Poetry

What the heck is it?

Basic definitions and types

1.the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts.

2.literary work in metrical form; verse. 3.prose with poetic qualities. 4.poetic qualities however manifested: the poetry of

simple acts and things. 5.poetic spirit or feeling: The pianist played the

prelude with poetry. 6.something suggestive of or likened to poetry: the

pure poetry of a beautiful view on a clear day.

Types of Poetry

Lyric poetry: expresses vivid thought and feelings (most common type)

Narrative poetry: tells a story Dramatic poetry: uses techniques of

drama, such as speaker and conflict, to tell a story

Poetic devices

Musical devices: devices that give a poem a melodious quality

Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant soundsEx: terrible truths terrified Terrance

Onomatopoeia: A word that imitates the sound (s) it representsEx: buzz, smack, wham, crash, sizzle etc.

Assonance: repetition of a vowel soundEx: ignorance is disguised within insult

Consonance: the repetition of consonant soundsEx: haggard ragged hog

Meter: the rhythmical pattern of a poem, determined by the number and types of stresses, or beats, in each line.Ex: I wandered lonely as a cloud

Repetition: the use of any element of language – a sound, word, phrase, clause, or sentence- more than once.

I'm nobody! Who are you?Are you nobody too?Then there's a pair of us-don't tell!They'd banish us you know.

-- Emily Dickinson “I'm nobody! Who are You?”Rhyme: the repetition of sounds at the ends of words.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I could.

-- Robert Frost “The Road Not Taken”

Rhyme scheme: a regular pattern of rhyming words that appear at the ends of lines in a poem.

Figurative language: devices that give creative and unexpected comparisons and descriptions

Simile: a comparison using “like” or “as”Ex: Her eyes are like diamonds.

Metaphor: a direct comparison of two things.Ex: Robert is a tank.

Personification: gives human characteristics to non-human things.

Ex: The wind whispered through the trees.

Imagery: very descriptive language that creates detailed images in a reader’s mind.

Ex: The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough. -- Ezra Pound "In a Station of the Metro" Symbol: an object that represents

something else.Ex: the color black- death, sadness, depression,

etc.

Free Verse

– Poem written without proper rules about form, rhyme, rhythm, meter, etc

– Poet makes rules about how poem should look, sound, feel, etc – Example: Beautiful Old Age by D.H. Lawrence (partial)

              1 It ought to be lovely to be old              2 to be full of the peace that comes of experience           3 and wrinkled ripe fulfillment.

          4 The wrinkled smile of completeness that follows a life              5 lived undaunted and unsoured with accepted lies.              6 If people lived without accepting lie   7 they would ripen like apples, and be scented like pippins              8 in their old age.

So, what else is poetry?

Poetry in motion Forgetfulness by Billy Collins Like, You Know making a poem