INTRODUCTION TO
POETRY
Unit 3
WHAT IS POETRY?
 Poetry uses words, form, sound, patterns, imagery, and figurative
language (similes, metaphors, etc.) to convey a message, tell a story,
evoke a feeling…
 ALL poems contain some (or all) of the above mentioned
elements.
 Generally two types: narrative poetry (tells a story) and lyrical
poetry (doesn’t tell a story)
FORM AND STRUCTURE
 The term form in poetry refers to the poem’s appearance.
 Poems are divided into lines; some are long, some are short.
 Oftentimes lines are divided into stanzas. Stanzas, in a way, function
like paragraphs in a story or novel. Usually each stanza contains an idea
or does something to move an earlier idea further.
 Types of stanzas: couplet (2); triplet (3); quatrain (4); quintain (5);
sestet (6) and so on…
SOUND
 Poems often rhyme, but poems DO NOT have to rhyme, of
course.
 Rhyme, rhythm, and alliteration create the sound in a poem.
 Poets will often repeat words, lines, and sounds within a poem to
create an effect.
SOUND: RHYTHM
 Rhythm: pattern of beats or stresses in a poem.
 Poets use patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables to create a
regular rhythm.
 There is a musical quality to many poems, though free verse poems
often have a looser rhythm.
SOUND: RHYME
 Rhyme: the repetition of the same or similar sounds., usually stressed syllables at
the ends of lines, but sometimes within a line.
 Some poems (especially older poems) incorporate a rhyme scheme (the rhyming
pattern that is created at the ends of lines of poetry).
•
•
•
•
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece as white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go.
A
B
C
B
***If the poem doesn’t have a rhyme scheme it is considered to be a free verse poem.
MORE ON RHYME
 Types of rhymes:
• End rhymes: rhymes that occur at the ends of lines
• Near rhymes (also called slant rhymes): words that look like they
should rhyme (love and move, for example) but they don’t actually
rhyme
• Internal rhymes: occur within lines
SOUND: ALLITERATION
 The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words is alliteration.
 Alliteration is another way poets create sound patterns and music in their
poem.
 For example:
• Seven silver swans swam silently seaward.
IMAGERY
 Poets use words that appeal to the reader’s senses of sight, sound,
touch, taste, and smell. They especially rely on imagery to create
pictures in the minds of readers.
 Figures of speech
• Simile: comparison using like or as
• Metaphor: describes one thing as if it actually were another thing
• Extended metaphor: a metaphor that extends throughout the entire
poem instead of just a few lines.
• Personification: gives human characteristics to something nonhuman
MOOD, TONE, THEME
 Mood and tone are the feelings generated by the author’s words
choices.
 As with short stories, the theme is the central or main idea.
• Ask yourself what ideas or insights about life or human nature have
you found in the poem?
OUR POEMS
 William Blake – “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” (English Romantic)
 Theodore Roethke – “My Papa’s Waltz” (American Modern)
 Elizabeth Bishop – “In the Waiting Room” (American Modern)
 Emily Dickinson – “There’s a certain Slant of light,” “The Soul selects her own Society—,” “After
a great pain, a formal feelings comes—” and “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—” (American)
 A. Van Jordan – “How Does a Man Write a Poem” and “To My Brothers” (African American
Modern )
 Blas Falconer – “And Though We Know It Does No Good” and “A Question of Gravity and
Light” (Puerto Rican American Modern)
 Laura Newbern – “A Kindness” and “Little Bird” (American Modern)
 Natasha Trethewey – “Incident” and “Myth” (African American Modern)
QUESTIONS?