Understanding Poetry: Form and Structure

Poetry Overview

• Poetry expresses ideas, feelings, or tells a story
• Poetry is expressed in a specific form, usually using lines and stanzas

Point of View

• The poet is the author
• The speaker of the poem is the "narrator"

Poetry Form

• Form relates to the appearance of the words on the page
• A line is a group of words on one line of the poem
• A stanza is a group of lines arranged together

Kinds of Stanzas

• A couplet is a two-line stanza
• A tercet (or triplet) is a three-line stanza
• A quatrain is a four-line stanza
• A cinquain is a five-line stanza
• A sestet (or sextet) is a six-line stanza
• A septet is a seven-line stanza
• An octave is an eight-line stanza

Rhythm

• Rhythm refers to the beat created by the sounds of the words in a poem
• Rhythm can be created by meter, rhyme, alliteration, and refrain

Meter

• Meter is a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
• Meter occurs when the stressed and unstressed syllables of the words in a poem are arranged in a repeating pattern
• Poets count out the number of stressed (strong) syllables and unstressed (weak) syllables for each line when writing in meter
• The pattern is repeated throughout the poem

Meter cont.

• A foot is a unit of meter
• A foot can have two or three syllables
• A foot usually consists of one stressed and one or more unstressed syllables
• Types of feet are determined by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables
• An iambic foot consists of an unstressed, stressed pattern
• A trochaic foot consists of a stressed, unstressed pattern
• An anapestic foot consists of an unstressed, unstressed, stressed pattern
• A dactylic foot consists of a stressed, unstressed, unstressed pattern
• A monometer line has one foot on a line
• A dimeter line has two feet on a line
• A trimeter line has three feet on a line
• A tetrameter line has four feet on a line
• A pentameter line has five feet on a line
• A hexameter line has six feet on a line
• A heptameter line has seven feet on a line
• An octometer line has eight feet on a line

Free Verse and Blank Verse Poetry

• Free verse poetry does not have any repeating patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables, unlike metered poetry
• Free verse poetry does not have rhyme
• Free verse is conversational and sounds like someone talking
• It is a more modern style of poetry
• Blank verse poetry is written in lines of iambic pentameter but it does not use end rhyme, as seen in Julius Caesar

Rhyme

• Words sound alike because they share the same ending vowel and consonant sounds (e.g., LAMP, STAMP)
• A word always rhymes with itself

End, Internal, and Near Rhyme

• End rhyme is when a word at the end of one line rhymes with a word at the end of another line, such as "string" and "ring"
• Internal rhyme is when a word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line, such as "dreary" and "weary" in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
• Near rhyme (aka imperfect rhyme, close rhyme) is when words share either the same vowel or consonant sound but not both, such as "ROSE" and "LOSE"

Rhyme Scheme

• A rhyme scheme is a pattern of rhyme, usually end rhyme, but not always
• Letters of the alphabet can represent sounds to visually "see" the pattern of the rhyme scheme
• Example: from "The Germ" by Ogden Nash, the rhyme scheme is AABBACCA

Poetic Sound Devices

• Onomatopoeia is when words imitate the sound they are naming, such as "BUZZ"
• Alliteration consists of the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words, such as "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers…”
• Consonance is similar to alliteration, however the repeated consonant sounds can be anywhere in the words, as shown in "silken, sad, uncertain, rustling..."
• Assonance consists of the repetition of vowel sounds in a line or lines of poetry and often creates near rhyme, like “Lake Fate Base Fade”

Assonance and Refrain

• Examples of assonance include "Slow the low gradual moan came in the snowing.” and “Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep."
• A refrain is a sound, word, phrase, or line repeated regularly in a poem, notably, "Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore.'"

Types of Poetry

• Lyric poetry is short
• It is usually written in first-person point of view
• Lyrical poetry expresses an emotion or idea or describes a scene
• Lyrical poetry does not tell a story and is often musical
• A haiku is a Japanese poem written in three lines: the first line has five syllables, the second has seven syllables, and the third has five syllables.
• A cinquain is a five-line poem containing 22 syllables:
  • Line 1 has two syllables
  • Line 2 has four syllables
  • Line 3 has six syllables
  • Line 4 has eight syllables
  • Line 5 has two syllables
• A Shakespearean sonnet is a fourteen-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG)
• Narrative poems tell a story
• They are generally longer than lyric poems because the poet needs to establish characters and a plot
• Examples of narrative poems include "The Raven," "The Highwayman," "Casey at the Bat," and "The Walrus and the Carpenter"
• Concrete poems are composed of words arranged to create a picture which relates to the poem's content

Figurative Language

• Simile is a comparison of two things using "like, as than," or "resembles.” For example, "She is as beautiful as a sunrise."
• Metaphor is a direct comparison of two unlike things and example is is "All the world's a stage, and we are merely players.”
• Extended metaphor is a metaphor that goes several lines or possible the entire length of a work.
• Implied metaphor is the comparison is hinted at but not clearly stated such as "The poison sacs of the town began to manufacture venom, and the town swelled and puffed with the pressure of it." from The Pearl

Figurative Devices

• Hyperbole is an exaggeration often used for emphasis, like "I nearly died laughing."
• An idiom, such as "It's raining cats and dogs" means something other than what it actually says.
• Personification consists of giving human-like qualities to an animal or an object.

Other Poetic Devices

• Symbolism occurs when a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself also represents, or stands for, something else.
• Allusion comes from the verb "allude" which means "to refer to"
• Allusion is a reference to something famous
• Imagery consists of language that appeals to the senses
• Most images are visual, but can also appeal to the senses of sound, touch, taste, or smell

Explore the relationship between poet and speaker, stanza types, rhythm, and metrical feet. Learn about poetic forms like free verse and blank verse. Understand rhyme schemes and their effect on a poem's structure and meaning.