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Title: The Elements of Poetry

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The Elements of Poetry

English 102

William Wordsworth, the great Romantic poet,
defined poetry as
"the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,
recollected in tranquility."

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Poetry is a piece of literature written in meter,
using imagery and figures of speech to appeal to
or gain the interest of the readers emotions and
imagination.
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Poetry is the most condensed and concentrated
form of literature, saying most in the fewest
number of words. Saying more, and saying it
intensely.
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The Major Forms of Poetry Are

the epic
the lyric
the ballad

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THE EPIC

An extended narrative poem recounting actions,
travels, adventures, and heroic episodes and
written in a high style.

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Characteristics of the Classical Epic

The main character or protagonist is heroically
larger than life, often the source and subject of
legend or a national hero.
The deeds of the hero are presented without
favoritism, revealing his failings as well as his
virtues.
The action, often in battle, reveals the
more-than-human strength of the heroes as they
engage in acts of heroism and courage.

The setting covers several nations, the whole
world, or even the universe.
The episodes, even though they may be fictional,
provide an explanation for some of the
circumstances or events in the history of a
nation or people.
The gods and lesser divinities play an active
role in the outcome of actions.
All of the various adventures form an organic
whole, where each event relates in some way to
the central theme.

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Examples of Epics

Homer, Iliad
Homer, Odyssey
Virgil, Aeneid
Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered
Milton, Paradise Lost

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Ballads

A narrative folk song, the ballad is traced back
to the Middle Ages. Ballads were usually created
by common people and passed orally due to the
illiteracy of the time. Subjects for ballads
include killings, feuds, important historical
events, and rebellion. For example, in the
international ballad Lord Randall, the young
man is poisoned by his sweetheart, and in
Edward, the son commits patricide.

A common stylistic element of the ballad is
repetition.
Lord Randall illustrates this well with the
phrase at the end of each verse mother, make
my bed soon, for Im sick at the heart and I fain
wad lie down.
The ballad occurs in very early literature in
nearly every nation. Thus, ballads can help us
understand a given culture by showing us what
values or norms that culture deemed important.

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Lyric

A lyric is a song-like poem written mainly to
express the feelings of emotions or thought from
a particular person. These poems are generally
short, averaging twelve to thirty lines, and
rarely go beyond sixty lines. These poems express
vivid imagination as well as emotion. Because of
this, as well as a steady rhythm, they were often
used in song. In fact, most people still see a
"lyric" as anything that is sung along to a
musical instrument.

The lyric may have begun in Ancient Egypt around
2600 BC in the form of hymns generated out of
religious ceremonies.
The importance of understanding the lyric can
best be shown through its remarkable ability to
express with such imagination the innermost
emotions of the soul.

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How Should a Poem Be Read????
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To read a poem, one must concentrate on its words
and the way they connect with one another.
Some poems use the same elements as fiction
however, they are secondary to the images,
metaphors, tones of voice, and allusions
(suggestions, references).

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Different Ways of Reading Poetry

Pure explanation paraphrasing the poem, turning
its lines into prose.
b. Explication tries to account for the whole
poem by attending to its sounds, suggestions of
meaning, and shapeliness.

No explication is equal to the poem itself, but
it does come close to pointing out what affects
us in the poem.

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Begin with the title it sometimes provides a
clue or a description.

Then, read the words. Remember, words have
denotations (dictionary definitions) and
connotations (the word, its family, origins,
associations, etc.). Both serve the writer
within a poem however, in the context of a poem,
not every meaning is active.

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The Elements of Poetry
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Figures of Speech (Comparisons)

Phrases or words that compare one thing to
another unlike thing.

Figures of speech can enhance style and make
ideas distinct.

Figurative language does not mean exactly what it
says, but instead forces the reader to make an
imaginative leap in order to comprehend an
author's point. It usually involves a comparison
between two things that may not, at first, seem
to relate to one another.

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Different Types of Comparisons/Figures of Speech

Simile
Metaphor

Personification
Hyperbole

Metonymy

Synecdoche
Apostrophe

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A Simile

makes a comparison between two unlike things
using an explicit word such as as, like,
resembles, or than .

In a simile, for example, an author may compare a
person to an animal "He ran like a hare down the
street."
This is the figurative way to describe the man
running, and "He ran very quickly down the
street" is the literal way to describe him.

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The spiders web hung like delicate lace across
the open barn door.
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Metaphor

states one thing is something else but,
literally, it is not. It does not use the words
as, like, resembles, or than.

Metaphoric language is used in order to realize a
new and different meaning. Metaphors are great
contributors to poetry because the reader
understands a likeness between two essentially
different things.

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A metaphor may be found in a simple comparison or
largely as the image of an entire poem

Life is a candle, too soon blown out.

My Life had stood a Loaded Gun - / In corners
till a Day / The Owner passed identified - /
And carried me away.
Of course, the narrator is not really a gun.
The metaphor carries with it all the qualities of
a Loaded Gun. The speaker in the poem is making
a series of comparisons between themselves and
the qualities of a gun.

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Personification

Refers to a special kind of metaphor in which
nonhuman things or qualities are described as if
they were human.

In other words animals, ideas or inorganic
objects are given human characteristics.

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The wind stood up and gave a shout. He whistled
on his two fingers.

Of course the wind did not actually "stand up,"
but this image of the wind creates a vivid
picture of the wind's wild actions.
The wind is endowed with human characteristics
making the poem more interesting and achieving a
much more vivid image of the way wind whips
around a room.

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Hyperbole

is an extravagant exaggeration. From the Greek
for "overcasting," hyperbole is a figure of
speech that is a grossly exaggerated description
or statement. In literature, such exaggeration is
used for emphasis or vivid descriptions.

Hyperbole is even a part of our day-to-day
speech Youve grown like a bean sprout or Im
older than the hills. Hyperbole is used to
increase the effect of a description, whether it
is metaphoric or comic.

In poetry, hyperbole can emphasize or dramatize a
persons opinions or emotions. Poets use
hyperbole to describe intense emotions and mental
states.

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Metonymy

substitutes one term with another that is being
associated with the that term.

For example, in the book of Genesis 319, it
refers to Adam by saying that by the sweat of
your brow, you will eat your food. Sweat
represents the hard labor that Adam will have to
endure to produce the food that will sustain his
life. The sweat on his brow is a vivid picture of
how hard he is working to attain a goal.

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In other words, metonymy, refers to a thing,
person, or place by the name of something closely
associated with it.

For example
The hired gun made friends as he moved from town
to town.

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Synecdoche

Substitutes a part of a person, place, or thing
for the whole person, place, or thing.

For instance
The crowned heads of Europe met at the Swiss
embassy.

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Apostrophe

consists in addressing someone absent or
something nonhuman as if it were alive and
present and could reply to what is being said

O MenopauseWhen will you come forth and bless
me?Thirty years of monthly visits have left me
tired.I do not wish for more of a brood than I
already have.No more mouths to feed, please.

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IMAGERY

Language that appeals to the 5 senses!

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The ability to uses imagery stems from being a
good observer of the world.

A poet wants the reader to visualize, smell,
taste, hear, and relate to the touch/feel of
his/descriptions.

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ONOMATOPOEIA

The use of words that sound like the things they
name. They appeal to the sense of sound and can
invoke clear, strong images
cows moo, bees buzz, and lions roar.

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TONE

The poems tone reveals the authors attitude
toward a subject (Irony, sarcasm). Tone is easy
to miss or misinterpret.

For example, the sentence, Thats fine can have
different meanings depending on the context in
which it is used. It may be said
matter-of-factly, sarcastically, or with sympathy.

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SYMBOLISM

The use of symbols (one set of particulars
standing in for another set of relationships).

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There are Different Kinds of Symbols
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Conventional/Traditional

images or phrases that have acquired meaning over
centuries of association the cross of Christ.

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Literary Symbols

A series of words that create an image, event, or
character that is complex.

Cain and Able The two brothers stood for good
and evil, humility and pride. Cain pulled Able to
the fields and killed him. In this is a hidden
symbol. It is showing that Cain stands for the
bad and Able stands for the good

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Natural Symbols

From nature night is used as a symbol of death
and so is autumn.

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Another Element of Poetry is

Repetition

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REPETITION

Often a poet will use repetition for emphasis or
to add rhythm and flow to words.

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There are Different Types of Repetition.
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ASSONANCE

Repetition of vowel sounds

beside the white
glazed with rain

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ALLITERATION

Repetition of two or more words that have the
same initial consonant sound
The sun rises from the sea.

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Another example of AlliterationSam picked sea
shells by the sea shore.
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Rhythm and Rhyme
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Rhythm

The word rhythm is the pulse or beat felt in a
line of poetry. It is the regular
arrangement/pattern of accents or stresses on the
syllables of words in a poem.

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Stress

A stress or an accent is the emphasis put on a
syllable.

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Syllable

that which is pronounced as a unit. A word may
be made up of only one syllable (win, hit) or
parts of words may be pronounced as a unit.
These parts usually are made up of a vowel or a
vowel with one or more consonants
(dis-ap-prov-al, can-di-date).

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When a word has more than one syllable, one of
the syllables is pronounced louder than others.
This is called the accented syllable. It is
marked with an accent mark.

The same word can be accented in different ways
depending on how it is used
Con? tent (noun)
Con tent? (adjective)
Pro? test (noun)
Pro test? (verb)

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METER

The patterns of accents or stresses in poetry are
measured by meter. The word meter comes from a
word meaning measure.

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FOOT

The basic unit of meter in poetry. It is a group
of syllables, one of which is usually stressed
one accented syllable one or two unaccented
syllables.

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There are five different kinds of metrical feet
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1. The iambic meter/iambic foot

2. The trochaic meter/trochee foot

3. The anapestic meter / the anapest foot

4. The dactylic meter / the dactyl foot

5. The spondaic meter / spondee foot

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The Iambic meter

has one unaccented syllable followed by one
accented one
The sun

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Trochaic Meter

has one accented syllable followed by an
unaccented one
Lon don, fal ling

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The iambic and the trochaic are called duple
meters (double).
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Anapestic Meter

Two unstressed syllables followed by one
unaccented syllable
in ter vene, in a hut

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Dactylic Meter

One stressed syllable followed by two
unstressed syllables
en ter prise
co lor of.

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The anapestic and the dactylic are called triple
meters.
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Spondaic Meter

two stressed syllables, usually used for effect
or emphasis
true blue.

A poet can choose between writing in meter or in
free verse.
Free Verse poetry that doesnt have a regular
meter or rhyme scheme. It tries to capture the
natural rhythm of ordinary speech.

To indicate the metrical pattern of a poem by
marking the stressed and unstressed syllables is
to scan.

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RHYME Rhyme gives poems flow and rhythm,
helping the lyricist tell a story and convey a
mood.
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Rhyme is defined as

the matching of final vowel and consonant sounds
in two or more words.

There are Several Types of Rhyme

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End Rhyme

Rhymes at the end of a poetic line
I simply dont know what to do
In a world that is without you

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Internal Rhyme

Rhyming words within a line of poetry with an end
of the line sound
sister, my sister, O fleet sweet swallow
The moon never beams without bringing me dreams.

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Approximate Rhyme

words that are similar but do not rhyme exactly
Though we both feel the sting
One will lose, and the other win

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Perfect Rhyme

words that have the same number of syllables and
stresses while having the same vowel and
consonant sounds
And what wul ye doe wi your towirs and your ha
That were sae fair to see, O? Ile let thame
stand tul they doun fa

Rhyme scheme (rime skeem)
the pattern of rhyme used in a poem it is
indicated by matching lowercase letters to show
which lines rhyme.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? a
Thou art more lovely and more temperate. b
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May. a
And summer's lease hath all too short a date. b

The letter "a" notes the first line, and all
other lines rhyming with the first line. The
first line that does not rhyme with the first, or
"a" line, and all others that rhyme with this
line, is noted by the letter "b", and so on.

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STYLE

incorporates diction (the poets choice of
words), figurative language, imagery, symbolism,
and sentence length.

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Setting/Occasion

the time, place, physical details, and
circumstances in which a situation occurs
The instance/circumstances that caused the poet
to compose the poem

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Theme

common thread or repeated idea that is
incorporated throughout poem. A theme is a
thought or idea the author presents to the reader
that may be deep, difficult to understand, or
even moralistic.

The ability to recognize a theme is important
because it allows the reader to comprehend part
of the authors purpose in writing the poem.

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Speaker

the persona,the narrator, or the storyteller of a
poem created by the author It may or may not be
the poet.

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Allusions

references to a person, place, or thing in
history or another work of literature. Allusions
are often indirect or brief references to
well-known characters or events.

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Poetry lines can be divided into

Stanzas

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A stanza is a group within a poem which may have
two or many lines.
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2 lines couplet
3 lines tercet
4 lines quatrain
5 lines quintet
6 lines sestet
7 lines septet
8 lines - octave

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An Example of a Couplet

So long as men can breathe or eyes can
see,
So long as lives this, and this gives life
to thee.

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Poetry is Like No Other Genre
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It is expressive, imaginative, creative it is
magical!
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Poetry alone can encapsulate the magic of nature
a summer's breeze, the blooming of a flower the
magic of being human an intense emotional
moment etc.
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Most believe poetry is boring
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HOWEVER,

When you choose your poetry assignments, I want
you to celebrate the opportunity of glimpsing
someone elses creative energy at work. The
poets mind is a great place to visit a while! I
want you to look like this

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Robert Frost (1874 1963)

Robert Lee Frost was born in San Francisco on
March 26, 1874 and died in Boston on January 29,
1963. He was one of America's leading
20th-century poets and a four-time winner of the
Pulitzer Prize.

An essentially pastoral (countrified) poet,
Frosts verse forms are traditional - he often
said, in a dig at arch rival Carl Sandberg, that
he would as soon play tennis without a net as
write free verse - he was a pioneer in the
interplay of rhythm and meter and in the poetic
use of the vocabulary and inflections of everyday
speech. His poetry is thus both traditional and
experimental, regional and universal.

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Fire Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

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Begin with the Title Fire Ice

The alternatives in the title represent passion
and hatred. Fire has traditionally been a symbol
for passion, ardor, excitement, fervor, etc.
Ice has traditionally been a symbol for
cold-heartedness, coolness, frigidity, hatred,
extreme dislike.

From the very beginning, the reader is presented
with polar opposites! Thus, we may think the
poem will be about contradiction, disagreement,
negation, etc..

It becomes apparent that the poem is deceptively
simple on the surface.
It opens with words foretelling global doom
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
Slowly, the words come to indicate personal
experience.

From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
Fire and ice become symbolic of great human
emotions--the essence of life. Paradoxically,
these forces of destruction are emblems of life.

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But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Frost associates "fire" with "desire." Desire is
a longing or a wish. This poem may be viewed as a
death-wish. The implication is that destruction
is inevitable but the speaker doesn't care. He
does not make an issue of whether there should be
destruction. It does not matter. What does matter
is which form of destruction would be preferred.

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He is infatuated with the degree of emotion
involved. For both extremes, he relies on his own
life's experience. Fiery desire (which he
"favors") connotes passionate love--in opposition
to cold hatred. However, if he would "perish
twice," ice would also suffice for one way to go.
Ice is associated with hatred, another "great"
emotion. (He says "also great," meaning fire is
at least as "great" as ice.) With or without
destruction, what the persona really values are
the great emotions of living. To go out with both
extremes of human feeling is preferred even over
going out twice with burning love.

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Experiencing
the heights and depths of human emotion is the
point--even if it kills him.

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One cannot make a choice really between fire and
ice they are, after all, two sides of the same
coin.

Desire and hatred represent an endlessly
regenerative cycle.

Fire is directly equated with desire, the kind
that kindles antagonism and conflict. Ice is
equated with hate. Fire and ice are born in the
dark reaches of the inner soul, in the
smoldering, ice-sheathed human heart.

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The terror in the poem is so casually
understated. The understatement is most evident
in the fifth and last lines of the poem. "But if
it had to perish twice," Frost says, as if the
incineration of the world were little more than a
passing sickness. "And would suffice," he
concludes in a typically unemphatic last line.

The use of first-person pronouns in lines 3, 4,
and 6 contributes to the understatement,
suggesting that the poem is only an expression of
lightly held personal opinion. This is a
deceptive strategy of understatement since the
poem is truly about the chronic malfunction of
the human heart.

Fire and Ice" hints at the destructive powers of
the heat of love or passion and the cold of hate.
The poem presents a much more profound
distinction between the two extremes of love and
hate Frost condemns hatred as far worse than
desire.

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