Elements of Poetry PDF

# What is Poetry? Poetry is a type of literature that aims to evoke an emotional response in the reader through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. As an art, it can effectively invoke a range of emotions in the reader, conveys a thought, describes a scene or tells a st...

# What is Poetry? Poetry is a type of literature that aims to evoke an emotional response in the reader through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. As an art, it can effectively invoke a range of emotions in the reader, conveys a thought, describes a scene or tells a story in a concentrated, lyrical arrangement of words. ## The Elements of Poetry 1. **Speaker** The poem's speaker is the person who is addressing the reader. Sometimes, the speaker is the poet, who addresses the reader directly or another person. The poet reveals the identity of the speaker in various ways. Choice of words, focus of attention and attitudes will indicate the age, perspective and identity of the speaker. 2. **Content** Content is the subject of the poem. It answers the question "what?" What is the poem all about? What happens in the poem? 3. **Theme** The theme of the poem is the meaning of the poem - the main idea that the poet is trying to communicate. The theme may be stated directly or it may be implied. 4. **Shape and Form** Basically, the actual shape and form of poems can vary dramatically from poem to poem. In poetry, the basic building block of a poem is known as a stanza. A stanza is a grouping of lines related to the same thought or topic, similar to a paragraph in prose. A stanza can be subdivided based on the number of lines it contains. It can be a two-line stanza (couplet), a three-line stanza (triplet), a four-line stanza (quatrain), or a ten-line stanza. 5. **Mood or Tone** The mood or tone of a poem is the feeling that the poet creates and that the reader senses through the poet's choice of words, rhythm, rhyme, style and structure. Poems may express many moods - humorous, sarcastic, joyous, angry or solemn. 6. **Imagery** Imagery refers to the "pictures" which we perceive with our mind's eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, and through which we experience the "duplicate world" created by poetic language. Imagery evokes the meaning and truth of human experiences in perceptible and tangible forms. This is a device by which the poet makes his meaning strong, clear and sure. 7. **Diction** Diction is the poet's choice of words. The poet chooses each word carefully so that both its meaning and sound contribute to the tone and feeling of the poem. The poet must consider a word's denotation - its definition according to the dictionary and its connotation - the emotions, thoughts and ideas associated with and evoked by the word. ## Types of Poetry Poetry can be classified into three types: narrative, lyric, and dramatic poetry. ### Narrative Poetry Narrative poetry is poetry that narrates a story through its verse. Just like a short story or novel, narrative poetry has a plot, characters, and a setting. Since it tells a story, from beginning to end, narrative poetry tends to be longer than other types of poetry. It also involves descriptions, dialogues, and action. Such poems are usually narrated by one narrator but may involve multiple characters. In addition, although some narrative poems are written in blank verse, most narrative poems have a rhyme scheme. - **Types of Narrative Poetry** - **Epic:** A long unified narrative poem, recounting in dignified language the adventures of a warrior, a king or a god, the whole embodying the religious and philosophical beliefs, the moral code, customs, traditions, manners, attitudes, sciences, folklore and culture of the people or country from which it came. - **Ballad:** A narrative poem telling a story of a person or event, often about love, usually told in rhymed stanzas and which includes a repeated refrain. Ballads are often sung. - **Romance:** A romance tells the pursuit of a single knight in order to gain a lady's favour. Frequently, its central interest is courtly love, together with tournaments fought and dragons and monsters slain for the damsel's sake. It stresses the chivalric ideals of courage, loyalty, honour, mercifulness to an opponent, and exquisite and manners; and it delights in wonders and marvels. ### Lyric Poetry The term lyric comes from the Greek word "lyre", an instrument similar to a guitar and suitable for the accompaniment of a solitary singer. Like the concert of an impassioned singer, the lyric poem is a private, often visionary act of intelligence and emotion that becomes public through the music of language. It is also a highly concentrated poem of direct personal emotion, most often written in the first person. Moreover, lyric poetry is an artifact of language, capable of great beauty and excitement in its exploration of new perceptions. - **Types of Lyric Poetry** - **Ode:** An ode is a dignified and elaborately structured lyric poem praising and glorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature intellectually rather than emotionally. Odes originally were songs performed to the accompaniment of a musical instrument. - **Elegy:** An elegy is a lyric poem, written in elegiac couplets, that expresses sorrow or lamentation, usually for one who has died. This type of work stemmed out of a Greek word known as elegus, a song of mourning or lamentation that is accompanied by the lyre. - **Sonnet:** A sonnet is a short poem with fourteen lines, usually written in iambic pentameter. ### Dramatic Poetry Dramatic poetry presents one or more characters speaking, usually to other characters, but sometimes to themselves or directly to the reader. - **Kinds of Dramatic Poetry** - **Dramatic Monologue:** A dramatic monologue is a type of dramatic poetry where a character addresses another or several others and reveals something of his inner self in the process of the speech. A dramatic monologue always involves a single speaker on stage, and while the speaker may be talking directly to another person, we will never directly encounter them during the dramatic monologue. - **Soliloquy:** A soliloquy is the act of speaking while alone, especially when used as a theatrical device that allows a character's thoughts and ideas to be conveyed to the audience. ## Literary Devices Literary device is a broad term for all the techniques, styles, and strategies an author uses to enhance his writing. Literary devices are ways of taking writing beyond its straightforward, literal meaning. In that sense, they are techniques for helping guide the reader in how to read the poem. - **List of some literary devices with examples** - **Alliteration:** The repetition of the same initial consonant sound throughout a sentence, phrase or verse. For example "A big black bug bit a big black bear." - **Anaphora:** The repetition of words at the beginning of successive sentences, phrases or verses. - **Assonance:** The repetition of vowel sounds in words that are close to each other in a sentence, phrase or verse. For example: "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain." - **Consonance:** The repetition of consonant sounds within series of words. "The clock struck one." - **Juxtaposition:** Placing two elements side by side in a phrase to emphasize the contrast between the two. - **Metaphor:** Making a comparison between two incomparable things. “Her eyes are diamond” or "Time flies". - **Simile:** Is a rhetorical device that makes a comparison between two things and/or people using the comparison words "as," or “like”. “Her hair was red as roses." - **Personification:** Giving personal characteristics to inanimate objects such as animals, objects, or even abstract concepts. "That piece of cake is calling my name." - **Enjambment:** When a sentence or phrase continues over more than one line of poetry. Because of this, a thought or idea carries on from one line to the next without a pause or punctuation mark at the end of the line. - **Caesura:** A break or pause in a line of poetry, marked by punctuation either a full stop or a comma. "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I." - **Oxymoron:** An oxymoron is when two words with opposing meanings are used alongside one another. "Organized mess" or "peaceful war." - **Euphemism:** A euphemism is an expression that is used in place of words or phrases that may be considered embarrassing or unpleasant. For example, “kick the bucket” is a euphemism for “die." - **Hyperbole:** Is the use of exaggerated language that is not meant to be taken literally. This is usually done to emphasize a point or add humor to a situation. "He was as tall as a skyscraper." - **Irony:** Is a rhetorical device in which the apparent meaning of a situation or statement is not the same as the underlying meaning "your hands are clean as mud.” ## What is a rhyme scheme? A rhyme scheme (also known as a rhyme pattern) involves using rhyming words at the end of lines to follow a pattern of ending sounds throughout the poem. - **Types of rhyme schemes** - **Alternate Rhyme:** A B A B - I like to run. (A) - My friends like to play. (B) - The beach is very fun. (A) - I hope you have a great day! (B) - **Ballade:** A B A B B C B C - Painting on Vellum: not on silk or hide - Or ordinary Canvas: I suppose - No painter of the present day has tried - So many mediums with success, or knows - As well as I do how the subject grows - Beneath the hands of genius, that anoint - With balm. But I have something to disclose- - Painting on Vellum is my weakest point. - **Coupled Rhyme (or Rhyming Couplets):** A A B B C C - My family loves our cat. (A) - She loves to wear her hat. (A) - Sometimes she gets stuck in trees. (B) - And she's so afraid of bees! (B) - **Simple Four-Line Rhyme:** A B C B - My best friend's name is Jack. (A) - He really likes to go in his pool. (B) - His favorite food is pizza. (C) - I think he's really cool. (B) - **Limerick:** A A B B A - Hickory, dickory, dock, - The mouse ran up the clock; - The clock struck one, - And down he run, - Hickory, dickory, dock. - **Monorhyme:** A A A A - Twenty odd years have turned to air; - Now she's the girl I didn't dare - Approach, ask out, much less declare - My love to, mired in young despair - **Terza Rima:** ABA BCB CDC DED EE - السنه القادمه