Poetry Introduction and
Vocabulary
Forms of Poetry:
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Lyric Poem
Sonnet
Free Verse
Haiku
Catalog Poem
Ballad
Lyric Poem:
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Expresses a
speaker’s
emotions or
thoughts.
It does not tell a
story.
Usually short and
focused on one
single, strong
emotion.
A Blessing
By: James Wright
Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass,
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear,
That is delicate as the skin over a girl's wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.
Sonnet:
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A fourteen line lyric
poem.
Usually written in
iambic pentameter
and have a regular
rhyme scheme.
Once by the Pacific
By: Robert Frost
The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
The cliff in being backed by continent;
It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God’s last Put out the Light was spoken.
Free Verse:
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Poetry that doesn’t
have a regular
meter or rhyming
scheme.
Free verse tries to
capture the rhythm
of ordinary speech.
in Just –
By: E.E. Cummings
in Justspring when the world is mudluscious the little
lame balloonman
whistles
far
and wee
and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it’s
spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far
and
wee
and bettyandisabel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it’s
spring
and
the
balloon Man
far
and
wee
goat footed
whistles
Haiku:
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A three line poem with
seventeen syllables.
Lines 1 and 3 have five
syllables each, and line
2 has seven syllables.
Usually contrast two
images from nature or
daily life.
Untitled
By: Miura Chora
Get out of my road
and allow me to plant these
bamboos, Mr. Toad.
Catalog Poem:
The Car
By: Raymond Carver
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
car
with a cracked windshield
that threw a rod
without brakes
with a faulty U-joint
with a hole in its radiator
I picked peaches for
with a cracked block
with no reverse gear
I traded for a bicycle
with steering problems
with no back seat
with a torn front seat
that burned oil
with rotten hoses
that left the restaurant without paying
with bald tires
with no heater or defroster
with it’s front end out of alignment
the child threw up in
I threw up in
with the broken water pump
whose timing gear was shot
with a blown head gasket
I left on the side of the road
that leaked carbon dioxide
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The car with a sticky carburetor
The car that hit the dog and kept going
The car with a hole in its muffler
The car with no muffler
The car my daughter wrecked
The car with corroded battery cables
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The car bought with a bad check
Car of my sleepless nights
The car with a stuck thermostat
The car whose engine caught fire
The car with no headlights
The car with a broken fan belt
The car with wipers that wouldn’t work
The car I gave away
The car with transmission trouble
The car I washed my hands of
The car I struck with a hammer
The car with payments that couldn’t be met
The repossessed car
The car whose clutch pin broke
The car waiting on the back lot
Car of my dreams
My car.
Presents a
list of many
different
images.
Image is
repeated
with
different
descriptions
over and
over
throughout
the poem.
Perfect Two
Ballad:
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A song that tells a
story.
Use a steady
rhythm, strong
rhymes, and
repetition of a
refrain.
You
You
You
You
can
can
can
can
be
be
be
be
You can be
You can be
You can be
Or you can
the
the
the
the
peanut butter to my jelly
butterflies I feel in my belly
captain and I can be your first mate
chills that I feel on our first date
the hero and I can be your side kick
the tear that I cry if we ever split
the rain from the cloud when it's stormin‘
be the sun when it shines in the mornin'
Don't know if I could ever be
Without you cause boy you complete me
And in time I know that we'll both see
That we're all we need
Cause you're the apple to my pie
You're the straw to my berry
You're the smoke to my high
And you're the one I wanna marry
Cause your the one for me (for me)
And I'm the one for you (for you)
You take the both of us (of us)
And we're the perfect two
You
You
You
You
can
can
can
can
be
be
be
be
the
the
the
the
prince and I can be your princess
sweet tooth and I can be the dentist
shoes and I can be the laces
heart that I spill on the pages
Don't know if I could ever be
Without you cause boy you complete me
And in time I know that we'll both see
That we're all we need
Imagery:
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Image:
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A word or phrase that
appeals to one more of
the five senses.
Sensory Detail:
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Elements that help the
reader imagine how
something looks,
sounds, smells, feels, or
tastes.
Figurative Language:
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Simile:
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Metaphors:
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Two unlike things are
compared using a word
such as: like, as, than, or
resembles.
A comparison of two
unlike things in which one
thing is said to be another.
Example:
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Simile: “You eat like a
pig.”
Metaphor: “You are a pig.”
Metaphor Continued:
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Direct Metaphor:
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Directly compares two
things by using a verb
like are.
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Example:
“The days are nouns:
touch them
The hands are churches
that worship the world.”
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Indirect Metaphor:
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Implies or suggests a
comparison between
two things rather than
stating it directly.
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Example:
“Golden Baked Skin”
“Shut your trap”
Figurative Language Continued:
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Personification:
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A type of metaphor in
which human qualities
are given to something
that is not human (an
object, animal, force of
nature, or idea).
Rhyme:
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The repetition of a
stressed vowel sound
and any sounds that
follow it in words that
are close together.
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End Rhymes:
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Rhymes in poetry that
occur at the ends of
lines.
Internal Rhymes:
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Rhymes in poetry that
occur when at least
one rhymed word falls
within a line.
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Rhyme Scheme:
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A regular pattern of end
rhymes.
Approximate Rhyme:
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Repeat some sounds, but
are not exact echoes.
Marking a Rhyme Scheme:
ABAB
ABBA
Rhythm:
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A musical quality
based on repetition.
When you talk about
the beat you hear
when you read a
poem, you are
describing it’s rhythm.
Meter:
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A common form of
rhythm.
A regular pattern of
stressed (`) and
unstressed (U)
syllables in the lines of
a poem.
Foot:
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Usually consists of one
stressed and one
unstressed syllable.
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Iamb: a foot that has one
unstressed syllable
followed by a stressed
syllable.
Example:
Barack Obama
This line is written in
iambic pentameter and
has five iambs:
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“But soft! / What light/
through yon / der win
/ dow breaks?”
Sound Devices:
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Onomatopoeia:
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Words that sound like
what they mean.
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EXAMPLE:
 Buzz, hiss, boom, bang.
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Alliteration:
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Repeating the same
consonant sound in
several words.
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EXAMPLE:
 Fragrant flowers, dog
days, cool as a
cucumber.
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Assonance:
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Repeating the same vowel
sounds in several words.
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EXAMPLE:
 Quick fix, around town.
Weekend Homework:
Find a poem that you like.
 Label the poem type.
 Mark the rhyme scheme (if there is one)
 Bring a copy of the poem to class Monday.
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If you don’t bring a copy of your poem, then
you will have a separate writing assignment to
complete while the rest of the class does a fun
activity!