Poetry Forms and Types

Poetry Forms

• Poetry can be conventional or unconventional
• Conventions are frequently used structures or patterns in a particular time period
• Writers intentionally break conventions to emphasize important ideas, sometimes creating new forms
• Rhyme schemes, metrical patterns, and forms are not tested on AP exams, but understanding their usage contributes to interpretation.

Types of Poetry

• Some poems tell stories, while others express ideas, emotions, or experiences.
• Poetry is categorized into narrative, lyric, epic, and dramatic.
  • Narrative: A narrator tells a story.
  • Lyric: A first-person speaker expresses intense emotion.
  • Epic: A speaker or narrator narrates a heroic tale with characters.
  • Dramatic: Characters speak in the poem intended for performance.

Forms of Poetry: Closed and Open

• Closed (fixed) forms follow established patterns of lines, meter, rhymes, and stanzas.
  • Examples: sonnets, villanelles, sestinas, haiku, epigrams, limericks, elegies, and odes.
• Open forms do not follow these set patterns. Poets may still use form to connect ideas.
  • Examples: free verse, blank verse, prose poems, visual or concrete poems, slam poetry, and found poetry.

Sound, Rhythm, and Rhyme

• Everyday conversations have a rhythm, and poems use rhythmic patterns via stressed and unstressed syllables.
• Rhythm affects pacing and action and occurs through "feet," which are rhythmic units composed of syllables.
• English poetry commonly uses five types of feet.
• Silence (caesura) in a poem can have meaning.
• Rhyme is not always present in poetry.
• Different types of rhyme (perfect, imperfect, slant) can create rhythm and connect ideas in a poem

Words Create Powerful Associations

• Authors select words carefully for effective meaning.
• Words have literal (denotative) and associated (connotative) meanings.
• Connotations stem from history, common usage, or personal experiences and impact the reader's emotional response.
• Tone and mood in a poem are affected by word choices.
• Puns (multiple meanings) can create ambiguity or humor.

Word Choice

• Understanding parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) helps understand the perspective of the characters in a poem.
• Word choice used by authors contributes to the literary narrative.

Imagery

• Authors use specific words and images to create mental pictures in the reader's mind.
• Imagery affects the poem's emotional impact and description.
• Imagery can create both overall mood or relate to a central theme.
• Imagery connects the writer's emotions to the reader.

Exaggeration (Hyperbole)

• Hyperbole creates comparisons and emphasizes similarities or differences; this might be humorous or serious.
• Exaggerations may be significant in the poem's interpretation

Comparisons (Metaphors and Similes)

• Comparisons (metaphors, similes) contribute to understanding by associating similar qualities from objects or concepts.
• Extended metaphors use comparisons throughout a poem.

Allusion

• Allusions refer to historical events, mythology, or other literary works.
• Allusions connect to other texts and cultures.
• Authors might use allusions to create comparisons or create meaning.
• Authors may allude to other literary works, historical events, or figures of myth.

Personification

• Personification gives human qualities to non-human things or ideas.
• Personification is a type of figurative language that builds connections and adds meaning to a poem.