I. There Are Three Main Types of Poetry

Poetry Notes

I. There are three main types of poetry:

A. Narrative poetry tells a story and has a plot, characters, and a setting. a. It includes epics, long poems about the feats of gods or heroes, and b. ballads, songlike poems with short stanzas and a refrain. The speaker tells a story from a particular point of view.

B. Dramatic poetry tells a story using a character’s own thoughts or spoken statements. It utilizes the techniques of drama.

C. Lyric poetry is written in highly musical language that expresses the thoughts, observations, and feelings of a single speaker.

II. Graphic Elements A. Punctuation- marks such as commas show the reader where to slow down or pause B. Line length- can help determine whether a poem has a flowing sound or a short, choppy sound C. Word position- can show relationships between words or idea

III. Prosody-The patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry.

A. RHYME involves matching sounds of words. As melody is to music, so is RHYME to poetry. The sounds of vowels are what create most rhymes. To scan a poem for rhyme, you assign a single alphabetical letter, starting with a to the sound of the last word in the line. Whatever the first sound or end rhyme is, mark it "A." If the next word has the same vowel sound (tree, sea or tree, see), mark the next line "A." IF the next line has a different vowel sound, mark it "B." Lines with the same end vowel sound, the same rhyme, get the same letter.

Example: The first four lines of Byron's "She Walks in Beauty":

She walks in beauty like the night a Of cloudless climes and starry skies b And all that's best of dark and bright a Meet in her aspect and her eyes. b

In this case a and b are both exact rhymes. Any pattern of lines that alternate in this way form an example of alternate rhyme. When any line rhymes with the very next line, that is called a couplet. If three lines in a row rhyme, that's a triplet.

Poetry Notes page # 1 B.RHYTHM – the pattern created by stressed and unstressed syllables of words in a sequence

C. METER-If rhyme is like melody, meter is the aspect of time, involving rhythm and accents of poetry. Whereas musicians represent time and beat with a time signature, like 4/4, 3/4, or 6/8, readers of poetry record the beat of poetic words by dividing them into kinds of FEET based on lengths of syllables, and locations of spoken accents.

IV. Poems can be categorized by form or structure include

A. Haiku, poems of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables; Example: (1) I am first with five (5 unrhymed syllables) (2) Then seven in the middle -- (7 unrhymed syllables) (3) Five again to end. (5 unrhymed syllables) Since Haikus are such short poems, they are usually written about things that are recognizable to the reader such as animals and seasons. http://www.kidzone.ws/poetry/haiku.htm B. Tanka, poems of five unrhymed lines of five, seven, five, seven, and seven syllables; The first and third lines of tanka contain five syllables. The second, fourth, and fifth lines have seven syllables. (The number of syllables can vary when a tanka is translated into English.) Thus, the syllable pattern is 5-7-5-7-7.

Example: (1) The flowing river (5) (2) Twists and turns and runs away (7) (3) Thinking of the sea (5) (4) Through the forests light and dark (7) (5) At last kissing salty waves. (7)

The briefness of the tanka helps poets focus on a single strong image or idea. In this example, the poet concentrates on a river’s journey through varied landscapes as it flows toward and empties into the ocean.

C. Free Verse, which has neither a set pattern of rhythm nor rhyme; Disappointments by Vivian Gilbert Zabel (1) Every life has a room (2) where memories are stored: (3) A box of special occasions here, (4) Shelves of shared laughter there. (5) But back in the shadows (6) Lurks a trunk locked tight, (7) Not to be opened and searched. (8) There hide disappointments (9) Which darken every heart.

http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-free-verse-poems.html

2 D. Sonnets, fourteen-line lyric poems with formal patterns of rhyme, rhythm, and line structure.

1. In a Shakespearean sonnet, the lines are grouped into three quatrains (groups of four lines) and a couplet, a pair of rhymed lines. The rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. This form is so common in English poetry and was so identified with William Shakespeare, and the time period during which he lived, that these sonnets are also called English sonnets or Elizabethan sonnets.

Example: Shakespearean sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? A Thou art more lovely and more temperate: B Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, A And summer's lease hath all too short a date: B

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, C And often is his gold complexion dimmed, D And every fair from fair sometime declines, C By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed: D

But thy eternal summer shall not fade, E Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, F Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, E When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st, F

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, G So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. G

Beyond their specific rhyme scheme and formula for content, sonnets also follow a strict rhythmic pattern called iambic pentameter. An iamb is a poetic foot with one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word again. Pentameter is verse written in five-foot lines.

In a sonnet, each line contains five unaccented and five accented syllables in the pattern “da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM.” Shall I / com PARE/ thee TO / a SUM / mer’s DAY? Thou ART / more LOVE / ly AND / more TEM / per ATE

2. Another common sonnet form is known as the Italian sonnet, or the Petrarchan sonnet, named for the Italian poet Petrarch.

Poetry Notes page # 3 In this format, the sonnet’s 14 lines are split into an octet, or a group of eight lines, and a sestet, or a group of six lines. The octet follows a set rhyme scheme of abba abba, but the sestet may vary in its rhyme scheme. For example, it might have a pattern of cdecde, or ccddee, or cddcdd. The point here is that the poem is divided into two sections by the two differing rhyme groups.

E. A villanelle is a nineteen-line form with a pattern of repeated lines and a specific rhyme scheme.

• The lines of a villanelle are grouped into five three-line stanzas and one four- line stanza. The lines rhyme aba, aba, aba, aba, aba, abaa. • This deliberate repetition can create a chanting effect

“Do not go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas

(1) Do not go gentle into that good night, A (2) Old age should burn and rave at close of day; B (3) Rage, rage against the dying of the light. A

(4) Though wise men at their end know dark is right, A (5) Because their words had forked no lightning they B (6) Do not go gentle into that good night. A

(7) Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright A (8) Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, B (9) Rage, rage against the dying of the light. A

(10) Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, A (11) And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, B (12) Do not go gentle into that good night. A

(13) Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight A (14) Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, B (15) Rage, rage against the dying of the light. A

(16) And you, my father, there on the sad height, A (17) Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. B (18) Do not go gentle into that good night. A (19) Rage, rage against the dying of the light. A

https://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377

V. Devices A. Figurative language to make comparisons. o Similes use like or as to compare unlike things;

4 o metaphors speak of one thing in terms of another; o personification gives human traits to nonhuman things

Dreams by Langston Hughes Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die (personification) Life is a broken-winged bird (metaphor) That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams (repetition) For when dreams go (personification) Life is a barren field (metaphor) Frozen with snow. Its theme is to never give up. Add a third stanza to this poem that includes a simile and repetition.

B. Imagery to create vivid impressions, or images. o Images are developed using sensory language, which relates to the senses of sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing, and movement.

C. Sound devices to achieve a musical quality. o rhythm, the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables of words in sequence (an ordered pattern of rhythm is meter); o rhyme, the repetition of identical or similar sounds in the last syllables of words; o alliteration, the repetition of the initial consonant sounds of words; o assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds in words that are close to each other; o consonance, the repetition of consonants in words that are close to each other and contain different vowels.

D. Allusions, which are references to a well-known person, place, event, or literary work. E. Allegory – a story in which all characters, settings, events, and actions are clearly symbolic F. Symbolism – the use of a character, place, thing, or event that stands for something else, often and abstract idea

Poetry Notes page # 5