Poetry “The poet’s eye in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, and as imagination bodies forth the forms of thing unknown, the poet’s pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name.” -William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Poet Marianne Moore once said that poems are “imaginary gardens with real toads in them.” To create these “imaginary gardens,” or as Shakespeare put it, to “give to airy nothing a local habitation and a name,” poets use the most powerful tool in the world—language. The twist it, bend it, stretch it, and shape it to reveal something new each time they put pen to paper.

Percy Byssch Shelley said it another way: “Poetry lifts the veil from hidden beauty. It makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar and

creates anew the universe.”

What do I see? A tree in the

autumn.

I see dead leaves varnished with

color like blood..

Some of the devices poets use are imagery (through figurative language and sound devices), rhythm, rhyme, and form.

Simile

Her eyes sparkled like diamonds. He was as cool as a

cucumber.

Love is a fragile flower opening to the warmth

of Spring

He was drowning in paperwork.

He slithered into town quietly so no one would notice when he dug his

fangs in and slowly poisoned their minds.

Metaphor

Personification

Cars dance across the icy road.

The thunder grumbled like an old man.

Hyperbole

My teacher is so old she considers Shakespeare to be 'new-fangled modern art'!

I had a ton of homework

Apostrophe

Hello darkness, my old friend,

I've come to talk with you again . . .

Science! True daughter of Old Time thou art!

Bright star, would I were steadfast as

thou art

Synecdoche

Friends, Romans, countrymen: lend me

your ears. I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

Metonymy

Detroit is still hard at work on an SUV that runs on rain forest trees and

panda blood.

By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat thy

bread.

Litote

Perhaps he’s a little sleepy.

They aren't the happiest couple around.

Symbol

Allusion

She was breathtakingly

beautiful, but he knew that she was

forbidden fruit.

His wife was his Achilles'

heel.

She was no Scrooge, but she seldom purchased

anything except the bare necessities.

Antonomasia

Hey, Casanova, keep your hands to

yourself.

Where did you put the stapler,

Dilbert?

Oxymoron Deafening silence

Seriously funny

Original copies

Silent scream

Small crowd

Definite maybe

Cold fire

Controlled chaos Expressive silence

Virtual reality

Only choice

Alliteration

Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.

Betty Butter bought some butter, but, she said, the butter’s bitter

Assonance

Hear the lark and harken to the barking of the dark fox gone to

ground.

The spider skins lie on their sides, translucent and ragged, their legs drying in knots.

Consonance

A Quietness distilled A silent listening wave

Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here, To watch his woods fill up with snow.

Onomatopoeia

I'm getting married in the morning! Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime.

Repetition

Refrain

Rain The rain is falling all around

It falls on field and tree, It rains on the umbrellas here,

And on the ships at sea.

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

Scan the following: Ashore a shore Father Content Beautiful Unlawful Interviewer photographer

Meter is the rhythm or pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

iambic

trochaic

=unstressed =stressed

anapestic

dactylic

spondaic

pyrrhic

Foot=the particular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Each of the following is the name of a foot used in poetry:

Iambic: She went to town To buy a gown.

Your turn: He bought a fancy car __________________

Trochaic: Double, double, toil and trouble Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Your turn: Listen to your waiter __________________

Anapestic: I will walk with an air Of a man with green hair.

Your turn: It was dark __________________

Dactylic: Angels were singing in unison, Basking in light from the holy one.

Your turn: Nobody likes to see __________________

Write a line that rhymes with the line above it and has the same meter (pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

monometer – pattern appears once pentameter – five times dimeter - pattern appears two times hexameter – six times trimeter- pattern appears three times heptameter – seven times tetrameter - pattern appears four times octameter – eight times

Practice: Write the sentences, mark the syllables and write the meter (Remember, the meter is two parts, pattern and line, e.g. trochaic tetrameter) 1. Pigs were running back to shelter. 2. It was cold in the fall of the year. 3. Parting is sorrowful, always so terrible. 4. Peaceful breezes brushed my window. 5. I wished upon a lucky star. 6. From the North came the chill of his breath. 7. If I could be a movie star in love. 8. Listen to everyone quietly whispering.

Rhyme

Scheme – first line is A, second line is A if it rhymes or B if it doesn’t He sang A He sang A A tune B And rang A Of love C A bell B In June B So swell B

Single – one syllable rhyme boat/float Double – two syllable rhyme waiter/alligator Triple – three syllable rhyme, glorious/victorious

End – comes at the end of the lines Internal – comes within line or in the middle of two lines example: the voice of death ends choice of sleep

Lyrical Poetry Free verse – no rhyme, no meter

Rhymed verse – rhyme and meter

Blank verse – no rhyme, iambic pentameter Stanza – division of poetry couplet – two lines sestet – six lines triplet – three lines septet – seven lines quatrain – four lines octave – eight lines quintet – five lines

Types of Poems

Ode – profound treatment of a subject, rhyme scheme and meter up to writer

Ballad – tells a story formal ballad stanza = four line stanzas, ABCB, first and third lines iambic tetrameter, second and fourth lines iambic trimeter

Italian sonnet – 14 lines, ABBA,ABBA, CDCDCD or CDECDE sets up a problem or situation, then solves or explains

English sonnet – 14 lines, ABAB,CDCD,EFEF,GG, iambic pentameter