POETRY

OBJECTIVES
• Identify the various elements, techniques, and
literary devices in poetry;
• Determine specific forms and conventions of
poetry;
• Explore innovative techniques in writing poetry.
 What is Poetry?
• Poetry is derived from the Greek word
“poiesis” which literally translates to
“making or creating”.

Poetry is made and the poet is

the maker.
Take Note!

Poetry is a literary art where the

evocative and aesthetic qualities of a language
are brought out in lieu, or together with the
language’s apparent meaning. It is writing that
communicates intensely and intimately
through and beyond language, using rhythm,
sound, style, and meaning.
Quote!
“Always learn poems by heart. They have to become the
marrow in your bones. Like fluoride in the water, they’ll
make your soul impervious to the world’s soft decay.”

Janet Fitch
TREE
by Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.
How about you?

Is there a poem that you always remember?

Quote!

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings:

it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”
William Wordsworth Longfellow
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
LINE
• The line is fundamental to the perception of poetry,
marking an important visual distinction from prose.
Poetry is arranged into a series of units that do not
necessarily correspond to sentences, but rather to
series of metrical feet.

VERSE
• This is a one single line of a poem arranged in
metrical pattern.
STANZA
• This is a group of lines in a poem. It is a unit of
poetic lines (a paragraph within the poem). The
stanzas within a poem are separated by blank lines.

* In modern poetry, such as free verse, often do not

have lines that are all of the same length and meter,
nor even the same number of lines in each stanza.
Types of Stanzas
• Quatrain
– a stanza of four lines
Ex. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by
Thomas Gray

“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea
The plowman homeward plods his weary way
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.”
Types of Stanzas
• Couplet
– a stanza of two lines
Ex. An Essay on Criticism by
Alexander Pope

“Let us teach others who themselves excel,

And censure freely who have written well.”
RHYME
• This is a type of echoing which utilizes a
correspondence of sound in the final accented
vowels and all that follows of two or more words,
but the preceding consonant must differ, as in the
words bear and care. In a broader poetic sense,
however, rhyme refers to a close similarity of sound
as well as an exact correspondence; it includes the
agreement of vowel sounds in assonance and the
repetition of consonant sounds in consonance and
alliteration.
FOOT
• This is a combination of stressed and unstressed
syllables in a line of poetry. There are many
combinations.

METER
• This is the number of feet that is in a line of poetry.
A line of poetry can have any number of feet, and
can have more than one type of foot. There are
some meters that are used more often than the
others.
TYPES of FOOT

• Iamb: a foot with two syllables, one that is not

stressed and one that is, in that order.
• Trochee: a foot with two syllables, this time with one
that is stressed and one that is not.
• Spondee: a foot with two syllables, both of which are
stressed.
• Anapest: a foot with three syllables, two stressed
syllables followed by one unstressed syllable
• Dactyl: a foot with three syllables, one stressed
syllable followed by two unstressed syllables
TYPES of METER

• Monometer: a line with 1 foot

• Trimeter: a line with 3 feet
• Pentameter: a line with 5 feet
• Heptameter: a line with 7 feet

• Dimeter: a line with 2 feet

• Tetrameter: a line with 4 feet
• Hexameter: a line with 6 feet
• Octameter: a line with 8 feet
Example
• If a line of poetry has 5 feet, and those 5 feet are all
iambs, you have a line of poetry that is called iambic
pentameter. This is the most common metric pattern
in formal poetry.
Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

FORM
• This is the arrangement or method used to convey
the content, such as free verse, ballad, haiku, etc. In
other words, it is the way it is said (details within
the composition of a text or structural
characteristics).
FORMS

Open: poetic form free from regularity and

consistency in elements such as rhyme,
line
length, and metrical form
Closed: poetic form subject to a fixed structure and
pattern
Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter (much

of the plays of Shakespeare are written in

this form
Free Verse: lines with no prescribed pattern or
SHORT WHOLE POEMS
• HAIKU
• LIMERICK
• TANAGA
HAIKU
• A haiku is a specific type of Japanese poem which has
17 syllables divided into three lines of 5 – 7 – 5
syllables. Haikus or haiku are typically written on the
subject of nature. The word haiku is derived from the
Japanese word hokku meaning “starting verse”.
Ex. From time to time
The clouds give rest
To the moon-beholders
- Matsuo
Basho
LIMERICK
• This is a short humorous form known for off-color
statements. The limerick is a five line poem with
meter and rhyme. The first, second, and fifth lines
are all iambic tetrameter with end rhyme. The third
and fourth lines are iambic trimeter and rhyme with
each other but not the three other lines. The rhyme
pattern is aabba having a specific number of
syllables.
Example
There once was a man in Beijing.
All his life he hoped to be King.
So he put on a crown,
Which quickly fell down.
That small silly man from Beijing.
TANAGA
• This is a Filipino poem that has four lines with seven
syllables each with the same rhyme at the end of
each line – that is to say 7 – 7 – 7 – 7 syllabic verse,
with an aabb rhyme scheme.
Example
“Katitibay ka Tulos!
Sakaling datnang agos!
Ako’y mumunting lumot
sa iyo’y pupupulot.”
Here is an example of a Lyrical Poem:
• Sonnet

• Shakespearean sonnet (English sonnet)

- There will be three quatrains and will end with a
couplet. The rhyme scheme will be
ababcdcdefefgg.

*Shakespeare’s sonnet 18 is one of the most

recognizable examples of this form.
 Shakespeare sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? a

Thou art more lovely and more temperate: b
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, a
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: b
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, c
And often is his gold complexion dimmed; d
And every fair from fair sometime declines, c
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed: d
But thy eternal summer shall not fade, e
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; f
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade e
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: f
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, g
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. g