The Elements of Poetry

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The Elements of Poetry

• A Very Basic Introduction to Poetic Diction and
  Form

2
Poetry

• In Western Literature, poetry is the oldest of
  written art forms.
• Poetry has its roots in the oral tradition of our
  distant ancestors.
• Poetry is an integral part of the human
  condition.
• Written or oral, every culture on earth has a
  poetic tradition.

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Poetry, continued

• Epic poems are the earliest recorded literary art
  form.
• These epic poems were a continuation of an even
  older oral storytelling tradition, and the
  earliest epic poems contain vestiges of the
  earlier oral form.
• An epic poem is a long narrative poem, told in a
  formal, elevated style, that focuses on a serious
  subject and chronicles heroic deeds and events
  important to a culture.
• The first extant example of an epic poem is The
  Epic of Gilgamesh, written in cuneiform by an
  unknown Sumerian poet.
• The first Western poems were GreekHesiods
  Theogony and Homers Iliad and Odyssey.
• Homers epic poems were written in dactylic
  hexameter, a poetic form which was uniquely
  suited to the subject matter and style of the
  works Homer wrote.

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Poetry, continued

• It was in these early epic poems, and the oral
  tradition they sprang from, that Western
  Literature was born.
• For centuries, poetry was the only real literary
  art form. Like Homers epics, the plays of
  Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were written
  in verse.
• During the Classical period, poetry was written
  almost exclusively in strict closed forms (a
  closed form is one that has rigid rules for line
  length and structure).
• Lines had to be of a certain length, and contain
  a certain pattern of stressed syllables.
• During the Renaissance, poetry was also written
  in closed forms. For example, in the sixteenth
  century, William Shakespeare made unrhymed iambic
  pentameter (or blank verse) the basic unit with
  which he constructed his plays.

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Poetry, continued

• Another example of a closed form is the sonnet, a
  14-line lyric poem with either an Elizabethan or
  an Italian stanza and rhyme scheme.
• Over the centuries, a multitude of poetic forms
  have come into existence. In fact, there are far
  too many to cover in the short time we will spend
  on poetry in Web 1213.
• One especially enduring type of poem is the lyric
  poem.
• A lyric poem is a brief poem that expresses the
  personal emotions and thoughts of a single
  speaker. Although the lyric poem is written in
  first person (using the pronouns I, me, my,
  etc.), the speaker is not necessarily the poet.
• Types of lyric poems include the sonnet, the
  ode, the elegy, and the dramatic monologue.

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Poetry, continued

• Because the history of poetry writing is as
  ancient as the history of writing itself, we will
  not attempt to cover the entire arc of that
  history here.
• For the purposes of Section 6, we will focus on
  learning some of the tools poets use to construct
  poems.
• We will look a little bit at context (form), but
  mostly we will concentrate on content (the words
  themselves, and the way in which the poet uses
  them to make meaning).
• The definitions that follow this slide explain
  and give some examples of the tools we will focus
  on in Section 6.

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Definitions of Poetic Terms

• The basic unit of poetry is the word. The
  individual words in a poem are arranged into
  lines and stanzas.
• We will not talk about verses in Web 1213. The
  line is the basic unit of all poetry. A line may
  consist of a single word, or of many words,
  depending on the way the poet chooses to arrange
  her/his work.
• The word verse has on altogether different
  meaning from the word line.
• Verse any composition in lines of more or less
  regular rhythm, sometimes ending in rhymes.
• Rhythm used to create pleasurable sound patterns
  and to reinforce meanings. Repetition is one
  rhythmic device.
• Meter rhythmic pattern of stressed and
  unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

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Definitions, continued

• Stanza a poetic paragraph, made up of one or
  more lines.
• Couplet a stanza composed of two consecutive
  lines of poetry that rhyme and have the same
  meter.
• Quatrain a four-line stanza.
• Sestet a six-line stanza.
• Octave a stanza consisting of eight lines.
• Subject the main topic of a poem.
• Theme one of the central thoughts addressed in a
  poem (for example, the fleeting nature of youth).
  
• Poet-speaker the narrator of the poem.
• Tone the attitude of the poet-speaker (e.g.
  angry, sad).

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Definitions, continued

• Rhyme Scheme the pattern of rhymed words at the
  end of lines in a poem. The rhyme scheme is
  counted letter by letter and stanza by stanza (in
  the following example, the rhyme scheme is abab).
• Roses are red
• Violets are blue.
• Shakespeare is dead,
• But his words still ring true.
• Interior Rhyme rhymed words within a line.
• Scansion the analysis and visual representation
  of a poem's metrical pattern (adapted from the
  classical method of analyzing ancient Greek and
  Roman verse).

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Definitions, continued

• Allusion a reference to something outside the
  poem. There are many types of allusions.
  However, two of the most important are biblical
  allusions and classical allusions.
• Biblical Allusion a poetical reference to
  something in the Bible.
• Classical Allusion a poetical reference to
  something from Greek or Roman history or
  mythology.
• Apostrophe when the poet-speaker addresses
  something not human (like a nightingale), or a
  dead person (like an athlete dying young), as if
  it were a living person.
• Alliteration words beginning with the same
  letter which appear near each other (e.g. Loves
  Labors Lost).
• Consonance the same consonant sounds near each
  other
• Assonance the same vowel sounds near each other.

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Definitions, continued

• Image something in a poem that engages the
  senses or the imagination.
• Literal Image something that engages the senses
  (anything you can see, hear, touch, taste, or
  smell).
• Figurative Image something that engages the
  imagination.
• Symbol a person, object, image, word, or event
  that takes on added significance in addition to
  its literal meaning. Symbols come in all kinds of
  shapes and sizes. For example, a ring (in
  addition to its identity as a piece of jewelry)
  can symbolize an eternal union between two
  people.
• Universal Symbol a universal symbol is an
  image/object that takes on the same figurative
  meaning across many different works. For
  example, the vulture is a universal symbol of
  death and the ring is a universal symbol of
  eternal union between two people.

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Definitions, continued

• Symbolism the pattern of meaning created by the
  use of multiple symbols in a work.
• Simile a comparison of two things using like
  or as (for example, your breath smells like an
  outhouse).
• Metaphor a direct comparison of two things (for
  example, hey, outhouse breath).
• Extended Metaphor a comparison of two things
  which extends beyond the range of a single line.
• Conceit an exaggerated metaphor which relates
  two very dissimilar things.
• Personification applying human characteristics
  to something that isnt human (for example, the
  clouds are smiling).

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Definitions, continued

• Onomatopaeia when a wordor wordssounds like
  what it is (for example, buzz, rattle, bang).
• Denotation dictionary definition of a word.
• Connotation associated meaning words pick up
  through use.
• An example of denotative versus connotative
  meaning are the words stingy and thrifty.
  The dictionary definitions (denotative meanings)
  of these two terms are not that different.
  However, there is a world of difference in their
  connotative meanings. Calling a person thrifty
  is a compliment. Calling a person stingy is an
  insult.
• Poets take a great deal of care with the way in
  which they use the words in their poems.
  Connotative meaning is therefore an extremely
  important poetic tool. You should always think
  about the connotative meanings of the words in
  the poems that you read.

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Definitions, continued

• Elegy a mournful, contemplative lyric poem
  written to commemorate someone or something that
  is deadoften ending in a consolation.
• Dramatic Monologue a type of lyric poem in which
  a character (the poet-speaker) addresses a
  distinct but silent audience (another character
  or characters) imagined to be present in the poem
  in such a way as to reveal a dramatic situation.
• Ode a usually-lengthy lyric poem that expresses
  lofty emotions in a dignified style.
• Haiku a type of lyric poem developed by the
  Japanese which consists of 17 syllables organized
  into three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and
  five syllables.

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Definitions, continued

• Sonnet a lyric poem of 14 lines written in
  either two or four stanzas and following one of
  two forms Elizabethan or Italian.
• Elizabethan Sonnet made up of four joined
  stanzas (three quatrains and a couplet), the
  Elizabethan Sonnet follows strictly the rhyme
  scheme of abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
• Italian Sonnet made of two joined stanzas (an
  octave and a sestet), the Italian Sonnet follows
  a strict rhyme scheme in the octave of abbaabba
  the sestet varies.

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Reading Poetry

• As you read through the poems included in the
  readings for Section 6, you should focus on
  recognizing and appreciating the tools we have
  discussed in this presentation.
• You will have to focus on these tools in your
  explication (the outline and essay you will have
  to write for Section 6).
• These terms will also be a part of your Final
  Exam (the test you will take in Section 8).
• So it is important that you learn their meanings,
  and learn to identify them in the poems that you
  read for the course.