1. Basic Elements of Poetry
AP English IV:
Literature & Composition

2. Terms You Should Already Know
Alliteration
Slant Rhyme
True Rhyme
Assonance
Consonance
Metaphor
Personification
Synecdoche
Allusion
Denotation
Free Verse
Oxymoron
Couplet
Iambic Pentameter
Imagery
Pun
Rhythm
Simile
Stanza
Onomatopoeia
Connotation
Blank Verse

3. Terms You Need To Know
Internal Rhyme vs. End Rhyme: End rhyme occurs only at the end of the line whereas internal rhyme occurs within the lines.
Cacophony: Harsh, discordant, or unpleasing sounds
Euphony: Pleasing, melodious, pleasant sounds

4. Need To Know Terms, cont.
Meter: A rhythm accomplished by using a certain number of beats or syllables per line
Apostrophe: A speaker directly addresses something or someone not living, as a lady in a tapestry or the wind
Epigram: A short quotation or verse that precedes a poem that sets a tone, provides a setting or gives some other context for the poem

5. Need To Know Terms, cont. Structure: The way the poem is built
Tone: The emotional quality of poem that an refer to the speaker’s attitude about a particular thing or idea
Unity: The degree to which elements of a poem work together to produce a coherent effect

6. Need To Know Terms, cont.
Caesura: Some lines of poetry call for internal pauses that are usually indicated by a period, a semicolon, a dash, or other mark of punctuation
Enjambment: Often called a run-on, is indicated by an absence of punctuation and eliminates the need to pause.
Sentence structure most often determines enjambment, but a poet may deliberately use it to let words tumble uncontrollably to suggest the speaker’s emotional state.

7. Type of Meter
Iamb (iambic) = one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable (the most common meter in English poetry)
Trochee (trochaic) = one stressed syllable followed unstressed syllable
Anapest (anapestic) = two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable
Dactyl (dactylic) = one unstressed syllable followed by two stressed syllable

8. Measures of Meter
Scansion = the method for knowing what type of meter is present
Metrical line = consists of one or more feet and is named for the number of feet in it
Monometer = one foot
Dimeter = two feet
Trimeter = three feet
Tetrameter = four feet
Pentameter = five feet
Hexameter = six feet
Heptameter = seven feet

9. Stanza Types Couplet = Two line stanza Tercet = Three line stanza
Quatrain = Four line stanza
Quintain = Five line stanza
Sestet = Six line stanza
Septet = Seven line stanza
Octave = Eight line stanza

10. Common Fixed Form Poems
Haiku: A tradition Japanese fixed form. It is structured in three lines, with five syllables in the first, seven in the syllables in the second, and five syllables in the third. The intention of a Haiku poem is to capture a moment in time or a perceived aspect of nature.

11. Common Fixed Form Poems
Sestina: A complicated French form of poetry traditionally consisting of six six line stanzas followed by a tercet called an envoy to equal thirty-nine lines.

12. Common Fixed Form Poems
Sonnet: Fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, generally with either of two traditional rhyme schemes: Shakespearean/English or Petrarchan/Italian.
English = ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Italian = ABBAABBA CDECDE

13. Common Fixed Form Poems
Villanelle: Consists of nineteen lines composed of five tercets (rhyme scheme = ABA) and a concluding quatrain (rhyme scheme = ABAA). Lines one and three of the first tercet serve as refrains in a pattern that alternates through line fifteen. This pattern is repeated again in lines eighteen and nineteen.
*(Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night)

14. Other Types of Poems
Narrative: The poet tells a story with characters and a plot.
Lyric: Expresses love, inner emotions, tends to be personal; usually written in first person.
Ballad: A short poem in song format (sometimes with refrains) that tells a story.
Elegy: A poem, the subject of which is the death of a person or, in some cases, an idea.
Epic: Long, adventurous tale with a hero, generally on a quest.

15. Other Types of Poems, cont.
Ode: An ancient Greek form of poetic song, is a celebratory poem. Highly lyrical or profoundly philosophical, odes pay homage to whatever the poet may hold dear-another person, a place, an object, or an abstract idea.
Prose Poem: Looks like a paragraph, even having a jagged right margin. It may even read like a paragraph, but it retains poetic elements, such as imagery, figurative language, and concise diction.

16. 5 Tips on How to Read a Poem
Understand the difference between the speaker and the author of a poem.
The speaker, or voice, or mask, or persona that speaks a poem is NOT usually identical with the poet that writes it.
The author assumes a role, or counterfeits the speech of a person in a particular situation.

17. 5 Tips on How to Read a Poem
2. Read the poem out loud in your head.
This means reading it slowly, pronouncing each word in your mind’s ear, skipping not a single syllable or mark of punctuation, paying attention to built-in pauses and to line and stanza breaks.

18. 5 Tips on How to Read a Poem
3. Read the poem at least three times. Poetry is hard to understand, reading it multiple times will allow you to see more in the poem with each pass.
*When you read, don’t pause after every line, follow the grammar or read a stanza at a time.

19. 5 Tips on How to Read a Poem
4. Think about the possible meaning of the title. It may contain the clue needed to crack open the world within the poem.

20. 5 Tips on How to Read a Poem
5. Annotate the poem.
Keep track of figurative language, tone, imagery, themes, etc. within the margins of the poem itself. This will allow you to better understand the poem and discuss its meaning.

21. Annotating the Poem: The STIFS Method
S = Speaker
Identify the speaker and any particular character traits of the speaker.
Who is the speaker addressing?
What is the speaker’s topic, argument, etc.?

22. Annotating the Poem: The STIFS Method
T = Tone
What is the dominant tone in the poem?
Does a shift in tone occur? If so, where is it and why do you think it occurs?

23. Annotating the Poem: The STIFS Method
I = Imagery
Isolate the major images using your five senses (See, Smell, Taste, Feel, Hear).
What is suggested by the imagery? Emotion? Idea?

24. Annotating the Poem: The STIFS Method
F = Figurative Language
Find an understand the figurative language evident in the poem.
Determine what’s really being said in each example and how that relates to other elements in the poem.

25. Annotating the Poem: The STIFS Method
S = Sound
What sound elements are most striking?
Why?
* You should be looking for sound repetitions, cacophony/euphony, or any element of sound that reinforces meaning.

26. How does a poem convey meaning?
The Bottom Line
How does a poem convey meaning?

27. Top Hit AP Poems Assignment
Read and Annotate your poem
Include small bio (dates, schools/degrees, poetic movement, and photo) of your poet
Break down the elements of your poem using the STIFS method. (at least one slide per letter)
You must either read poem or include clip of reading.
THIS WILL BE A MAJOR GRADE!
Test over poems at end of presentations!