BALLAD OF A MOTHER’S

HEART
1. Who are the characters
in the poem?
BALLAD OF A MOTHER’S
HEART
2. In 2-3 sentences,
summarize the events that
occurred in the poem?
BALLAD OF A MOTHER’S
HEART
3. If you were the young lover in the
poem, would you do the same act of
killing your own personal wants and
desire?
BALLAD OF A MOTHER’S
HEART
4. On a personal note, what do
you think is the message of the
poem?
5. What kind of literary piece
is the ballad of a mother’s
heart?
POETRY
is often described as 'literature in
metrical form' or 'compositions forming
rhythmic lines'. It has a set of specific
features that differentiate it from other
forms of literature.
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
STANZA
A stanza is to a poem as a paragraph
is to a piece of prosaic writing - a fixed
number of lines of verse forming a
single unit of a poem.
Based on the number of
lines present in a stanza,
they are assigned
different names. They are:
COUPLET
~ is a stanza that has only 2 lines.
1 True wit is nature to advantage dress'd;
2 What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd.
- From Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Criticism"
TERCET
~ is composed of 3 lines.
1 furu ike ya
2 kawazu tobikomu
3 mizu no oto
- Haiku by Matsuo Bashō
QUATRAIN
~ consists of 4 lines.
1 The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
2 The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
3 The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
4 And leaves the world to darkness and to me."
- From Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
CINQUAIN
~ consists of 5 lines.
1 Listen...
2 With faint dry sound,
3 Like steps of passing ghosts,
4 The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the
trees
5 And fall.
- From Adelaide Crapsey's "November Night
SESTET
~ comprises 6 lines.
1 It was many and many a year ago,
2 In a kingdom by the sea,
3 That a maiden there lived whom you may know
4 By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
5 And this maiden she lived with no other thought
6 Than to love and be loved by me.
- From Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee”
SEPTET
~ comprises 7 lines.
1 But our love it was stronger by far than the love
2 Of those who were older than we,
3 Of many far wiser than we,
4 And neither the angels in heaven above,
5 Nor the demons down under the sea,
6 Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
7 Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
- From Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee”
OCTAVE
~ comprises 8 lines.
1 Take, O take those lips away,
2 That so sweetly were forsworn;
3 And those eyes, the break of day,
4 Lights that do mislead the morn:
5 But my kisses bring again,
6 Bring again,
7 Seals of love, but seal'd in vain,
8 Seal'd in vain.
- From William Shakespeare’s Take, O Take Those Lips Away
SONNET
~ is an entire poem with
exactly 14 lines.
RHYME AND RHYME SCHEME
Rhyming in poetry is one
convention that makes this form of
literature recognizably different
from prose and drama.
Example of a Rhyme
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, (a)
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. (a)
All the king's horses and all the king's men
(b)
Couldn't put Humpty together again (b)
RHYTHM AND METER
Rhythm is basically the pattern in
which a poet chooses to sequence the
stressed and unstressed syllables in
every line of a poem, for the creation
of oral patterns.
Types of Meter
One foot: Monometer (2-3 syllables)
Two feet: Dimeter (4 syllables)
Three feet: Trimeter (6 syllables)
Four feet: Tetrameter (8 syllables)
Five feet: Pentameter (10 syllables)
Six feet: Hexameter (12 syllables)
Types of Rhythm/Beat
IAMB (IAMBIC) – One weak syllable followed
by one accented syllable.

An Iambic Pentameter
"Nor FRIENDS | nor FOES, | to ME | welCOME |
you ARE:
Things PAST | redRESS | are NOW | with ME |
past CARE."
- From William Shakespeare's "Richard II" (Act II, Scene 3)
TROCHEE (TROCHAIC) – One accented syllable
followed by one weak syllable.

A Trochaic Tetrameter
SHOULD you | ASK me, | WHENCE these | STORies?
WHENCE these | LEGends | AND tra | Ditions,
WITH the | ODours | OF the | FORest,
WITH the | DEW and | DAMP of | MEAdows,
- From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha"
ANAPÆST (ANAPÆSTIC) – Two weak
syllables followed by one accented syllable.

An Anapæstic Hexameter
"The imMOR | tal deSIRE | of imMOR | tals
we SAW | in their FAC | es and SIGHED."
- From W. B. Yeats's "The Wanderings of Oisin"
DACTYL (DACTYLIC) – One accented
syllable followed by two weak syllables.

A Dactylic or Heroic Hexameter

"THIS is the | FORest prim- | Eval. The |
MURmuring | PINES and the | HEM locks"
- From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Evangeline"
SPONDEE (SPONDAIC) – Two consecutive
accented syllables. This can usually be
found at the end of a line.

A Spondee
"Arma vir | Umque can | O, TroI | aE quI |
prImus ab | OrIs"
- From Vergil's "Aeneid"
TYPES OF POETRY
BALLAD
The ballad means “dance songs.” Ballads
usually tell a story, using four line
quatrain stanza with an ABCB rhyme
scheme where lines two and four rhyme.
ELEGY
An elegy is a sad, solemn poem
written when someone dies, to
lament for the person who died.
EPITAPH
The epitaph is like the elegy, only
shorter. It’s the kind of poem that
might appear on a gravestone,
although it doesn’t have to.
FREE VERSE/BLANK VERSE
A free verse poem means that it does not follow
any rigid rules of rhyme, pattern or meter.

It will also use poetic devices, such as

metaphors, similes, personification,
onomatopoeia, etc.
HAIKU
The haiku is a three line poem that has 5
syllables in line one, 7 syllables in line
two and, 3 syllables in line three. The
lines do not rhyme. Classic haiku poetry
focuses on nature.
LIMERICK
A limerick poem is a five-line
humorous poem that has a set
number of syllables and a rhyme
scheme. There are 10 syllables in
lines one, two and five.
LIMERICK
These three lines also rhyme and have
the same rhythm. In lines three and
four, there are 5 to 7 syllables that
have the same rhythm and rhyme. The
rhyme pattern is AABBA.
LYRIC
The lyric poem is musical in
verse and shows emotion.
NARRATIVE
Narrative poems tell a story in
stanzas not in paragraphs.
ODE
is simply a poem address to a
particular person, event, or thing.
It’s often meant to praise or
glorify its subject.
SONNET
A sonnet contains 14 lines,
typically with two rhyming
stanzas known as a rhyming
couplet at the end.
ENGLISH SONNET
(or Shakespearean) The rhyme
scheme of the Shakespearian
sonnet is abab–cdcd–efef–gg,
which is difficult to follow.
ITALIAN SONNET
(or Petrarchan) The rhyme
scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet
features the first eight lines, called
an octet, which rhymes as abba–
abba–cdc–dcd.
SPENSERIAN SONNET
The rhyme scheme in this
sonnet is abab–bcbc–cdcd–
ee, which is specific to
Spenser.
TANKA
The tanka (which means short poem) is a
Japanese form that is five lines. The first
and third lines have five syllables (in the
English version of the form) and the
other lines have seven syllables each.
TERZA RIMA
is a type of poetry consisting of
10 or 11 syllable lines arranged
in three-line "tercets"
ACTIVITY
Read the poem “How Do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barret Browning and answer
the following. • 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861
• English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States
during her lifetime
• the eldest of 12 children
• wrote poetry from the age of eleven
• At 15 she became ill, suffering intense head and spinal pain for the rest
of her life. Later in life she also developed lung problems,
possibly tuberculosis.
• She campaigned for the abolition of slavery and her work helped
influence reform in the child labour legislation.
• Elizabeth's volume Poems (1844) brought her great success, attracting the
admiration of the writer Robert Browning
• They had one son, Robert Wiedeman Barrett Browning, whom they
called Pen.
 How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
1. Type of poem ______________________
2. Meter and rhythm ___________________
3. Rhyme scheme ____________________
4. Theme ___________________________
5. Symbolism and Imagery ______________