Poetry Terms #3

Blank Verse unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse is the meter of most of Shakespeare’s plays. It resembles the pattern of natural speech. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! - from Macbeth

Didactic Poem a poem which is intended primarily to teach a lesson. The Cold Within Six humans trapped by happenstance In dark and bitter cold Each possessed a stick of wood-- Or so the story's told. Their dying fire in need of logs, But the first one held hers back, For, of the faces around the fire, She noticed one was black. The next one looked cross the way Saw one not of his church, And could not bring himself to give The fire his stick of birch. The third one sat in tattered clothes He gave his coat a hitch, Why should his log be put to use To warm the idle rich? The rich man just sat back and thought Of wealth he had in store, And keeping all that he had earned From the lazy, shiftless poor. The black man's face bespoke revenge As the fire passed from his sight, For he saw in his stick of wood A chance to spite the white. And the last man of this forlorn group Did nought except for gain, Giving just to those who gave Was how he played the game, Their sticks held tight in death's stilled hands Was proof enough of sin; They did not die from cold without-- They died from cold within. -- James Patrick Kinney

a poem which employs a dramatic form or some element or elements of dramatic techniques as a means of achieving poetic ends. It tells a story or dramatizes a situation. Dramatic Poem

Extended Metaphor an implied analogy, or comparison, which is carried throughout a stanza or an entire poem. In “The Bait,” John Donne compares a beautiful woman to fish bait and men to fish who want to be caught by the woman. Since he carries these comparisons all the way through the poem, these are considered “extended metaphors.”

Lyric Poem Narrative Poem any short poem that presents a single speaker who expresses thoughts and feelings. Dying (excerpt) I heard a fly buzz when I died; The stillness round my form Was like the stillness in the air Between the heaves of storm. by Emily Dickinson a non-dramatic poem which tells a story or presents a narrative, whether simple or complex, long or short. Epics and ballads are examples of narrative poems.

situation or action or feeling that appears to be contradictory but on inspection turns out to be true, or at least to make sense. I dwell in a house that vanished many a summer ago. ~ Robert Frost, Ghost House PARADOX

Pun a play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings. Puns can have serious as well as humorous uses. Poet John Donne, whose name rhymed with “done,” often punned his name in his own poetry. In one of his hymns, he even puns the name of his wife Anne More, with the line “Thou hast not done, For I have more.”