POETRY
A type of
literature that
expresses ideas,
feelings, or tells
a story in a
specific form
(usually using
lines and stanzas)
Most poems are March
written in lines. A blue day
A group of lines in A blue jay
a poem is called a
stanza. And a good
beginning.
Stanzas separate
ideas in a poem.
They act like One crow,
paragraphs. Melting snow –
This poem has two Spring’s winning!
stanzas.
By Eleanor
Farjeon
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A couplet is a poem, or
stanza in a poem,
written in two lines.
Usually rhymes.
A complete idea is
usually expressed in a The Jellyfish
couplet, or in a long Who wants my jellyfish?
poem made up of many I’m not sellyfish!
couplets. By Ogden Nash
Chocolate candy is sweet and yummy
It goes down smoothly in my tummy!
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A tercet is a
poem, or stanza,
written in three
lines.
Usually rhymes.
Lines 1 and 2 can Winter Moon
rhyme; lines 1 and How thin and sharp is the moon
3 can rhyme; tonight!
sometimes all 3 How thin and sharp and ghostly white
lines rhyme. Is the slim curved crook of the moon
tonight!
By Langston Hughes
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A quatrain is a poem,
or stanza, written in
four lines.
Thequatrain is the
most common form of The Lizard
stanza used in poetry.
The lizard is a timid thing
Usually rhymes. That cannot dance or fly or sing;
He hunts for bugs beneath the floor
Can be written in And longs to be a dinosaur.
variety of rhyming By John Gardner
patterns.
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Tella story. It is a story told in verse, by a
speaker or narrator.
There is a plot … something happens; because
of this, something else happens.
Can be true or fictional.
Poems vary in treatment of character and
setting.
Forms of narrative poetry include:
ballad
Epic
social
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Ballads, one of the earliest forms of literature,
emphasizes the story rather than the setting or
characters.
Characterized by short stanzas and simple words,
usually telling a heroic or a tragic story.
They are divided into two major types:
Folk Ballads which are meant to be sung
Literary Ballads which are meant to be printed and read.
Major themes found in ballads include love, especially
unrequited love, revenge, courage, and death.9
When John Henry was a tiny little baby
Sitting on his mama’s knee,
He picked up a hammer and a little piece of steel
Saying, “Hammer’s going to be the death of me, Lord, Lord,
Hammer’s going to be the death of me.”
John Henry was a man just six feet high.
Nearly two feet and a half across his chest.
He’d hammer with a nine-pound hammer all day
And never get tired and want to rest. Lord, Lord,
And never get tired and want to rest.
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Very long narrative (story) poem that tells of the
adventures of a hero who is a symbol of
strength, virtue, and courage in the face of
conflict.
Purpose is to help the reader understand the
past and be inspired to choose good over evil.
Some are VERY long – for example, The Odyssey
by Homer, (written as 12 books) has over 6,213
lines in the first half alone!
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LyricPoetry is short poetry usually
expressing on emotion.
Poems are shorter than epic poems.
Tend to express the personal feelings of one
speaker (often the poet).
Give you a feeling that they could be sung.
Sonnets, elegies, odes, and songs are all
examples of Lyric Poetry.
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Most sonnets are in a fixed form of 14 lines
of 10 syllables.
The theme of the poem is summed up in the
last two lines.
Can be about any subject, but usually are
about love or philosophy.
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The Shakespearean sonnet is a fourteen line
poem.
The format of a Shakespearean sonnet
consists of three quatrains (a four line stanza
of verse) and ending in a couplet (a two line
stanza of verse).
The rhyme scheme is as follows: abab cdcd
efef gg.
The first three quatrains of the poem set up
a conflict or situation for the poem which is
usually resolved or explained in the final
couplet.
Example from Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare:
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 dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee. 15
A form a Lyric Poetry characterized by giving
praise or showing appreciation for a person,
place, thing, or idea.
Oftenuses exalted language in praise or
celebration.
Can be serious or humorous.
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A poem lamenting the death of a person or a
situation to express grief or mourning for
someone who has died
somber, serious, ending on a peaceful note
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Elegy for Anne Frank
Elegy
by Jessica Smith
example… You blossomed and grew
between the quiet gray walls
of your attic home.
A sidewalk-surrounded flower
pushed up through the cracks,
petals straining for
the light, but your
roots held you down.
In the dim light of your room
you made family trees,
the continuing lives
comforting you in ways
your mother could not.
While concentration camps
built bonfires with the
bones of your neighbors,
you dreamed of the sun and
the love you’d find when the doors
of your prison were unlocked.
When I took your short life from your diary,
I could feel your heartbeat
pulse with my own,
and every breath you took
went into my own lungs,
every desire you felt,
I felt, too.
Your life was held by four silent years,
surrounding you as the four walls did.
And before the last bomb fell,
destroying the last of your love and light,
you died.
And I am thankful.
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Isjust that – free!
Lines of poetry written without rules; no
regular beat or rhyme.
Unrhymed poetry.
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POINT OF VIEW IN
POETRY
POET SPEAKER
• The poet is the author • The speaker of the
of the poem. poem is the
“narrator” of the
poem.
Hello!
Hi!
“Voice” is the speaker in a poem. The
speaker can be the poet himself or a
character he created in the poem. There can
be one speaker or many speakers.
Human character in poem as speaker
Object or animal as speaker
More than one speaker
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The poet has an “author’s purpose” when he writes a
poem. The purpose can be to:
Share feelings (joy, sadness, anger, fear, loneliness)
Tell a story
Send a message (theme - something to think about)
Be humorous
Provide description* (e.g., person, object, concept)
*Although description is important in all poems, the focus of some
poems is the description itself rather than feelings, story-telling,
message, or humor.
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Mood is the atmosphere, or
emotion, in the poem
created by the poet.
Can be happy, angry, silly,
sad, excited, fearful or
thoughtful.
Poet uses words and images
to create mood.
Author’s purpose helps
determine mood.
(See slides 65-72 for
examples.)
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To find meaning in a poem, readers ask questions as they read.
There are many things to pay attention to when reading a
poem:
Title – Provides clues about – topic, mood, speaker, author’s
purpose?
Rhythm – Fast or slow? Why?
Sound Devices – What effects do they have?
Imagery – What pictures do we make in our minds?
Figures of Speech – What do they tell us about the subject?
Voice – Who is speaking - poet or character; one voice or more?
Author’s Purpose – Sending message, sharing feelings, telling
story,
being funny, being descriptive?
Mood – Happy, sad, angry, thoughtful, silly, excited, frightened?
Plot – What is happening in the poem?
Remember, to make meaning, readers must make connections
and tap into their background knowledge and prior experiences
as they read. 35
What is poetry? Who knows?
Not a rose, but the scent of a rose;
Not the sky, but the light in the sky;
Not the fly, but the gleam of the fly;
Not the sea, but the sound of the sea;
Not myself, but what makes me
See, hear, and feel something that prose
Cannot: and what it is, who knows?
By Eleanor Farjeon
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