ELEMENTS OF POETRY • METER - rhythmic pattern of beats or stresses
in a line of verse or prose. A regular rhythmic
1. SOUND - “Musical thought” Thomas Carlyle
• RHYME is the repetition of identical or
similar concluding syllables in different words,
most often at the ends of lines.
• Rhyme is predominantly a function of sound
rather than spelling; thus, words that end with
the same vowel sounds rhyme.
• The rhyme scheme of a poem describes the
pattern of end rhymes.
• Rhyme schemes are mapped out by noting
patterns of rhyme with smaller letters: the first
rhyme sound is designated a, the second
becomes b, the third c, and so on.
TYPES OF RHYME
End Rhyme - rhyme that occurs at the end of
the lines.
Internal Rhyme - the use of rhyming words
within the lines.
Slant Rhyme/Half Rhyme/Near Rhyme/Off
Rhyme - the substitution of assonance of
consonance for true rhyme.
EX: world/boiled, bear/bore, rains/sprained
• RHYTM - refer to the recurrence of stressed
and unstressed sounds in poetry.
• Poets rely heavily on the rhythm to express
meaning and convey feeling.
LINE BREAKS
Caesura - a strong pause within a line of poetry
that contributes to the rhythm of the line/ a
natural pause.
End-stopped line - a line has a pause at its end.
Such pauses reflect normal speech patterns and
are often marked by punctuation.
Enjambment/Run-on line - a line that ends
without a pause and continues into the next line
for its meaning.
pattern.
• FREE VERSE - poems that do not have a
regular rhythm, sounding more like
conversations.
• REPITITION - a poet can choose to repeat
sounds, words, phrases, or whole lines in a
poem. It helps the poet emphasize an idea or
create a particular feeling.
2. STRUCTURE - “The best words in the best
order” Samuel Taylor Coleridge
TYPES OF POETRY
Lyric Poetry - any poem with one speaker who
expresses strong thoughts and feelings. Most
poems, especially modern ones, are lyrics. It
highly musical that expresses the emotions of
the speaker
EX: Sonnet, Ode, Free Verse, Elegiac Lyrics,
and Imagist Poem
Narrative Poem - a poem that tells a story; its
structure resembles the plot line of a story
(introduction of conflict and characters, rising
action, climax, and the denouement)
EX: Epic poetry, Ballads, and Idylls
Descriptive Poem - a poem that describes the
world that surrounds the speaker. It uses
elaborate imagery and adjectives. While
emotional, it is more “outward-focused” than
lyric poetry, which is more personal and
introspective. It explores the sensory experience
of a moment by evoking the 5 senses.
Dramatic Poem - a verse that relies heavily on
dramatic elements such as monologue (speech
by a single character) or dialogue (conversation
between two or more person).
 Dramatic Monologue - a poem that
presents a speech of a single character in
a dramatic situation.
 POEMS THAT ARE SUBTYPES OF
THREE STYLES
Ode - usually a lyric poem of moderate length,
with a serious subject, an elevated style, and an
elaborate stanza pattern.
Elegy - a lyric poem that mourns the dead. It has
no metric or stanzaic pattern, but it usually
begins by reminiscing about the dead person,
then laments the reason for the death, and then
resolves the grief by concluding that death leads
to immortality. Often uses “Apostrophe”.
Sonnet - a lyric poem consisting of 14 lines and
is usually written in iambic pentameter. There
are two basic kinds of sonnets:
 Italian (Petrarchan) - named after
Petrarch, an Italian Renaissance poet. It
consists of an octave (eight lines) and a
sestet (six lines). It consists of two parts
(argument and conclusion).
 Shakespearean (Elizabeth/English)-
consists of three quatrains (four lines
each) and a concluding couplet (two
lines). It tends to divide into four parts
(the final couplet is the summary).
Ballad - a narrative poem that has a musical
rhythm and can be sung. It is usually organized
into quatrains or cinquains, has a simple rhythm
structure, and tells the tales of ordinary people.
OTHER TYPES OF POEMS
Haiku - has an unrhymed verse form having
three lines (tercet) and usually 5,7,5 syllables,
respectively. It is considered a lyric poem.
Limerick - has a very structured poem, usually
humorous and composed of five lines
(cinquain), in an aabba rhyming pattern.
3. SENSE - “A mixture of common sense,
which not all have, with an uncommon sense,
which very few have.” John Masefield
• Imagery - involves words and phrases that
appeal to the five senses.
• Diction - refers to the choice and use of words
and phrases in speech or writing.
 Denotation - a word or thing’s literal or
main definition. Comes from the Latin
word “denotationem”, means
“indication”, and is contrasted with
connotation. It is a word’s “dictionary
definition”.
 Connotation - a feeling or idea that a
word has, in addition to its literal or
main meaning. A series of words can
have the same basic definitions, but
completely different connotations —
these are the emotions implied by a
word.
• Tone - conveys the speaker’s implied attitude
towards the poem’s subject. It is an abstraction
we make from the details of a poem’s language.
 The use of meter and rhyme (or lack)
 Diction
 Syntax - the order of words in sentences,
etc.
• Figure of Speech - a phrase or word having
different meanings than its literal meanings. It
conveys meaning by identifying or comparing
one thing to another, which has connotation or
meaning familiar to the audience.
4. THEME - the message an author wants to
communicate through the piece.
• Thematic Concept/Topic - one word or
short phrase that is an abstract concept that
the work explores.
• Thematic Statement - a complete
sentence (or two) that express a theme. It
could serve as a thesis in a thematic essay.