Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the
dictionary. ~Kahlil Gibran
Poetry should... should strike the reader as a wording of his own
highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance. ~John Keats
A poet can survive everything but a misprint. ~Oscar Wilde
What is Poetry?
 A form of writing designed to evoke an
emotional response in the reader.
 A way for a person to express
themselves and their feelings.
 The language of love and dreams.
 An often symbolic form of writing
usually in stanzas, often rhyming.
Limerick
 A short sometimes vulgar, humorous poem consisting
of five anapestic lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 have seven to
ten syllables, rhyme and have the same verbal rhythm.
The 3rd and 4th lines have five to seven syllables,
rhyme and have the same rhythm.
Limericks…
Twas a crazy old man called O'Keefe
Who caused local farmers much grief
To their cows he would run
Cut their legs off for fun
And say "Look, I've invented ground beef!"
Limerick
There was a young rustic named Mallory,
who drew but a very small salary.
When he went to the show,
his purse made him go
to a seat in the uppermost gallery.
Man From Aruba
There once was a man from Aruba,
Whose favorite hobby was scuba.
Every day he would wish,
He could spear a big fish.
But settled instead for canned
tuna.
Limericks
There once was a boy from Montreal
Who loved to play basketball
For a team he tried out
But if he made it, I doubt
For you see, he was three feet tall!
When you sneeze and you cough and you're achin'
And you feel that your body is breakin'
Just try to recall
It's still only Fall;
Old man winter has yet to awaken.
Limericks
Young Anton thought he
would go far
He wanted to become a big
star
But when crossing the
street
He tripped over his feet
And was hit by an
oncoming car
(Author was 8!)
There once was a young girl
named Meg
Who accidentally broke her
_______.
She slipped on the ______.
Not once, but thrice
Take no pity on her, I
__________.
Limerick
There once was a turkey named Chicken
Come thanksgiving he was ripe for the pickin’
And though he screamed and he ran, he couldn’t avoid
the man
And now’s what we call finger-lickin’
~By Emily McCarthy
(Was a 6th grade student when
I taught her & she wrote this!)
Rebus Poetry
 Uses pictures, pictograms, and symbols to create a
riddle or a poem.
Do you carrot all for me?
My heart beets for you,
Our love is as soft as a squash,
But as strong as an onion
With your turnip nose
For you are a peach,
With your radish hair,
And your turnip nose,
You are the apple of my eye,
If we cantaloupe,
Lettuce marry;
For I know we would make a happy pear.
Epithalamium
 A poem written in honor of the bride and groom.
How Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog
by Taylor Mali
Acrostic
simple poems in which each the
first letter of each line forms a
word or phrase (vertically). An
acrostic poem can describe the
subject or even tell a brief story
about it.
Epitaph
 An epitaph is a commemorative inscription on a
tomb or mortuary monument written in praise, or
reflecting the life, of a deceased person.
Sound
 Sound is used in poetry to add imagery and evoke the readers sense
preceptors, especially when read aloud. This key element is also what
makes poetry unique in regards to other forms of writing. The following
types of sound effects are used:
 Alliteration- repetition of the same first letter or sound in a group of
words (Peter Pettigrew)
 Assonance-repetition of vowel sounds within words (Sci-Fi)
 Onomatopoeia- words that sound like what they describe (Meow;
Croak)
 Rhyme-repetition of sound at the end of words or lines
 Free Verse-free of rhyme and steady rhythm
Rhythm
 Rhythm gives poetry a musical quality with the use
of stressed or unstressed syllables. Rhythmic
sound patterns are called feet.
 Feet are determined by a word or phrase stressed
or unstressed syllables. There are four types of
feet. There names are dependent on how many
syllables are in the word or phrase and where the
stress occurs within a foot.
For example…
 Iamb/Iambus- a word or phrase consisting of one
short/unstressed syllable and one long syllable, i.e.
until [uhn-til]
 Trochee- a word or phrase with one long/stressed
syllable and one short/unstressed syllable, i.e. summer
[suhm-er]
 Anapest-two short/unstressed syllables followed by
one long/stressed syllable, i.e. reimburse [ree-imburs]
 Dactyl-one long/stressed and two short/unstressed
syllables, i.e. introvert [in-truh-vurt]
Meter
 Meter is the number of feet in a line. Meters are usually
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descriptive of the rhythm pattern used. For example, an
iamb with 5 feet is an iambic pentameter.
Monometer-1 foot
Dimeter- 2 feet
Trimeter- 3 feet
Tetrameter-4 feet
Pentameter-5 feet
Hexameter- 6 feet
Heptameter- 7 feet
Octameter- 8 feet
Stanzas
 Additionally, stanzas are an arrangement of lines that form
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units within a poem and are arranged in a metrical pattern.
Stanzas can have as many lines within a unit as a poet
wishes. The more common ones are:
Couplet-2 lines
Tercet- 3 lines
Quatrain-4 lines
Quintet- 5 lines
Sestet- 6 lines
Septet- 7 lines
Octave- 8 lines
Figurative Language
 Figurative language is used to add greater depth to the
meaning of words and is used to create imagery with the
use of comparisons. There are three types,
 Metaphor- direct comparison of dissimilar things that is
meant to show equality between them. For example, My
savior, my redeemer was the snow that fell right before the
morning commute.
 Simile- comparison that uses ‘like’ or ‘as’‘. For example,' I
love you like a long song, (baby)’
 Personification- a comparison that gives human qualities
to objects, animals or ideas. For example, “The butter
cream cake taunted me.”
Narrative Poetry
Poetry that tells a story—has a
full plot, setting, characters, etc!
Casey at the Bat
Haiku
 a Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed
lines of five, seven, and five syllables.
Traditionally they were about nature.
See the red berries…
Fallen like little footprints
On the garden snow.
~Shiki
Haiku
Concrete
Poems
The poet uses the
shape of the poem
on the page to
symbolize an idea
or image within
the poem.
Concrete
Poetry
Free Verse
The poet creates the line breaks and
stanzas where he wants them.
Rhyming usually is not present.
Identity
Julio Noboa Polanco
Let them be as flowers,
always watered, fed, guarded, admired,
but harnessed to a pot of dirt.
I’d rather be a tall, ugly weed,
clinging on cliffs, like an eagle,
wind-wavering above high, jagged rocks.
Lyric Poems
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A poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet. This is
a very common type of poetry; ANYTHING that expresses your own
thoughts & emotions counts as a lyric poem. It can be about love,
anger, happiness, sadness—any thought/feeling is fine
Life And Lyrics
In the song of life, all lyrics need a melody.
You are the lyric and you are the melody.
You are the lyric of my heart and of my soul.
The beauty of the rose, speaks a lyric of love.
Love, speaks a lyric of you.
The silent lyric of goodness, echoes from within you.
My heart, speaks the lyric of love...to only you.
Let the words...the lyric...that bind, pass between us.
Let the lyric, of you...of me...be as one.
A million words I can speak of you and the lyrics
would be the same...I love you now. I always will.
By Joe Fazio
Other types of poetry….
 Cinquain Poetry with five lines.
 It comes in 3 varieties:
 Example 1 (by Cindy Barden):
Line1: One word
Line2: Two words
Line 3: Three words
Line 4: Four words
Line 5: One word
Dinosaurs
Lived once
Long ago, but
Only dust and dreams
Remain
Other types of poetry….
 Cinquain Poetry with five lines.
 It comes in 3 varieties:
 Example 2 (by Cindy Barden):
 Line1: A noun
Spaghetti
 Line2: Two adjectives
Messy, spicy
slurping, sliding falling,
Between my plate & mouth
Delicious.
 Line 3: Three -ing words
 Line 4: A phrase
 Line 5: Another word for the noun
Other types of poetry….
 Cinquain Poetry with five lines.
 It comes in 3 varieties:
 Example 3 (by Cindy Barden):
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Line1: Two syllables
Line2: Four syllables
Line 3: Six syllables
Line 4: Eight syllables
Line 5: Two syllables
Baseball
Bat cracks against
the pitch, sending it out
Over the fence, I did it!
Home Run.
Found Poetry
 Found Poetry created by taking words, phrases, and
passages from other sources and reframing by adding
spaces, lines, or by altering the text with additions or
subtractions.