What Are Elements of Poetry? Feature Menu Form Forms of Poetry Tone Imagery Figurative Language Your Turn

Form A poet is like a sculptor. A sculptor uses tools to shape wood, stone, or metal. A poet uses words to shape a poem.

Form Read this poem aloud. How do the lengths of the lines influence the sound of the poem? Stay beautiful but dont stay down underground too long Dont turn into a mole or a worm or a root or a stone from “For Poets” by Al Young The short lines give emphasis to words like worm and stone. Short lines may also cue readers to speed up.

Form To help shape their writing, poets ask: 1. How long should the lines be? 2. Should I group the lines into stanzas? 3. Should I follow established forms or experiment with new forms? The poet’s purpose is to give the words a pleasing shape on the page and to help convey meaning.

Form A stanza is a group of lines that forms a single unit in a poem. This is my letter to the world, That never wrote to me, -- The simple news that Nature told, With tender majesty. Her message is committed To hands I cannot see; For love of her, sweet countrymen, Judge tenderly of me! “Letter to the World” by Emily Dickinson (edited by Thomas Wentworth Higginson) 1 This poem has two stanzas. 2

Form Established forms follow a traditional pattern set by other poets who lived long ago. This pattern may determine the poem’s rhythm rhyme scheme number of lines number of stanzas

Form Quick Check How does the shape of this experimental poem help you understand its meaning? My Favorite Pencil One end wipes out mistakes. The other captures ideas, making sure that people get the point. [End of Section]

Form Quick Check The poem looks like a pencil; the shape of the poem imitates its subject. My Favorite Pencil One end wipes out mistakes. The other captures ideas, making sure that people get the point.

Forms of Poetry Could you write a poem by listing four or five things found in your classroom? You could if you were writing a catalog poem— free verse that lists the poet’s thoughts or feelings on a subject.

Forms of Poetry A catalog poem is a list: On the first day of school, I see shoes. My classmates wear big shoes, small shoes, smelly shoes—shoes built for running and moving. I see desks. . . . Other kinds of poems • tell stories • honor someone or some event • express feelings • remember someone

Forms of Poetry You will read many of these forms in this collection. Express feelings formally Tell a story Express thoughts and feelings in free verse Mourn the loss of someone or something You will read many of these forms in this collection.

Forms of Poetry Quick Check What is the form of this poem? I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, . . . The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, . . . from “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman [End of Section]

Forms of Poetry Quick Check What is the form of this poem? This is a catalog poem. The poet lists many different singers. I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, . . . The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, . . . from “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman

Tone Tone reflects a poet’s attitude toward a subject. Amazed at medical technology? Saddened by his loss? Inspired by his persistence? In awe of his courage? Imagine you are writing a poem about the man in this picture. What would be your tone, or attitude?

Tone To determine a poem’s tone, ask: How do the • words • images • sounds make you feel? cold? adventurous? spooked? curious? A poet carefully chooses every word and detail to help you understand and share his or her attitude.

Tone Quick Check What is the tone of this passage from “The Highwayman”? And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, A highwayman comes riding— Riding—riding— A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn door. by Alfred Noyes [End of Section]

Tone Quick Check The spooky, And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, A highwayman comes riding— Riding—riding— A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn door. by Alfred Noyes The spooky, mysterious, tone is created by words like ghostly and details like the dark, cold night.

Imagery You can think of a poet as an artist who uses words the way a painter uses paint. clouds like tufts of wool the rock’s wrinkled face . . . a carpet of red sand The poet’s words create images, or pictures, in the reader’s mind.

Imagery Listen to this excerpt from “The Highwayman.” What images do you see? The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, The moon was a ghostly galleon, tossed upon cloudy seas, The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, And the highwayman came riding. . . . by Alfred Noyes

Is this how you imagined the scene? Imagery Is this how you imagined the scene?

Imagery sight Images in poetry focus on all of the senses. sound taste touch smell He rode with a jeweled twinkle. . . . Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn yard. They said no word to the landlord. They drank his ale instead. He scarce could reach her hand. . . . . . . his hair like moldy hay. . . .

Imagery Quick Check Beclouded The sky is low, the clouds are mean, A traveling flake of snow Across a barn or through a rut Debates if it will go. A narrow wind complains all day How some one treated him; Nature, like us, is sometimes caught Without her diadem. by Emily Dickinson (edited by Thomas Wentworth Higginson) Find examples of images in this poem that appeal to different senses. [End of Section]

Imagery Quick Check Images that appeal to the senses include Beclouded The sky is low, the clouds are mean, A traveling flake of snow Across a barn or through a rut Debates if it will go. A narrow wind complains all day How some one treated him; Nature, like us, is sometimes caught Without her diadem. by Emily Dickinson (edited by Thomas Wentworth Higginson) Images that appeal to the senses include Sight: hanging clouds, a blowing snowflake, a barn, a crown Sound: wind blowing

Figurative Language Poets also use figures of speech—language that helps make startling connections between dissimilar things. What connections are made in the following lines from “The Railway Train”? I like to see it lap the miles, And lick the valleys up, And stop to feed itself at tanks. . . . by Emily Dickinson

Figurative Language A train is compared to a horse.

Figurative Language A simile is a comparison of two unlike things using the word like, as, or resembles. There came a wind like a bugle. . . . How are these very different things alike? What meaning does the poet want us to make from this connection?

Figurative Language A metaphor compares two unlike things without using like, as, or resembles. Stars are great drops Of golden dew from “Harlem Night Song” by Langston Hughes

Figurative Language An extended metaphor is a comparison that continues through many lines or the entire poem. All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. by William Shakespeare

Figurative Language Quick Check What figure(s) of speech are used in these lines from a poem about a young horse? And we saw him, or thought we saw him, dim and gray, Like a shadow against the curtain of falling flakes. from “The Runaway” by Robert Frost [End of Section]

Figurative Language Quick Check What figure(s) of speech are used in these lines from a poem about a young horse? And we saw him, or thought we saw him, dim and gray, Like a shadow against the curtain of falling flakes. from “The Runaway” by Robert Frost Like a shadow is a simile. It uses like to compare the colt and a shadow. Curtain is a metaphor. It compares snow to a curtain, without using like, as, or resembles.

A few more definitions… Alliteration – is the use of two or more words that begin with the same consonant sound. EX: Susie sells silly string at the soda stand. Personification – gives objects and animals the ability to act like people. EX: The Breeze whispered a lullaby through the pines. Onomatopoeia – use of words to represent a real sound. EX: hiss, moo, buzz

Analyze Elements of Poetry Your Turn What makes poetry different from prose? Include different elements as examples. Identify an element of poetry that you would like to understand better, and explain why. [End of Section]

The End

Become familiar with stanzas, rhyming words and rhyme schemes (rhyme patterns). Most writing is composed using paragraphs. Poetry is composed of stanzas. A stanza is a paragraph like grouping of lines.

Rhyming words are words that make the same end vowel sound (blue/shoe) or the same end vowel and consonant sound (cat/rat). The rhyme scheme in a poem can be represented by letters. For example, call the first line a. Every other line that rhymes with the first line is also represented by the letter a. The first line that does not rhyme with a is b. Every line that rhymes with b is also b. The patterns continues, using new letters to represent each new sound at the end of a line. Continues into other stanzas.

The following short poem illustrates the labeling of a rhyme scheme. There once was a big brown cat      a                   That liked to eat a lot of mice.       b                   He got all round and fat                a                   Because they tasted so nice.         b