Edgar Allen Poe

• Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

• Shakespeare

• Maya Angelou
Types of Poetry
Types of
• Sonnet
Poetry
• Epic

• Ballad

• Cinquain

• Haiku

• Free Verse

• Acrostic

• Biographical
 Sonnets
Have 14 lines

Shakespearean Petrarchan
• Three quatrains and one couplet • Octave and a sestet
• ABAB CDCD EFEF GG • ABBAABBA CDCDCD or
ABBAABBA CDECDE
Petrarchan Sonnet
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. 

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height 
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight 
For the ends of being and ideal grace. 
I love thee to the level of every day’s  (5)
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. 
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
Petrarchan Sonnet, cont.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. 

I love thee with the passion put to use 
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. (10) 
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose 
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, 
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, 
I shall but love thee better after death.
Epic • Long narrative poem about a hero or adventure
• Can be presented orally or written
• Iliad or The Odyssey
Ballad • Narrative
• Often based on legend or folk tale
Cinquain • 5-line poem
• Inspired by haikus
• Many types
• Didactic
• Based on word count, usually 1-2-3-4-1
• Reverse
• 5-line stanza with syllable pattern of 2-8-6-
4-2
• Crown
• 5 cinquain stanzas constructing one larger
poem
Didactic Reverse
Original “In the Storm” by Abigail Gronway

Loki
Soft, silly Wind wails
Running, jumping, playing
thunder trumpets, lightning lashes,
Light of my life
Mischievous rain races down the road,

but in my heart

is peace.
Haiku • A stanza with 3 lines
• 5 syllables in the first and third lines
• 7 syllables in the second line
• Focuses on beauty and simplicity in nature
Matsuo Basho Bill Watterson
An old silent pond… Twitching tufted tail,
A frog jumps into the pond, A toasty, tawny tummy:
splash! Silence again. A tired tiger.
Free • Least defined
Verse • Deliberately irregular
City of Potholes Fog
Kelly Roper Carl Sandburg

Zig-zagging down the road  The fog comes 

Trying not to stray over the center line  on little cat feet. 
Or hit a curb  It sits looking 
Or break an axle  over harbor and city 
Or flatten a tire 
on silent haunches 
Or wind up in the next surprise sinkhole. 
and then moves on.
Driving in Toledo is not a sport 
For the timid or the sane or the under-
insured. 
Acrostic
Spell out words with the
first letter of each line
Biographical Poems • Explain characteristics of a person’s life
• Usually has
• Person’s first and last name
• Personal characteristics
• Where they lived
• Important relationships
• Important achievements
• Goals, ambitions, or dreams
Review Game
Rules
• Must stay quiet
• One warning, then the game
will end
• May stand up, but must stay at
your own spot
• Red for ‘A’
• Blue for ‘B’
• Green for ‘C’
 A. 14
1. How many
lines are in a
sonnet? B. 16

C. No rule; the poet decides

 A. Ballad
2. What type of
poem is long and
about a hero or B. Cinquain
adventure?

C. Epic
 A. 7-7-7
3. What is the
syllable order
for a haiku? B. 5-7-5

C. 6-4-2
 A. Poetry
4. _____ has
figurative
language, rhyme, B. Prose
and meter.

C. Short stories
 A. Haikus

5. _____ are 5-
line poems B. Cinquains

C. Free verse
6. _____
poems are A. Acrostic
made by
spelling out
words with the B. Biographical
first letter of
each line. C. Free verse
 A. Petrarchan and Shakespearean
7. What are the
two types of
B. Didactic and Reverse
sonnets?

C. Free Verse and Biographical

 A. 6th grade students are fun.

8. Choose the
metaphor. B. Cats are angels.

C. I like pizza.
9. _____ A. Haikus
poems use
information
about B. Sonnets
someone’s life.
C. Biographical
 A. I dropped my pencil.

10. Choose the B. Sarah walked to class.

personification.
C. My alarm clock yelled at me this

morning.