STRUCTURES OF POETRY

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STRUCTURES OF POETRY

• Types of Poems

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OVERVIEW

• The Harlem Renaissancea generation of African
  American poets, musicians and artistsrose from
  the ashes of segregation and oppression to shout
  a powerful message of equality to their
  generation and many generations that followed.
• The following poems are by these poets (Claude
  McCay and Langston Hughes) and poets who were
  influenced by them.
• The poems show the beauty and meaning of
  traditional poetic forms including
• The Sonnet
• The Ballad
• Free Verse

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SONNET

• Structure
• 14 lines
• Rhythm Iambic pentameter (5 repetitions of the
  unstressed and stressed syllables)
• One possible rhyme scheme ABBACDDC EFGEFG

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SONNET

• If We Must Die by Claude McCay
• If we must die, let it not be like hogs
• Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot
• While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
• Making their mock at our accursed lot.
• If we must die, O let us nobly die,
• So that our precious blood may not be shed
• In vain then even the monsters we defy
• Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
• O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!
• Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
• And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
• What though before us lies the open grave?
• Like men well face the murderous, cowardly pack,
• Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

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BALLAD

• Structure
• Originates from folk songs
• Passes on news or stories of war or love
• Uses simple quatrains (4-line stanzas) that can
  be any length. 
• Uses an alternating rhyme, line by line. 

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BALLAD

• Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall
• (On the bombing of a church in Birmingham,
  Alabama, 1963) "Mother dear, may I go downtown
  Instead of out to play, And march the streets
  of Birmingham In a Freedom March today?"
• "No, baby, no, you may not go, For the dogs are
  fierce and wild, And clubs and hoses, guns and
  jails Aren't good for a little child."
• "But, mother, I won't be alone. Other children
  will go with me, And march the streets of
  Birmingham To make our country free."
• "No, baby, no, you may not go, For I fear those
  guns will fire. But you may go to church instead
  And sing in the children's choir."

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BALLAD OF BIRMINGHAM (2)

• She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,
  And bathed rose petal sweet, And drawn white
  gloves on her small brown hands, And white shoes
  on her feet.
• The mother smiled to know that her child Was in
  the sacred place, But that smile was the last
  smile To come upon her face.
• For when she heard the explosion, Her eyes grew
  wet and wild. She raced through the streets of
  Birmingham Calling for her child.
• She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
  Then lifted out a shoe. "O, here's the shoe my
  baby wore, But, baby, where are you?"

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FREE VERSE

• Structure
• No rhythm
• No rhyme scheme
• Specific, vivid words and imagery

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FREE VERSE

• I lie down in the shadow.No longer the light of
  my dream before me,Above me.Only the thick
  wall.Only the shadow.My hands!My dark
  hands!Break through the wall!Find my
  dream!Help me to shatter this darkness,To smash
  this night,To break this shadowInto a thousand
  lights of sun,Into a thousand whirling dreamsOf
  sun!

•   As I Grew Older by Langston Hughes
• It was a long time ago.I have almost forgotten
  my dream.But it was there then,In front of
  me,Bright like a sun--My dream.And then the
  wall rose,Rose slowly,Slowly,Between me and my
  dream.Rose until it touched the sky--The
  wall.Shadow.I am black.