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 What is poetry?
 Where have you seen it before?
 Terminology of poetry
 Poetical devices

Poetry is the author’s thoughts
transformed into words in any manner
in which he chooses to arrange them.

Poetry is a type of writing used to
provoke perception from the reader. The
reader will withdraw an original
meaning from the piece that is read.

«Anything said in such a way, or put on
the page in such a way, as to invite from
the hearer or the reader a certain kind of
attention.» (William Stafford)

«Things that are true expressed in words
that are beautiful.» (Dante)

Lewis Carroll - Jabberwocky

Edgar Allan Poe – The Raven

Marshall Davis Jones - "Touchscreen“ (Slam
Poetry)

William Carlos Williams - This Is Just To Say
Poetry
Verse (line)
Stanza
Prose
Sentence
Paragraph
1.Rhyme
…is the way the sounds are repeated at the
end of the lines. There are three important end
rhyme patterns:
a) Paired rhyme
b) Alternate rhyme
c) “Enclosed” rhyme
…wrist (a)
…wrist (a)
…wrist (a)
…mist (a)
…knuckle (b)
…knuckle (b)
…knuckle (b)
…mist (a)
…buckle (b)
…buckle (b)
…buckle (b)
…mist (a)

Assonance: the effect created when
words with the same vowel sound are
used in close proximity.
Ex: To Autumn by John Keats
« Or sinking as the light wind lives or
dies »

Alliteration: the effect created when
words with the same initial letter
(usually consonants) are used in close
proximity.
Ex: Ariel’s Songs from the Tempest
« Full fathom five thy father lies »

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Free verse: a poem without either a rhyme or
a rhythm scheme, although rhyme may be
used, just without a pattern
Ex: Allen Ginsberg’s “A Supermarket in
California”
Blank verse: un-rhymed lines of iambic
pentameter
Ex: William Wordsworth’s “Lines written a few
miles above Tintern Abbey”

Enjambement: the continuation of thought
from one line of poetry to the next without
punctuation needed at the end of the
previous line.
Ex: Looking through the eyes
Of Wonder, of delight

Caesura: the pausing or stopping within a line
of poetry caused by needed punctuation.
Ex: Living, breathing apathy
Saps energy, will, interest,
2. Rhythm
…is a beat within the lines, giving it a
pleasing musical effect. The most
popular are the iambic meter and the
pentameter.

Iamb: An unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable.

Ex: When I do count the clock that tells the
time (Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 12”)

Trochee: A stressed syllable followed by an
unstressed syllable.

Ex: Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night, (William Blake’s
“The Tyger”)

Dactyl: A stressed syllable followed by two
unstressed syllables.

Ex: This is the / forest prim- / eval. The /
murmuring / pines and the / hem locks (Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Evangeline”)

Anapest: Two unstressed syllables followed
by a stressed syllable.

Ex: And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me (Alfred,
Lord Tennyson’s “Break, Break, Break”)
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Number of feet (association of stressedunstressed syllables)
One: Meter
Two: Dimeter
Three: Trimeter
Four: Tetrameter
Five:Pentameter
Six: Hexameter

Combination of foot name + length

Ex: Iambic pentameter

2 lines: Couplet

4 lines: Quatrain

6 lines: Sestet

8 lines: Octave
ACROSTIC POEM: A poem in which the first letters
of each line form a word or message relating to the
subject.
 Ex:

W hen morning comes
I cicles on trees
N o food
T hey travel
E xcited to find the sea
R acing along the beach with full tummies!

BALLAD: A narrative poem which is, or
originally was, meant to be sung.
http://www.poemsnpoetry.com/free-poemspecial/ballad-poems/The Secret Letter.html

HAIKU: A Japanese form of poetry, which
gives a brief description of nature. Haiku
consists of three unrhymed lines of five,
seven and five syllables.
Anger is like a
Bear without any honey-No sweets, no sugar.
So glad as a bird,
I sing and chirp in good mood...
If I just had wings.
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LIMERICK: A light or humorous verse form of
five lines in which lines one, two and five are
of three feet and lines three and four are of
two feet, with a rhyme scheme of aabba.
http://www.poeticlimericks.com/#Sample
1 foot = 1 stressed or unstressed syllable

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Sonnet: a fourteen-line lyric poem, usually
written in rhymed iambic pentameter (in lines
of ten syllables with a stress on every other
syllable).
http://www.sonnets.org/shakespeare.htm#0
12
Shakespearean (3 quatrains + couplet) vs.
Petrarchan (0ctave + sestet)

Elegy: A poem of lament or sorrow usually
caused by the grief following a death.

http://www.poeticterminology.net/elegywritten-in-a-country-churchyard.htm
1. Read the poem, define terms
(denotation, connotation)
 2. Paraphrase the work
 3. Identify the number of verses,
stanzas
 4. Establish the rhyme pattern
 5. Establish assonance\alliteration
 6. Identify literary elements and
figures of speech


Revisit the song you chose for your
symbolism project

Find as many poetical devices as possible
(including alliteration, assonance, etc.)

Switch copies with a partner and
correct/double-check their copy
Present your work to the class (on the board)

Tom Wayman – Did I Miss Anything?
Langston Hughes - Homecoming
Duncan Campbell Scott – The Onondaga
Madonna
 Michael Ondaatje -The Cinnamon Peeler’s
Wife
 William Blake - The Tyger + The Lamb
 Robert Frost – The Road not Taken
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P.K. Page – The Landlady

Alden Nowlan – Warren Pryor

William Shakespeare – Sonnet 18