PROCESSING THE MATTER

Poetry is generally considered to be the oldest of the arts. Long before our forefathers learned to write, they
sang and recited lines of verse.

Among the literary genres, poetry is the most closely related to music. Like, it appeals to the
senses and imagination. Like music, too, it is meant to be heard. Poets choose words for their sounds as
well as for their meanings. They combine these words to create vivid pictures and to express deep feelings.

Some of the best definitions of poetry:

1. Gemino Abad contends that “a poem is a meaningful organization of words.”

2. T.S. Eliot categorizes poetry as “the fusion of two poles of mind; emotion and thought.”
3. Manuel Viray states that “poetry is the union of thoughts and feelings.”
4. William Wordsworth says, “poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recorded in
tranquillity.
5. Edgar Allan Poe thinks, “it is the rhythmic creation of beauty.”
6. Percy B. Shelly states. “it is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and
best minds.”
7. James G. Ong posits that “poetry is the ‘essence’ of the creative imagination of man.

ELEMENTS OF POETRY (Lacia)

Poems are literary attempts to share personal experiences and feelings. Since literature, in
general, is all about significant human experiences, poetry’s subject matter is also about the poet’s
personal life or the lives of those around him. Good poems, aside from being stated in a fresh manner,
often probe deeply and can contain disturbing insights. The language is fresh and demanding because
of its subtleties. Good poems show images which leave the reader a sense of delight, awe, and
wonder.

1. The Poetic Line.

The basic unit of composition in poems. An idea or feeling which is expressed in one line
and is frequently continued into the next line. This is called enjambment or run-on lines.

a. enjambment- the line that ends without a pause and continues into the next line for its
meaning
b. run-on- also, caesura. It is a strong pause within a line of poetry.

2. The Sound of Words.

An indirection prominent in the method of poetry is the use of sound effects to intensify
meaning. For the poet to convey ideas, he chooses and organizes his words into a
 pattern of sound that is a part of the total meaning. These sound effects are the products
of organized repetitions. They are the following:

a. Rhyme repeats similar sounds in some apparent scheme.

Examples:
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
       When the spade sinks into gravelly ground
- “Digging” by Seamus Heaney

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

   Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
       Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
       And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: 
-“Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare

b. Rhythm is the result of systematically stressing or accenting words and syllables.

c. Alliteration means the repetition for effect for initial vowels or consonants.
Example:
past the puffed-cheeked clouds,
she follows it, her eyes slit-smiling at the sun

d. Assonance refers to the correspondence of vowel sounds.

Example:
“I sipped the rim with palatable lip.”

e. Onomatopoeia is a long word that means simply the imitation in words of natural
sounds.
Example:
“Whoosh”
“Bow-wow”

3. Meter
It is the regularized and pattern rhythm. There are four conventional types of meter in
poetry written in English, each being distinguished from the others by the number and
accent of syllables.

a. Iambic meter. By far, the most popular and the most natural to English expression. Its
basic unit or foot is one unaccented and one accented syllable. ( _ / )

Example: Whose woods / these are / I think / I know.

 b. Trochaic meter. The reverse of iambic meter. Each foot contains an accented and an
unaccented syllable. ( / _ )

Example: Swift of/ foot was / Hia / watha

c. Anapestic meter. Contains in each foot two unaccented syllables and one accented.
(__/)

Example: For the moon / never beams / with-out bring / -ing me dreams.

d. Dactylic meter. Opposite of anapaestic. It is slower and often is used to create a

strange mood. ( / _ _ )

Example: This is the / forest pri / -meval.

Seeing what the metrical units are and how many of them occur in the line is called
“scanning” a line of poetry. A one-foot line is called a monometer, two diameter, and
others in progression up to a seven-foot line; thus: trimeter, pentameter, hexameter, and
heptameter. Thus, the iambic line above is a tetramenter, and the dactylic line a trimeter.

4. Imagery
More than a visual detail, imagery includes sounds, textures, feel, odors, and sometimes
even tastes. Selection of concrete details is the poet’s way of giving his reader a sensory
image. By means of images, the poet makes the reader think about the meaning of the
poem.

5. Tone
Reveals the attitude toward the subject and in some cases the attitude of the persona or
implied speaker of the poem as well.