Poetry Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response. Poetry has been known to employ meter and rhyme, but this is by no means necessary. Poetry is an ancient form that has gone through numerous and drastic reinvention over time. The very nature of poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly impossible to define. Poetry is writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility: the emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reaction, the tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind.

Poetry is difficult to define! We must choose a definition, so this will be it: Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response or to tell a story.

Poetic Devices Metaphor (Implicit and Explicit) Simile Personification Onomatopoeia Alliteration Assonance Rhyme Scheme

Poetic Terms Couplet Quatrain Stanza

Types of Poetry Narrative Poem Epic Poem Lyric Poem Limerick Sonnet

Alliteration Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words. “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” When to the sessions of sweet silent thoughts, I summon up remembrance of thins past…

Assonance Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in words within lines. Example: "As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives, Every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats, Every cat had seven kittens: kittens, cats, sacks and wives, How many were going to St. Ives?"

Meter Meter is the basic rhythm of a poem It consists of stressed (´) and unstressed ( ⌣ ) A foot is a basic unit of meter. The most common foot in poetry is the iamb, which is one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. Iambic pentameter is the most well known meter, made up of five iambs. “And wash this filthy witness from your hand.”

Emily Dickinson “The Belle of Amherst”

Emily Dickinson Born in Amherst, Massachusetts Lived from Wrote nearly 1800 poems She was an excellent student as a young woman She traveled when she was young. When her father died, she stopped leaving her house and lived the rest of her life there. She wrote many letters during her life of solitude. She is known as “The Belle of Amherst”

Dickinson’s Religion Grew up in a very religious community influenced by Calvinism, which holds than man is inherently sinful. She seemed to reject organized religion and the idea of original sin.

Dickinson’s Poetry Unusual use of dashes Unusual use of capitalization Exceptionally creative use of metaphor Use of broken meter (a rhythm that is not consistent) Use of near rhyme Subjects of her poetry include nature, spirituality and religion, and death

“For I have promises to keep And miles to go before I sleep And miles to go before I sleep” Robert Frost

Lived from Born in San Francisco but moved to Massachusetts; he is associated with the New England states. Father died when he was 11. His sister, two of his children, and his wife died, and these losses affected his poetry. His parents were teachers and he developed a love of literature as a child. He worked as a Latin teacher, a textile worker, and a farmer, among other jobs.

Frost’s Poetry Many poems are about nature He used everyday words and common speech patterns Setting of poetry is often New England The structure of his poems is formal –Regular meter –Regular rhyme scheme

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere”

Longfellow Born in Maine 1n 1807; died in Massachusetts in 1882 He was a professor of modern languages He was married twice; both wives died He traveled often in Europe He did not hold to any particular religion, but was influenced by Puritanism and Unitarianism. He was incredibly popular.

Longfellow’s Poetry He wrote in a clear, elegant style. He wrote about common American values –Family –Heroism Meter and rhyme are regular

Walt Whitman

Whitman’s Life He worked as a printer, a teacher, an editor, and a lecturer. He worked as a nurse during the Civil War. His first volume of poems was called Leaves of Grass.

Whitman’s poetry He often wrote about American life and democracy. He wrote about topics considered ‘unfit’ for poetry – everyday things like carpenters and blacksmiths

Robert Browning

Gerard Manley Hopkins “The World Is Charged with the Grandeur of God”

Hopkins Born in 1844 to an Anglican family in England He was influenced by John Henry Cardinal Newman and became Catholic in 1866 He entered the Jesuits in 1867 and burned his poems when he entered He worked as a parish priest and as a teacher of Latin and Greek Began writing poetry again in 1875 Died in 1889

Hopkins’ Poetry Unusual use of rhythm – he called it “sprung rhythm.” Nature is important in many of his poems. He coined words and used unusual words He extensively used alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia His Catholicism influenced his poetry

Pied Horse

William Blake Songs of Innocence Songs of Experience

William Blake English poet Wrote Songs of Innocence, poetry written from a child’s point of view. Wrote Songs of Experience, poetry written from an adult point of view. He was an accomplished artist and made engravings to illustrate his poetry. He had mystical visions both as a boy and later on; these visions influenced his poetry.

Blake’s Poetry and Religion His poems are known for recurring themes of –Good and evil –Knowledge and innocence He was “spiritual” but hated organized religion. –He opposed any kind of self-denial –He invented his own mythology –Believed people were saved by knowledge, not by faith (Gnostic)

A Blacksmith Using an Anvil