Understanding Poetry: Terms and Structures

• Poetry is not without rules; understanding these rules can demystify poetry.

Technical Terms

• Poems can be viewed similarly to songs.
• Poems are divided into verses, similar to chunks of words in music.
• Stanzas are verses arranged rhythmically.
• A couplet is a two-line stanza that may or may not rhyme.
• A triplet is a three-line stanza.
• A quatrain is a four-line stanza.
• A sonnet is a 14-line stanza that can form a single poem or part of a larger poem.
• Lines subdivide into feet, which are units of measurement in poetry, based on patterns of stress and emphasis.
• Iambs consist of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable (da-DA), common in English poetry.
• A trochee is the reverse of an iamb, with a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (DA-da).
• An anapest contains two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable (da-da-DA).
• A dactyl is the reverse of an anapest, with one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (DA-da-da).
• A spondee consists of two stressed syllables (DA-DA).
• Meter is the pattern of poetic stresses, creating rhythm.
• Iambic pentameter consists of five iambs (unstressed/stressed syllables).
• Scansion is the process of analyzing the elements of lines, rhythm, and meter.
• Free verse refers to poetry that is not organized into specific meters.

Literary Terms

• Words in poetry can have both a denotation (literal meaning) and a connotation (implied meaning).
• Connotation is usually more important when doing an analysis of poetry
• Poets use wordplay to build complex connotations.
• Alliteration is when two or more words in a line begin with a similar-sounding syllable.
• Analogy is when one thing is compared to another, not always literally.
• Apostrophe is addressing a gone, dead, or inhuman thing as alive and present.
• Hyperbole is grossly over-exaggerating something for dramatic effect.
• Irony occurs when something in a text produces an effect that doesn't align with its stated intent.
  • Verbal irony is when spoken words do not mean what they should mean.
  • Dramatic irony is when elements of a work of art do not mean what they seem like they should mean.
• Onomatopoeia is when words are used to convey a certain sound.
• Pathetic fallacy occurs when a narrator believes the outside world mimics their internal state.
• Synecdoche is using a part of something to refer to the whole.

Types of Poetry

• A ballad is a short, song-like poem focusing on a single subject and comes in ballad meter and consists of quatrains made up of alternating iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter lines.
• Bucolic/pastoral poetry focuses on pastoral life.
• Doggerel is a light, humorous, and short poem.
• An elegy is a poem in dedication to something that has passed.
• Epic poetry involves epic, gigantic, world-spanning action.
• Narrative poems tell a story.
• Sonnets are typically 14 lines long and are often about love.