Poetry analysis

• Poetry is writing using words, form, sound patterns, imagery, and figurative language to convey a message.
• Poems can incorporate all or just some of these elements.

Form

• A poem's form is its appearance.
• Poems are divided into lines.
• Longer poems can be divided into groups of lines called stanzas.
• Stanzas function similarly to paragraphs in a story.
• Stanzas each contain a single idea or build upon it.
• Stanzas give poems structure.
• Stanzas emphasize different ideas.
• New stanzas often signal a new image, thought, or idea.
• Couplets are 2 line stanzas.
• A poem called "First and Last" by David McCord, contains four stanzas in the form of couplets.

Sound Devices

• Poems use sound techniques like rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration.

Rhythm

• Rhythm is the pattern of beats or stresses in a poem.
• Regular rhythm is created using patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables.
• Metrical rhythm involves patterns of stresses or syllables called feet.
• Each foot in English typically includes one stressed and one unstressed syllable.
• Dimeter is 2 feet, tetrameter is 4 feet, hexameter is 6 feet.
• Trimeter is 3 feet, pentameter is 5 feet, heptameter is 7 feet.

Rhyme

• Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds, usually in stressed syllables at the end or within lines.
• Rhyme scheme is the rhyming pattern at the end of poetry lines.
• Free verse poems do not have a rhyme scheme.

Alliteration

• Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words.

Onomatopoeia

• Onomatopoeia is the use of words to represent particular sounds.

Repetition

• Repetition is the repeating of a sound device to create an effect.
• Poets can repeat words or lines within a poem to create emphasis.

Poetry Tools

• Line breaks are used in shorter lines to slow the reader.
• Rhythm makes you tap your foot.
• Similes compare using "like" or "as."
• Metaphors describe one thing as something else.
• Personification gives human traits to something non-human.
• Alliteration uses the same sound at the beginning of neighboring words.
• Imagery helps readers form a picture in their mind.

Imagery

• Poets use words that appeal to sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.
• Figures of speech are a special type of imagery.
• Figures of speech create pictures by making comparisons.
• Similes make a comparison using "like" or "as."
• Metaphors describe one thing as if it were another.
• Extended metaphors extend throughout the entire poem rather than just a few lines.
• Personification gives human characteristics to a nonhuman object.

Mood/Tone

• This is the feeling created by the author's word choices within the poem.

Theme

• The theme of a poem is its central or main idea.
• To identify the poem's theme, ask yourself about the ideas or insights about life or human nature the poem has given.