Poetry Forms and Elements

Poetry Forms and Elements

• Poetry is a form of literature that expresses ideas, describes scenes, or tells stories using rhythmic and concise language.
• Narrative poetry tells a story, including plot, characters, and setting. It often uses descriptions, dialogue, and actions, and typically has a longer length compared to other types.
• Lyrical poetry expresses intense feelings and emotions, typically in short poems. Unlike narrative poetry, lyrical poetry doesn't tell a story, focusing on expressing the speaker's emotions.
• Narrative poetry examples include Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and epics, ballads, and Arthurian romances.
• Lyrical poetry examples include odes, elegies, and sonnets.

Structural Elements in Poetry

• Rhyme: A common element found in many poetic works, such as limericks, epics, and songs.
• Meter: Another important element determining line length and stress patterns in poetry.

Rhetorical Devices in Poetry

• Alliteration: The repetition of initial consonant sounds in nearby words, used to grab attention, create rhythm, and emphasize ideas.
• Apostrophe: Addressing an absent or non-living thing as if it can respond.
• Personification: Giving human qualities or actions to non-living things or abstract concepts.
• Imagery: Uses figurative language to evoke sensory experiences for the reader (sight, sound, touch, smell, and internal/external feelings).

Rhymed vs. Free Verse Poetry

• Free Verse: Poetry emerging in the 19th century that doesn't rely on rhyme or meter.
• Formal Verse: An older type of poetry utilizing strict rhythmic patterns and rhyme schemes.

Sound Harmony in Poetry

• Sound Harmony refers to the repetition of consonant sounds in words, increasing the charm and beauty of the poem.
• Vowel Sound Harmony repeats vowel sounds in words.

Types of Poetic Forms

• Formal Verse: Characterized by a definite rhythmic pattern and rhyme scheme. Examples include the iambic pentameter.
• Free Verse: Has no fixed rhyme scheme or meter
• Narrative Poetry: A poem that tells a story like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride."
• Haiku: A three-line poem originating from Japan typically with 5-7-5 syllables
• Pastoral Poetry: Focuses on the natural world, rural life, and landscapes. This type has roots in ancient Greek and Roman poetry.
• Sonnet: A fourteen-line poem that describes love, beauty, time, and nature, which typically displays a specific rhyme scheme.
• A sonnet type is the Petrarchan Sonnet which consists of an octave (8 lines) and sestet (6 lines), commonly containing themes of love and beauty, often using a specific rhyme scheme (ABBAABBA CDECDE or ABBAABBA CDCDCD).
• A sonnet type is the Shakespearean Sonnet which consists of three quatrains (four lines each) and a final couplet (two lines), often focusing on the theme of love or beauty using a specific rhyme scheme (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG).

Other Poetic Forms

• Elegy: A poem of mourning for the death of someone important.
• Ode: A formal poem that honors a person, thing, or event; traditionally expressing noble emotions.
• Limerick: A five-line poem with a specific AABBA rhyme scheme, typically telling a short story or giving a concise description.
• Ballad: A narrative poem, typically set to music.

Other Techniques

• Stream of Consciousness: A literary technique where a character's thoughts are presented in a continuous, unpunctuated flow.
• Rhymed Poetry: Poetry arranged with rhymes emphasizing similar sounds such as internal rhyme or using consonant sounds.

Subjective vs. Objective Poetry

• Subjective Poetry: Expresses the poet's personal thoughts and emotions.
• Objective Poetry: Draws themes from outside events and objects with the poet acting as an impartial observer.

Stanza

• A stanza is a group of lines in a poem
• Stanzas help to organize the rhythm of a poem and move between different ideas.
• Types of stanzas include Monostich (single line), Couplet (two lines), Tercet (three lines), and Quatrain (four lines) among others.