Introduction to Poetry

Poetry vs. Prose

• Poetry Defies simple

definition Can be written

in meter or verse

Occurs in many forms

• ProseThe ordinary

form of written language

Occurs in two major forms• Fiction• Nonfiction

“When You Are Old”

When you are old and gray and full of sleepAnd nodding by the fire, take down this bookAnd slowly read, and dream of the soft lookYour eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad graceAnd loved your beauty with love false or trueBut one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

Poem…continued…

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fledAnd paced upon the mountains

overheadAnd hid his face amid a crowd of

stars.—William Butler Yeats

Types of Poetry

Narrative: non-dramatic, objective verse with regular rhyme scheme and meter, which relates a story or narrative

“Honor be to Mudjekeewis!”Cried the warriors, cried the old men,When he came in triumph homewardWith the sacred Belt of Wampum,From the regions of the North-Wind,From the kingdom of Wabasso,From the land of the White Rabbit.

He had stolen the Belt of WampumFrom the neck of Mishe-Mokwa,From the Great Bear of the mountains,From the terror of the nations,As he lay asleep and cumbrousOn the summit of the mountains,Like a rock with mosses on it,Spotted brown and gray with mosses.

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Hiawatha”

Types of Poetry

• Lyric: subjective, reflective poetry with regular rhyme scheme, which reveals the poet’s thoughts and feelings to create a single, unique impression

When I was one-and-twentyI heard a wise man say,

“Give crowns and pounds and guineas,But not your heart away;

Give pearls away and rubiesBut keep your fancy free.”

But I was one-and-twenty,No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twentyI heard him say again,

“The heart out of the bosomWas never given in vain;

’Tis paid with sighs a plentyAnd sold for endless rue.”

And I am two-and-twenty,And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.

—A. E. Housman, “When I Was One-and-Twenty”

Types of Poetry

• Ode (a form of lyric poetry): elaborate lyric verse, which deals seriously with a dignified theme

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,We will remember them. —Lawrence Binyon, “Ode of Remembrance”

Types of Poetry

• Blank Verse: unrhymed lines of regular rhythm (usually iambic pentameter)

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrowCreeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded time;And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief

candle!Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,That struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then is heard no more. It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.

—William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, scene v

Types of Poetry

• Free Verse: unrhymed lines without regular rhythm

Against the rubber tongues of cows and the hoeing hands of men

Thistles spike the summer airOr crackle open under a blue-black pasture

Every one a revengeful burstOf resurrection, a grasped fistfulOf splintered weapons and Icelandic frost thrust

up

From the underground stain of a decayed Viking.They are like pale hair and the gutturals of

dialects.Every one manages a plume of blood.

Then they grow gray, like men.Mown down, it is a feud. Their sons appear,Stiff with weapons, fighting back over the same

ground.—Ted Hughes, “Thistles”

Types of Poetry

• Epic: a long, dignified narrative poem, which gives the account of a hero important to his nation or race

Hear me! The Spear-Danes in days gone byand the kings who ruled them had courage and

greatness.We have heard of these princes’ heroic campaigns.There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of many tribes,a wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among

foes.This terror of the hall-troops had come far.A foundling to start with, he would flourish later onas his powers waxed and his worth was proved.In the end each clan on the outlying coastsbeyond the whale-road had to yield to himand begin to pay tribute. That was one good king.

—Seamus Heaney (translator), Beowulf

Types of Poetry

• Ballad: simple, narrative verse that tells a story to be sung or recited; the folk ballad develops over many years, while the literary ballad has a single author

When Robin Hood and Little John,

Down a down a down a down,

Went oer yon bank of broom,

Said Robin Hood bold to Little John,

We have shot for many a pound.

Hey down a down a down a down!—Traditional, “Robin Hood”

More Types of Poetry

• Idyll or Pastoral: lyric poetry describing the life of the shepherd in pastoral, bucolic, idealistic terms

Come live with me and be my Love,And we will all the pleasures proveThat hills and valleys, dales and fieldsOr woods or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocksAnd see the shepherds feed their flocksBy shallow rivers, to whose fallsMelodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of rosesAnd a thousand fragrant posies;A cap of flowers, and a kirtleEmbroidered all with leaves of myrtle.

—Christopher Marlowe,“The Passionate Shepherd to His Nymph”

More Types of Poetry

• Villanelle: a French verse form with very strict rules, calculated to appear simple and spontaneous: five tercets and a final quatrain, rhyming aba aba aba aba aba abaa. Lines 1,6,12,18 and 4,9,15,19 are refrain

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Though wise men at their end know dark is right,Because their words had forked no lightning theyDo not go gentle into that good night.Good men, the last wave by, crying how brightTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,Do not go gentle into that good night.Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sightBlind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light.And you, my father, there on the sad height,Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.Do not go gentle into that good night.Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

—Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”

More Types of Poetry

• Light Verse: a general category of poetry written to entertain, such as some lyric poetry, epigrams, and limericks. It can also have a serious side, as in parody or satire

I never saw a purple cow;I never hope to see oneBut I can tell you, anyhow,I’d rather see than be one!

—Gelett Burgess, “The Purple Cow: Reflections on a Mythic Beast Who’s

Quite Remarkable, at Least”

Even More Types of Poetry

• Haiku: Japanese verse in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, often depicting a delicate image

Whitecaps on the bay:A broken signboard bangingIn the April wind.

—Richard Wright

Even MoreTypes of Poetry

• Concrete poetry: poetry in which the layout of the words adds to or reinforces the meaning

Lord, Who createdst man in wealth and store,Though foolishly he lost the same,

Decaying more and more,Till he became

Most poore:With Thee

O let me rise,As larks, harmoniously,

And sing this day Thy victories:Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did beginne;And still with sicknesses and shame

Thou didst so punish sinne,That I becameMost thinne.With Thee

Let me combine,And feel this day Thy victorie;For, if I imp my wing on Thine,

Affliction shall advance the flight in me.—George Herbert, “Easter Wings”

Even MoreTypes of Poetry

• Limerick: humorous nonsense verse in five anapestic lines rhyming aabba; lines 1, 2 and 5 have three feet, lines 3 and 4 have two feet

There once was a man from NantucketWho kept all his cash in a bucket. His daughter, named Nan, Ran away with a man,And, as for the bucket, Nantucket.

—Anonymous, “The Man from Nantucket”

Rhyme • Repetition of sounds at the ends of words

• End rhyme– Occurs at the end of a line

• Internal Rhyme – Occurs when rhyming words fall within a line

• Exact rhyme– The use of identical rhyming sounds

• Slant Rhyme – The use of sounds that are similar but not identical

Examples of Rhyme• End rhyme

My weekend was like any other;I went to a movie with my mother.

• Internal rhyme I enjoyed the shade in the hidden glade.

• Exact rhymeLove and dove; slow and flow

• Slanted rhymeProve and glove; soul and foul

Rhyme Scheme• The regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem

or stanza• To indicate rhyme scheme, assign each final

sound in the poem or stanza a different letter

There’s little joy in life for me, aAnd little terror in the grave; bI’ve lived the parting hour to see aOf one I would have died to save. b

—Charlotte Brontë, “On the Death of Anne Brontë”

EXAMPLE:

The rhyme scheme for this

stanza is:

a b a b

Stanza

• A small group of lines in a poem, seen as a unit

• Usually separated by spaces

• Often function like paragraphs in prose

• Each states and develops one main idea

StanzaI cannot explain the sadnessThat’s fallen on my breast.An old, old fable haunts me,And will not let me rest.

The air grows cool in the twilight,And softly the Rhine flows on;The peak of a mountain sparklesBeneath the setting sun.

—Heinrich Heine, “Die Lorelei”

Types of Stanzas•Stanzas are commonly

named according to the number of lines that are found in them

Types of Stanzas

Couplet—two-line stanzaTercet—three-line stanzaQuatrain—four-line stanzaCinquain—five-line stanzaSestet—six-line stanzaHeptasitch—seven-

line stanzaOctet—eight-line

stanza

Meter/Scansion• The rhythmic pattern of a poem• Determined by the number and types of

stresses, or beats, in each line• To describe the meter of a poem, scan its

lines; scanning involves marking the stressed syllables and unstressed syllables

Stressed and Unstressed Syllables • Each stressed syllable is marked with a slanted

line, and each unstressed syllable is marked with a horseshoe symbol

• The stresses are then divided by vertical lines into groups called feet

I ween / that, when / the grave’s / dark wall

Did first / her form / retain,

They thought / their hearts / could ne’er / recall

The light / of joy / again.

—Emily Brontë, “Song”

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Types of Feet

• Iamb: a foot with one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable, as in the word “afraid”

Types of Feet

• Trochee: a foot with one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable, as in the word “heather”

Types of Feet

• Anapest: a foot with two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable, as in the word “disembark”

Types of Feet

• Dactyl: a foot with one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, as in the word “solitude”

Types of Feet

• Spondee: a foot with two stressed syllables, as in the word “workday”

•A line in poetry is described as iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic, or spondaic according to the kind of foot that appears most often in the line. Lines are also described in terms of the number of feet that occur in them.

Monometer• Verse written in one-foot lines

Sound the flute!Now it’s mute.Birds delightDay and night.

—William Blake, “Spring”

Dimeter• Verse written in two-foot lines

O Rose thou art sick.The invisible wormThat flies in the nightIn the howling storm:Has found out thy bedOf crimson joy:And his dark secret

loveDoes thy life destroy.

—William Blake, “The Sick Rose”

Trimeter• Verse written in three-foot lines

I went to the Garden of LoveAnd saw what I never have

seen:A Chapel was built in the

midst,Where I used to play on the

green.—William Blake, “The Garden of

Love”

Tetrameter• Verse written in four-foot lines

I wandered thro’ each charter’d streetNear where the charter’d Thames does

flowAnd mark in every face I meetMarks of weakness, marks of woe.

—William Blake, “The Little Black Boy”

Pentameter• Verse written in five-foot lines

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.—William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Hexameter• Verse written in six-foot lines

He passeth by; and his weak spirit failsTo think how they may ache in icy hoods and mails.

—John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes”

Heptameter• Verse written in seven-foot lines

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,

But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.

—Ernest Lawrence Thayer, “Casey at the Bat”

Octometer• Verse written in eight-foot lines

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary.

—Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”

Sonnets• A sonnet is a 14-line lyric poem with a single theme.

• Sonnets vary but are usually written in iambic pentameter.

Italian Sonnet vs. English Sonnet(Petrarchan)Divided into two parts:

octave and sestetRhyme scheme is

abba abba cde cde orabba abba cd cd cd

Octave proposes a question, states a problem or presents a brief narrative

Sestet answers the question, solves the problem or comments on the narrative

(Shakespearean)Divided into four parts:

3 quatrains and a couplet

Rhyme scheme isabab cdcd efef gg

Each of the three quatrains usually explores a different variation of the main theme

The couplet presents a summarizing or concluding statement

Italian (Petrarchian) Sonnet

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.I love thee to the depth and breadth and heightMy soul can reach, when feeling out of sightFor the ends of Being and ideal Grace.I love thee to the level of every day’sMost quiet need, by sun and candlelight.I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.I love thee with the passion put to useIn my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.I love thee with a love I seemed to loseWith my lost saints—I love thee with the breath,Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,I shall but love thee better after death.

—Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnets from the Portuguese 43”

English (Shakespearian) Sonnet

When in the chronicle of wasted timeI see descriptions of the fairest wights,And beauty making beautiful old rhymeIn praise of ladies dead and lovely knights,Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty’s best,Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,I see their antique pen would have express’dEven such a beauty as you master now.So all their praises are but propheciesOf this our time, all you prefiguring;And, for they look’d but with divining eyes,They had not skill enough your worth to sing:For we, which now behold these present days,Had eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.

—William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 106”

Literary Terms

Some literary terms usedto describe how writers use words

Many of these terms are usedin both poetry and prose

Diction

The choices an author makes in using specific words (vocabulary)

We romped until the pansSlid from the kitchen shelf;My mother’s countenanceCould not unfrown itself.

—Theodore Rothke, “My Papa’s Waltz”

Syntax

The choice an author makes in using specific word order and sentence structure

Much have I traveled in the realms of gold,And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;Round many western islands have I been

Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.—John Keats, “On First Looking into

Chapman’s Homer”

Alliteration

The repetition of initial sounds

When Stella strikes the tuneful string

In scenes of imitated spring…—Samuel Johnson, “To Miss —”

The repetition of a vowel sound within words

She bound her green sleeve on my helm,

Sweet pledge of love’s sweet meed…—Dante Gabriel Rossetti,

“She Bound Her Green Sleeve”

Assonance

The repetition of a consonant sound within or at the end of words

Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattleCan patter out their hasty orisons.

—Wilfred Owen,“Anthem for Doomed Youth”

Consonance

A comparison of twounlike things that are similar

in some way, using the words like or as.

We watched the ghostly dancers spin.To sound of horn and violin,Like black leaves wheeling in the wind.

—Oscar Wilde, “The Harlot’s House”

Simile

A comparison of twounlike things that are similar

in some way, without the words like or as.

Strange, is it not? that of the myriads whoBefore us passed the door of Darkness through,

Not one returns to tell us of the Road,Which to discover we must travel too.

—Edward Fitzgerald, “The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám”

Metaphor

Words that soundlike their meanings.

The moan of doves in immemorial elms,And murmuring of innumerable bees.

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Come Down, O Maid”

Onomatopoeia

The attribution of humanqualities to a non-human object.

That orbéd maiden with white fire laden,Whom mortals call the Moon,

Glides glimmering o’er my fleecelike floor,By the midnight breezes stewn;

—Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Cloud”

Personification

Addressing a non-human as though it were a person. (Can also

be addressing a dead or absent person as though he or she were present.)

Busy old fool, unruly sun,Why doest thou thusThrough windows and through curtains call on

us?—John Dunne, “The Sun Rising”

Apostrophe