Intro to Poetry
po·et·ry noun \ˈpō-ə-trē
What is it?
writing that formulates a concentrated
imaginative awareness of experience in
language chosen and arranged to create a
specific emotional response through
meaning, sound, and rhythm
 In other words…it is writing that uses
devices to focus on “experiences” or
“life”.

Poetic Devices to Know:















Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Hyperbole
Alliteration
Allusion
Apostrophe
Onomatopoeia
Synecdoche
Narrative poetry
Lyric poetry
Sonnet
Hyperbole
Consonance
Metonymy
Why Write Poetry?
One argument goes back to Aristotle, to his
famous distinction between history and poetry.
 History reports what happened, and is
therefore subject to all the constraints and
imperfections of actual life. No general is a
perfect embodiment of courage in battle,
steadfastness in adversity, far-sightedness in
decision-making, etc. But poetry uses words in
their fuller potential, and creates
representations that are more complete
and meaningful than nature can give us in the
raw.

Why Write Poetry? II
A second argument borrows the approach of the
Postmodernists, who claim that what we experience
of the world is with and through language.
 The claim is greatly exaggerated, since we all have
experiences not readily conveyed in words — riding a
bike, listening to music, etc. — and meaning is not
finally anchored in mere words but in bodily
physiology and social usage. But language undoubtedly
does colour our perceptions and modify responses,
which politicians and the media understand very well.
 Words are not therefore neutral entities, but have
intentions, associations, histories of usage

Why write Poetry? III
the ordinary language of everyday speech
is a stunted, stripped down and
abbreviated shadow of what poetry
should achieve.
 In other words…poetry is using words to
their potential!

Why Poetry? IV

Because it “sounds nicer” than prose,
poetry is appreciated. (often uses rhymes,
has a set rhythm or pattern, uses devices
like alliteration…)

Because it is “harder” to write than prose,
it is appreciated. (often has set “rules” to
follow such as rhyme scheme, syllables
per line…)
Recognizing “Good” Poetry
Watch good poets and read good poems.
 Shayne Koyczan
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppwow
TJg0mI
 Saul Williams
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJHqu
OEChRg

Narrative vs. Lyric Poetry
Narrative Poetry
Narrative Poetry tells a story with a
discernible plot involving characters and
events. There are different types of
narrative poems:
 1. Epic: ex. Beowolf

◦ A long narrative on a serious subject
◦ Told in a formal and elevated style
◦ Centred on a heroic or quasi-divine figure
whose actions control the fate of a nation or
the human race.
Narrative Poetry continued…

2. Metrical Romance: ex. The Faerie
Queen (Edmund Spencer)
◦ Represents a courtly and chivalric age where
“civility” and “manners” were stressed.
◦ Has a standard plot of a quest taken by a
knight to win a lady’s favour.
◦ Focuses on chivalric ideals of courage, loyalty
and honour.
Yet More Narrative Poetry…

Ballad: ex. Rime of the Ancient Mariner
(Samuel Coleridge)
◦ A traditional ballad is a song that tells a story.
◦ A literary ballad is written with deliberate
form and language.
◦ Has stanzas (quatrains) that follow the rhyme
scheme of ABCB.
Lyric Poetry
Lyric Poetry expresses a state of mind or
a process of perception, thought or
feeling. These poems often represent
emotional expression.
 1. Ode: ex. Ode to a Grecian Urn
(Keats)

◦ Written in praise or in memory of a person,
or the arts of music or poetry.
◦ Serious and elevated in style.
Lyric Poetry continued…

2. Elegy: ex. In Memorium (Tennyson)
◦ A lament for the death of a person.
Still More Lyric Poetry…
Sonnet: (See Shakespeare and Petrarch)
 A love poem of 14 lines written in iambic
pentameter, and with a set rhyme scheme.
 See the handout!

Focus on rhythm, meter, and form
Why use rhythm in your poetry?
Sounds are naturally broken down into
some sort of pattern, in poetry you can
put specific thought into the pattern to
create effect.
 Use rhythm to:

◦ Create flow, a musical quality
◦ A change in rhythm can be used for emphasis.
 Ex. When you want to change the topic in a poem
or “shift gears”, you may wish to change the rhythm
as a way to emphasize this.
Rhythm and meter:

Rhythm refers to the pattern of sounds made
Meter is the regular or patterned alternation between accented
and unaccented syllables in a line of poetry.

There are 5 basic rhythms that make up meter

◦ Iambic (one unstressed syllable and one stressed)
 When I..|..con SID..|..er HOW..|..my LIFE..|..is SPENT
◦ Trochaic (stressed/unstressed)
 TY ger..|..TY ger..|..BURN ning..|..BRIGHT
◦ Spondaic (unstressed/unstressed)
 Well-loved, make mild
◦ Anapestic (unstressed/unstressed/stressed)
 And the SHEEN..|..of their SPEARS..|..was like STARS..|..on the SEA
◦ Dactylic (stressed/unstressed/unstressed)
 This is the / forest prim- / eval. The / murmuring / pines and the…





Each of the units (an iamb, a troch, an anapest…) is called a “foot”.
“feet” come in groups of:
◦ Mono, di, tri, tetra, penta, hexa, hepta, octa...
For example, one iambic foot is 2 syllables. If a line has 10 syllables
and they are all arranged in iambic units, then the line has 5 feet.
This would be an example of IAMBIC PENTAMETER.
If you have 9 syllables of dactylic feet (3 syllables per foot), you
would have dactylic trimeter.
What meter would you have if you had:
◦ 8 syllables of spondaic?
 Spondaic tetrameter
◦ 16 syllables of trochaic?
 Trochaic octameter
Form in poetry:




Form, in poetry, can be understood as the physical
structure of the poem: the length of the lines, their
rhythms, their system of rhymes and repetition.
In this sense, it is normally reserved for the type of
poem where these features have been shaped into a
familiar pattern.
The familiar patterns (forms) include RHYME SCHEME,
and RHYTHM.
Not so obvious patterns (form) in poetry include:
◦ acrostic poems- use the first letters of each line to spell out a
word or phrase
◦ Cento- A poem consisting only of lines from other poems.
◦ Sight poems- where the poem literally creates an image
Form continued…

Examples of poems that rely on form:
◦ Sonnet (14 lines of iambic pentameter with a
set rhyme scheme)
◦ Sestina (39 lines, with a set # of lines per
stanza, and rhyme scheme)
◦ Villanelle (19 lines, 5 tercets and one quatrain)
◦ blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter)
Rhyme Scheme- the pattern of rhyme
between lines of a poem or song.
 The following stanza has a rhyme scheme
of ABAB.
 Bid me to weep, and I will weep (A)
While I have eyes to see; (B)
And having none, and yet I will keep (A)
A heart to weep for thee. (B)

Focus on Allusion and hyperbole
Allusion
Allusion= a figure of speech that makes a
reference to, or representation of, people,
places, events, literary work, myths, or works of
art, either directly or by implication.
 Examples:

Barack Obama= "I was not born in a manger. I was
actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father,
Jor-el, to save the Planet Earth.“
 “The girl's love of sweets was her Achilles heel”
 “I thought the software would be useful, but it was a
Trojan Horse.”

Hyperbole
is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device
or figure of speech
 It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to
create a strong impression, but is not meant to
be taken literally.
 Examples:


"Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world."
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Concord Hymn

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No. This my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red."
William Shakespeare, Act II, Scene II of Macbeth

Watch for examples of allusion and
hyperbole!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3w2MTXBebg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn7-fVtT16k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeNYDwbm9qw&feature=fvwrel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_hKLfTKU5Y&feature=relmfu
Focus on Simile, Metaphor, and
Alliteration
Alliteration
What= a series of words in proximity have the
same first consonant sound
 Why= adds an interesting aesthetic touch, can
speed up the pace of a poem, and retrieves
similar sounding words and phrases from a
person's memory, making it a useful tool for
poetry comprehension and memorization.
 Examples= “Tim took tons of tools to make
toys for tots.”

Simile
What= a figure of speech that directly compares two
different things, usually by employing the words “like” or “as”
 Unlike a metaphor, a simile can be as precise as the user
needs it to be, to explicitly predicate a single feature of a
target or to vaguely predicate an under-determined and
open-ended body of features
 Why= to explain, to express emotion, to make writing more
vivid and entertaining


Example=
◦ My passion is as mustard strong;
I sit all sober sad;
Drunk as a piper all day long,
Or like a March-hare mad.
Metaphor
What= a word or phrase literally denoting one
kind of object or idea is used in place of
another to suggest a likeness
 Why= used to encourage the reader to draw a
comparison between two seemingly unrelated
things, and find similarities between them
 Examples:
◦ “Drowning in money”
◦ “One Direction is chicken soup for my soul.”

I’m Bad
In the song “I’m Bad” LLCool J uses
poetic devices to add impact and effect.
 Find examples of:

◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Allusion
Hyperbole
Alliteration
Simile/metaphor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVDfyc2lh
4Q
Personification
Personification- an inanimate object or
abstraction is given human qualities or
abilities.
 Examples:

◦ The wind stood up and gave a shout
◦ Unseen, in the background, Fate was quietly
slipping the lead into the boxing gloves
◦ Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered.
Onomatopoeia- is a word that imitates
or suggests the source of the sound that
it describes
 Examples:

◦ Oink, squeek, ding, snap, crack…