Poetry: Conventions, Types, and Forms PDF

Poetry May Be Conventional or Unconventional You might notice that writers within a particular time period use similar overarching poetic structures or patterns, also known as the poem's form. These forms become conventions when they are frequently used over time. When writers intentionally break f...

Poetry May Be Conventional or Unconventional You might notice that writers within a particular time period use similar overarching poetic structures or patterns, also known as the poem's form. These forms become conventions when they are frequently used over time. When writers intentionally break from a convention, they do so to emphasize an important idea. By deviating from conventions, they can even generate new forms that communicate new ideas. Note: You won't be quizzed on the AP® Exam to label or identify specific rhyme schemes, metrical patterns, or forms of poetry, but knowing how writers use and combine different forms, sounds, rhythms, and rhymes may provide another opportunity for interpretation. Types of Poetry Some poems tell stories; others express ideas, emotions, or experiences. Poems can be grouped into categories that work toward or explore specific goals. An author chooses a type of poetry that coincides with his or her purpose for writing. Poetry is generally classified as narrative, lyric, epic, or dramatic. ​ Narrative: A narrator or persona tells a story. ​ Lyric: A first-person speaker expresses an intense emotion, idea, or insight. ​ Epic: The speaker or narrator along with characters in the poem relates to an extraordinary tale of heroism. ​ Dramatic: One or more characters speak in the poem, which is usually meant to be acted or performed. Forms: Closed and Open A poem's form is its overall structure or shape. If a writer follows an established pattern of lines, meter, rhymes, and stanzas, the poem will have a "fixed" or “closed” form. In other words, it will follow conventions: rules and characteristics used so often that they define the form. These formal elements and patterns help develop relationships between the ideas in the poem. Just remember that form and structure are not superficial or decorative. If you can identify how a writer draws upon conventional literary forms (or subverts them), you will have an important key for developing an interpretation. Some closed forms of poetry include sonnets, villanelles, sestinas, haiku, epigrams, limericks, elegies, and odes. In contrast, some poets reject the conventional forms of poetry. Poems that do not follow established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza are known as open-form poetry. These poems may avoid predictable patterns in the structures of their lines and stanzas, but poets may still use form to create relationships between ideas. Some open forms of poetry include free verse, blank verse, prose poems, visual or concrete poems, slam poetry, and found poetry. Sound: Rhythm and Rhyme Everyday conversations follow a natural rhythm or pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables and pauses. Likewise, a poem follows a beat that communicates meaning through the flow of sound patterns and silence. Rhythm directly affects the pacing or action of a poem. It emerges from the pattern of "feet" within a sentence. Feet are individual units of rhythm comprised of the syllables in words. English-language poetry uses five types of feet - each of which has different effects on the rhythm of the poem. You may know the meter and foot combination in Shakespeare's sonnets: iambic pentameter, which usually follows a pattern of ten syllables in an unstressed-then-stressed pattern (for a total of five feet per line), Just as sound is. important in poetry, silence also carries meaning: a caesura is a break in the rhythmical line that prompts the reader to pause. You may have been taught as a child that all poetry must rhyme. Well, spoiler alert: as you've seen throughout the course, this is not true. Poems may or may not follow an identifiable rhyme scheme, which is the pattern of identical word sounds both within the line (internal rhyme) and at the end of each line (end rhyme). When words sound very similar but aren't an exact rhyme, they create an imperfect slant rhyme. Rhyme contributes to the poem's rhythm and flow, as well as its musical qualities. More importantly, rhyme schemes can create relationships between ideas. This is especially true of two successive lines that rhyme called a couplet. Words Create Powerful Associations Authors choose their words with care and precision. In fact, the author is counting on the precision of a word or image to convey an exact meaning. While words have exact literal meanings called denotations, they also carry powerful secondary meanings called connotations. Connotations are the emotional, intellectual, and visceral associations that words evoke in readers. A word may resonate with a reader because of its history, its common usage in popular culture, or even its deeply personal meaning. A word often has an emotional association with the author that he or she hopes to convey to the reader by choosing that word. The connotative meaning of a word may be universal across time and place, or it may be specific to a particular time and place or shared within a particular community, group, region, or identity. Because words create such powerful associations, they contribute to the author's attitude called tone. And because words create emotional connections with a reader, they also contribute to the mood and atmosphere of a text. Some words may have multiple meanings, which can lead to ambiguity or humor. Such plays on words are known as puns. Word Choice Knowing the part of speech or function of a word in a sentence may provide a clue about the perspective of the character or speaker who uses that word. Make no mistake: authors choose the words that characters and speakers use, and carefully control the literary narrative. ​ Adjectives: Describe what kind, which one, how many ​ Adverbs: Explain relationships by clarifying how, when, where, why, or to what extent ​ Verbs: Convey action, pacing, emphasis, and intensity Imagery By using specific words, authors create pictures — called images — in the minds of readers. Like words, these images also create emotional associations for readers. A single image may be so important that it is singular for emphasis, or the image may be used for description and to contribute to the mood or atmosphere. A poem or story may have many images woven throughout. Imagery is the collection of sensory images collectively (e.g., visual images, sound images, taste images, smell images, or tactile images). As a reader, you can group the individual. images by type to analyze how an author appeals to one or more senses. Authors create these image patterns to convey an emphasis. Some authors even develop a series or pattern of images related to a single idea or concept, or motif, which you will explore in more depth in a later unit. Exaggerations While most authors relate realistic and plausible images in their stories and poems, others create exaggerations, or hyperboles, to emphasize a particular idea or value. A hyperbole is a type of simile or metaphor that develops a larger-than-life comparison and emphasizes the similarity or difference of a particular trait. Hyperboles may be humorous or serious, but authors use them intentionally, so consider how the exaggeration contributes to your interpretation of a poem or story. Comparisons Create Associations Throughout your study of literature, you've seen how authors make comparisons to objects as a way to associate traits and feelings. They use comparisons to transfer concepts and emotions onto the objects of those comparisons. You've learned that a metaphor is a comparison between two different objects that draws upon traits of one object to explain another object. You've likely considered both individual comparisons and larger patterns of metaphor in literary texts. Each contributes to your interpretation. Extended Metaphors But what if an author uses a single or primary metaphor throughout an entire work? You'd likely recognize that the comparison is important. Authors use extended metaphors when multiple aspects of the objects or experiences are important. Extended comparisons draw upon words, details, images, symbols, and similes, so readers must understand how each of these elements contributes to the comparison and evokes associations. Both are important considerations in making an interpretation. When analyzing an extended metaphor, focus on the particular traits, qualities, or characteristics of the objects being compared, not just the objects themselves. As you think about extended metaphors, begin by asking yourself the following: ​ Why did the author choose that specific metaphor?  ​ How was that metaphor relevant at the time the work was written? ​ How is that metaphor relevant today? Metaphors function most effectively when the reader understands both the characteristics of the comparison and the reason for the comparison. In other words, you might ask, "Why did the author choose this concrete object to make the comparison?" If you know the context of the comparison, you may uncover clues about the meaning behind the author's choice. Personification When writers use personification, they give human traits to inanimate or nonhuman objects. This means that personification is similar to a metaphor because it creates associations through comparison. Authors may use personification to humanize an object or suggest its importance as though it were a character. When an author directly addresses an absent person, nonhuman object, or abstract idea, this is known as apostrophe. Allusion Authors may refer to historical events, mythology, other literary works like Shakespeare's plays, fairy tales, the Bible, or other sacred texts as a way to make a comparison or association for a reader. Such references are called allusions. In addition to the specific references made within a text, readers should consider how the names of characters (or even the names of places within the setting) may be allusions. Of course, readers must go beyond simply identifying the reference; they must also understand why the author chose the allusion and what aspects of the allusion are similar to aspects of the text. Obviously, the reader must be able to identify that the reference is an allusion. So you may also want to consider what the allusion reveals about both the author and the author's understanding of (and relationship to) the audience. Occasionally, authors create new texts that directly respond to or speak to other texts. These responses and references create intertextuality: a connection between related works of literature, music, film, or other artistic mediums. Authors can respond to texts from hundreds of years in the past or from a completely different part of the globe. In popular culture today, you may see intertextuality as an integral element of superhero movie franchises, series spin-offs or prequels, fan fiction, and satire.