Poetry 101
A Guide to Understanding
Poetry Basics
What Can Poetry Do?
• Poetry can…
– Be about anything
– Surprise us
– Tap our senses – make us see, feel,
hear, and taste in our imagination
– Make us laugh
– Make us think
– Use people, objects, actions, and
places as symbols to show something
about a life or an experience
What Can Poetry Do?
• Poetry can…
– Connect us with other people at the most
essential level: heart and mind to heart
and mind
– Express anger and help make sense of a
troubling experience
– Define feelings and craft them as art
– Tell stories that point to a theme
– Make us look at everyday life through
new eyes
– Make us think about the kind of lives we
want to live
What Can Poetry Do?
• Poetry can…
– Help capture stages in a life: who
we are; who we’re becoming
– Help us remember what matters
– Help us commemorate what matters
– Feed us, satisfy our thirsts,
protect us, take us around the world
and back in time, heal us, and let
us take big chances yet remain safe
– Reveal the beauty in everyday
existence; open our eyes to the
poems that hide around us
–
From Nancie Atwell’s Naming the World
What Is Poetry?
• Prose vs. Poetry
–Prose = The ordinary
language people use in
speaking and writing
–Poetry = Anything that is
not prose
Other Basic Poetry
Questions Revealed!
• Where does poetry come from? What are
your thoughts?
– The beauty of poetry is that it can come
from anywhere and everywhere
• What does poetry have to be about?
Love? Nature? The seasons? Rainbows?
Flowers? Puppies? Children?
– Poetry can be about anything. There’s
no subject that can’t be explored and
captured in a poem.
• Take a look at the following:
Where Waffles Roam
Monday.
2:00 AM.
The fanfare that signals the return of the king
has stopped.
The toothless lady mumbles about children
and life
lost
in the chaos of adolescence
and the naiveté of youth.
Teenage pregnancy, abuse, and log floats
mixed in with triple sugar, triple cream,
and stares that say, “I know you,”
and “I’ve seen you here before”
in a world
scattered, smothered, covered, and topped
filled with shapes, sizes, and flavors:
Gourmet,
Gourmand,
Glutton.
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week,
three-hundred sixty-five days a year,
the cycle never stops
with grits growing cold
and heads butting in a battle
for free refills.
Redneck, me?
Redneck, you.
Redneck haven?
Redneck heaven.
2:02 AM.
Monday.
You Can’t Write a Poem about McDonald’s
by Ronald Wallace
Noon. Hunger in the only thing
singing in my belly.
I walk through the blossoming cherry trees
on the library mall,
past the young couples coupling,
by the crazy fanatic
screaming doom and salvation
at a sensation-hungry crowd,
to the Lake Street McDonald’s.
It is crowded, the lines long and sluggish.
I wait in the greasy air.
All around me people are eating –
the sizzle of conversation,
the salty odor of sweat,
the warm flesh pressing out of
hip huggers and halter tops.
When I finally reach the cash register,
the counter girl is crisp as a pickle,
her fingers thin as french fries,
her face brown as bun.
Suddenly I understand cannibalism.
As I reach for her,
she breaks into pieces
wrapped neat and packaged for take-out.
I’m thinking, how amazing it is
to live in this country, how easy
it is to be filled.
We leave together, her warm aroma
close at my side.
I walk back through the cherry trees
blossoming up into pies,
the young couple frying in
the hot, oily sun,
the crowd eating up the fanatic,
singing, my ear, my eye, my tongue
fat with the wonder
of this hungry world.
Found Poetry
Poetry vs. Prose
What are the differences?
• Stanzas
• Spacing on page
• Length
• Imagery
• Word choice (literal and
figurative language)
• Rhyme, Rhythm, and other sound
devices
Basic Types of Poetry
• Traditional verse
– Been around a long time
– Has “rules”
•
•
•
•
•
Regular rhythm or meter
Regular stanzas
Rhyme
Figurative language
Examples: Sonnet, Haiku, Ballad
Basic Types of Poetry
• Free verse
– More modern form of poetry
– Typically ignores the “rules”
•
•
•
•
No regular rhythm or rhyme
Irregular stanzas
Strange shapes
Unusual capitalization and
punctuation
• Example: concrete poems
Three Types of Traditional
Verse
–Lyric
• Short
• Typically expresses
strong emotions about a
person, thing, or idea
Notes:
Rue = Sorrow; Regret
Laden = Weighed down; heavy
Three Types of Traditional
Verse
–Narrative
• May be very long
• Tells a story
• Usually contains some of
the same elements a story
contains (characters,
conflict, rising action,
etc.)
So did the suitors babble. But the man
of many wiles, Odysseus, now had scanned
the bow on every side; and just as one
expert in song and harping works with ease
when he is called upon to stretch a string
around new pegs and so at either end
makes fast the twisted gut – just so, Odysseus’
stringing of that great bow was effortless.
-Excerpt from Book 21 of the Odyssey by Homer
Three Types of Traditional
Verse
–Dramatic
• Kind of like a play
• Presents characters who
speak to other characters
or to the reader
‘'Is my team ploughing,
That I was used to drive
And hear the harness jingle
When I was man alive?‘
Ay, the horses trample,
The harness jingles now;
No change though you lie under
The land you used to plough.
'Is football playing
Along the river shore,
With lads to chase the leather,
Now I stand up no more?'
Ay, the ball is flying,
The lads play heart and soul;
The goal stands up, the keeper
Stands up to keep the goal…
-Excerpt from XXVII by A.E. Housman
Symbolism, Tone, Theme
• What is a symbol?
– A symbol in literature is a person,
place, thing, or event that stands for
itself and for something beyond itself
as well. They often provide meaning
beyond the obvious.
What does the bald eagle
symbolize?
What does the American flag
symbolize?
Symbolism, Tone, Theme
• What is tone?
– Tone is the attitude the writer
takes towards the audience, a
subject, or a character. Tone is
conveyed through the writer’s choice
of words and details.
– Think about the tone of your voice
and how it helps convey how you are
feeling.
– Examples of tone can include just
about any adjective you can think
of: scared, anxious, excited,
worried, depressed, smart, etc.
Example of Tone
• Consider the tone of The School by Donald
Barthelme. Here, words like "dead" and
"depressing" set a negative or unhappy tone:
And the trees all died. They were orange
trees. I don’t know why they died, they just
died. Something wrong with the soil possibly
or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery
wasn’t the best. We complained about it. So
we’ve got thirty kids there, each kid had his
or her own little tree to plant and we’ve got
these thirty dead trees. All these kids
looking at these little brown sticks, it was
depressing.
Symbolism, Tone, Theme
• What is theme?
– The theme of a story is the central idea of a work of
literature. In other words, it’s the big idea in the
story.
– Theme is not often presented directly. Instead, you
have to figure it out through characters actions,
setting, plot, etc. in the story.
– Many times, you have to make inferences based on what
you find in the story.
– To find it, we often have to think about what
insights into life or human nature the story shows
us.
– Theme is always expressed as a statement (that means
sentence), not as a single word like courage,
freedom, or loyalty.
• No = The theme is love.
• Yes = The theme is love is the most beautiful thing in life.
Example of Theme
• Think about the
story of Cinderella.
• Possible themes
might include:
– Good things happen
to good people.
– Don’t judge a book
by its cover.
– Hard work pays off.
– What goes around
comes around.
Now Let’s Practice
• Read the following poem by
Robert Frost.
• As you listen and read, think
about symbolism, tone, and
theme.
• Be ready to support your
answers with text from the
poem.
Follow-up Questions
• What might the woods symbolize?
Think about why the author
chose to have his roads go
through woods rather than a
garden or wide-open field.
Think about how woods are used
in other stories, like fairy
tales for example.
Follow-up Questions
• Which adjectives would you choose
to describe the tone of this
poem? What words, phrases, or
lines in the poem make you feel
this tone?
• Some adjectives that can describe
tone include angry, awed, bitter,
cynical, fearful, hopeful,
ironic, playful, positive,
puzzled, regretful, sad
Follow-up Questions
• What might the theme of this
poem be?
• Think about the message a
person might take away from
this poem.
Welcome to SIFT
• What is SIFT?
– SIFT is a way to analyze
literature that helps develop a
deeper understanding of
challenging literature (especially
poetry).
– Use the following method to break
down the underlying meaning of the
text:
SIFT continued
• S = Symbol (underline)
– An object, person, or place that
has meaning within itself but
stands for something else in the
context of the story
• I = Imagery (circle)
– An image is evoked through the use
of really descriptive language.
SIFT continued
• F = Figurative Language (highlight)
– Includes (but is not limited to) simile,
metaphor, hyperbole, repetition,
alliteration, irony, allusion, etc.
• T = Tone and Theme (margin notes)
– Tone is the attitude the writer takes on
the subject he/she is writing about.
– Theme is the overall lesson learned by
the main character(s) and/or the reader.
SIFT Example
Figurative Language
Similes = Think about what
words or phrases might be
associated with each
“Like a raisin in the sun” =
dried up, shriveled, parched,
juiceless
“like a sore” = a nagging
wound, an infected cut
Image = Someone bent
over from carrying
something heavy like
laundry or a full
backpack; trunk of a car
nearly dragging the
ground because of
something heavy in the
back; a shelf bending in
the middle from too
much weight
Harlem by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry it up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore –
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over –
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Symbol = Raisin
A raisin is grape that has
been drained of all its
juices. It’s shriveled and
dried up and in my
opinion, not as good as
the original grape. What
might Hughes be saying
about dreams?
Figurative Language
Implied metaphor (a
less direct metaphor)
Hughes is comparing a
dream put on hold or
how one feels after
putting a dream on
hold to a ticking bomb
Theme and Tone –
Possible tones – sadness, frustration, cautionary, anger
Possible theme – Dreams put on hold can have disastrous effects on a person
What is Voice?
• According to Grammar Girl,
voice is “the distinct
personality, style, or point of
view of a piece of writing or
any other creative work.”
• Some people get tone and voice
confused. Don’t worry! They
actually go together. Think of
tone as part of voice.
How to Find Your Voice
• Voice is important because you
want your writing to reflect your
personality as much as possible.
• Voice is the link between you and
your audience. It helps your
audience understand who you are.
• Here are some ways to help find
it. Think about the following:
How to Find Your Voice
continued
• What do you want to communicate about
yourself through the words you use in your
writing? If you asked your readers to
describe your work with a few adjectives,
what would you want them to say?
• What’s the purpose of what your writing? Are
you looking to inform, entertain, or
persuade? Should your voice be different for
a obituary than for a movie review?
• Who is your target audience? Is your voice
going to be different if you are writing for
children versus your teacher?
• Courtesy of Grammar Girl
Voice Example
• Read “Maybe Dats Youwr Pwoblem
Too”
• Who’s speaking? How do you
know?
• What makes this speaker unique?
How do you know?
• How is the speaker feeling as
he’s talking? How do you know?