poetic form

Poetic Form

What is ‘form’?

Form

Punctuation Rhyme

Syllables & meterShape & stanzas

The right glass for the right drink!

The right form for the right poetic expression!

Haiku

Sonnet

Ballad

Form

Punctuation Rhyme

Syllables & meterShape & stanzas

Shape & Stanzas

You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find anyyou'll want to go down.In that case, of course, you'll head straight out of town.

It's opener therein the wide open air.

Concrete Poetry

Form

Punctuation Rhyme

Syllables & meterShape & stanzas

Line Length & Syllables

•poem

•poetry

•relief

•recommend

•entertainment

1

3

2

3

4

Haiku

•Traditional Japanese form

•Present tense

•Captures a visually powerful moment

•17 syllables over 3 lines (5,7,5)

•Translation can be an issue

The morning paperHarbinger of good and ill- I step over it

Freeway overpass-Blossoms to graffiti onFog-wrapped June mornings

First Autumn morning:The mirror I stare into Shows my father’s face

An old pond!A frog jumps in – The sound of water

scent of plum blossomson the misty mountain patha big rising sun

Spring rain -Small shells on a small beachglittering

Your Turn

•POem

•PO et ry

•re LIEF

•Re comm END

•En ter TAIN ment

Stressed & unstressed Syllables

•Iambic - Elaine

•Trochaic - Alfred

•Dactylic - Cameron

•Anapestic – Marianne

•Spondaic - Steven

Iambic Poetry

‘Come live with me and be my love’Christopher Marlowe

‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’William Shakespeare

Trochaic Poetry

‘With their weapons and their war-gear, Painted like the leaves of Autumn,

Painted like the sky of morning, Wildly glaring at each other; In their faces stem defiance,

In their hearts the feuds of ages’

Henry Longfellow

Dactylic Poetry‘Half a league half a league,

Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred: 'Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns' he said:

Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred’

Alfred Tennyson

Anapestic Poetry

‘There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said, "It is just as I feared!

Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and a Wren,

Have all built their nests in my beard’

Edward Lear

Spondaic Poetry

A serious poem cannot be solely spondaic. It would be almost impossible to construct a

poem entirely of stressed syllables.

Therefore, the spondee usually occurs within a poem having another dominant rhythm scheme.

One foot per line: monometer Two feet per line : dimeter

Three feet per line : trimeterFour feet per line : tetrameter Five feet per line : pentameter

Six feet per line : hexameter

Type + Number = Meter Types of Poetic FeetIambic (1 unstressed + 1 stressed)

Trochaic (1 stressed + 1 unstressed)

Anapestic (2 unstressed + 1 stressed)

Dactylic (1 stressed + 2 unstressed)

Spondaic (all syllables equal)

Number of feet per line

• Monometer• Dimeter• Trimeter• Tetrameter • Pentameter • Hexameter

Q: If a poem had 1 foot per line, and the foot was iambic (1 unstressed + 1

stressed), what type of poem would it be?

A: Iambic monometer

Q: If a poem had 4 feet per line, and the foot was trochaic (1 stressed +1

unstressed), what type of poem would it be?

A: Trochaic tetrameter

And did those feet in ancient timeWalk upon England's mountains green?And was the holy Lamb of GodOn England's pleasant pastures seen?

William Blake

And DID those FEET in ANcient TIME

Walk UPon ENgland's MOUNtains GREEN?

And WAS the HOly LAMB of GOD

On ENgland's PLEASant PAStures SEEN?

Because I could not stop for Death,He kindly stopped for me;The carriage held but just ourselvesAnd Immortality.

Emily Dickinson

BeCAUSE I COULD not STOP for DEATH,he KINDly STOPPED for ME;The CArriage HELD but JUST ourSELVESAnd IMmorTAliTY.

Emily Dickinson

Form

Punctuation Rhyme

Syllables & meterShape & stanzas

Limerick

SonnetMy mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

SonnetMy mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; ACoral is far more red than her lips' red; B

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; A If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. B

I have seen roses damasked, red and white, C But no such roses see I in her cheeks; D

And in some perfumes is there more delight C Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. D

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know E That music hath a far more pleasing sound; F

I grant I never saw a goddess go; E My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. F

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare G As any she belied with false compare. G

Form

Punctuation Rhyme

Syllables & meterShape & stanzas

Enjambment & End-sopped lines

In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree :Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

License my roving hands, and let them go Before, behind, between, above, below. O my America! my new-found-land, My kingdom, safeliest when with one man manned,

My mine of precious stones, my empery, How blest am I in this discovering thee!

John Donne