POETRY
AND US
Poetry and versification
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What poetry is not and what poetry is.
What does versification study?
Kinds of rhyme and rhyming patterns.
Rhythm and meter; poetic units: syllable, foot, line and
stanza
Metrical patterns: iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl; their
modifications: spondee, pyrric foot
Meters: dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter,
pentameter, octameter
Stanza patterns: heroic couplet; ballad; ottava rima,
Spenserian stanza; sonnet (Petrarchan and Shakespearean)
Modern and exotic forms of verse
Daffodil -
A plant of the genus
Asphodelus or Narcissus
(N. Pseudo-narcissus).
It has a bulbous root and
beautiful flowers, usually
of a yellow hue.
From the diary of Dorothy Wordworth,
Thursday, April 15, 1802.
When we were in the woods beyond
Cowbarrow park we saw a few
daffodils close to the water side, we
fancied that the lake had floated the
seeds ashore and that the little colony
had so sprung up – But as we went
along there were more & and yet
more & at last under the boughs of
the trees, we saw that there was a
long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike
road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy
stones about & about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as
on a pillow for weariness & and the rest tossed & reeled & danced &
seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over
the Lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing…
I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils. March 19, 1804
William Wordsworth
What is poetry?
What is Poetry?
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary
it is: writing that formulates a concentrated
imaginative awareness of experience in
language chosen and arranged to create a
specific emotional response through
meaning, sound, and rhythm.
DEAD POETS SOCIETY
“Understanding Poetry”,
by Dr. J. Evans Pritchard, Ph.D.
To fully understand poetry, we must first be fluent with
its meter, rhyme, and figures of speech.
Then ask two questions: One, how artfully has the
objective of the poem been rendered, and two, how
important is that objective. Question one rates the
poem's perfection, question two rates its importance.
And once these questions have been answered,
determining a poem's greatest becomes a relatively
simple matter.
Why?
We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and
write poetry because we are members of the human race.
And the human race is filled with passion. Medicine, law,
business, engineering, these are all noble pursuits, and
necessary to sustain life.
But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive
for. To quote from Whitman: "O me, o life of the questions of
these recurring, of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities
filled with the foolish. What good amid these, o me, o life?
Answer: that you are here. That life exists, and identity.
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a
verse.
What will your verse be?
VERSIFICATION
Objectives of VERSIFICATION:
 to study kinds of rhymes and rhyming patterns
 to analyze stressed/unstressed syllables
alteration
 to classify stanza patterns
 to differentiate lines according to the number
of syllables
 to examine the presence /absence of pause at
the end of the line [enjambment or run-on line
and end-stopped line]
Poetic Terms
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RHYTHM(Webster): regular recurrence of elements or
features; periodicity of different types.
METER : any kind of periodicity in verse determined by the
character (stressed/unstressed) and/or number of syllables in a
line; systematically arrange and measured rhythm in verse;
rhythm that continuously repeats a single basic pattern; fixed
metrical pattern verse form
VERSE: a line of metrical writing
FOOT: unit used in poetry composed of syllables in some
pattern of unaccented and accented syllables (UNITS OF
POETRY : Syllablefootlinestanza)
METRICAL PATTERNS
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Iamb
 -- a foot consisting of 2 syllables
where the accent lies on the 2nd syllable
Trochee -- a foot in which 1 accented
syllable is followed by 1 unaccented foot
Anapest  -- 3 syllable foot made of 2
unstressed syllables followed by 1 stressed
syllable
Dactyl --  3 syllable foot which is
accented on the 1st syllable
Iamb
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An iamb is a metrical foot used in formal
poetry. It consists of a short (unstressed)
syllable followed by a long (stressed) one.
The iambic pentameter is one of the most
powerful measures in English poetry.
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. -Alfred Tennyson
Anapaest
An anapaest is a metrical foot used in formal poetry that may be
seen as a reversed dactyl.
 Because of its length and the fact that it ends with a stressed syllable
and so allows for strong rhymes, anapaest can produce a very
rolling, galloping feeling verse, and allows for long lines with a
great deal of internal complexity. The following is from 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.
 An even more complex example comes from Yeats. He intersperses
anapests and iambs, using six-foot lines (rather than four feet as
above). Since the anapaest is already a long foot, this makes for very
long lines.
Fled foam underneath us and 'round us, a wandering and milky smoke
As high as the saddle-girth, covering away from our glances the tide
And those that fled and that followed from the foam-pale distance
broke.
The immortal desire of immortals we saw in their faces and sighed.
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METER1) systematically arranged and measured rhythm in verse
A) rhythm that continuously repeats a single basic pattern
B) rhythm characterized by regular recurrence of systematic
arrangement of basic patterns in larger figure (such as a ballad)
2) measure or unit of metrical verse usually used in combination
3) fixed metrical pattern-verse form
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dimeter, a line of poetry containing 2 metrical feet
trimeter, a line of poetry containing 3 metrical feet
tetrameter, a line of poetry containing 4 metrical feet
pentameter, a line of poetry containing 5 metrical feet
hexameter, a line of poetry containing 6 metrical feet
heptameter, a line of poetry containing 7 metrical feet
octameter a line of poetry containing 8 metrical feet
MODIFICATIONS
of metrical patterns
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spondee - -
pyrric foot -  
hypometric line
hypermetric line
TONIC, SYLLABIC,
AND SYLLABO-TONIC VERSE
RHYME – repetition of identical or similar terminal
sound combinations of words that are placed at a
regular distance from each other, usually at the end
of the corresponding lines
RHYMING MODELS:
 Couplet
AA
 Triplet
AAA
 Cross rhyming ABAB
 Framing
ABBA
STANZA PATTERNS
Stanza - division of a poem consisting of a series of lines arranged
together in a usual recurring pattern of rhyme and meter
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(HEROIC) COUPLET aa
BALLAD abcb
QUATRAIN: unit or group of 4 lines of verse
LIMERICK aacca
OTTAVA RIMA (octave) abababcc
SESTET: unit or group of 6 lines of verse
Spenserian STANZA ababbcbcc
Petrarchan SONNET: – abba abba ccddee (cde cde)
Shakespearean SONNET – abab cdcd efef gg
My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lip's red;
If snow be white, why, then her breasts are dun,
If hair 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;
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.
Kinds of rhyme
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FULL – might - right
EXACT(identical, perfect) – hold – behold; by hook or by crook
INCOMPLETE (partial; vowel and consonant) – flesh – fresh –
press; worth - forth; tale- tool; tremble – trouble
COMPOUND – bottom – forgot them – shot’im; upon her honor –
won her owner
EYE-RHYME – love-prove-stove; flood – brood, have – grave
INTERNAL - The sails at noon left off their tune
MASCULINE – loud – proud
FEMININE – cooking – looking
far – bizarre; biology- ideology;
computer – commuter; fault – ought
 I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers
The Raven
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door;
Only this, and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow, sorrow for the lost Lenore,
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore,
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door,
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door.
This is it, and nothing more."
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is, I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you." Here I opened wide the door;
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?",
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"
Merely this, and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping, something louder than before,
"Surely," said I, "surely, that is something at my window lattice.
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore.
Let my heart be still a moment, and this mystery explore.
'Tis the wind, and nothing more."
Poet as an Editor
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Wondering at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster so when Hope he would adjure Stern Despair returned, instead of the sweet Hope he dared adjure That sad answer, "Never -- nevermore.“
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Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless", said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore-Till the dirges of his Hope the melancholy burden bore,
'Nevermore--ah, nevermore!' "
What is a Poem?
Poetic Forms
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Epic: long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a legendary or
historical hero.
Acrostic: composition usually in verse which sets of letters (as the initial or final
letters of lines) taken in order to form a word, or phrase, or regular sequence of
letters of the alphabet
Narrative Poem: must tell a story
Prose Poem: a composition in prose that has some qualities of a poem
Ballad: narrative poem that has a musical rhythm and can be sung
Found Poem: a poem consisting of words found in a nonpoetic context (as a
product label) and usually broken into lines that convey a verse rhythm
Question Poem: a poem centered around a question
Tercet Poem: stanza of 3 lines, each line ending in same rhyme sound
List Poem: when the writer starts a brainstorming for the poem, making a list and
writes the poem from the list. Take the list, make it into a poem; don't have to
rhyme
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One Sentence Poem: a poem that's one sentence long with words
strategically placed to give a visual effect of the feelings of the author
Bio Poem: 11 line poem about a person that tells about that person Format
in lines:
1)name
2) 4 traits(adj.)
3) related to (family)
4) cares deeply about
5) who feels
6) who needs
7) who gives
8) who fears
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9) what would like to see
10) resident of
11) open (does not matter what is on this line)
Concrete: a visual poem created with words placed on a page to create an
idea through shape or form
Blank Verse: unrhymed, usually iambic, pentameter
Free Style: a poem that follows no given pattern
Haiku: unrhymed verse form having 3 lines; usually 5,7,5 syllables
Concrete poem
Il pleut
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Il pleut des voix de femmes comme si elles
étaient mortes même
dans le souvenir c'est vous aussi qu'il pleut merveilleuses
rencontres
de ma vie ô gouttelettes et ces nuages cabrés se prennent à hennir
tout un univers de villes auriculaires écoute s'il pleut tandis que le regret
et
le dédain pleurent une ancienne musique écoute tomber les liens
qui te retiennent
en haut et en bas by Guillaume Apollinaire (18801918) [pseudonym]
It rains
It is raining of the voices of women as if
they were dead even in
memory It is you also that it rains marvelous
meetings of my life,
oh little drops And these reared-up clouds take themselves
to
neighing an entire universe of auricular cities Listen if it rains while
regret and disdain
cry an ancient music Listen to the falling of the
bonds that
restrain you from top to bottom
Translation from French to English copyright © 2002 by Korin Kormick
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Guillaume Apollinaire
(1880-1918)
William Wordsworth, 1798
The knowledge both of the poet and the man of science is pleasure; but the knowledge of the one cleaves to
us as a necessary part of our existence, our natural and unalienable inheritance; the other is a personal and
individual acquisition, slow to come to us, and by no habitual and direct sympathy connecting us with our
fellow beings.
The man of science seeks truth as a remote and unknown benefactor; he cherishes and loves it in his solitude:
the poet, singing a song in which all human beings join with him, rejoices in the presence of truth as our
visible friend and hourly companion.
Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the
countenance of all science. Emphatically may it be said of the poet, as Shakespeare hath said of man, "that
he looks before and after." He is the rock of defense for human nature; an upholder and preserver, carrying
everywhere with him relationship and love. In spite of difference of soil and climate, of language and
manners, of laws and customs: in spite of things silently gone out of mind, and things violently destroyed;
the poet binds together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society, as it is spread over the
whole earth, and over all time . . . .
Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge--it is as immortal as the heart of man . . . . If the time should ever
come when what is now called science, thus familiarized to men, shall be ready to put on, as it were, a form
of flesh and blood, the poet will lend his divine spirit to aid the transfiguration, and will welcome the being
thus produced, as a dear and genuine inmate of the household of man. (from "Preface to the Lyrical
Ballads" in Critical Theory Since Plato. Revised edition. ed. Hazard Adams. New York: Harcourt, 1992.
442. Italics mine.)
Goethe:
The Poet is the ruler of inspiration, he is the one to govern it.
Shostakovitch:
There is no art without impressions, without inspiration, without rapture,
without life experience.
Ramu:
Art is the state of soul
Dostoevsky:
The greatest gift of a writer is the ability to cross out. All great writers wrote
very briefly. The main point is not to repeat what has been said already
what is clear by itself..
Leonardo:
Painting – is a poetry to see, while poetry is a painting to hear.
Stendal:
Beauty is the promise of happiness
Wilde:
Criticism requires much more culture than art.
Plato:
Any person is a poet when he is in love
Thank you
Tetyana Vvedenska
Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and English
Department, Dnipropetrovsk National University, Ukraine
vved@list.ru
POETRY RESOURCES
 http://www.poets.org
 http://www.wikipedia.com
 http://www.poetarium.ru
 Poe’s Virtual Library
 Quotegallery.com
 Representative Poetry Online
 Literaryhistory.com