TP-CASTT
Title
Ponder the title before reading the poem
Paraphrase
Translate the poem into your own word s
Connotation Contemplate the poem for meaning beyond the literal (Interpretation)
Attitude
Observe both the speaker’s and the poet’s attitude (tone, diction, images, mood, etc.)
Shifts
Note shifts in speakers and in attitudes (are there changes?)
Title
Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level
Theme
Determine what the poet is saying
The 11 basic steps to reading a poem
Step 1: Read through the poem to get a sense of it.
Step 2: Identify the sentences and independent clauses (circle the periods, exclamation points,
question marks, and semicolons). For some reason, people always forget that poetry is made up
of complete sentences.
Step 3: Read a few lines to figure out the meter (figure out how many stresses there are in a
typical line).
Step 4: Note the rhyme scheme (look for a pattern).
Step 5: Read the poem out loud. Try to follow the rhythm. If you do this you'll hear where the
poet plays with the rhythm. And you'll hear the rhyme scheme.
Step 6: Look up any words you don't understand.
Step 7: Re-read the poem out loud.
Step 8: Mark off any sections in the poem. These sections may be speeches given by a character,
discussions of a particular topic, changes in mood, or a new stage of an argument.
Step 9: Re-read the poem.
Step 10: Figure out the tone -- the emotion -- of the poem.
Step 11: Re-read the poem.
So far you haven't done any analysis. But you've got a rich understanding of the poem. You
know how it works as verse, and you've probably read the poem the way the poet meant it to be
read.
Now you can start on the analysis -- if you like. If you do choose to analyze the poem (or if you
are forced into it by your power-mad professor) you will do a better job because you are alert to
what the poem says, and where it changes meaning, tone, sound, or rhythm. This will help you
zero in on the important moments in the poem.
A Few Poetry Terms
Anapestic Meter
An end-stressed meter consisting of three syllables per foot. See meter.
Arcadia
Originally a mountainous area in the Peloponnese; then a symbol for idyllic rural
life. Virgil's Eclogues were set in Arcadia. See also pastoral.
Aubade
Poem written to celebrate the dawn e.g. The Sun Rising by John Donne.
Ballad
Term originating from the Portuguese word balada meaning 'dancing-song'.
However, it normally refers to either a simple song e.g. Danny Boy or to a narrative poem (often
with a tragic ending). Bob Dylan wrote and sang some wonderfully mournful ballads e.g. The
Ballad of Hollis Brown.
The ballad stanza is a quatrain where the second and fourth lines rhyme. La Belle Dame Sans
Merci by John Keats is in ballad form. It usually features alternating four-stress and three-stress
lines.
Beat The rhythmic or musical quality of a poem. In metrical verse, this is determined by the
regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. However, free verse often features a beat e.g.
the work of Walt Whitman. Beat is one of the main things distinguishing poetry from prose.
Beat Poets/Poetry Group of American poets - including Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti and Kenneth Rexroth - who were disaffected by contemporary society. The word
'beat' comes from 'beat' as in music, 'beat' as in defeated and 'beat' as in to beatify or make
blessed. Beat poetry had a big impact upon the lyrics of singers such as Bob Dylan, Patti Smith
and Tom Waits.
Blank Verse Verse that does not employ a rhyme scheme. Blank verse, however, is not the
same as free verse because it employs a meter e.g. Paradise Lost by John Milton which is written
in iambic pentameters.
Cadence
The natural rhythm of speech - as opposed to the rhythm of meter.
Caesura
A break in the flow of sound in a line of poetry e.g. in Hamlet's famous soliloquy:
To be or not to be || that is the question
Cavalier Poets
Group of poets including Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Sir John
Suckling and Richard Lovelace who were all supporters of Charles I. Although not a formal
group they were all influenced by Ben Jonson and wrote highly crafted, witty lyrics in praise of
wine, women and song. See also Tribe of Ben.
Cinquain
A five line poem, invented by Adelaide Crapsey, and based on Japanese forms
such as haiku and tanka. The cinquain has a total of twenty-two syllables arranged in lines as
follows: 2, 4, 6, 8 and 2 e.g.
Moon Shadows
Still as
On windless nights
The moon-cast shadows are,
So still will be my heart when I
Am dead.
Conceit
An elaborate and complicated metaphor. An early exponent of conceits was the
14th Century Italian poet Petrarch. The Petrarchan conceit was imitated by many Elizabethan
poets including Shakespeare. Conceits were also used extensively by the metaphysical poets.
John Donne famously compared two lovers to a pair of compasses in his poem A Valediction:
forbidding Mourning.
Concrete Poetry
Experimental poetry which emerged during the 1950-1960s and
concentrated on the visual appearance of the words on the page. It featured new typographical
arrangements, shape poems and the use of collage etc. It owed much to early figure poems such
as The Altar and Easter-Wings by George Herbert. The effect of Concrete Poetry is lost when the
poem is read aloud.
Confessional Poetry Where the poet writes intimately about his/her personal experiences.
Confessional poetry is normally written using the 'I' form. The American poet Robert Lowell
pioneered confessional verse with his 1959 collection Life Studies.
Couplet
A stanza comprising of two lines.
Dactyl
A foot consisting of three syllables where the first is long or stressed and the
second two are short or unstressed e.g. as in 'MURmuring'.
Dactylic Meter
A front stressed meter comprised of three syllables per foot. See meter.
Dirge Poem of lamentation. See elegy.
Doggerel
Poor quality poetry. The Scottish poet William McGonagall is famous for his
doggerel and enjoys the dubious distinction of being regarded as the world's worst poet.
Dramatic Monologue
Poem narrated by an imaginary character (not the poet) in the
manner of a speech from a play. Dramatic monologue poems were particularly developed during
the 19th century by poets such as Tennyson, Hardy and most notably Robert Browning (e.g. My
Last Duchess). The technique was then used to great effect by Eliot (e.g. The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock) and Pound.
Elegy Poem written to lament the dead e.g. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas
Gray. Such a poem would employ a mournful or elegiac tone. Other examples of elegy include:
Lycidas by Milton, In Memoriam by Tennyson, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd by
Whitman (for Abraham Lincoln) and In Memory of W. B. Yeats by Auden. A more modern
example of elegy is V by Tony Harrison.
End Stopped Line A line of verse which ends with a grammatical break such as a coma,
colon, semi-colon or full stop etc. Compare this with enjambment - see below.
Enjambment The continuation of a sentence or phrase across a line break - as opposed to an
end-stopped line. Philip Larkin frequently used enjambment e.g. in The Whitsun Weddings
Epigram
Short, pithy poem - usually of a humorous nature. Ben Jonson wrote a series of
epigrams e.g.
He that fears death, or mourns it, in the just,
Shows in the resurrection little trust.
Eye Rhyme /Spelling Rhyme
This occurs where the end words of a line are
spelled similarly e.g. 'love' and 'move' but don't chime together as rhymes.
Foot/feet
A foot is a basic unit of a meter. In English, a metrical foot normally contains
either two or three syllables with varying patterns of stress. See meter.
Form The structural components of a poem e.g. stanza pattern, metre, syllable count etc - as
opposed to the content. T.S.Eliot said that: 'In the perfect poet they (form and content) fit and are
the same thing'.
Free verse
Verse without formal meter or rhyme patterns. Free verse, instead, relies upon the
natural rhythms of everyday speech. The American poet Walt Whitman was a pioneer of free
verse (see Song of Myself). However, it was fellow Americans T.S.Eliot and Ezra Pound who
are generally regarded as the major instigators of free verse in English. Free verse is particularly
associated with both the imagist and modernist movements.
Heptameter A line of poetry containing seven metrical 'feet'. An example of anapestic
heptameter is The Lacking Sense by Thomas Hardy.
Heroic Couplet
Pair of rhyming lines written in iambic pentameter. John Dryden and
Alexander Pope used Heroic Couplets extensively in their work.
Hexameter A line containing six metrical 'feet'. An example of an iambic hexameter is the
last line of each stanza of The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser.
Iamb A foot consisting of two syllables where the first is short or unstressed and the second is
long or stressed e.g. as in 'beSIDE'.
Iambic meter An end stressed two syllable foot. See meter.
Imagism/ Imagist Poets
Movement of early 20th century American and English poets
seeking clarity and economy of language (in a reaction against the abstraction of romanticism).
Ezra Pound was one of the main pioneers of imagism but the movement also included poets such
as William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), Amy Lowell, T. E.
Hulme and D. H. Lawrence. Imagist poems tend to be short, focussed on specific images and
written in free verse. Imagism was partly inspired by Japanese verse forms such as haiku and
tanka. See also modernism.
Internal rhyme
Either where a word in the middle of a line of poetry rhymes with the
word at the end of the line e.g. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe or where two words in mid
sentence rhyme e.g. 'dawn-drawn' in The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Light Verse Verse which is comical or light-hearted in tone. Light verse forms include the
limerick, the clerihew and the Little Willie.
Lyric Poetry Term originally derived from the Greek word meaning 'for the lyre' and indicating
verses that were written to be sung. However, more recently the term 'lyric' has been used to
refer to short poems, often written in the 'I' form, where the poet expresses his or her feelings e.g.
The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W.B.Yeats or London by William Blake.
Lyrical Ballads
Ground breaking poetry collaboration by Coleridge and Wordsworth,
which first appeared in 1798. Subsequent extended versions appeared in 1800, 1801 and 1802.
Most of the poems in the collection were written when the two poets lived in Somerset:
Coleridge at Nether Stowey and Wordsworth at Alfoxden.
Metaphysical Poets A term originally coined by Samuel Johnson in his Life of Cowley to
criticise a group of poets including: John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Henry
Vaughan, Thomas Traherne, Andrew Marvell and Abraham Cowley etc. whose poetry he
regarded as being over intellectualised. The term is somewhat misleading as it pigeon holes a
number of poets who, in reality, had little in common.
Meter/Metre Is the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up a line of
poetry. Meter gives rhythm and regularity to poetry.
However, the English language does not always fit exactly into metrical patterns so many poems
employing meter will exhibit irregularities.
In English verse the most common meters are: iambic, dactylic, trochaic and anapestic. Other
meters are occasionally used, such as spondaic and pyrrhic. There are also a number of classical
Greek meters which are very rare indeed - such as amphibrachic, amphimacer and choriambic.
Iambic meter
An end stressed two syllable foot e.g. from In Memoriam by Lord Tennyson
I DREAMED | there WOULD| be SPRING | no MORE
This example is an iambic tetrameter - i.e. it has four iambic feet and therefore the total number
of syllables in the line is eight. Iambic is an example of rising meter.
Trochaic meter
A front stressed two syllable foot.
e.g. The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
BY the | SHORES of | GIT chee | GUMee,
This example is trochaic tetrameter - i.e. four two syllable feet. Therefore the total line has eight
syllables. Trochaic meter is less commonly used than iambic meter. Trochaic is an example of
falling meter.
Anapestic meter
An end stressed three syllable foot e.g. The Destruction of the Sennacherib by Byron:
And the SHEEN | of their SPEARS | was like STARS | on the SEA,
This line is an anapestic tetrameter i.e. it has four feet containing three syllables each. Therefore
the total number of syllables in the line is twelve.
Dactylic Meter
A front stressed three syllable foot e.g. The Lost Leader by Robert Browning
WE that had | LOVED him so, | FOLlowed him | HONoured him,
This line is an example of dactyllic tetrameter i.e. it has four feet containing three syllables each.
Therefore the total number of syllables in the line is twelve.
Each of the above meters can be used in lines with varying numbers of feet. The number of feet
in a line is usually classified as follows: monometer (one foot), dimeter (two feet), trimeter
(three feet), tetrameter (four feet), pentameter (five feet), hexameter (six feet), heptameter (seven
feet) and octameter (eight feet).
Octameter Is a line of poetry containing eight metrical 'feet'. Octameter is the longest line
included in the formal classification of lines. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe is written in
trochaic octameters.
Octave
A stanza comprising of eight lines; sometimes known as an octet or octastich.
Ode Comes from the Greek word meaning song. Odes are normally written in an exalted style
and are classified as either Pindaric (after Pindar) or Horatian (after Horace).
Ottava Rima A poem, of Italian origin, consisting of eight line stanzas with a rhyme scheme ab-a-b-a-b-c-c.
e.g. Don Juan by Lord Byron.
Pastoral
A poem about idyllic rural life - often featuring the life of shepherds. Early
examples of the form include the idylls of Theocritus and the eclogues of Virgil. Milton's poem
Lycidas is also an example of a pastoral poem. Pastorals tended to die out with the rise of
romanticism.
Pentameter A line of poetry comprising of five metrical 'feet'. Shakespeare's plays were
largely written in iambic pentameter. See meter and Shakespeare's line.
Prose Poem Piece of writing which features the charged language normally associated with
poetry but which does not feature stanzas or line breaks. An example of a prose poem is Season
in Hell by Rimbaud.
Pyrrhic Meter
A metrical foot comprising two unstressed syllables.
Quatrain
A stanza comprising of four lines e.g. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by
Thomas Gray.
Quintet
A stanza comprising of five lines e.g. Ode to a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Rhyme
The effect produced when similar vowel sounds chime together and where the
final consonant sound is also in agreement e.g. 'bat' and 'cat'. (See also assonance - which occurs
when the vowel sounds are similar but where the consonant sounds are different.)
Rhyme is normally divided into masculine and feminine rhymes. Masculine or single rhymes
occur when the last syllable in a word rhymes with the last syllable in another word. This can
occur where the words are single syllable words such as 'bat' and 'cat' or where the words have
more than one syllable but where the final syllable of each word is stressed e.g. 'instead' and
'mislead'. Masculine rhymes are usually associated with end-stressed meters such as iambic.
Feminine rhymes occur in words of more than one syllable where the stressed (or rhyming)
syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable e.g. 'nearly' and 'clearly' or 'meeting' and 'greeting'.
It is also possible to have triple feminine rhymes where the stressed syllable is followed by two
unstressed syllables - as in 'liable' and 'friable'. Feminine rhymes tend to be used in front stressed
meters such as trochaic.
The rhyme patterns in a poem can be analysed by using letters at the end of lines to denote
similar vowel sounds e.g.
Who will go drive with Fergus now, a
And pierce the deep wood's woven shade,
And dance upon the level shore?
c
Young man, lift up your russet brow,
And lift your tender eyelids, maid, b
And brood on hopes and fear no more.
b
a
C
Scansion
Septet
The analysis of lines of poetry to identify their metrical pattern.
A stanza comprising of seven lines.
Sestet A stanza comprising of six lines e.g. The Castaway by William Cowper. A sestet is also
the last six lines of a sonnet - following the octave. See sonnet.
Sonnet
A fourteen line poem usually in iambic pentameters (see meter) consisting of an
octave and a sestet. The octave presents and develops the theme while the sestet reflects and
brings the poem to a conclusion.
Over the years there have been many variations upon the sonnet form e.g.
Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet
The sonnet was originated by the Italian poet Guittone of Arezzo and then popularised by
Petrarch (1304-74). The term sonnet derives from the Italian for 'little song'. The Italian sonnet
has the following rhyme scheme: a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, c-d-e, c-d-e.
Shakespearean or English Sonnet
The Shakespearean or English sonnet employs an a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g rhyme scheme.
Essentially it consists of three quatrains and a final couplet and usually features a break between
the octave and the sestet. See Shakespeare's Sonnets.
Spenserian Sonnet
Edmund Spenser employed an a-b-a-b, b-c-b-c, c-d-c-d, e-e rhyme scheme - as evidenced in his
Amoretti sequence. This form has not been particularly popular. See Whilst it is Prime.
Spondaic Meter
Two syllable metrical foot where both syllables are stressed. This is a
comparatively rare meter in English poetry but an example of spondaic meter can be seen in the
first three feet of this line from Milton's Paradise Lost:
ROCKS, CAVES | LAKES, FENS | BOGS, DENS| and SHADES | of DEATH
Spondee
A foot consisting of two long or stressed syllables e.g. as in 'PANCAKE'.
Sprung Rhythm
A unique system of meter devised by Gerard Manley Hopkins and evident
in poems such as Pied Beauty and The Windhover. In Sprung rhythm one stressed syllable can
make up a foot e.g. in Pied Beauty:
With SWIFT,|- SLOW:|- SWEET,|- SOUR;|a DAZZ| le, DIM
Hopkins referred to the unstressed syllables in the line as 'hangers' or 'outrides'. The above line
also demonstrates Hopkins use of alliteration.
Stanza
One or more lines that make up the basic units of a poem - separated from each
other by spacing.
Stanza forms can be classified by the number of lines they employ e.g. the couplet, the triplet,
the quatrain etc.
Syllable
A unit of pronunciation making up a word. For example, the word 'badger'
consists of two syllables 'bad' and 'ger'. In English, syllables can be defined as either stressed
(long) or unstressed (short). See meter.
Terza rima A poem consisting of triplets with the following chain rhyme pattern: a-b-a, b-c-b,
c-d-c etc. It can be written in any meter but in English it is usually iambic pentameter - see Ode
to the West Wind by Shelley. Terza rima was also the form chosen by Dante in The Divine
Comedy.
See also my poem Gedney Drove End.
Tetrameter A line of poetry consisting of four metrical 'feet'. An example of trochaic
tetrameter is Haiwatha by Longfellow.
Trimeter
A line of poetry consisting of three metrical 'feet'. An example of an iambic
trimeter is The only news I know by Emily Dickinson.
Triplet/Tercet
Lamb.
A stanza comprising of three lines e.g. The Old Familiar Faces by Charles
Trochaic Meter
A front stressed two-syllable meter.
Trochee
A foot consisting of two syllables where the first one is long or stressed and the
second is short or unstressed e.g. as in 'FALLing'.
Villanelle
A poem (normally) consisting of 19 lines - arranged as five triplets and one final
quatrain. The intricate rhyme scheme of the villanelle is furnished by the first triplet: A(1)-BA(2) and is then repeated twice in the form of A-B-A(1) and A-B-A(2) and then concluded with
the quatrain rhymed A-B-A(1)-A(2). Examples of villanelles include Do Not Go Gentle Into
That Good Night by Dylan Thomas and If I Could Tell You by Auden.
Poetic Meter
Important Terms
Foot: a poetic foot is the pattern of stressed/unstressed syllables which
repeats in a line of poetry.
The Iamb, Trochee, Dactyl and Anapest are the most common, although the
Spondee and the Pyrrhus will show up occasionally.
Line Length: the poetic line is measured by the number of feet within the
line.
Dimeter, Trimeter, Tetrameter, and Pentameter will be the most common, but
Hexameter, Heptameter and Octameter are also used sometimes in English poetry.
Meter: the meter of a poem is simply a label telling how many and what
type of feet the poet used to compose the poem. For instance, a line of Iambic
Pentameter contains five iambs.
Iamb: one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable,
for example, in the word intense the second syllable is vocalized for a bit
longer, and both the pitch and the volume of the voice are raised slightly on that
syllable.
Lines of poetry with iambs are called iambic.
Trochee: one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable (a trochee is
sort of a backward iamb),
for example, the word question
Lines of poetry with trochees are called trochaic.
Anapest: two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable,
for example, understand
Lines of poetry containing anapests are referred to as anapestic.
Dactyl: one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (sort of like a
backward anapest),
for example, the word confident
Lines of poetry containing dactyls are called dactylic.
Sonnet 130 (Shakespeare)
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
from Macbeth (you know who)
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.
Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time!
Round about the caldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.—
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
“The Bridge of Sighs” (Thomas Hood)
One more Unfortunate,
Weary of breath,
Rashly importunate,
Gone to her death!
Take her up tenderly,
Lift her with care;
Fashion'd so slenderly
Young, and so fair!
from “The Destruction of Sennacherib” (Lord Byron)
The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
from “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?
The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May'st hear the merry din.'
He holds him with his skinny hand,
'There was a ship,' quoth he.
'Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!'
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.
from “To His Coy Mistress” (Andrew Marvell)
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love's day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood,
from "The Burning Babe" (Robert Southwell)
As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow,
Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear.
from “You Are Old, Father William” (Lewis Carroll)
'You are old, Father William', the young man said,
'And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head -Do you think, at your age, it is right?'
'In my youth', Father William replied to his son,
'I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again.'
from “The Tyger” (William Blake)
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
A Famous Anonymous Limerick
An epicure, dining at Crewe,
found quite a large mouse in his stew,
said the waiter, “Don’t shout,
and wave it about,
or the rest will be wanting one, too!”
from Doctor Faustus (Christopher Marlowe)
Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
Her lips suck forth my soul: see where it flies!
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.
I will be Paris, and for love of thee,
Instead of Troy, shall Wittenberg be sack'd;
And I will combat with weak Menelaus,
And wear thy colours on my plumed crest;
Stanzas
The stanza is the paragraph of poetry. Blank space between lines will mark the
stanza.
Couplet: a stanza or a grouping of two lines of poetry. For instance, sonnets end
with a rhymed couplet, or two lines that rhyme with each other.
Tercet: a three line stanza. Terza Rima, for instance is a form of poetry that uses
tercets.
Quatrain: a four line stanza
Quintain (quintet): a five line stanza
Sestet (sextet): a six line stanza
Septet: a seven line stanza
Octave: an eight line stanza
This poem is really just an illustration of stanza lengths, so don’t expect anything
wonderful
These two lines
Make a couplet
These three lines
Including this one
Make a tercet
A popular stanza
Which you’ll see often
Is the four line quatrain
Like this one
A five line stanza,
Called a quintain
Or sometimes a quintet,
Isn’t very common
Which is why, I guess, they haven’t settled on one particular name for it yet
Sometimes stanzas
Will be six lines long.
They’re called sextets
Or sestets if you don’t
want to offend
anyone.
Seven lines in a row
May seem like an arbitrary number
And I guess it is.
But who am I to judge
The great poetic geniuses
Who like writing
In septets
Where are the band geeks?
They’ll know about the octave,
Which is the standard range
Of the traditional eight-note
Western musical scale.
There are also octaves in poetry
This is an octave
Flowers and clouds
Poetic Forms
Forms in poetry are sets of rules for writing a particular type of poem. Poems
written in form will contain some combination of the following: a specific number
of lines, a particular rhyme scheme, a particular meter, and/or a particular
arrangement of ideas.
Haiku:
A poetic form originating in Japan, the haiku follows a few simple rules. The first
line contains five syllables (no particular meter), the second contains seven
syllables and the third again contains five.
The haiku traditionally contained a reflection onor description of a natural,
seasonal phenomenon. Traditional haikus rarely contained any abstract
information. The third line of the haiku, like the final couplet of an English sonnet,
turns the idea or changes the tone of the first two lines.
Sonnet:
The sonnet is one of the most popular forms in English.
14 Lines long
Iambic Pentameter
English (Shakespearean) Sonnets follow an ababcdcdefefgg rhyme
scheme
Italian Sonnets follow a abba abba rhyme scheme for the first 8 lines
(octave), then one of a few variations for the last six (sestet).
English Sonnets generally introduce and expand on a topic in the first twelve
lines, then turn the idea in some way in the final rhymed couplet.
Italian sonnets introduce the topic in the first quatrain, expand on it in the
second quatrain, then turn the idea in the final sestet.
Villanelle:
A poetic form having nineteen lines; five tercets then a final quatrain. The first line
of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the second and fourth stanzas; the
third line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the third and fifth stanzas;
these two refrain lines follow each to become the second-to-last and last lines of
the poem. The rhyme scheme is aba; rhymes are repeated according to the refrains
Limerick:
A poem written in quintain, with two lines of anapestic trimeter, two lines of
anapestic dimeter and a final line of anapestic trimeter. Limericks are usually
comical (and often rather offensive), as the arrangement of meter in the five lines
works well with a setup and punchline.
Types of Poetry
Ballad:
A type of poem which generally employs quatrains written in alternating iambic
tetrameter and iambic trimeter, usually with a rhyme scheme of abcb. Ballads
usually deal with stories of lost love, supernatural elements, crime and punishment
or current events at the time of writing. They often use colloquial and/or informal
styles of wording and, with a repeated phrase or verse (refrain), have a musical
cadence.
Lyric:
Poetry that expresses emotion.
Ode:
A poem with a serious tone and a lyrical focus, written in praise of or as a
description of something or someone inspirational to the poet.
Elegy:
A poem written in mourning over someone’s death.
Dramatic Monologue:
The name describes itself; dramatic monologue poems are written as if they are
taken from a play. The poem is spoken from the perspective of a fictional
character who is speaking to another fictional character. Browning was famous for
his dramatic monologues, which often featured sinister, unsympathetic characters.
Didactic:
Poetry that teaches a lesson or argues an opinion. The word “didactic” is
sometimes used in a critical context to describe something “preachy,” which
somewhat describes didactic poetry, but of course, poets writing didactic poems do
not intend pedanticism. You won’t see much didactic poetry because it tends to be
preachy.
Light Verse:
Poetry that is light-hearted and comical. Light verse is sometimes seen as less
important or meaningful by more serious poets.
Poetic Movements:
As times change, styles and ideas about poetry change as do styles and ideas about
fashion or music or television. The following poetic movements, identifiable
(sometimes) by their subject matter, style and philosophy, are some of the more
famous and long-lasting.
Romanticism:
The Romantic movement, which started in the late 18th century, is characterized by
its philosophical ideas and subject matter. Romantic poets (don’t think of romance
novels; it’s a different thing) tend to appreciate nature, spirituality, inspiration,
individual freedom and significance, childhood innocence, and the working class
or poor. They tend to mistrust the industrial and scientific. Famous Romantic
poets include Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Byron, Blake, Tennyson and Yeats.
Imagism:
The Imagist movement marked a shift from the Romanticism of the 19th century to
the rationalism of the 20th century. The style is characterized by shorter, simpler
sentence structure. Imagists tend to focus on physical detail and avoid abstract
wording. William Carlos Williams’s famous expression, “no ideas but in things,”
describes Imagism rather well. Among the most famous Imagists are Ezra Pound,
H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Amy Lowell and Williams.