Elements of Poetry: Structure and Forms Let’s start with some basics…

Elements of Poetry: Structure and Forms

Let’s start with some basics…

• Let’s start with some basics…

Lines

• May be short or long.

• Are NOT necessarily complete sentences or even complete thoughts!

• The arrangement of lines, spacing, and whether or not the lines rhyme in some manner, can define the FORM of a poem.

Stanza

• A group of lines whose rhyme scheme is usually followed throughout the poem.

• A division in poetry like a paragraph in prose.

• Common stanza patterns include couplets, triplets, quatrains, etc.

• Free-verse poems follow no rules regarding where to divide stanzas.

And now several forms

• And now several forms

• of poetry…

Couplet

• Two lines that rhyme.

• A complete idea is usually expressed in a couplet, or in a long poem made up of many couplets.

• Couplets may be humorous or serious.

Couplet continued…

• Example:

• But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,

• All losses are restored and sorrows end.

• Shakespeare

• Chocolate candy is sweet and yummy

• It goes down smoothly in my tummy!

• Unknown

Couplet continued…

• Twinkle, twinkle little star,

• How I wonder what you are,

• Up above the world so high,

• Like a diamond in the sky.

Narrative Poems

• Tell a 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

Narrative Poems: Ballad

• A narrative, rhyming poem or song.

• Characterized by short stanzas and simple words, usually telling a heroic and/or tragic story (although some are humorous).

• Can be long.

• Usually rich with imagery (emotionally charged visual images).

• Originated from folk songs that told exciting or dramatic stories.

Ballad continued…

• Example from John Henry, a traditional American ballad in ten stanzas.

• 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.

Ballad continued…

• Example from The Unquiet Grave. (an old ballad that would have been sung to an eerily catchy tune)

• The wind doth blow today, my love,

• And a few small drops of rain.

• I never had but one true-love,

• In cold grave she was lain.

• I’ll do as much for my true-love

• As any young man may.

• I’ll sit and mourn all at her grave

• For a twelvemonth and a day.

Narrative Poems: Epic

• Very long narrative (story) poem that tells of the adventures of a hero.

• Purpose is to help the reader understand the past and be inspired to choose good over evil.

• Usually focuses on the heroism of one person who is a symbol of strength, virtue, and courage in the face of conflict.

Narrative Poems: Epic continued

• Some are VERY long – for example, The Odyssey by Homer, (written as 12 books) has over 6,213 lines in the first half alone!

Lyric Poetry

• Always expresses some 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.

Lyric Poetry continued…

• Originally Greek poets sang or recited poems accompanied by music played on a lyre (a stringed instrument like a small harp).

• In the Renaissance, poems were accompanied by a lute (like a guitar).

Lyric Poetry: Sonnet

• Most sonnets are in a fixed form of 14 lines of 10 syllables, usually written in iambic pentameter.

• The theme of the poem is summed up in the last two lines.

• Can be about any subject, but usually are about love and/or philosophy.

Lyric Poetry: Sonnet continued…

• 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.

Lyric Poetry: Ode

• A tribute to someone or something.

• Often uses exalted language in praise or celebration.

• Can be serious or humorous.

Lyric Poetry: Ode continued…

• Example from Ode to Pablo's Tennis Shoes by Gary Soto

Elegy

• to express grief or mourning for someone who has died

• somber, serious, ending on a peaceful note

Elegy for Anne Frank

• Elegy for Anne Frank

• by Jessica Smith

• 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.

Limerick

• A FUNNY 5-line poem, written with one couplet (two lines of poetry that rhyme) and one triplet (three lines of poetry that rhyme).

• Always follows the same pattern.

• The rhyme scheme (pattern) is – a a b b a.

• The last line contains the “punchline” or “heart of the joke”.

• Often contain hyperbole, onomatopoeia, idioms, and other figurative language.

Limerick continued…

• You will soon hear the distinctive beat pattern of all limericks.

• eg: “A fly and a flea in a flue

• Were caught, so what could they do?

• Said the fly, “Let us flee.”

• “Let us fly,” said the flea.

• So they flew through a flaw in the flue.”

Limerick continued…

Limerick continued…

• eg. Before we even said grace

• He sat and filled up his face

• He gorged on salami

• Ate all the pastrami

• Then exploded with nary a trace.

• There was a large bear in a tree
• Who was in pursuit of a bee
• The bee was no dummy
• He gave the bear money
• So the bear let the honeybee free.

Free Verse

• Is just that – free!

• Lines of poetry written without rules; no regular beat or rhyme.

• Unrhymed poetry.

Haiku

• A Japanese form of poetry; one line of five syllables; one line of seven syllables; and a final line of five syllables.

• Fragments (not usually complete sentences)

• About everyday things; written in the present tense.

• Much is left unsaid.

Haiku continued…

• Examples:

• Little sparrow child

• plays in the road. “Oh, watch out!

• Watch out! Horse tramps by!”

• Soft, summer twilight,

• suddenly a sound; Frog leaps

• in the old pond – Splash!

Cinquain

• A Cinquain is a poem that resembles a diamond.

• It has 5 lines and begins with one word.

• The 2nd line has two adjectives that describe that word.

• The 3rd , three verbs.

• The 4th line is a phrase that goes deeper into the topic.

• The 5th line gives either a synonym for the first word, or a word that encompasses the whole poem.

Cinquain examples…

and a few other interesting poetry forms…

List Poem

• One of the oldest forms of poetry

• Polynesians used list poems to form an inventory of all of their islands!

• a.k.a Catalog Poem

• Can be long or short, rhymed or unrhymed

List Poem continued…

• Example: Things a Pigeon Knows

• What does a pigeon know? Who throws cracker crumbs the

• Eaves and ledges, thickest,

• Rafter edges, How thin cats are often

• Gutter streams, quickest.

• Steel beams, Tennis courts. Trees in parks.

• Cars and busses, The highest steeple.

• A bridge, with its delightful Swarms

• trusses, of people.

• Sidewalks,

• Culverts,

• Popcorn vendors, - Patricia Hubbell

• Taxis and their yellow

• fenders.