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

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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]

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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]

13. 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

14. 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?

15. 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.

16. 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]

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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

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

21. 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

22. 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]

23. 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

24. 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

25. Figurative Language
A train is compared to a horse.

26. 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?

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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]

30. 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.

31. 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]

32. The End