Poetry: Forms and Structures

• Poetry is composition written in verse and is one of three major types of literature, including prose and drama.
• Verse is a collection of metrical lines of poetry distinguishing it from prose incorporating rhythm, pattern, and often rhyme.
• Prosody is the study of rhythm and sound patterns in poetry.
• Scansion is analyzing a verse line to determine its rhythm and meter.

Fixed Form Poems

• Fixed form poems have a set number of lines, rhymes, and/or metrical arrangements per line.
• Examples include alcaics, alexandrine, ballad, carol, concrete poetry, double dactyl, eclogue, elegy, epic, epistle, epithalamion, haiku, heroic couplet, limerick, madrigal, ode, ottava rima, pastoral, quatrain, renga, rondeau, rondel, sestina, sonnet, Spenserian stanza, tanka, tercet, terza rima, and villanelle.

Free Verse

• Free verse (or open form) has no set meter but may or may not be rhymed.
• It is the opposite of fixed form.

Blank Verse

• Blank verse has a metrical form but no rhyme.

Line

• A line is a subdivision of a poem consisting of a row of words ending for a specific reason, not just the right-hand margin.

Stanza

• Stanzas are formal divisions of lines in a poem, separated by spaces.

Speaker

• The speaker is the poem's imaginary voice, not necessarily the author.

Structure

• Structure refers to the arrangement of materials within a work, the relationship of parts to the whole, and its logical divisions.
• The line and stanza are the most common units of structure in a poem.

Caesura

• Caesura is a short pause within a line of poetry, often indicated by punctuation.
• It can break the rhythm, emphasize the meaning of the preceding phrase, or create a dramatic effect.
• It often adds an emotional touch and helps convey depth.

Enjambment

• Enjambment is the running over of a phrase from one line to the next without a stop or punctuation.
• End-stopped is the opposite of enjambment.
• It can surprise readers or create a sense of natural motion.
• It allows an idea to continue beyond a single line and maintain a rhythm stronger than a permanent end-stop.

Rhyme

• Rhyme is the repetition of sounds at the ends of words.

End Rhyme

• End rhyme has rhyming words that appear at the ends of lines.

Internal Rhyme

• Internal rhyme has rhyming words that appear in the same line.

Slant Rhyme

• Slant Rhyme (also referred to as near or half rhyme). Words have similar endings but do not truly rhyme.

Eye Rhyme

• Eye rhyme has words that appear to rhyme from spelling but only half-rhyme or slant rhyme in pronunciation.

Rhyme Scheme

• Rhyme Scheme is The regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem.
• A rhyme scheme is indicated by using different letters of the alphabet starting with the letter "a" for each new rhyme.

Things to Consider When Reading Poetry

• Speaker
• Tone
• Syntax
• Diction
• Figurative language (imagery)
• Structure
• Poetic/sound devices

Meter

• Meter is the rhythmic pattern of a poem, determined by the number and types of stresses and beats in each line.
• Scansion is the action of scanning a line of verse to determine its rhythm.
• An accented symbol (‘) indicates stressed syllables, and an unaccented symbol (ᵕ) indicates unstressed syllables.
• Stressed and unstressed syllables are divided into metrical “feet” by a vertical line (│).
• A metrical foot is a group of 2 or 3 syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm.

Types of Metrical Feet

• Iamb (iambic): One unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
• Trochee (trochaic): One stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable
• Anapest (anapestic): Three syllables: unstressed, unstressed, stressed
• Dactyl (dactylic): Three syllables: stressed, unstressed, unstressed
• Spondee: Two syllables: stressed, stressed
• Pyrrhic: Two syllables: unstressed, unstressed

Meter Determination

• Dimeter: Two-foot lines
• Trimeter: Three-foot lines
• Tetrameter: Four-foot lines
• Pentameter: Five-foot lines
• Hexameter: Six-foot lines
• Heptameter: Seven-foot lines
• Octameter: Eight-foot lines
• To determine the full meter of a line, we turn the metrical foot type into an adjective that proceeds the meter type. (Scansion)
  • For example, a line of poetry that has five iambs would be called Iambic Pentameter
  • If a line of poetry consisted of 8 trochees, the line meter would be called Trochaic Octameter
  • If a line consisted 4 anapests, the meter would be Anapestic Tetrameter

Catalectic

• A catalectic line is a metrically incomplete line of verse, which lacks a syllable in its last or end foot.
• Writing catalectic lines is called catalexis.

How to Determine Meter

• Count the syllables in the line
• Listen to the sound of the line for clues as to which syllables are stressed/unstressed (or locate words you know the stress pattern)
• Look for patterns in multiple lines
• Mark the stressed and unstressed syllables

Sonnet

• The sonnet began in Italy in the 14th century, and was made famous by Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) who established the Petrarchan or Italian form.
• Sonnets were later popularized by Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare in England.
• The word "sonnet" comes from the Italian "sonetto," meaning "little song."
• It is a 14-line lyric poem using first-person to convey emotions and has musical qualities.
• Sonnets typically have a single theme and a volta, or turn, that reveals the theme.
• They use iambic pentameter.
• Three types of Sonnets: Petrarchan (Italian), Spenserian (Elizabethan), and Shakespearean (English).

Petrarchan Sonnet

• Named after the Italian poet Petrarch (the inventor of the sonnet form)
• The sonnet is divided into an 8-line octave and a 6-line sestet.
• Typically, the octave introduces a problem that is answered in the sestet.
• The octave follows the rhyme pattern abba abba.
• The sestet has either two or three rhyming sounds arranged in a variety of ways: c d c d c d, c d d c d c, c d e c d e, c d e c e d, c d c e d c.

Spenserian Sonnet

• Both the Spenserian and Shakespearean Sonnets are divided into 3 Quatrains (4-line stanzas) and end with a couplet (2-line stanza)
• Spenserian Sonnets follow the Rhyme scheme: Abab bcbc cdcd ee.
• The overlapping sounds of a, b, c, d form the first 12 lines into a single unit with a separated couplet.
• The three quatrains develop distinct but closely related ideas followed by a volta.
• The couplet presents a different idea or commentary and helps reveal the theme.

Shakespearean Sonnet

• Shakespeare's sonnets address ‘love’ (romantic and familial), but they also reflect upon time, change, aging, lust, absence, infidelity, friendship, jealousy and the problematic gap between ideal and reality when it comes to the person you love.
• The central questions are: what are Shakespeare’s sonnets about? and how are we to read them?
• Shakespeare wrote and published 154 sonnets, likely between the early 1590s and about 1605.
• Sonnets 1 to 126 seem to be addressed to a young man, socially superior to the speaker, known as the “Fair Youth”.
• Sonnets 127 to 152 seem to be addressed to a woman, the “Dark Lady”.
• Sonnets 153 and 154 focus on the classical god Cupid.
• Shakespearean Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter.
• Like Spenserian sonnets, Shakespearean Sonnets are divided into 3 Quatrains (4-line stanzas) and end with a couplet (2-line stanza)
• These sonnets follow the rhyme scheme: Abab cdcd efef gg.
• Shakespeare uses the first 12 lines artfully to introduce the problem and resolves it in the couplet (turn/Volta).