Elements of Poetry
What is poetry? https://www.flocabulary.com/unit/ what-is-poetry/video/
William wordsworth said poetry is… “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” and that poetry can be an attempt to describe “what is deeply felt and is essentially unsayable.” Paradoxical!
Poetry is lofty thought or impassioned feeling expressed in imaginative words. Poetry uses verse writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically (but not always) having a rhyme. Authors use prose written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure. Which means what?
Poetic elements include (but are never limited to!)… Figurative language- language based on some sort of comparison that is not literally true. Literal language states the facts. Figurative is expressive. Personification- A type of metaphor in which nonhuman things or qualities are talked about as if they were human. Example: The wind danced over our necks.
Elements Continued Assonance- repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in words that are close together. (Creates musical and rhythmic effects). Example: “And so all the night tide, I lie down by the side, or my darling, my darling, my life, and my bride.” –Edgar Allan Poe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkYNwY oluKY Alliteration- repetition of similar consonant sounds in words that are close together. Example: “Where the quail is whistling betwixt the woods and the wheat-lot.”
Elements Continued Sonnet- Fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in iambic pentameter. Consists of 3 quatrains and ends with a couplet. Iambic pentameter- A line of poetry made up of five iambs. An iamb is a metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. (Example: De-ny, or ex-pect).
Elements continued Rhyme Scheme- The recorded pattern of rhyme in a poem using letters of the alphabet. Example: abab– cdcd—efef, etc. Couplet- Two consecutive lines of poetry that form a unit, often emphasized by rhythm or rhyme. Free Verse- Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme. Internal Rhyme- Rhymes that occur within lines.
Elements continued End Rhyme- Words that rhyme at the end of a line. Refrain- Repeating words, phrases, lines, or groups of lines in a poem. Onomatopoeia- Use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning. Example: buzz, clap, slash Pun- Play on the multiple meanings of a word or on two words that sound alike but have different meanings. Example: When is a doctor most annoyed? When he runs out of patients.
Elements continued Rhythm- Musical quality in language produced by repetition. Diction- Writer’s or speaker’s choice of words. Tone- Attitude a writer takes toward the reader, a subject, or a character. Metaphor- A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without using like or as.
Different Styles of poetry… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xkk71rhQpo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv5fggapRwQ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/10953205/Can-you- tell-the-difference-between-TS-Eliot-and-rap-lyrics.html http://www.sporcle.com/games/the_hmh_project/shakespeare-or- hip-hop