Poetic Styles
 Descriptive
Poetry
 Notable for its vividness.
 Uses descriptions that appeal to the senses
 -Engages the imagination
Acquainted with the Night (Frost)
Birches (Frost)
Poetic Styles Con`t

Narrative Poetry
 Tells a story
 -Concerned with characters, setting and conflict
On the way to the Mission
The Zax –Identify the: plot, setting, characters,
theme
Poetic Styles Con`t

Reflective Poetry
 Searches for deep truths and poses the questions of
existence.
 Contemplates life & what it means to be human
 -Eg. Who am I? Is there an ultimate purpose to life?
What is the nature of happiness?
Letter to a Future Generation- Journal Response
Do you think ignorance of past atrocities, or knowledge
of them is a better, more effective way to prevent
these mistakes from being repeated?
Structure of Poetry

Rhyme Schemes
 are described USING LETTERS that correspond to
sets of rhymes.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, A
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; A
All the king’s horses, and all the king’s men, B
Couldn’t put Humpty together again. B
• The Rhyme Scheme for this poem is: A,A,B,B
Structure of Poetry

Meter – a.k.a. rhythm
 The pattern of beats or stresses
 Can be specific and consistent

Iambic Pentameter
 Is a line of poetry with 5 iambic feet in a row.
 The MOST COMMON meter in English poetry
Types of Poetry

Sonnet
 A fourteen line poem in iambic pentameter
 Its subject is traditionally that of love.
 2 Kinds:
○ Petrarchan
 Italian, octave (8 lines) & sestet (6 lines)
 Rhyme scheme is ababcdcd then cdecde
○ Shakesperian
 No octave/sestet structure
 Rhyme scheme is ababcdcdefefgg
Shakesperian Sonnet
Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day?
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 often 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 ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Types of Poetry Con`t

Villanelle
 Poem of 19 lines
 Has 5 stanzas, each of three lines, with a final one




of four lines
1st line of 1st stanza is repeated as the last line of
the 2nd and 4th stanzas
3rd line of the 1st stanza is repeated as the last line
of the 3rd and 5th stanzas
These 2 lines are the last 2 lines of the poem
Rhyme scheme is aba
Villanelles

Do Not go Gentle into that Good Night
 By Dylan Thomas

Reading Scheme
 By Wendy Cope
Types of Poetry Con`t

Ballad
 A song-like poem that tells a story (Narrative)
 Four to Six line stanzas
 Regular rhythm and rhyme schemes
 “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” by Oscar Wilde
Types of Poetry Con`t

Concrete Poem
 A Poem whose form represents its subject or
theme.
(Soda Pop)
Types of Poetry Con’t

Elegy
 A poem whose purpose is to express grief or
sorrow for the dead. Often read at funerals
VS.

Eulogy (Not poetry usually)
 A plain language speech whose purpose is to
express sorrow or grief for the dead. Often read at
funerals.
Elegies
Child Burial by Paula Meehan
 Elegy before Death by Edna St. Vincent
Millay
 Tiara by Mark Doty

Types of Poetry Con`t

Ode
 Poem written to celebrate an event, a person, a
thing, a being, a power, an object etc.
 Horatian Odes: follow a regular stanza pattern
and rhyme scheme
 Irregular Odes: No set stanza or rhyme scheme
Odes
Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat,
Drowned in a Bowl of Goldfishes
 Pablo Neruda’s Poems

Assignment

Write your own Ode or Elegy
 It must be at least 12 lines
 Can be about anything or anyone
 Can be serious (tribute to someone you
love/loved)
 It can be humorous (a tribute to something
unusual)
 Due. Tuesday, November 22nd