Poetry Terms

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Poetry TermsExamples
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• Genuine poetry can communicate before it is
  understood
• - T.S. Elliot

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Sonnet-

• A fixed form of lyric poetry that consists of 14
  lines, usually written in iambic pentameter
• Two forms English (Shakespearean) and Petrarchan
  (Italian/Modern)

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Shakespearean Sonnet

• Also known as English Sonnet
• Has a three quatrains (4 lines each), and a
  couplet (2 lines)
• More flexibility with rhyme scheme and thematic
  breaks (format for story in sonnet)
• Rhyme scheme ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG
• More flexibility, because there are fewer rhyming
  words in English, than in Italian
  (Petrarchan/Modern)

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Modern Sonnet

• Also known as Italian Sonnets, or Petrarchan
  Sonnets
• Has an octave (8 lines) followed by a sestet (6
  lines)
• Can have varying rhyme patterns

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Tanka

• A form of Japanese poetry
• Fixed poetic form 5 lines, 31 syllables. 1st and
  3rd lines have 5 syllables, 2nd, 4th and 5th have
  7 syllables

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Haiku

• A Japanese style of lyric poetry that typically
  presents an intense emotion or vivid image of
  nature, meant to lead to a spiritual insight.
• Fixed poetic form 17 syllables organized into 3
  unrhymed lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables.

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Narrative Poem

• A poem that tells a story
• Can be short or long
• Story can be simple or complex

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Ballad-

• A story told in verse. The authors are known.
• Usually very long!

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Epic-

• A long narrative poem that tells a story.
• EX The Odyssey
• Filled with mythology and adventure.

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Dramatic Poetry

• Any poetry that uses the discourse of the
  characters involved to tell a story or portray a
  situation.
• Usually blank verse

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Lyric Poem -

• A short poem in which the expression of personal
  emotion is more important than any idea or
  information given.

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Ode

• A long lyric poem that often expresses lofty
  emotions in a dignified style (with a formal
  tone)
• Serious topics, such as truth, art, freedom,
  justice, or the meaning of life
• No set pattern (some odes repeat the same pattern
  in each stanza, others have a new pattern in each
  stanza)

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Elegy -

• A formal poem setting forth the poets
  meditation upon death or some grave thing.

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Winter Nightfall The day begins to droop,--
Its course is done But nothing tells the place
Of the setting sun. The hazy darkness deepens,
And up the lane You may hear, but cannot see,
The homing wain. An engine pants and hums
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Free Verse-

• Poetry that does not have a fixed rhyming
  pattern.

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• Winter Poem by Nikki Giovanni
• once a snowflake fell
• on my brow and i loved
• it so much and i kissed
• it and it was happy and called its cousins
• and brothers and a web
• of snow engulfed me then
• i reached to love them all
• and i squeezed them and they became
• a spring rain and i stood perfectly
• still and was a flower

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Villanelle-

• A highly structured poem with 19 lines, 2 rhymes,
  and 2 refrains (repeated lines).
• Originated in Italy and Spain as dance songs.

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Extended Metaphor

• A sustained comparison in which part or all of a
  poem consists of a series of related metaphors.

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Stanza-

• A group of lines, or verse, varying in number,
  and usually arranged according to some chosen
  rhyme scheme and forming a section of a poem.

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Whose woods these are I think I know. a His
house is in the village though a He will not
see me stopping here b To watch his woods fill
up with snow. a My little horse must think it
queer b To stop without a farmhouse near b
Between the woods and frozen lake c The darkest
evening of the year. b
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Robert
Frost
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Ballad Stanza -

• Has four lines. Lines two and four rhyme.
• EX In Scarlet Town, where I was bornThere lived
  a fair maid dwellin'Made many a youth cry
  well-a-day,And her name was Barbara Allen.

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Couplet-

• Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.
• EX
• An apple is sweet.
• It makes a good treat.

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Rhyme-

• Words that have the same sound.
• EX cat hat,
• cold behold

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EX Ode to JoyI've had cabbage, lettuce,
blackberriesPasta, oats and strawberriesBagels,
beans and hot dogsEggplant, ham and cheese
logsI've had pumpkin and potatoTruffles and
tomatoDiced, sliced, cubed and ricedBoiled and
friedSoaked and driedBurgers, tacos, ice cream
tooRadishes red and berries blueDespite all
this, I'm feeling thinner...Still, that was
lunch, now what's for dinner?-By Baxter Buster
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Rhyme Scheme-

• The pattern of sequence in which rhythm occurs.
• Roses are red
• Violets are blueSugar is sweetAnd so are you

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Internal Rhyme -

• Rhyme that comes within a single line of poetry.
• EX the evidence lies in the skies

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Rhythm-

• A pattern of strong or weak beats.
• EX The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron
• Like the leaves of the forest when summer is
  green,
• That host with their banners at sunset were seen
  
• Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath
  blown,
• That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

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Meter -

• The established pattern of stressed and
  unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

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Foot-

• A unit of measure.
• EX The five most common types of foot in English
  poetry are iamb (v ), trochee ( v), dactyl (
  vv), spondee ( ), and anapest (vv ) the
  symbol v stands for an unstressed syllable and
  for a stressed one.

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Personification-

• An animal, object, or idea that is treated as if
  it had human qualities.
• EX The flowers danced about the lawn.

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Onomatopoeia-

• The use of a word whose sound imitates its
  meaning.
• EX buzz, bang, clang,
• gush, splat

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Consonance-

• A repetition of consonant sounds of words.
• EX blank and think or strong and string

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Assonance-

• The repetition of vowel sounds.
• EX tea leaf,
• "Tune" and "June" are rhymes "tune" and "food"
  are assonant.
• "I sipped the rim with palatable lip." 
• The "i" sound is repeated in sipped, rim and lip.

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Alliteration-

• The repetition of initial consonant sounds.
• EX on scrolls of silver snowy sentences (Hart
  Crane) busy bees buzzing

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Imagery -

• Words or phrases that give a picture in the mind.
• EX He could still hear her in his imagination."

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Figurative Language-

• Language that is always based on some kind of
  comparison that is not literally true.
• EX "All the world's a stage"

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Figure of Speech-

• Allows a writer to say one thing and mean
  another.
• EX Its raining cats and dogs. literal meaning
  it is raining very hard.

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Symbol -

• A word or image that signifies something other
  than what is represented.
• EX rose love,
• clouds danger

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Hyperbole -

• An extreme exaggeration.
• EX I could cry a bucket of tears.
• George ate so many doughnuts, we had to widen the
  front doorway and roll him through the door .

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Simile -

• A comparison between two different things using
  like or as.
• EX happy as a clam, easy as pie

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Metaphor-

• A comparison between two different things without
  using like or as.
• EX For ever since that time you went awayI've
  been a rabbit burrowed in the wood Maurice Sceve
  
• Life is a beach.

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Giggle Poem
I pledge allegiance to the floor,the walls and
ceiling, classroom door.I pledge allegiance to
my books,to desk and papers, coat-rack hooks.I
pledge allegiance to my bag,to Jonis
pigtailsand the flag.