Poetry
9th grade Literature &
Composition
Poetry

Poetry- is language arranged
in lines with rhythm and
rhyme scheme, usually
conveying strong feeling and
deep meaning.
Poetry vs. Prose
 Prose is the regular
language of men in
speaking or writing.
 Prose is writing organized
in paragraph form.
Poetry is written in lines
and stanzas.
 Novels are written in
prose, people speak in
prose, and instruction
manuals are written in
prose.
 The difference
between poetry and
prose is
communication. Not
so much what is
communicated, but
how.
Free Verse
Poetry that
does not have a regular
meter or rhyme
scheme.
-Poets write in free verse to try to
capture the natural rhythms of
ordinary speech.
The Rose
Disneyland holds all the answers
But now you would go skiing
With snow-blue eyes for company.
My fingers on splinter-blunt thorns
Feel wrong, as if the pressure of
Bending a wire could spiral the
stem,
Unnatural, twisted and shattered.
The tips of cream-silk petals bleed.
This is what happened to me, then,
Being there at the wrong confluence
of time,
There and shining with no one
looking.
I grew my own thorns, climbed into
a vial,
And the blush bleeds from the petals
of my skin.
Fixed Verse
Fixed Verse:
Verse forms with a fixed
meter and rhyme
scheme.
A limerick is an example of
fixed
verse, because it is a five
line
poem written with a strict
form
• Limericks consist of five lines
Lines 1, 2, and 5 of Limericks
have seven to ten syllables
and rhyme with one another.
Lines 3 and 4 of Limericks
have five to seven syllables
and also rhyme with each
other.
Example of fixed verse
(a limerick)
Who Cares For Denise
By Paul McCann
There was a young girl called
Denise ,
She lived all her life on the streets .
In need of a prayer .
Her pockets were bare .
She died in the arms of a priest .
Fixed Form
• Fixed Form
that may be categorized
by the pattern of its lines,
meter, rhythm, or
stanzas.
A sonnet is a fixed form of
poetry because by definition
it must have fourteen lines.
Types of fixed forms:
Epic, Sonnet,
Ballads
Haiku
Three line verse
form created in
Japan.
Five syllables (5)
Seven syllables (7)
Five syllables (5)
An old silent pond
A frog jumps into the pond
Splash! Silence again.
The red blossoms bend
And drips its dew to the ground
Like a tear it falls
***Must be about NATURE in
order to be a true Haiku***
Sonnet
Fourteen-line lyric poem
that is usually written in
Iambic pentameter and
that has one of several
rhyme schemes.
***We will be focusing
on Shakespearean
(English) and
Petrarchan (Italian)
sonnets.***
Dear eyes how well (indeed) you do adorn
That blessed sphere, which gazing souls hold
dear
The loved place of sought for triumphs near
The court of glory, where Love's force was born
How may they term you April's sweetest morn
When pleasing looks from those bright lights
appear
A sun-shine day; from clouds, and mists still
clear
Kind nursing fires for wishes yet unborn!
Two stars of Heaven, sent down to grace the Earth,
Placed in that throne which gives all joys their birth;
Shining, and burning; pleasing yet their charms;
Which wounding, even in hurts are deemed delights,
So pleasant is their force! So great their might's
As, happy, they can triumph in their harms.
Ballad
• Songlike poem that
tells a story- usually
about adventure &
romance
• 4-6 line stanzas with
regular rhythm and
rhyme schemes,
features a refrainregular repeated line
or lines.
Narrative Poetry
•
• A poem that tells a story
• Longer than lyric poetry because
the poet establishes characters
and a plot.
Excerpt from a narrative poem:
John Barleycorn
by
Robert Burns
There was three kings into the east,
Three kings both great and high,
And they have sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn should die.
They took a plough and ploughed him
down,
Put clods upon his head,
And they have sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn was dead.
But the cheerful Spring came kindly
on,
And showers began to fall;
John Barleycorn got up again,
And sore surprised them all….
Lyric Poetry
• Highly musical poetry that
does not tell a story, but
is aimed only at
expressing a speaker’s
emotions or thoughts.
• Lyric poetry comes from
Ancient Greece where
poems were recited to the
accompaniment of a
stringed instrument called
a lyre.
Dying
By: Emily Dickinson
I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.
The eyes beside had wrung them dry,
And breaths were gathering sure
For that last onset, when the king
Be witnessed in his power.
I willed my keepsakes, signed away
What portion of me I
Could make assignable,-and then
There interposed a fly,
With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,
Between the light and me;
And then the windows failed, and then
I could not see to see.
Dramatic Poetry
• Poetry-in which one or more characters
speak. A poem utilizes the techniques of
drama (like dramatic monologue/dialogue)
Dramatic Poetry Example
•
Gardener
Sir, I encountered Death
•
Just now among our roses
Thin as a scythe he stood
there.
I knew him by his pictures
He had on his black coat
Black gloves, and broad
black hat.
I think he would have
spoken,
Seeing his mouth stood
open.
Big it was, with white teeth.
As soon as he beckoned, I
ran.
I ran until I found you.
Sir, I'm quitting my job.
I want to see my sons
Once more before I die.
I want to see California.
Master
Sir, you must be that stranger
Who threatened my gardener.
This is my property, sir.
I welcome only friends here.
Death
Sir, I knew your father.
And we were friends at the end.
As for your gardener,
I did not threaten him.
Old men mistake my gestures.
I only meant to ask him
To show me to his master.
I take it you are he?