ARMT Poetry Review

ARMT TESTING Next week’s ARMT will ask you identify the different types of poetry. You will need to be familiar with the characteristics of each type listed here. ▫ballads, lyrics, epics, haikus, limericks, and sonnets

Ballads A short, musical narrative song or poem. Folk ballads, which usually tell of an exciting or dramatic episode, were passed on by word of mouth for generations before being written down. They are often about love and can be sung. The tales of Robin Hood are in ballad form.

“Betrayed” The Indian removal act gave power to use force, to make the Indians retract past Mississippi's course. The Indians transplanted, were left to pursue their life roaming free west of the river. Then later came the strife. The Civil War had ended. White people wanted land. Farmers, miners, trappers, all moved west to try their hand. The timbermen and railroaders all helped to forge the way. Indian land, prime territory was where they meant to stay. The government had promised the Indian's salvation, so they signed a treaty to stay on a reservation. In exchange they'd get a payment but promises weren't kept. In desperate fighting for redress many tears were wept. Well-armed and well-fed soldiers had effectively destroyed the independent Indians now scattered and deployed. Their way of life has disappeared, with it old traditions. Now living in a white mans world under new conditions. It's so hard to find employment. They keep it all inside, malnutrition and dysfunction alcohol, suicide. Betrayed, their freedom stolen, they feel isolation. Indians endure their lives in quiet desperation.

Lyric Poems Poems, usually short, that express strong personal feelings about a subject or event. A lyric poem does not tell a story but address the reader directly and portrays the poet’s feelings and state of mind. Poe’s “The Raven” is a lyric poem. “Dying” (aka I heard a fly buzz when I died ) by Emily Dickinson 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.

Epic Poetry A long, narrative poem, written in a dignified style, that celebrates the adventures and achievements of one or more heroic figures of legend, history, or religion. The Greek poet Homer’s “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” are both examples of epic poetry.

Haiku Originally a Japanese form of poetry that has three lines and seventeen syllables. The first and third lines have five syllables each; the middle line has seven syllables. Traditionally, haikus are written about nature. “Awakening” Silver dawn awakes the new day is born again innocent and fresh

Limerick A light humorous poem with a regular metrical scheme and a rhyme scheme of aabba. It is usually five lines. There was a Young Lady whose chin Resembled the point of a pin: So she had it made sharp, And purchased a harp, And played several tunes with her chin. - Edward Lear

Sonnet A poem containing 14 lines. Sonnets have strict patterns of rhyme and usually deal with a single theme or idea. Shakespeare wrote the most famous sonnets in the English language.

Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.