ELEMENTS OF POETRY
AN INTERACTIVE POWERPOINT
Not Your Average Classroom
Language Arts Units
Assignments:
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What does Poetry Do? Graphic Organizer(s)
Prose vs. Poetry Top Hat
Elements of Poetry Web Quest
Elements of Poetry Mini Presentation
Why do we need poetry?
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Why waste time defining what poetry is? It’s so
much more interesting, and more important, to
discuss why we have it, why we need it.
Why does poetry exist? What does it do? What
need does it fulfill?
Let’s Explore
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To answer these questions, let’s listen to a few spoken
word poems. As you listen, fill out the What does
Poetry Do? Graphic Organizer with your thoughts.
As you watch the poets, notice how they transition back
and forth between poetry and prose. Click on the links
below to begin.
Poetry vs. Prose
Organize these characteristics
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Prose
Organized into paragraphs
Organized into stanzas
May or may not be creative
Basic unit is the line
Sounds similar to ordinary speech
Has rhythm
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Poetry
Fewer rules
More rules
An imaginative expression
of thoughts
Arranged to create a specific
emotional response
Basic unit is the sentence
But how are they similar?
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The differences are easy to spot. It’s the similarities
between prose and poetry that are the challenge.
Take a moment to fill out the Poetry vs. Prose Top
Hat. It is similar to a Venn Diagram, but with more
room for that challenging portion.
Discuss
Keep adding more to the Top Hat as you learn
more similarities and differences.
The elements of poetry can be
grouped into three categories
How the poem is
organized
The sound of the poem
The literary devices
Elements of Poetry
Form
Rhythm/
Meter
Mood or
Tone
Literary
Devices
Skip to the Web Quest
Theme
Word
Order
Stanza
Connotation
or
Denotation
Diction
Alliteration
and
Assonance
Rhyme
Figurative
Language
Symbolism
Irony
Imagery
Form
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
The form is the physical structure of the poem: the
length of the lines, the rhythms, system of rhymes
and repetition. In other words, the “type” of poem.
There are many types:
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Sonnet
Villanelle
Blank Verse*
Free Verse*
Aubade
Ballad
Doggerel
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Dirge
Dramatic
Monologue
Elegy
Epic
Haiku
Lyric
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Diamante
Ode
Limerick
Rondeau
Acrostic
Sestina
Rhythm and Meter
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
Rhythm is the pattern you hear between stressed
syllables. It has a characteristic rise and fall that
you expect.
Meter describes the pattern of rhythm. There are
many types of meter:
Iambic
Dactyl
Cadence
Blank Verse
Free Verse
Trochee
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Trimeter
Tetrameter
Pentameter
Hexameter
Heptameter
Common Measure
Theme
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
To describe the theme of a poem is to discuss the
overarching abstract idea or ideas being examined
in the poem.
Though related to the concept of a moral, or lesson,
themes are usually more complicated and
ambiguous.
Whereas a moral might say that “power corrupts,”
a poem exploring the dangers of power might
recognize, as well, the necessity of power.
Word Order
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
In short, word order is the arrangement of words in the
poem.
Is the word order or sentence structure (syntax) unusual
in any way?
Are there noticeable patterns in the order of words?
Do the lines have strong end-stops, or do they break
across lines (enjamb)? Do the lines end with a final
stress or rhyme?
Are there lots of long, complete sentences (simple or
complex?), or are there many sentence fragments and
phrases? Does the poem stop and start, or does it move
or flow continuously? What is the effect of this?
Stanza
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
The stanza is a grouping of lines separated from others in a
poem.
In modern free verse, the stanza, like a prose paragraph,
can be used to mark a shift in mood, time, or thought.
One way to identify a stanza is to count the number of lines:
couplet (2 lines)
tercet (3 lines)
quatrain (4 lines)
cinquain (5 lines)
sestet (6 lines) (sometimes it's called a sexain)
septet (7 lines)
octave (8 lines)
The pattern of a stanza is determined by it’s meter and
rhyming scheme
Mood or Tone
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
The tone of a poem is the style, or manner of
expression, of its writing. It can be thought of as the
attitude of the writer.
Examples of tone: serious, playful, humorous, formal,
informal, angry, satirical, ironic or sad.
The mood refers to the atmosphere in the poem.
Different elements of a poem such as its setting,
tone, voice and theme help establish this
atmosphere.
Examples of mood: romantic, realistic, optimistic,
gloomy, imaginary or mournful.
Connotation or
Denotation
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
Denotation is the literal meaning of a word, the
"dictionary definition.”
The denotative meanings of the word “snake,” is:
A scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptile having a
long, tapering, cylindrical body
Connotation refers to the associations that are
connected to a word or the emotional suggestions
related to that word.
The connotative meanings of a word exist together
with the denotative meanings. The connotations for the
word snake could include “evil” or “danger.”
Diction
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
Poetic diction refers to the vocabulary, phrasing,
and grammatical usage deemed appropriate to
verse (poetry).
Poetic diction is distinguished from common speech
by circumlocution, elision, personification and even
Latinate terminology such as “azure skies.”
In short, diction is the types of words used, and how
they are used, in a poem.
Alliteration
and Assonance
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in a
series of words within a phrase or verse line. Alliteration
need not reuse all initial consonants; Example: “We saw
the sea sound sing, we heard the salt sheet tell,” from
Dylan Thomas’s “Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed.” Browse
poems with alliteration.
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds without
repeating consonants; sometimes called vowel rhyme.
See Amy Lowell’s “In a Garden” (“With its leaping,
and deep, cool murmur”) or “The Taxi” (“And shout into
the ridges of the wind”). Browse poems with assonance.
Rhyme
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
Rhymes are the repetition of syllables, typically at the
end of a verse line.
Rhymed words conventionally share all sounds following
the word’s last stressed syllable. Thus “tenacity” and
“mendacity” rhyme, but not “jaundice” and “John does,”
or “tomboy” and “calm bay.”
A rhyme scheme is usually the pattern of end rhymes in
a stanza, with each rhyme encoded by a letter of the
alphabet, from a onward (ABAB, ABBA, AABB, or XAXA,
for example).
ABAB
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ABAB is a classic, often-used rhyme scheme with
interlocking rhymes. It’s sometimes called alternate
rhyme.
Here’s an example of ABAB in action, as written by
William Shakespeare:
A
O, if I say, you look upon this verse,
B
When I, perhaps, compounded am with clay,
A
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
B
But let your love even with my life decay…
This ABAB rhyme scheme is built into the famous poetic
form called the Shakespearean sonnet.
AABB
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A pair of successive rhyming lines. This is the rhyme scheme
found in the couplet.
Couplets comprise two lines that rhyme and have the same
meter and length.
A couplet is “closed” when the lines form a bounded
grammatical unit like a sentence.
The regal eagle sits alone
upon a tree that serves as throne.
But sometimes when the eagle flies
(though this might come as some surprise)
a mob of crows may—wing to wing—
together drive away that king.
Democracy in beak and claw
finds regal eagle's fatal flaw.
And is that legal? I don't know.
You'll have to ask a mobster crow.
Literary Devices
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
Literary devices are language techniques which
writers use to create text that is clear, interesting,
and memorable.
Figurative language (metaphors and similes),
symbolism, irony, alliteration, and assonance are
actually all types of literary devices.
Figurative Language
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A brief reference to a historical,
mythic, or literary person, place,
event, or movement. “The Waste
Land,” T. S. Eliot’s influential long
poem is dense with allusions.
Allusion
A striking exaggeration. For
example, see James
Tate’s lines “She scorched you
with her radiance” or “He was
more wronged than
Job.” Hyperbole usually carries
the force of strong emotion.
Hyperbole
A direct comparison
(John Keats’s “Beauty is truth,
truth beauty” in “Ode on a
Grecian Urn”)
or Emily Dickinson’s “‘Hope’ is the
thing with feathers— / That
perches in the soul—.”
A comparison made with “as,”
“like,” or “than.” In “A Red, Red
Rose,” Robert Burns declares
O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
Simile
The formation of a word from a
sound associated with what is
named (for example “hiss,” or
“buzz”). In “Piano,” D.H.
Lawrence describes the “boom
of the tingling strings” as his
mother played the piano.
Onomatopoeia
Brings together contradictory
words for effect, such as “jumbo
shrimp” and “deafening silence.”
For instance, John Milton
describes Hell as “darkness
visible” in Book I of Paradise
Lost.
The poet describes an
abstraction, a thing, or a
nonhuman form as if it were a
person. William Blake’s “O Rose,
thou art sick!” and
Donne’s “Death, be not proud”
Wordplay that uses homonyms
(two different words that are
spelled identically) to deliver
two or more meanings at the
same time. Harryette Mullen riffs
on the multiple meanings of
“slip” in [Of a girl, in white].
A seemingly self-contradictory
phrase or concept. Alexander
Pope, in “An Essay on Man:
Epistle II,” describes Man as
“Great lord of all things, yet a
prey to all.”
Personification
Pun
Metaphor
Oxymoron
Paradox
Symbolism
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
Symbolism is the practice or art of using an object
or a word to represent an abstract idea. A rose, for
instance, has long been used as a symbol for love.
An action, person, place, word, or object can all
have a symbolic meaning.
When an author wants to suggest a certain mood or
emotion, she can also use symbolism to hint at it,
rather than just blatantly saying it.
Irony
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
As a literary device, irony is the expression of one's
meaning by using language that normally means the
opposite.
Dramatic or situational irony is a little different. It
involves a contrast between reality and a character’s
intention. For example, in Sophocles’ Greek
tragedy Oedipus Rex, King Oedipus searches for his
father’s murderer, not knowing that he himself is that
man.
In both cases, irony creates distance between what is
said or done, and the true meaning, or the true reality
of the situation.
Imagery
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Go Back to Elements of Poetry
Elements of a poem that invoke any of the five
senses to create a set of mental images.
Imagery uses vivid or figurative language to
represent ideas, objects, or actions. Poems that use
rich imagery include T.S. Eliot’s “Preludes,” Percy
Bysshe Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind,” Sylvia
Plath’s “Daddy,” and Mary Oliver’s “At Black River.”
Web Quest: Poetry Foundation
Let’s Explore
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The Poetry Foundation is a wonderful resource.
Complete the “Let’s Explore” portion of the Elements
of Poetry WebQuest as you navigate the website.
Once you are familiar with the tabs and content,
begin searching for a poem to study for your
Elements of Poetry Mini Presentation
Click on the image on the previous slide to enter the
website.
Articles
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Rhythm
Movement
Metaphor
Transformation
Imagery
Lines