Elements of Poetry

What do you know about poetry?

1. Speaker
a. The voice that communicates with the reader of a poem. b. A poems speaker can be the voice of a person, an animal, or even a thing.

Example
Lie back, daughter, let your head Be tipped back in the cup of my hand.
from First Lesson by Philip Booth

Who is the speaker?

2. Lines and Stanzas

a. line- a row of words, which may or may not form a complete sentence. b. Stanza- a group of lines forming a unit (poem paragraph)

Example
Drum on your drums, batter on your banjoes, Sob on the long cool winding saxophones. Go to it, O jazzmen.
From Jazz Fantasia by Carl Sandburg

Identify a line and a stanza.

3. Rhythm Rhythm- the pattern of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllable in a line. Rhythm can be regular or irregular.

Example
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore While I nodded nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door Tis some visitor, I muttered, tapping at my chamber door Only this and nothing more. From The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

4. Rhyme
a. Internal rhyme- occurs within lines of poetry b. End rhyme- occurs at the ends of lines c. Rhyme scheme- the pattern of rhyme formed by the end rhyme

Example
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore While I nodded nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door Tis some visitor, I muttered, tapping at my chamber door Only this and nothing more. Find examples of end rhyme and internal rhyme and the rhyme scheme.

5. Sound Devices
a. Alliteration- the repetition of consonant sounds b. Onomatopoeia- the use of a word or phrase, such as swoosh or clank, that imitates or suggests the sound of what it describes

Example
Give an example of alliteration.

Give an example of onomatopoeia.

6. Imagery
a. Imagery- descriptive language used to represent objects, feelings, and thoughts. b. It often appeals to the five senses- sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell.

Example
Black horse drive a mower through the weeds, And there, a field rat, startled, squealing bleeds.
from Reapers by Jean Toomer

To what senses do these lines appeal?

7. Figures of Speech
a. Simile- uses the words like or as to compare two unlike things Example: My love is like a red, red rose.

7. Figures of Speech
b. Metaphor- compares two or more different things by stating or implying that one thing is another Example: I was not one for keeping Rubbed in a cage a wing that would be free.

Extended metaphor a metaphor that appears through out a poem

Dead metaphor Metaphor so common that it is part of everyday speech Examples: the woman is a beautiful flower or love a beautiful flower

7. Figures of Speech
c. Personification- giving human characteristics to an animal, object, or idea Example: The headlights of the car stared at Bill.

Apostrophe
Addressing/ speaking to an animal, object, or idea as if it were a human Example: Death, why do you mock me?

Other Literary Elements

Hyperbole exaggeration to create an effect Examples: I was so surprised you could have knocked me over with a feather. I would rather die than eat brussels sprouts.

Other Literary Elements

Oxymoron two or three words that combine opposite ideas Examples: sweet sorrow jumbo shrimp

Other Literary Elements

Paradox holding contradictory ideas together in order to point to a deeper truth Examples: For it is in giving that we receive, In pardoning that we are pardoned, And in dying that we are born to eternal life. Saint Francis of Assisi

Types of Poetry
Epic a long narrative poem (tells a story) in which a hero has a great adventure Lyrical expresses a speakers personal thoughts and feelings Narrative tells a story Dramatic the speaker is a character who gives a speech (like a monologue in a play)

Introduction to Poetry
By Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem and hold it to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out. or walk inside a poem s room and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to water ski across the surface of a poem waving at the author s name on the shore.

But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.