POETRY

Definition
Brief History
Elements
 POETRY IS…

• a branch of humanities that renders artistically,

imaginatively, the best of man’s thoughts and
feelings. It is metaphorical communication, “the
highest form of talk”.
• a statement of human experience and its two outstanding
qualities are the formal structure and intensity of
language.
 POETRY…

• has been known to employ meter and rhyme, but this is

by no means necessary.
• is an ancientform that has gone through numerous and
drastic reinvention over time.
 …

The very nature of poetry as an

authentic and individual mode of
expression makes it nearly
impossible to define.
BRIEF HISTORY
 POETRY THEN AND NOW

EPIC POETRY MODERN POETRY

• preliterate societies ELIZABETHAN POETRY • Poets breaking rules
• Oral tradition eventually written • 17 and 19 Centuries
th th

• New definitions are

• Long narratives (1 person POV)• “this is how poetry should be written.”
st

formed
• Example: Odyssey • Emphasis is on rules regarding rhythm,
rhyme, and meter.
• Self discovery, politics, and originality
 EXAMPLES

MODERN POETRY
l(a
EPIC POETRY le
“Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero
ELIZABETHAN POETRY af
who travelled far and wide after he had
“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
sacked the famous town of Troy…he fa
suffered much by sea while trying to save Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
ll
his own life and bring his men safely Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, s)
home… so the god prevented them from
ever reaching home….” And summer's lease hath all too short a date: one

iness
 ELEMENTS
The essential or characteristic parts or aspects of poetry
 LANGUAGE
• Simple to eloquent
• Heightened through compression, expansion,
omission, and repetition (FIGURATIVE)
• Connotation (FIGURATIVE)
• More nouns and verbs than adjectives and adverbs
 TONE
• Atmosphere
• It is the feeling, attitude, stance, or the poet’s way of
looking at his subject.
• May be serious, bitter, joyful, etc.
 IMAGERY
• Total sensory suggestion of poetry: visual, auditory,
tactile, gustatory, bodily
• Poet becomes an image- maker, one who reinforces
his thoughts through concrete words
• Metaphor suggests symbol, myth.
 SOUND AND RHYTHM
• Poetic Feet/ Patterns (iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl,
spondee)
• Line length/ meter (monometer, dimeter, trimester,
tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter,
octameter)
• Rhythm- Sounds characterized by the metrical stress
• Onomatopoeia
 THOUGHT OR MEANING

• “How does the poem mean?”

• Reenactment of an experience
• “What it feels like to…?”
 l(a
THOUGHT OR MEANING
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
POETRY
Definition
Brief History
Elements