UNDERSTANDING CONVENTIONS OF

TRADITIONAL GENRES 2
 POETRY: definition

IS CONCERNED WITH EMOTION. IT IS EMOTION SHAPED, CONTROLLED,

AND CONTAINED IN FORM. IT OFTEN SAYS SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT; IT
ATTEMPTS TO ACHIEVE BEAUTY. POETRY OFTEN USES PARTICULAR
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS TO EXPAND THE LITERAL MEANING OF
WORDS, OR TO EVOKE EMOTIONAL OR SENSUAL RESPONSES.
 POETRY: elements
RHYTHM RHYME AND OTHER SOUND DEVICES LITERARY DEVICES/DICTION

STANZA ALLITERATION IMAGERY

METER ONOMATOPEIA SYMBOLS

FOOT ASSONANCE PERSONA

CONSONANCE TONE

THEME
 RHYTHM

IS A RECURRING PATTERN OF STRESSED (ACCENTED, OR LONG) AND

UNSTRESSED (UNACCENTED, OR SHORT) SYLLABLES IN LINES OF A
SET LENGTH.
 STANZA
IS THE EQUIVALENT OF PARAGRAPH IN PROSE. THE NUMBER OF LINES
VARIES IN DIFFERENT KIND OF STANZAS, BUT IT IS UNCOMMON FOR A
STANZE TO HAVE MORE THAN TWELVE LINES.

THE PATTERN OF A STANZA IS DETERMINED BY THE NUMBER OF FEET

IN EACH LINE, AND BY ITS METRICAL OR RHYME SCHEME
 STANZA
TERM NO. OF LINES/VERSES
Heroic couplet 2
Terza rima 3
Quatrain 4
Quintet 5
Sestet 6
Septet 7
Octave or Octava Rima 8
Nonet or Spenserian stanza 9
 STANZA
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.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
(Sonnet 18)
William Shakespeare
 RHYTHM

IS A RECURRING PATTERN OF STRESSED (ACCENTED OR

LONG) AND UNSTRESSED (UNACCENTED OR SHORT)
SYLLABLES IN LINES OF A SET LENGTH.
 METER
ACCORDING TO THE PLACEMENT OF ACCENT, THERE IS A VARIETY OF
PATTERNS OF FEET:
AN UNSTRESSED SYLLABLE FOLLOWED BY
IAMB ta-TUM
STRESSED SYLLABLE

ONE STRESSED SYLLABLE FOLLOWED BY AN

TROCHEE TUM-ta
UNSTRESSED SYLLABLE

FIRST BEING STRESSED, AND THE LAST TWO

DACTYL TUM-ta-ta
BEING UNSTRESSED
 METER
ACCORDING TO THE PLACEMENT OF ACCENT, THERE IS A VARIETY OF
PATTERNS OF FEET:
FIRST TWO BEING UNSTRESSED, AND THE
ANAPEST ta-ta-TUM
LAST BEING STRESSED

SPONDEE TWO STRESSED SYLLABLE TUM-TUM

 IAMB
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 freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 TROCHEE
And the Raven, never flitting, still is flitting,
still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my
chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s
that is dreaming.
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws
his shadow on the floot;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies
The Raven
Edgar Allan Poe floating on the floor
Shall be lifted– nevermore!

CATALEXIS
When the final syllable of a line
is dropped to create a pause or a
rhyme. Trochaic poems are often
full of catalectic lines simply
because it is difficult to rhyme
on an unstressed syllable.
TROCHEE
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still
is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my
chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s
that is dreaming.
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws
his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies
floating on the floor
Shall be lifted– nevermore!
 DACTYL
Just for a handful of silver he left us’
Just for a ribband to stick in his coat---
Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,
Lost all the others she left us devote;
They, with the gold to give, doled him out
silver,
So much was theirs who so little allowed:
How all our copper had gone for his service!”
The Lost Leader
Robert Browning
 ANAPEST
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all
through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stocking were hung by the chimney with
care,
In hopes that St. Nocholad soon would be
there;
The children were nestled all snug in their
A Visit from St. Nicholas beds;
Clement Clark Moore
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their
heads;
 SPONDEE
If I do prove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings…”
Othello
William Shakespeare

Cry, Cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go.”

Troilus and Cressida
William Shakespeare
 FOOT

IS THE BASIC UNIT OF VERSE METER CONSISTING OF ANY OF

VARIOUS FIXED COMBINATIONS OR GROUP OF STRESSED
AND UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES.
 FOOT
A SINGLE LINE OF A POEM CONSISTING OF:

MONOMETER = 1 FOOT PENTAMETER = 5 FEET

DIMETER = 2 FEET HEXAMETER = 6 FEET

TRIMETER = 3 FEET HEPTAMETER = 7 FEET

TETRAMETER = 4 FEET OCTAMETER = 8 FEET

 RHYME AND OTHER SOUND
DEVICES
IT REFER TO THE REGULAR RECURRENCE OF SIMILAR SOUNDS
USUALLY THE END OF THE LINES (END RHYME) OR WITHIN THE LINE
(INTERNAL RHYME).

THE PATTERN OR SEQUENCE IS CALLED RHYME SCHEME.

 TYPES OF RHYME

PERFECT RHYMES
RHYME DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE

Single The stress is on the final syllable mind-behind

The stress is penultimate, or second-to-last,
Double toasting-roasting
syllable
Stress on the antepenultimate, or third-from-
Dactylic Terrible-wearable
last
 TYPES OF RHYME
IMPERFECT RHYMES
RHYME DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE

The same sounds occur in two words but in

Imperfect or Near Thing-missing
unstressed syllable.
Homonyms in English don’t satisfy the rules of
perfect rhymes because while the vowels are
Identical Way-weigh-whey
matching, the preceding consonants also match
therefore the rhyme is considered inferior.
Many words are spelled in the same way, yet
Eye Good-food
have different pronunciations.
 TYPES OF RHYME
“Being one day at my window all alone,
So manie strange things happened me to see,
As much as it grieveth me to thinke thereon.
At my right hand a hynde appear’d to mee,
So faire as mote the greatest god delite;
Two eager dogs did her pursue in chace.
Of which the one was blacke, the other white:
With deadly force so in their cruell race
They pincht the haunches of that gentle beast,
That at the last, and in short time, I spide,
Under a rocke, where she alas, opprest,
Visions Fell to the ground, and there untimely dide.
By Francesco Petrarch Cruell death vanquishing so noble beautie
Oft makes me wayle so hard a desire.”
 OTHER SOUND DEVICES
ALLITERATIO
ONOMATOPOEIA ASSONANCE CONSONANCE
N

Device where the Repetition of vowel Repetition of final

Repetition of identical
sound of the words sounds followed by consonant sounds that
consonant sounds.
suggests the thing different consonant are preceded by
itself. sounds. different vowel
“Full fathom five thy
sounds.
father lies.”
“tinkle, whisper, hiss, “O, the groans that
buzz, bang, crash, opened to his ears.” “The beast climbed
zoom, murmur.” fast to the crest.”