Poetry Project
On the AP exam your task is to find out as much as you can about the poem – how it sounds, what it means, how its pieces are arranged, how it conveys its meaning. To describe a poem adequately, you must be familiar with the vocabulary of poetry.
In the multiple-choice questions, you may be asked to name poetic devices contained in a given poem. You may, for example be required to recognize assonance, consonance, or alliteration. Or you may be expected to identify a quatrain or a rhyming couplet.
While writing an essay, you won’t have time to include a lengthy explanation of a rhyme pattern in a poem. By knowing the terms, your time can be used more efficienctly on other parts of the exam.
Your Homework: You have a few weeks to find one example of each of these types of poems and compile them in a Poetry Booklet. Study the terms and the booklet. On March Tuesday, March 17 you will turn in your booklet, and we will share the booklets in class. Later in the six weeks, you will take a test identifying each of the types of poems.
Poetry Booklet RUBRIC:
45 Including each type of poem in your booklet (3 points per poem) – only one type of sonnet is necessary. There will be no extra points for including both, but make sure to label the one you do choose.
45
10
Identifying the types of poem correctly in your booklet and correctly explaining why the particular poem falls into this category of poem.
(3 points per poem)
Organization/Physical presentation of the booklet. You will not present this to the class in the traditional “stand-in-front of the class” style. We will spend some time “swapping” books and admiring each other’s choices.
Bonus (Originality points)
+1 for each poem in your booklet that isn’t duplicated in another student’s booklet.
No late work will be accepted.

Types of Poems
Lyric - Subjective, reflective poetry with regular rhyme scheme and meter that reveals the poet’s thoughts and feelings to create a single, unique impression
Narrative – nondramatic, objective verse with regular rhyme scheme & meter that relates a story or narrative.
Sonnet – A rigid 14-line verse form, with variable structure and rhyme scheme according to type a.
Shakespearean (English) – three quatrains and concluding couplet in iambic pentameter, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg or abba bcbc cdcd ee b.
Italian (Petrarchan) – an octave and sestet, between which a break in thought occurs. The traditional rhyme scheme is abba abba cde cde (or in the sestet, any variation of c d e
Ode – elaborate lyric verse that deals seriously with a dignified theme
Blank Verse – unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter
Free Verse – unrhymed lines without regular rhythm
Epic – a long, dignified narrative poem that gives the account of a hero important to his nation or race.
Dramatic Monologue – a lyric poem in which the speaker tells an audience about a dramatic moment in his/her life and, in doing so, reveals his/her character.
Elegy – a poem of lament, meditating on the dath of an individual
Ballad – simple, narrative verse that tells a story to be sung or recited; the folk ballad is anonymously handed down, while the literary ballad has a single author.
Idyll – lyric poem describing the life of the shepherd in pastoral, bucolic, idealistic terms.
Villanelle – a French verse form, strictly calculated to appear simple and spontaneous; five tercets and a final quatrain, rhyming aba aba aba aba aba abaa, Lines 1, 6, 12, 18, and 3, 9, 15, 19 are refrain.
Light Verse – a general category of poetry written to entertain, such as lyric poetry, epigrams, and limerics. It can also have a serious side, as in parady or satire.
Haiku – Japanese verse in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, often depicting a delicate image.
Limerick – humorous nonsense-verse in five anapestic lines rhyming aabba, a-lines bein trimeter and b-lines dimeter.