POETRY
I. Some Types of Poetry
A. Lyric
a brief subjective poem marked by imagination, melody; it creates for the reader a single
unified impression; usually abstract – based on revealing emotion. The name comes from
the Greek lyre, a stringed instrument the ancients played to accompany the singing and
chanting of verse.
B. Narrative poetry that tells a story. i.e. ballads, epics
C. Epic
a long narrative poem constructed on a grand scale which celebrates the heroic deeds of
men and gods. Examples are Beowulf, The Iliad, The Odyssey.
D. Ballad
a narrative poem originally meant for singing. Most ballads follow a standard four line
stanza form which concludes with a refrain. Examples include The Cremation of Sam
McGee and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
E. Dramatic Monologue
F. Sonnet
a narrative poem in which everything is presented from a single point
of view, that of the speaker. The person to whom the speaker talks
must be inferred as one reads the poem. Examples are Tennyson’s
Ulysses and Browning’s My Last Duchess.
a lyric poem of 14 lines, traditionally in iambic pentameter. There are two traditional
kinds:
Italian (Petrarchan): divided into an 8-line octave and a 6-line sestet with the rhyme scheme abba
abba cde cde. Usually the octave states a problem or asks a question, and the sestet resolves the
problem, or answers the question.
English (Shakespearean): has 4 divisions: three 4-line quatrains, and a final 2-line couplet with
the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg. The couplet usually serves to thematically summarize or
unify the ideas stated in the three quatrains.
G. Ode
a thoughtful, usually formal lyric poem of exalted tone. The ode was originally a choral
interlude in Greek drama and later developed as an independent composition. The most
famous might be Keats’ Ode to a Grecian Urn.
H. Elegy
a lyrical poem on death. When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed is Walt
Whitman’s elegiac lament for the death of Abraham Lincoln.
II. Some Verse Forms and Stanza Patterns
A. Blank Verse
unrhymed iambic pentameter. Shakespeare wrote his plays in Blank Verse.
B. Structured Poetry
poetry in which there exists a fixed pattern of rhyme scheme and meter.
Sonnets, limericks and villanelles are examples of structured poetry.
C. Free Verse
unstructured poetry (i.e. no fixed rhyme scheme or meter).
D. Stanza
a repeated unit having a similar number of lines which follow a similar
rhythmical and rhyming pattern. A ‘paragraph’ of poetry.
E. Refrain
a repetition of a fixed pattern of words; the chorus.
F. Quatrain
a poetic stanza of four lines
G. Couplet
two line linked by rhyme
H. Heroic Couplet
a series of iambic pentameter couplets as in Pope’s The Rape of the Lock or
Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.
I. Caesura
a pause or break in the metrical or rhythmical progress of a line of verse.
J. Enjambment
when one line in a poem is “run on” to the next by an absence of any
punctuation at then end of the first line
III. Sound Devices
A. Onomatopoeia
words whose sounds imitate their meanings: buzz, hiss, boom, crack…
B. Alliteration
repetition of initial consonant sounds: A slithering snakes slides to swampy
solace.
C. Consonance
the repetition of the same consonant sounds with different vowel sounds: pitter,
patter; slimmer for summer.
D. Assonance
the repetition of vowel sounds either initially or internally: While in the wild
wood I did lie – a child with a most knowing eye… Poe’s Romance.
E. Meter and
Scansion
Meter is the name given to the pattern of accents and stresses used by the poet
to establish a rhythm. To scan a poem, you must determine where the stress
falls and then count the number of accent or beats per line. In doing so, you
must decide what the poet wishes to emphasize, thus, scanning can lead to a
better understanding of the meaning of a poem. A X.J. Kennedy once wrote: It
don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing!
1. Principal Meters of English poetry: (~ = unaccented syllable; / = accented syllable)
Iamb (~ /) re-port, in-tense
Trochee (/ ~) ta-ble, fa-ther, cry-ing
Anapest (~~ /) in-ter-rupt, un-der-stand
Spondee (/ /) Go Now!
Dactyl(/ ~~) beau-ti-ful, com-pa-ny
The following poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge may help you remember your metrical feet:
Trochee trips from long to shorter.
From long to long in solemn short
Slow Spondee stalks; strong foot; yet ill able
Ever to come up with Dactyl trisyllable.
Iambics march from short to long.
With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng!
2. Metrical Patterns classified by length:
Mono+meter = monometer, or a meter using one foot per line.
Dimeter two feet
Trimeter three feet
Tetrameter four feet
Pentameter five feet
Hexameter six feet
Octameter eight feet
3. Scanning a line:
~
/
~
/
~
/
~
/
~
/
But soft! What light through yon-der win-dow breaks?
The repeated metrical foot here is the iamb and there are 5 of them, hence this is a line of: iambic
pentameter.
Adjective forms of metrical feet: Iambic
Trochaic
Anapestic
Dactylic
Spondaic
Thus the following comment on microbes is written in trochaic monometer:
“Adam
had ‘em.”
The key to understanding meter and scansion is to recognize that absolute regularity of rhythmical
pattern would be deadly dull. Consequently, you must train yourself to scan quite a few lines to
try and determine which metrical pattern is predominant in the poem.
F. Cacophony
a combination of harsh, unpleasant sounds or tones
G. Euphony
a combination of pleasant, soft sounds or tones
H. Rhyme
the repetition of vowel and consonant sounds
1. Masculine Rhyme:
the rhyme falls on a single stressed syllable: old/bold, sad/bad
2. Feminine Rhyme:
the rhyme falls on a stressed syllable followed by one or more
unstressed syllables: older/bolder, withering/slithering
3. Internal Rhyme:
the rhyme comes within a line of poetry:
“While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.”
- from The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe)
4. Slant Rhyme:
the poet deliberately uses similar but not identical sounds. Slant
rhyme usually has a disturbing effect and a poet my use it to
emphasize a lack of harmony in some subject: love/move, lost/most,
sharp/shape, shine/shame, tail/tall etc.
5. Half-rhyme:
rhyming of the fist and last consonants, with a different vowel sound in
the middle: flip / flop
seen/ sign
I. Anaphora
a rhetorical figure of repetition in which the same word or phrase is repeated in
(and usually at the beginning of) successive lines, clauses or sentences.
(adjective: anaphoral or anaphoric)
J. Syncope
a kind of verbal contraction by which a letter or syllable is omitted from within a
word (heav’n for heaven and o’er for over) (adjective sycopal or syncopic)
IV.
Figurative Language
A. Metaphor
The usual strict term describes comparisons between two unlike things
(not using the word like or as). Such comparisons may be established
in a single word, or they may be developed throughout an entire poem (in which
case it is called an extended metaphor).
Try to avoid mixing metaphors as the effect is often confusing for the
reader. For example, the following is silly:
“In order to keep ahead, we must keep our ears to the ground and our
eyes on the ball.”
There are different types of metaphors:
1. Simile:
comparison between two unlike things using the word like
or as: “She is lovely as a rose.” “He works like an ox.”
2. Metaphor in a noun:
“Mom looked at me with daggers in her eyes.”
3. Metaphor in a verb:
“The branches scratched at the window pane.”
4. Metaphor in an adjective:
“My bloody thoughts were obvious to all but him.”
5. Metaphor in an adverb:
“The wind moved nervously across the plain”
6. Personification:
Giving animate (human) qualities to an inanimate object:
“The blaring car horns argued on the busy street.”
7. Conceit:
A far-fetched simile or metaphor, a literary conceit occurs
when the speaker compares two highly dissimilar things. “I
have been studying how I may compare / this prison where I
live unto the world”
B. Metonymy:
a figure of speech in which something very closely associated with a
thing is used to stand for or suggest the thing itself:
“Three sails floated into the harbour.” The sails stand for the ships
themselves.
Note: Metonymy and Synecdoche (below) are so similar, they are often
used interchangeably
C. Synecdoche:
a form of metaphor where in mentioning a part you signify the whole.
Slightly different than metonomy in that the part selected to stand for
the whole must be the part most directly associated with the subject under
discussion. “All hands on deck,” refers to the workers, not simply their
hands.
Note: Synecdoche and Metonymy (above) are so similar, they are often
used interchangeably.
D. Apostrophe:
addressing a dead or absent person (or quality) as if he/she were present.
“Shakespeare, tell me a pun, and make my passage jocund and fun.”
E. Pun:
a play on words based on the similarity of sounds between
two words with different meanings.
“You have dancing shoes with nimble soles, I have a soul of lead”
- Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
“Pork stew is much ado about mutton”
F. Denotation:
the dictionary meaning of a word or phrase (it is non-emotional)
G. Connotation:
the additional meaning a word acquires through traditional usage or
because of its context. Not all words are connotative, but they are all
denotative. Note the difference between horse/steed, house/home,
skinny/thin, dog/mutt, fat/plump.
H. Imagery
those things which we know through one or more of our five senses (sight,
sound, touch, scent and taste). Often authors create “pictures” in our mind
but they may also jar our senses of touch, sound, scent and taste through
inventive word choice and phrasing. They will also use imagery to try to
explain abstracts such as love, jealousy and grief because we always
respond more strongly to images than to abstractions, which are hard to
imagine or “feel”. Imagery is a major building block in both poetry and
prose.
1.
Visual imagery: My love is like a red, red rose
2.
Aural imagery: And fired a shot heard around the world
3.
Olfactory imagery: The winter evening settles down smell of steaks in passageways
4.
Gustatory imagery: I always like summer best / you can eat fresh corn from daddy’s garden
5.
Tactile imagery: Life is a barren field, frozen with snow
I. Symbol:
an image which is what it is, but also stands for something more than what
it is. Traditional symbols like a red rose (love), a black cat (evil) or a dove
(peace) abound in literature, but skilled authors will also create symbols
in their works by repeatedly using them in a number of similar situations
(ie. The conch in The Lord of the Flies (Golding) or the cliff in Catcher
In The Rye (Salinger))In the phrase,“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”,
the dog is a symbol as it can stand for other living creatures besides dogs.
J. Allegory:
a narrative or description which has a second meaning beneath the surface
one. In an allegory, what is really important is the implied meaning.
Allegories can also be written in the form of parables or fables. i.e Lord of the
Flies is an allegorical story which reveals a underlying truth about the inherent
savagery of human nature.
K. Allusion:
a reference to something in history or previous literature which reinforces
the ideas or emotions of the piece of literature you are reading. Authors
often allude to Greek or Roman Gods, Biblical Characters or Historical
People to enhance or develop the character or situation they are writing
about.
L. Oxymoron:
a terse combination of contradictory on incongruous terms: “living death”
“mute cry”, loving hate”, “painful laughter”
M. Paradox:
an apparent contradiction which, upon further analysis, holds a profound
and insightful truth. Poets use paradoxes because they have shock value,
and are a complex, intelligent manner in which to make a point. Phrases
like “Back to the Future”, or “The Sound of Silence” don’t seem to make
much sense until they are studied. Paradoxes can be thought of as
“graduated oxymorons”. Other examples: “He is filled with emptiness”;
“Loneliness is a great thing to share.”
N. Hyperbole:
over exaggeration for effect (usually comical). “It rained buckets last
night and my yard is a lake!”
O. Understatement:
saying less than one means; deliberately under-emphasizing for effect.
“A man who holds his hand in the fireplace for half an hour is liable
to experience a sensation of excessive and disagreeable warmth.”
P. Irony:
a discrepancy/contradiction between appearance and reality
a) Verbal Irony
- saying the opposite of what you mean. Very much like sarcasm
though not implicitly scathing.
“Take your time. We’re in no rush…”
“Gee, I really like your new haircut!” (snicker, snicker…)
b) Irony of Situation
- when the opposite of what you expect to happen occurs. The Gift
of the Magi (O’Henry) is a famous example of and ending with
Irony of Situation.
c) Dramatic Irony
- when a character in a piece of literature does not fully understand
the implications of an event, an action or a spoken word, but we,
the reader do.. Very common in horror movies where the heroine
goes into the basement while we know the bad guy is already down
there!
V.
Tonal Devices
A.
Tonal Devices are the ways in which an author conveys his feelings or attitudes about
The subject he/she is describing to the audience. No author would go to the trouble of writing
a detailed poem unless he/she felt strongly about the subject. That defines the tone they
take with the work. Good readers must take the time to look for tonal words (any words
which seem to be specifically because they convey the poet’s emotional attitude.
Some words that describe tone: ironic, playful, dictatorial, sarcastic, doubtful, curious,
formal, solemn, serious, hateful, intimate, informal, adoring, disgusted, accusatory,
empathetic, indifferent, optimistic, hopeful, condescending, flattering, conniving etc…
VI.
Other Literary Terms:
A. Allusion
reference to a person, place, or event which the reader already knows
B. Ambiguity
a situation in which more than one meaning or interpretation is possible or expected
C. Colloquial
ordinary everyday language and speech
D. Mood
the atmosphere or feeling created by a literary work, partly by a description of the objects
or by the style of the descriptions. A work may contain a mood of horror, mystery,
holiness, or childlike simplicity, to name a few, depending on the author’s treatment of
the work
E. Diction
An author’s choice of words. Since word have specific meanings, and since one’s choice
of words can effect feelings, a writer’s choice of words can have great impact of a literary
work. The writer, therefore, must chose his words carefully
F. Syntax
The manner in which an author uses sentence style in a poem. Sentences may be
complex, laborious excursions which imply a reflective, introspective tone; or they can be
choppy, staccato phrases which convey hesitance, confusion, shock or, possibly even
build suspense. Keep an eye on how syntax (both sentence length and sentence style) is
used by an author to elicit a response from the reader