POETRY 101
De Guire
Quote
Do not worry about what a poem is or
whether you can write one. No one knows
exactly what a poem is, anyway. Think of
a poem as just as shape of words on a
page—whatever shape you want—a
shape of words trying to see and feel life
more clearly.
g. lynn nelson
How to read poetry - Checklist
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Literal Level
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Figurative Level
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Attitude, tone, audience, motive, and style
External References
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Meter, Rhyme, Rhythm
Sound Effects (assonance, consonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia)
Speaker
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Connotations of words?
Imagery?
Form
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Sort out the syntax (ambiguities, word use, detonations, difficult words?)
Myths, allegories, allusions, and symbols
Big Picture
Chapter 9 Concepts
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Verse: Two meanings: one refers to any single line of
poetry or any composition written in separate lines of
more less regular rhythm, in contrast to prose.
Paraphrase: The restatement in one’s own words of
what one understands a poem to say or suggest. A
paraphrase is similar to a summary, although not as
brief or simple.
Summary: A brief condensation of the main idea or
plot of a work.
Subject: The main topic of the work
Theme: A generally recurring subject or idea
noticeably evident in a literary work. Not all subject in
a work can be considered themes, only the central
ones.
Types of Poetry
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Lyric – Short poem expressing the thoughts and
feelings of a single speaker. Often written in the
first person, it traditionally has a songlike quality.
Narrative – Tells a story. Ballads and epics are
two common forms of narrative poems.
Dramatic Monologue – Written as a speech made
by a character at some decisive moment. The
speaker is usually addressing a silent listener.
Didactic Poem – Intended to teach a moral lesson
or impart a body of knowledge.
Chapter 10 Concepts
1.
2.
3.
Tone: The mood or manner of expression in a wor,
which conveys and attitude toward the work’s subject,
which may be playful, sarcastic, ironic, sad, solemn, or
any other possible attitude. Tone helps to establish the
reader’s relationship to the characters or ideas
presented in the work.
Satiric poetry: Poetry that blends criticism with humor
to convey a message, usually through the use of irony
and a tone of detached amusement, withering
contempt, and implied superiority.
Persona: Latin for “mask” A fictitous character created
by an author to be the speaker of a literary work.
Irony
A discrepancy between what is said and what is meant
Types
1.
verbal irony is when an author or speaker says the
opposite of what he really means
2.
dramatic irony is when an audience perceives
something that a character in the literature does not
know
3.
cosmic irony is a discrepancy between a character’s
position or aspiration and the treatment he or she
receives at the hands of a seemingly hostile fate.
(Also called irony of fate)
4.
sarcasm a style of bitter irony intended to hurt or
mock its target
Chapter 11 Terms for Review
Diction: Word Choice or Vocabulary, i.e the class of
words an author chooses
1.
Concrete: Words that specifically name or
describe things or persons
2.
Abstract: Words that express general ideas or
concepts
3.
Poetic: Means any language deemed suitable for
verse, but the term generally refers to eleveated
language intended for poetry rather than common
use.
Allusions
An allusion is a brief, sometimes indirect, reference in a text to a
person, place, or thing. Allusions imply a common body of
knowledge between reader and writer and act a s literary
shorthand to enrich the meaning of a text.
Types
 Biblical
Christian Bible
 Historical factual events
 Classical from Greek or Roman mythology
9
Chapter 12
Denotation: The literal,
dictionary meaning of
a word
Connotation: An
association or additional
meaning that a word,
image, or phrase may
carry, apart from its
literal denotation or
dictionary definition. A
word may pick up
connotations from the
uses to which it as been
put in the past.
Chapter 13 Terms for Review
1.
2.
3.
Image: A word or series of words that refers to any
sensory experience (usually sight, although also sound,
smell, touch, or taste).
Imagery: The collective set of images in a poem or other
literary work.
Haiku: A Japanese verse form that has three unrimed
lines of five, seven, and five syllables.
Traditionally haiku is often serious and spiritual in tone,
relying mostly on imagery, and usually set (by
implication) in one of the 4 seasons. Modern haiku in
English often ignore strict syllable count and may have a
more playful, worldly tone.
Chapter 14 Terms for Review
Metaphor: A statement that one thing is
something else, which, in a literal sense, it is not. A metaphor
creates a close association between the two entities and
underscores some important similarity between them.
Richard is a pig.
1. Implied Metaphor: A metaphor that uses neither
connectives nor the verb “to be.”
John crowed over his victory.
2.
Mixed Metaphor: The (usually unintentional) combining of two
or more incompatible metaphors, resulting in ridiculousness or
nonsense.
Mary was such a tower of strength that she breezed her way
through all the work.
Figures of Speech
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Personification: The endowing of a
thing, an animal, or an abstract term with human
characteristics.
Apostrophe: A direct address to someone or
something. A speaker may address an inanimate
object, a dead or absent person, an abstract thing, or
a spirit.
Figures of Speech (con.)
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
Overstatement: Also
called hyperbole
Exaggeration used
to emphasize a
point.
Understatement: An
ironic figure of
speech that
deliberately
describes something
in a way that is les
than the case.
Lyrics
My baby don't mess around
Because she loves me so
And this I know for sure.
Uh, But does she really
wanna
But can't stand to see me
Walk out the door.
Don't try to fight the feelin'
'Cause the thought alone is
killing me right now..
Uh, thank god for mom and
dad
For sticking two together
'Cause we don't know how...
UH!
[Chorus:]
Hey... ya.
Hey ya.
Hey... ya.
Hey ya.
Hey... ya.
Hey ya.
Hey... ya.
Hey ya.
Sound
Euphony
The harmonious effect when the sounds of the words
connect with the meaning in a way that is pleasing
to the ear and mind.
 Cacophony
A harsh, discordant sound often mirroring the
meaning of the context in which it is used.
How do the sounds express what the author is
saying?

Sound

Alliteration
Succession of similar sounds – usually consonant
sounds at the beginning of words
 Initial
alliteration
 Internal alliteration
 Hidden alliteration – spelling
 Assonance – repeated vowel sounds
Eight O’ Clock – A.E. Housman
He stood, and heard the steeple
Sprinkle the quarters on the morning town.
One, two, three, four, to market-place and people
It tossed them down.
Strapped, noosed, nighing his hour,
He stood and counted them and cursed his luck;
And then the clock collected in the tower
Its strength, and struck.
Rime (Rhyme)
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Exact Rime
Slant Rime (Near rime, off rime, imperfect rime)
Consonance – same ending and beginning but
different vowels
End Rime
Masculine Rime – one syllable rime
jail/bail OR remorse/divorce
Feminine Rime – two or more syllables together
turtle/fertile or madness/gladness
Class Activity
Read all 3 poems on pages 490-492.
Pick one that “sounds” good to you.
(i.e. Read it aloud!)
Answer these questions in a coherent paragraph.
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
4.
What devices of sound do you find?
How does the sound contribute to the total effect of
the poem?
How does it reinforce what the poet is saying?
Turn it in to the Red Basket
Rhythm-That’s what it’s all ABOUT!
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Stress – accent
Slack – unstressed
Meter – stress recurring at fixed intervals; pattern
of stress
Pg. 498-499
Pauses
Cesura (Caesura)
Any pause within a line of any length after any
word in the line (means a “cutting”)
 End-stopped
Full pause at the end of the line
Examples pg. 500-501
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Describe the rhythms of the poem. By what
technique are they produced?
Rhythm-That’s what it’s all ABOUT!
Prosdy – study of metrical structure in poetry
 Scansion: The analysis and graphic display of
a line's rhythm performed by scanning the line to
determine its meter as a way of describing the
rhythmical pattern of a poem.
Example:

Whoseu woods these
/ are I uthink I/know
u /
u /
His house
is in woods
the village,
though;
Whose
| these
are | I think | I know
u
/
u / u /
u
/
His house | is in | the vill- | age though;
Structure in Poetry
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Common meter types
 iambic
 trochee,
trochaic
 dactyl, dactylic
 anapest, anapestic
 spondee, spondaic
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Types of meter:
 dimeter
(two feet per
line)
 trimeter (three feet)
 tetrameter (four feet)
 pentameter (five feet)
 hexameter (six feet)
 heptameter (seven feet)
 octameter (eight feet)
Formal Patterns
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Couplet – a 2 line stanza, usually rimed and equal
in length
Heroic couplet – two rimed lines of iambic
pentameter. First line with a slight pause. Second
more heavy pause. (pg. 514)
Parallel
Antithesis
Tercet – group of three lines
Quatrain – group of 4 lines
“A sonnet is where old professors go to
die” (Bly qtd. In Kendendy524).
Begun in Italy (“little song”)
 Petrarch was first
abbaabba cdcdcd
 a lyric poem
deals with emotions, feelings
 14 lines
 definite thought structure
8/6 or 4/4/4/2
 Shakespearen written in iambic pentameter
(10 beats per line)
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Sonnets have structure

Octave/ sestet
The octave, eight lines, presents a situation or idea.
 The sestet (sextet), six lines, responds, to the situation or idea
in the octave.

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Quatrain, quatrain, quatrain, couplet

Each quatrain, four lines, describes and idea or situation
which leads to a conclusion or response in the couplet, two
lines.
An iamb is a metrical foot
consisting of
an unaccented syllable U
followed by an accented syllable /.
U
im
U
a
/
gain
/
mor
U
tal
/
ize
Iambic pentameter
1
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
2
3
4
5
U / U /
U / U / U
/
One day I wrote her name u pon the strand,
U
/ U
/ U
/ U/U /
But came the waves and wash ed it a way:
U / U / U / U / U /
A gain I wrote it with a sec ond hand,
U / U /
U
/ U /
U /
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey

Edmund Spenser, Amoretti, Sonnet 75
The Shakespearean Sonnet
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Contains an extended metaphor/conceit: a
comparison that runs throughout the poem
Topic is usually love
Written from the point of view of the speaker
To a very specific audience – the person he loves
Contains a turn or ‘volta’ near the end, which signals a
change in the poet’s outlook
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,
A
B
A
B
C
D
C
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; D
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
E
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
F
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, E
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
F
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
G
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
G
Sonnet 18
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 dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
The octave
describes the
ways in which the
summer’s day is
inferior to the
beloved.
The sestet
describes the
ways in which the
beloved is
superior to the
summer’s day.
Sonnet 73
1st Quatrain
Year - Fall
2nd Quatrain Day Twilight
3rd Quatrain
Fire - Coals
“This” is ll.1-12
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed, whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.
Other types of closed form poems
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Epigram – A short poem ending in a witty or ingenious
turn of thought, to which the rest of the composition is
intended to lead up. (525)
Villanelle – pastoral poem; a nineteen-line poetic form
consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain.
Sestina - a poem of six line stanzas originally without
rhyme, in which each stanza repeats the end words of
the lines of the first stanza, but in different order.
Rondeau -
Open Form
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Free Verse – verse “liberated from the shackles of rime
and meter” (Kennedy 534); “like playing tennis with the
net down” (Frost qtd in Kennedy 534).
Tend to have more pronounced pauses to make up for the
lack of meter (rhythm)
 Read “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” on pg. 603
Is this poem a closed poem left ajar or an open poem trying
to slam itself shut?
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Prose poems – poetic language printed in prose
paragraphs, but displaying the careful attention of
sound, imagery, and figurative language of poetry
Symbol
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“Radiates hints or casts long shadows”
Evokes
Suggest
Manifests
Demands no single necessary interpretation
Points toward an indefinite meaning which may be
beyond the meaning of words.
Identifying Symbol
How am I supposed to know a symbol when I see
one?
1. Read the poem closely
2. Pick out references to concrete objects and
consider with care
3. Notice any references the poet emphasizes
4. What is the poem about? If the paraphrase
depends on a particular object, it may be a
symbol.
5. Might address a sense other than sight
A symbol is NOT
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An abstraction (not truth, death, love, and justice
unless personified…)
A well-developed character who speaks much
dialogue
Not the second term of a metaphor
Does not “stand for” or “represent”
Allegory
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A description – usually narrative—in which persons,
places, and things are employed in a continuous
and consistent system of equivalents.
X=Y
Read “Facing It” (p. 552)
 What
does the wall represent?
 What do the names represent?
Myth and Narrative

Myth – A traditional narrative of anonymous authorship that arises
out a culture’s oral tradition.
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Gods
Heroic figures
Not the same as legends which have a historical base
Personal Myth – poet creates his own mythology
Archetype – a recurring symbol, character, landscape, or event
found in myth and literature across different culture and eras.
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The trickster
The cruel stepmother
The rebel
The beautiful, but destructive woman
The stupid youngest son.
Why use myth?
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Allows poets to be concise
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Audiences can draw on similar stories characters, etc.
quickly
Poets know that mythic stories are repeated for a
reason i.e. they convey powerful stories of human
existence from generation to generation.
Read “Cinderella” by Anne Sexton on pg. 572
1.
What is the story? How does it differ from what you
know?
2.
What is the tone of the poem? How might this tone
relate to the time period in which it was written?
3.
What does the final stanza suggest about the way
fairy tales usually end?
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