Poetry - Basic Terminology
alliteration
repetition of initial sounds in a series of words, e.g.: note the repetition of the letters b, y,
and s in this excerpt from Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Counting-Out Rhyme":
Silver bark of beech, and sallow
Bark of yellow birch and yellow
allusion
reference, often to literature, history, mythology, or the Bible, that is unacknowledged in
the text but that the author expects the reader to recognize. In the poem "On His
Blindness" John Milton alludes to the parable of the talents (from the book of Matthew
25:14-30) when he writes:
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
archetype
image or symbol that is so common or significant to a culture that it seems to have a
universal importance. This theory originates from Carl Jung who posited such things as
a "tree," for instance may represent "growth, life, unfolding of form in a physical and
spiritual sense"
assonance
repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words, e.g.:
All is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
--"God's Grandeur" Gerard Manley Hopkins
blank verse
lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter in no particular stanzaic form.
conceit
dramatic
monologue
extended or complicated metaphor that is impressive largely because it shows off an
author’s power to manipulate and sustain a striking comparison between two dissimilar
items. A famous conceit occurs in John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"
where he compares himself and his beloved to two legs on a compass.
type of poem perfected by Robert Browning that consists of single speaker talking to
one or more unseen listeners and often revealing more about the speaker than he or
she seems to intend.
end-stopped
line
line of poetry that has a full pause at the end
enjambment
enjambment occurs when the sense of a poetic line runs over to the succeeding line,
e.g:
In that blest moment from his oozy bed
Old father Thames advanc'd his reverend head.
--Alexander Pope
hyperbole
imagery
metaphor
figurative speech that depends on intentional overstatement or exaggeration. In the
poem "To His Coy Mistress" Andrew Marvell uses hyperbole when he declares that "if
there were world enough and time" he'd spend centuries adoring each part of his lover's
body.
words and phrases that describe the concrete experience of the five senses, e.g.:
Nothing is so beautiful as spring-When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look like low heavens . . .
--"Spring" Gerard Manley Hopkins
concise form of comparison equating two things that may seem at first dissimilar, e.g.:
Life the hound
Equivocal
Comes at a bound
Either to rend me
Or to befriend me. --Robert Francis
meter
onomatopoeia
oxymoron
regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, each repeated unit of which is
called a foot (iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, spondee, pyrrhic).
word whose sound resembles what it describes (snap, crackle, pop).
phrase combining two seemingly incompatible elements ("darkness visible").
attributing of human qualities to things that are not human', e.g.: In the following excerpt
Sylvia Plath gives a "mirror" human qualities:
personification
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
simile
comparison of two seemingly unlike things using the words like or as. Toni Morrison
uses a startling simile in The Bluest Eye when she writes: "Nuns go by as quiet as
lust."
stanza
group of lines in a poem that forms a metrical or thematic unit.
Poetry
Poetry is the expression of a thought, an idea, a concept or a story in a structured form which has a flow and a music created
by the sounds and syllables in it.
All types of poetry are often written in several styles. These styles are defined by the number of lines in each stanza, the
syllables used in each line or the structures of rhyme used and so on. Here is a list of the main types of poetry commonly
used by poets all over the world.
Ballad: This is an old style of writing poetry, which was used to tell stories. A ballad usually has stanzas made up of either
seven or eight or ten lines, and ends with a short four or five line stanza. Each stanza ends with the same line, which is called
‘a refrain’.
Couplet: Perhaps the most popular type of poetry used, the couplet has stanzas made up of two lines which rhyme with each
other.
Quatrain: This kind of poem has four lines in a stanza, of which the second and fourth lines rhyme with each other and have
a similar syllable structure.
Cinquain: This is another unique type of poetry style. As the name suggests, it is made up of five lines. The first line is just
one word, which is often the title of the poem. The second line has two words which describe the first line. The third line has
three words, and is mostly the action part of the poem. The fourth line is four words describing the feelings. And the fifth line,
again, has just one word which is the title of the poem.
Iambic Pentameter: This is a very complicated style of writing poetry, but was often used by classical poets. This style uses
the syllable stresses to create the musical sound. There is one short sounding syllable followed by one long sounding syllable,
at the end of each of the five stanzas in a row.
Sonnet: This type of poem contains fourteen lines and follows conventional structures of rhyme.
Haiku: This is again a very structured method of writing poetry. This has its origins in Japan. This method does not use
rhyme. There are three lines of five, seven and five syllables each. The poem must essentially talk about some aspect of
Nature.
Free Verse: This is a method of writing poetry, which does not essentially follow any structure or style. There is no fixed meter
and no structure regarding rhyme and lines in each stanza. This kind of poetry is quite popular with modern poets.
Epic: This poem is usually a long and descriptive one which tells a story. Epics usually are longer than most poems and may
even take up a book. Example: Homer’s ‘Iliad’.
Limerick: This is a very witty and often vulgar kind of a poem, which is quite short. This poem has five lines in a stanza. The
first, second and fifth line have the same metrical structure and they rhyme with each other. They contain seven to ten
syllables each. The second and fourth lines have the same metrical structure and rhyme with each other. These contain five
to seven syllables.
These are by no means, all types of poetry forms used. But these are the basics. Most poets use these forms and structures
while writing their poems. The form and structure of the poem, ideally should not limit the thought or the idea conveyed by the
poet. However, these styles of writing help make the poem more musical in its flow.
I died for Beauty -- but was scarce by Emily Dickinson
I died for Beauty -- but was scarce
Adjusted in the Tomb
When One who died for Truth, was lain
In an adjoining room -He questioned softly "Why I failed"?
"For Beauty", I replied -"And I -- for Truth -- Themself are One -We Brethren, are", He said -And so, as Kinsmen, met a Night -We talked between the Rooms -Until the Moss had reached our lips -And covered up -- our names --
Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sung at the Completion of the Concord Monument, 4 July 1837
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, or leave their childern free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
Defence of Fort M'Henry by Francis Scott Key
Tune -- ANACREON IN HEAVEN
O! say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there -O! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream -'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havock of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul foot-steps' pollution,
No refuge could save the hireling and slave,
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
O! thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd home, and the war's desolation,
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto -- "In God is our trust!"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
The Landlord's Tale; Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,-One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."
One Song, America, Before I Go. by Walt Whitman
ONE song, America, before I go,
I’d sing, o’er all the rest, with trumpet sound,
For thee—the Future.
I’d sow a seed for thee of endless Nationality;
I’d fashion thy Ensemble, including Body and Soul;
I’d show, away ahead, thy real Union, and how it may be accomplish’d.
(The paths to the House I seek to make,
But leave to those to come, the House itself.)
Belief I sing—and Preparation;
As Life and Nature are not great with reference to the Present only,
But greater still from what is yet to come,
Out of that formula for Thee I sing.