Poetry Booklet
Ballad
A short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines and usually a refrain. The story
of a ballad can originate from a wide range of subject matter but most frequently deals
with folk-lore or popular legends. They are written in straight-forward verse, seldom with
detail, but always with graphic simplicity and force. Most ballads are suitable for singing
and, while sometimes varied in practice, are generally written in ballad meter, i.e.,
alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with the last words of the
second and fourth lines rhyming.
Example:
The Ballad of Marian Blacktree
She longed to know the sky.
"I'm weary of this valley, love,
I want to learn to fly!"
Refrain:
Oh, do you know the mountain road
That leads to yonder peak?
A few will walk that trail alone,
Their dreams they go to seek.
(IV)
Poor Thomas did not want to leave,
This valley was all he knew.
So when she turned and left him there
Her heart, it broke in two.
(I)
One such was Marian Blacktree,
A lowly sheperdess,
And courting her was Tom, the swain,
Who loved her nonetheless.
(Refrain)
(II)
A thought occurred to Marian
While watching o'er her sheep,
And gazing at the mountain thus
She nodded off to sleep.
(Refrain)
(III)
That night she came to Tom and said
(V)
Her faithful swain did track her,
All night the trail led on,
And finally at the mountain top
He looked, but she was gone.
(VI)
As morning broke and lit the sky
An eagle he did see:
It circled 'round him thrice and cried.
He knew now she was free.
(Refrain)
Poetry Booklet
Blank verse
A poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter and is often unobtrusive. The iambic
pentameter form often resembles the rhythms of speech.
Shakespeare's use of blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter, is an important
element of his plays. In rhymed verse, the words that fall at the end of lines sound very
similar, like "love" and "dove," or "moon" and "June."
Blank verse, on the other hand, has no rhyme, but is does have a definite rhythm
created by the careful structuring of iambic feet — patterns of stressed and unstressed
syllables. One poetic foot is a single unit that is repeated to five a steady rhythm to a line
of verse. The iambic foot (or iamb) consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable, like "inSIST" or "reSIST."
The pentameter portion of iambic pentameter refers to the number of feet (iambs) that are
repeated in each line of verse, in this case five. So, remember that a line of blank verse in
iambic pentameter does not rhyme, but it will always follow this rhythm:
weak STRONG weak STRONG weak STRONG weak STRONG weak STRONG
Here's an example of blank verse from Hamlet. As you read it, listen for the iambic
pentameter rhythm:
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must.
Once you get into the groove of iambic pentameter, you might find that reading
Shakespeare becomes a little easier. At least now you know part of why the phrasing of
his language can seem so odd. He's making a deliberate effort to work out the syllables in
a very specific way. Try it yourself sometime and your words might come out a little
strange, too!
Poetry Booklet
Sonnet
A Sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines (iambic pentameter) with a particular rhyme
scheme: Examples of a rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg, abba cddc effe gg, or abba
abba cdcd cd
A Shakespearean (English) sonnet has three quatrains and a couplet, and rhymes abab
cdcd efef gg. An Italian sonnet is composed of an octave, rhyming abbaabba, and a sestet,
rhyming cdecde or cdcdcd, or in some variant pattern, but with no closing couplet.
Usually, English and Italian Sonnets have 10 syllables per line, but Italian Sonnets can
also have 11 syllables per line.
Example #1: William Shakespeare - Sonnet #18
Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And oft' is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Example #2: Sonnet of Demeter--Italian Sonnet
Oh the pirate stars, they have no mercy!
Masquerading as hope they tell their lies;
Only the young can hear their lullabies.
But I am barren and I am thirsty
Since she has gone. No hope is there for me.
I will roam and curse this earth and these skies-Death from life which Zeus sovereign denies.
My heart's ill shall the whole world's illness be
Till she is returned-- my daughter, my blood-From the dark hand of Hades to my care.
With my tears these mortals shall know a flood
To show Poseidon's realm desert and bare.
No myrtle shall flower, no cypress bud
Till the gods release her...and my despair.
Poetry Booklet
Lyrics
A Song is an expression of a poet's personal emotions, meant to be sung. Lyrics in a
song contain verses (lines that make up a song; a poem has stanzas) and a chorus (a
repeating verse in a song (refrain).
Free Verse
Free Verse is an irregular form of poetry in which the content free of traditional rules of
versification, (freedom from fixed meter or rhyme).
In moving from line to line, the poet's main consideration is where to insert line breaks.
Some ways of doing this include breaking the line where there is a natural pause or at a
point of suspense for the reader.
Following the direction of Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound and T.S.Eliot, many modern day
poets use this particular form of expression.
Example: Poem for Job
Job came down
in a
woosh, outstretched
and gliding into the horizon.
Blue shadowed
flight
arrested by
the beckoning marsh.
His greatness bears
much
yet not
the anguish of ancient
prophecy.
Situated grievances weigh
feathery
on this long,
strong back. Unconscious
emotion
numbs while
time drifts out
another
sun salted
day.
Poetry Booklet
Minute Poetry
The Minute Poem is rhyming verse form consisting of 12 lines of 60 syllables written in
strict iambic meter. The poem is formatted into 3 stanzas of 8,4,4,4; 8,4,4,4; 8,4,4,4
syllables. The rhyme scheme is as follows: aabb, ccdd, eeff
Example:
I Need Someone
I need someone to hold me tight
Through dark of night,
Who won’t go ’way
At break of day.
Someone whose love will mend the seams
Of broken dreams,
And give me back
The trust I lack.
For love, it holds the magic key
To set me free,
To heal my soul
And make me whole.
Haiku
Haiku (also called nature or seasonal haiku) is an unrhymed Japanese verse consisting of
three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17 syllables in all.
Haiku is usually written in the present tense and focuses on nature (seasons).
The 5/7/5 rule was made up for school children to understand and learn this type of
poetry. For an in depth description of Haiku, please look up Senryu and Tanka forms of
Haiku. There is much more to haiku than the made up 5/7/5 version.
Example #1:
Pink cherry blossoms
Cast shimmering reflections
On seas of Japan
Example #2:
salt-waves caress sand
tickling my toes and heart
in their short-spun wake
Example #3:
warm soup in a bowl
letters of the alphabet
hang on the teaspoon
Poetry Booklet
Shape Poetry
-Shape Poetry is also associated with Concrete PoetryShape is one of the main things that separate prose and poetry. Poetry can take on many
formats, but one of the most inventive forms is for the poem to take on the shape of its
subject. Therefore,if the subject of your poem were of a flower, then the poem would be
shaped like a flower. If it were of a fish, then the poem would take on the shape of a fish.
Shape and Concrete Poetry go hand-in-hand; however, Concrete or Visual Poetry don’t
have to take on the particular shape of the poem’s subject, but rather the wording in the
poem can enhance the effect of the words such as in this line:
an angel tumbling
d
o
w
n
to earth . . .
Designing your own shape poem can be simple and fun, but try not to pick anything that
would be too difficult. We suggest mapping out or drawing your shape first, and then
importing the text of your poem into your shape.
Example #1:
Birth of a Triangle
mama and papa and baby make three,
reaching sides of a three-sided tree.
oedipal winds rustle from leaves;
triangular shapes converting
dissimilarity into peeves.
straight lines connect
the corners turned;
mirrored sight
un-burned;
buried
am
i
Example #3:
Broken Car
What can I do with
a car that doesn't go
Can I find some way to fix it
How long will it be before I can go again
Can the car even be fixed or is it hopeless
I can't take a bus to work they aren't around
Stranded
No Money
Damned
Things
Poetry Booklet
Ode
An Ode is a poem praising and glorifying a person, place or thing.
Example #1:
An Ode To Dreamers
When dreamers dream
And lovers love
Do they receive their visions
From heaven above?
Or do they originate
Where all things start
Within our minds
Within our hearts?
I know not all
But what I do know is this
You cannot build a Kingdom
Upon a flimsy wish
So believe in your dreams
Follow them blind
Lest you loose them all,
To the hands of time.
He alights on trees, fences
and roses,
to whatever attracts his fancy
he will do his poses.
He's up, he's down
he dances with the breeze,
he comes, he goes
and does it with ease.
As I watch him
in pure delight,
I begin to wonder
if he knows his own plight.
Example #2:
Ode To A Butterfly
For soon spring turns into summer
then summer flies quickly by,
the sun setting early
into a darkening sky.
Oh! the butterfly
he flutters all day,
he roams the skies
with some delay.
The butterfly is gone now
replaced by snow,
but he will be back again
to put on his beautiful show.
Poetry Booklet
Epitaph
An epitaph is a brief poem inscribed on a tombstone praising a deceased person, usually
with rhyming lines.
Example #1:
What happened to me, was not good,
Hit by a car, bounced off the hood,
Would get up, if only I could,
Now here I lay, where once I stood.
Example #2:
Where lies One-Eyed Willie
Who died while laughing himself silly.
He drank too much liquor
That started his snicker
and ended up six feet under.