21st Century Literature: Poetry Types

21st Century Literature in the Philippines and the World

Poetry

• Derived from the Greek word poesis, meaning "making or creating."
• Considered one of the oldest forms of literature.
• Poetry is shorter than everyday speech but conveys much more.
• Requires that it be read aloud to be better appreciated.
• Meaning is implied and suggested in carefully chosen words.

Narrative Poetry

• Tells an entire story with a beginning, middle, and end.
• Contains all elements of a fully developed story, including characters, plot, conflict, and resolution.
• Typically told by one narrator.

Lyric Poetry

• A short, highly musical verse that conveys powerful feelings.
• Employs rhyme, meter, or other literary devices to create a song-like quality.
• A private expression of emotion by a single speaker.

Dramatic Poetry

• Written in verse to be spoken or acted out to tell a story or portray a situation.
• Is told by the perspective of a character, unlike narrative poetry, told by the narrator.

Elements of Poetry: Form

• Poems consist of lines and stanzas.
• Couplet: 2 lines
• Tercet: 3 lines
• Quatrain: 4 lines
• Quintet: 5 lines
• Sestet: 6 lines
• Septet: 7 lines
• Octet: 8 lines

Elements of Poetry: Sense

• Meaning/Diction: Revealed through words, images, and symbols.
• Denotation: Dictionary meaning of words.
• Connotation: Figurative meaning of words.

Imagery and Sense Impression

• Uses words and lines that appeal to the senses and emotions.
• Sight/Visual
• Sound/Auditory
• Smell/Olfactory
• Taste/Gustatory
• Touch/Tactile

Figures of Speech

• Possesses figurative meaning not to be taken literally.
• Use of language from its usual meaning to provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity.

Simile

• Compares two things using "like" or "as."
• Example: "Your face is as big as a seed."

Metaphor

• Compares two unlike things or ideas directly, without using "like" or "as."
• Example: "My father is a carabao in the field."

Personification

• Gives human traits or attributes to nonliving things.
• Example: "The flowers are dancing in the field."

Hyperbole

• Makes use of exaggeration.
• Example: "I will catch all the stars in heaven for you."

Irony

• A statement that says the opposite of what is really meant.
• Example: "You're so beautiful, you look like a Christmas tree."

Onomatopoeia

• Formation or use of words that imitate sounds.
• Examples: Whisper, Buzz, Boom, Bang, Crackle

Apostrophe

• Direct address to someone absent, dead, or inanimate.
• Example: "Oh God save me from darkness!"

Metonymy

• Substitutes a word that closely relates to a person or thing.
• A change of name.
• Example: "The pen is mightier than the sword."

Synecdoche

• Uses a part to represent a whole, or a whole to represent the part.
• Example: "She bought new wheels."

Allusion

• Refers to any literary, biblical, historical, mythological, or scientific event, character, or place.
• Example: "She is the Athena of the class."

Paradox

• Uses a phrase or statement that, on the surface, seems contradictory but makes emotional sense.
• Example: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

Oxymoron

• Uses two contradictory words placed side by side.
• Example: "Pretty ugly"

Litotes

• Makes a deliberate understatement to affirm by negating its opposite.
• Uses double negation.
• Example: "He is no fool."