POETRY
Form and Function
ACADEMIC VOCABULARY
Structure
Poetic form: the way words are organized and
patterned, including length and placement
• Arrangement of lines and stanzas
• Units of sound used
• Form is chosen to fit subject matter
Line = single row of words on a page in a poem
Stanza = a group of lines that form a unit of thought in
a poem
Forms
Conventional/Traditional or Fixed form: poetry
with set rules, such as number of lines,
rhythm, and rhyme (sonnets)
Organic or Irregular form: poetry that takes
shape freely because of the flow of content
(free verse)
Sonnets
• a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme
and meter
• Commonly written in iambic pentameter
• Stanza arrangement– octaves (eight lines) and sestets (six lines)
– quatrains (four lines) and couplets (two rhyming
lines).
• Most sonnets focus on love and deep subjects
such as fate or immortality.
Traditional Form
Devices Used
Apostrophe: directly addressing an absent person, a nonhuman
creature or object, or an abstract idea.
Hyperbole: exaggeration to convey strong emotions.
Extended Metaphor: long, elaborate comparison of two unlike
things
Irony: contrasts of situations in which what is expected is not
what actually occurs.
Paradox: seemingly impossible contradictions that turn out to be
true.
Inverted Sentences: To maintain meter and rhyme scheme,
poems sometimes use unusual word order. Punctuation may
show slurred, omitted, or accented syllables.
Epic
1. A long narrative poem on a serious subject, presented in an
elevated or formal style. (Fixed Form)
2. Traces the adventures of a great hero who embodies the
culture.
3. Tells a Full Story: includes story elements (characters, setting,
plot, and point of view)
4. Conveys universal themes or messages about important
aspects of human nature i.e. good and evil, life and death,
honor and loyalty.
Epic storyline examples:
– a great battle between people or forces in conflict
– a long journey involving of a quest or search
– the coming-of-age of a young hero
Epic Traits
1. Epic Hero: a figure of high social status and often of great
historical or legendary importance.
– actions often determine the fate of a nation or group of
people.
– performs exceedingly courageous, even superhuman,
deeds that reflect the ideas and values of an era.
2. Supernatural Plot Elements: Complication by the actions of
gods or mysterious, larger-than-life forces.
3. Large-Scale Setting-involves more than one nation.
4. Long, Formal Speeches-especially for the main character.
5. Begins with an Invocation-calling upon a Muse or other help
in telling the story.
6. Epic Similes -extended comparisons that continue for a
number of lines and often relate heroic events to simple
everyday events in people's lives.
7. Springs from Oral Tradition
Traditional Forms
Ballad: has meter, rhyme and repeated passages
– Usually a type of narrative poem (tells a story or
recounts events)
– originally meant to be sung
Ode: a lyric poem (short, a single speaker
expresses personal thoughts and feelings) of a
serious or meditative nature that aims to
elevate its subject
Odes
Odes tend to be longer poems but may take a
variety of forms.
• A Pindaric ode uses a three-stanza pattern in
which the first two stanzas follow the same form
and the third stanza is different; the threestanza pattern may then be repeated to create
odes of six stanzas, nine stanzas, and so on.
• A Horatian ode uses one single stanza pattern.
• Odes that use a variety of stanzas or no stanzas
are called irregular odes
Fixed Forms
• Elegy: a poem that reflects on death, or
mourns the loss of someone or something
• Villanelle: 19 lines arranged in 5 stanzas of 3
lines and 1 stanza of 4 lines including repeated
lines
• Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter
Sound Units
Rhythm: the pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables
Meter: the repetition of regular rhythmic units
Foot: each unit of meter; consists of a combination
of stressed and unstressed syllables
Scansion or scanning: the notation of stressed and
unstressed syllables in a line of poetry - breaking
down a lines into rhythmic components to
determine meter
Metrical Feet
• Iamb, or iambic foot: an unstressed followed by a
stressed syllable . Iambs are the most common
meter.
EXAMPLE: My life closed twice before its close—
• Trochee, or trochaic foot: a stressed syllable followed
by an unstressed syllable. Used to provide a singsong
or trance-like rhythm.
EXAMPLE: Tiger!/Tiger!/ burning/ bright
Metrical Feet
• Anapest: two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed
syllable. Often convey galloping or other forward motion.
EXAMPLE “Till at length into Aix Roland galloped and
stood.”
• Dactyl: a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed
syllables. Also move the rhythm along quickly, and often
a poet will end a line with a half-foot to provide a stop.
EXAMPLE Hickory Dickory Dock
Sound Devices
Rhyme scheme: a pattern of end rhyme in a poem
Exact rhyme: word pair or set whose accented vowel
sounds—and succeeding sounds—are identical, as in
amuse, confuse, and lose
Slant rhyme / off rhyme: rhyme that is approximate but not
exact, as in road/ride and sell/seal
End rhyme: rhyme that occurs at the end of a line of poetry
Internal rhyme: rhyme that occurs within a single line of
poetry
Device and Structure names
End-stopped line: a line whose end coincides with a pause in
normal speech
Enjambment: a line whose end does not coincide with a natural
pause. A pause or breaking in the middle of a line or a run on
that gives end stop
Couplet: 2- rhyming line stanza, usually a response to an earlier
developed issue
quatrain: 4-line stanza
sestet: 6-line stanza
tercet: 3-line stanza
octave: 8-line stanza
Organic/Irregular Form
• Arose out of desire to achieve more flexibility
in verse forms to fit the new content
• Takes shape and pattern from content itself
• Rhythm and meter may exist but usually in
unexpected ways
Organic/Irregular Form
Free Verse
• Lacks regular meter and rhyme
• Usually still has a musical quality achieved
through sound devices like alliteration and
repetition
• Flows naturally to indicate the cadences of
everyday speech
Walt Whitman
Famous for free verse
Creates rhythm with poetic devices:
Cataloging – listing (people, things, attributes)
Parallelism – related ideas phrased in similar
ways
Repetition
(LIT 509)
Free Verse
Recognize the poetic forms of Whitman:
Going to school, I dress quickly, eat in a rush,
run for the bus.
Going to school, I read closely, listen, speak,
write, rush to the next class.
Repetition – “Going to school”
Cataloging – lists of actions
Parallel grammatical structure – I + Verb + Adv
Writing Exercise
Write a few lines of your own using free verse
and at least two of Whitman’s devices.
Have you exhibited a specific tone (an
expression of attitude toward the subject)
through your choice of words and details?
Whitman
• Free Verse
• Lingering Romantic
Notions (subject matter
= nature)
• A bit of
Transcendentalism
present (individualism)
• Optimistic Tone, always
positive
* http://www.elronds-haus.de/whitman.htm
Emily Dickinson’s Style
• Quatrains that echo the rhythms of church
hymns, lines 2 & 4 rhyme
• Slant rhyme
• Inventive punctuation – use of dash
• Irregular capitalization and inverted syntax to
emphasize words
• Imagery and figurative language
• Depressing, pessimistic tone.
• Subject matter = death
*poems are untitled
My life closed twice before its close –
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me
So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.
Writing Exercise
• Choose either Whitman or Dickinson’s style
• Write at least two stanzas to emulate his or
her poetry
• Be sure to use at least two elements of the
poet in your own free verse