POETRY

POETRY
 Poetry is a type of literature that conveys a thought, describes a
scene or tells a story in a concentrated, lyrical arrangement of
words.
 A poem is a collection of spoken or written words that expresses
ideas or emotions in a powerfully vivid and imaginative style. A
poem is comprised of a particular rhythmic and metrical pattern.
 The basic building block of a poem is a verse known as a stanza.
TYPES OF POEM
1.Free Verse
Free verse poetry is poetry that lacks a consistent rhyme scheme, metrical pattern, or
musical form
Example
T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
“Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain helf-deserted streets,…”
TYPES OF POEM
2. Epic
A form of lengthy poem, often written in blank verse, in which poet shows a
protagonist in action of historical significance, or a great mythic.
Example
The Iliad and Odyssey (Ancient Greek)
Beowulf (Medieval English)
The Edda (Medieval Icelandic)
Jewang Ungi (Medieval Korea)
TYPES OF POEM
3. Ballad
A type of narrative poem in which a story often talks about folk or
legendary tales. It may take the form of a moral lesson or a song.
Example
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
TYPES OF POEM
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
PART 1
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
‘By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stop’st thou me?
….
He holds him with his skinny hand,
‘There was a ship,’ quoth he.
‘Hold off! Unhand me, grey-beard loon!’
Eftsoons his hand dropt he
TYPES OF POEM
4. Sonnet
It is a form of lyrical poem containing fourteen lines, with iambic
pentameter and tone or mood changes after the eighth line.
Example
“Death be not proud” by John Donne
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” by William Shakespeare
“i carry your heart with me” by e.e. cummings
TYPES OF POEM
Iambic pentameter is one of the most commonly used meters in
English poetry. For instance, in the excerpt,

“When I see birches bend to left and right/Across the line of

straighter darker Trees…” (Birches, by Robert Frost), each line
contains five feet, and each foot uses one iamb.
Iambic pentameter 
*poetic meter*
Essentially, meter is the basic rhythmic structure of a line within a poem or poetic work. Meter functions as
a means of imposing a specific number of syllables and emphasis when it comes to a line of poetry that adds
to its musicality.
one foot = monometer
two feet = dimeter
three feet = trimeter
four feet = Iatetrameter
five feet = pentameter
six feet = hexameter
seven feet = heptameter
eight feet = octameter
Iambic pentameter 
*metrical feet*
For English poetry, metrical feet generally feature two or three syllables. They
are categorized by a specific combination of stressed and unstressed syllables
Trochee: stressed syllable followed by unstressed syllable, as in “custom”
Iamb: unstressed syllable followed by stressed syllable, as in “describe”
Spondee: equal stress for both syllables, as in “cupcake”
Dactyl: stressed syllable, followed by two unstressed syllables, as in “bicycle”
Anapest: two unstressed syllables, followed by a stressed syllable, as in
“understand”
Iambic pentameter 
*metrical feet* in adjective forms
Trochee = Trochaic
Iamb = Iambic
Spondee = Spondaic
Dactyl = Dactylic
Anapest = Anapestic
TYPES OF POEM
Iambic pentameter 
/When I/ see bir/ches bend/ to left/ and right/

/Across/ the line/ of straight/ter dar/ker Trees/

(Birches, by Robert Frost), each line contains five feet, and each
foot uses one iamb.
TYPES OF POEM
TYPES OF POEM
5. Elegy
A melancholic poem in which the poet laments the death of a subject,
though he gives consolation towards the end.
Example
John Milton’s “Lycidas”
Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “In Memoriam”
Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”
TYPES OF POEM
TYPES OF POEM
6. Epitaph
A small poem used as an inscription on a tombstone
Example
Benjamin Franklin’s own epitaph
William Shakespeare’s
Robert Frost’s: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world
Emily Dickinson: Called back
Oscar Wilde’s
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
TYPES OF POEM
7. Hymn
This type of a poem praises spirituality or God’s splendor.
Example
“Amazing Grace” by John Newton
“It Is Well With My Soul” by Horatio Spafford
TYPES OF POEM
8. Limerick
This is a type of humorous poem with five anapestic lines in which the first,
second, and fifth lines have three feet, and the third and fourth lines have
two feet, with a strict rhyme scheme of aabba.
TYPES OF POEM
8. Limerick
Example
STAR by Kaitlyn Guenther
There once was a wonderful star
Who thought she would go very far
Until she fell down
And looked like a clown
She knew she would never go far
CHARACTERISTICS OF A
POEM
 Imaginative
 Creative
 Descriptiveand vivid language that often has an economical or
condensed use of words chosen for their sound and meaning
 Meaning is enhanced by recalling memories of related experiences in the
reader or listener
CHARACTERISTICS OF A
POEM
 Provokes thought
 Causes an emotional response: laughter, happy, sad …
 Uses figurative language (personification, similes, metaphors, etc.)
 Imagery where the reader/listener creates vivid mental images
 Often has rhythm and rhyme
CHARACTERISTICS OF A
POEM
 Story in verse
 Can have physical and grammatical arrangement of words usually to
enhance the reader's overall experience
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
1. POETIC DEVICES
A. Sound Devices
 Alliteration- This device involves the repetition of the initial consonant
sound of a series of words, often consecutively.
Example:
Betty Botter bought a bit of butter
But, the bit of butter Betty Botter bought was bitter
So Betty Botter bought a better bit of butter
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
1. POETIC DEVICES
A. Sound Devices
 Assonance - Similarly to alliteration, assonance involves the repetition of sounds in
a series of words, often consecutive words. However, rather than repeating the initial
sounds, assonance focuses on the internal vowel sounds that are repeated.
Example:
“Hear the mellow wedding bells…”
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
1. POETIC DEVICES
A. Sound Devices
 Consonance - Consonance is the consonant-focused counterpart to assonance. It
involves the repetition of consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of words, as
distinguished from alliteration where the initial sound is repeated.
Example:  
The crow struck through the thick cloud like a rocket
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
1. POETIC DEVICES
A. Sound Devices
 Onomatopoeia - Onomatopoeia refers to the process of creating words
that sound like the very thing they refer to
Example:  
Bang!
Thud!
Crash!
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
1. POETIC DEVICES
A. Sound Devices
 Rhyme -  Rhyme refers to the repetition of sounds in a poem. Letters are
often used to denote a rhyme scheme. A new letter is ascribed to each of
the different sounds. For example, in the following example the rhyme
scheme is described as ABAB.
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
1. POETIC DEVICES
A. Sound Devices
 Rhyme - 
Example
The people along the sand
All turn and look one way.
They turn their back on the land.
They look at the sea all day. [From Neither Out Far Nor In Deep by Robert Frost]
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
1. POETIC DEVICES
B. Figurative/Connotative Language
 Metaphor -   Metaphors make comparisons between things by stating that
one thing literally is something else.  
Example
She’s an old flame
Time is money
Life is a rollercoaster
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
1. POETIC DEVICES
B. Figurative/Connotative Language
 Simile -   Unlike metaphors that make comparisons by saying one thing is
something else, similes work by saying something is similar to something else.
Example
She is as strong as an ox.
She sings like a nightingale.
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
1. POETIC DEVICES
B. Figurative/Connotative Language
 Personification -   Personification is a particular type of metaphor where a non-human thing or idea is
ascribed human qualities or abilities
Example
The moon was shining sulkily, [From the Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll]
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done -
“It’s very rude of him,” she said,
“To come and spoil the fun.”
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
2. VOICE
A. Speaker – the voice behind the poem ---the person we imagine to be
saying the thing out loud
B. Addressee – the receiver of the poem’s message
C. Tone – the poet’s implied attitude towards the poem’s subject
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
3. DICTION – refers to word choice
4. IMAGES – the concrete representation of a sense, impression, feeling or
idea
5. SYMBOL - also refers to any use of an object, person, or place that
represents something beyond itself. The "symbolic" significance always
depends on interpretation and therefore must be read in context.
*BONUS TOPIC* - NURSERY
RHYMES
The Dark Origins of Classic Nursery Rhymes
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
Baa, baa, black sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir
Three bags full
One for my master
And one for my dame
One for the little boy
Who lives down the lane
*BONUS TOPIC* - NURSERY
RHYMES
The Dark Origins of Classic Nursery Rhymes
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep – is about the Great Custom, a tax on wool that was
introduced in 1275, its use of the color “black” and the word “master” led
some to wonder whether there was a racial message at its center
*BONUS TOPIC* - NURSERY
RHYMES
The Dark Origins of Classic Nursery Rhymes
Jack and Jill
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after
Up Jack got, and home did trot
As fast as he could caper
He went to bed to mend his head
With vinegar and brown paper
*BONUS TOPIC* - NURSERY
RHYMES
The Dark Origins of Classic Nursery Rhymes
Jack and Jill – France’s Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette who
were both found guilty of treason and subsequently beheaded
*BONUS TOPIC* - NURSERY
RHYMES
The Dark Origins of Classic Nursery Rhymes
London Bridge
London Bridge is falling down
Falling down, falling down
London Bridge is falling down
My fair lady
Built it up with wood and clay
Wood and clay, wood and clay
Built it up with wood and clay
My fair lady
*BONUS TOPIC* - NURSERY
RHYMES
The Dark Origins of Classic Nursery Rhymes
London Bridge– child sacrifice and a 1014 Viking attack specifically at the
hands of Olaf II of Norway
*BONUS TOPIC* - NURSERY
RHYMES
The Dark Origins of Classic Nursery Rhymes
Three Blind Mice
Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
See how they run. See how they run.
They all ran after the farmer’s wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice?
*BONUS TOPIC* - NURSERY
RHYMES
The Dark Origins of Classic Nursery Rhymes
Three Blind Mice – is supposedly yet another ode to Bloody Mary’s reign,
with the trio in question believed to be a group of Protestant bishops---
Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Radley and The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas
Cranmer (who were unsuccessfully conspired to overthrow the queen and
were burned at the stake for their heresy)
*BONUS TOPIC* - NURSERY
RHYMES
The Dark Origins of Classic Nursery Rhymes
Ring Around A Rosie
Ring-a-ring-a-rosies
A pocket full of posies
A tissue, a tissue
We all fall down
*BONUS TOPIC* - NURSERY
RHYMES
The Dark Origins of Classic Nursery Rhymes
Ring Around A Rosie– refers to the 1665 Great Plague of London. “The
rosie” is the rash that covered the afflicted, the smell from which they
attempted to cover up with ”a pocket full of posies.”
SOURCES
 https://
www.masterclass.com/articles/poetry-101-learn-about-poetry-different-types-of-poems-and-poeti
c-devices-with-examples#what-is-poetry
 https://literarydevices.net/poem/
 http://www.homeofbob.com/literature/genre/poetry/elements.html
 https://org.coloradomesa.edu/~blaga/Theory/poetry_elements.html#:~:
text=As%20with%20narrative%2C%20there%20are,rhythm%20and%20meter%2C%20and
%20structure
.
 https://www.literacyideas.com/elements-of-poetry
 https
://english.stackexchange.com/questions/46017/poems-or-poetry#:~:text=Poetry%20is%20the%2
0use%20of,end%20result%20of%20this%20process