CREATIVE
WRITING
POETRY
B
WHAT IS POETRY?
2
Poetry has remained a vital part of art
and culture. Like other forms of
literature, poetry is made to express
thoughts and emotions in a creative and
imaginative way but poetry is
concentrated in lyrical arrangement of
words.
LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
1
Identify the various elements, techniques, and
literary devices in poetry
2
Explore innovative techniques in writing poetry
3
Use selected elements of poetry in short exercises
Let's Play >>>
JUMBLED
WORDS!
NILSE
B
LINES
B
Next player >>>
ATSZNA
B
STANZA
B
STRUCTURE OF
POETRY
One significant way to analyse poems is by
looking into the stanza structure
and the form of the poem.
A
B
Generally speaking, structure refers to the
overall organization of lines and/or the
conventional patterns of sound. However,
various modern poems may not have particular
structure.
A. STANZA
Stanzas refer to series of lines grouped
together and separated by a space
from other stanzas. They correspond to a
paragraph
in
an
essay.
Identifying
the
A
stanza is done by counting the number of
lines.
B
Identifying the stanza is done by counting the number of
lines.
MONOSTICH (1 LINE)
COUPLET (2 LINES)
TERCET (3 LINES)
QUATRAIN (4 LINES)
A
CINQUAIN
(5 LINES)
SESTET (6 LINES)
SEPTET (7 LINES)
B
OCTAVE (8 LINES)
Let's Play >>>
“SO LONG AS MEN CAN BREATH OR EYES CAN SEE
SO LONG LIVES THIS AND THIS GIVES LIFE TO THEE“
B
B.
FORM
In many cases, a poem may not have specific
lines or stanza, and metrical
pattern, however, it can still be labelled
according to its form or style. Here, we will
discuss the
three
most
common
types
of
A
poetry according to form are: lyric,
descriptive and narrative. We will also include
other popular types of poetry.
B
1.
LYRIC POETRY
It is any poem with one speaker (not
necessarily the poet) who
expresses strong thoughts and feelings. Most
poems, especially modern ones,
are lyric Apoems. Below are Bsome types of
lyric poetry:
a. ode
b. elegy
c. sonnet
A. ODD
An ode is a lyric poem that praises an individual, an
idea or an event. The length is usually moderate, the
subject is serious, the style is elevated and
the stanza pattern is elaborate.
A
In Ancient Greece, odes were originally accompanied
by music. In fact, the word “ode” comes from the
Greek word aeidein, which means to sing or to dance.
B
A. ODD
“Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Scatter, as from an unextinguish’d hearth
A
Ashes and sparks,
my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken’d earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If WinterBcomes, can Spring be far behind?
Let's Play >>>
SEOPHARTOP
B
APOSTROPHE
B
B. ELEGY
An elegy is written with a purpose to “mourn the
dead”. It usually begins by reminiscing about the dead
person, then weeps for the reason of
death, and then resolves the grief by concluding that
deathA leads to immortality.
It has no set stanza or metrical pattern. It often uses
"apostrophe" as a literary technique.
B
B. ELEGY
Excerpt from Walt Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain,”
(written following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln)
O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores acrowding;
A
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It isB some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
C. SONNET
It is a lyric poem consisting of 14 lines and, in the
English version,
is usually written in iambic pentameter. The two basic
kinds of sonnets are:
A
Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet
Shakespearean Sonnet
B
ITALIAN SONNET
Italian/Petrarchan sonnet is named after Petrarch, an
Italian Renaissance poet. The Petrarchan sonnet
consists of an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six
lines).
A
It tends to divide the thought into two
parts (argument and conclusion).
B
ITALIAN SONNET
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide;
“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
A or His own gifts. Who best
Either man’s work
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
B
They also serve
who only stand and wait.”
- When I Consider How My Light is Spent” by John
Milton
ITALIAN SONNET
When I consider how my light is spent,
A
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
B
And that one talent which is death to hide
B
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent A
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
A
My true account, lest He returning chide;
B
“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”
B
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
A
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
C
A or His own gifts. Who best
Either man’s work
D
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state E
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,
C
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
D
B
They also serve
who only stand and wait.”
E
- When I Consider How My Light is Spent” by John
Milton
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET
Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains
(four lines each) and a concluding couplet (two lines).
The final couplet is the summary. The rhyming pattern
is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
A
B
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
ow’st;
A
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long Bas men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
-Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
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 dimm'd; D
And every fair from fair sometime declines, 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
ow’st;
F
A
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st 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
B
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. G
-Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
Let's Play >>>
VIRNARTEA
B
NARRATIVE
B
2. NARRATIVE POETRY
It is a poem that tells a story; its structure
resembles the plot line of a story [i.e. the
introduction of conflict and characters,
rising action, climax and the denouement.
A
The most
common types Bof narrative
poetry are ballad and epic.
A. BALLAD
It is a narrative poem that has a musical rhythm and
can be sung.
A ballad is usually organized into quatrains or
A
cinquains,
has a simple rhythm
structure, and tells the tales of ordinary people.
B
A. BALLAD
Excerpt from “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden Athere lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
B
B. EPIC
It is a long narrative poem in elevated style
recounting the deeds of a
legendary or historical hero. Examples of epic include
Iliad by Homer, Beowulf,
The
Divine
Comedy
by
Dante
A
Alighieri, Metamorphoses by Ovid and
many more.
B