Poetry
English I: Grammar & Composition
Poetry Unit
What is a poem?
A poem is an artful arrangement of words that
expresses an idea or a feeling in extremely
condensed language.
A poem expresses the inexpressible in words.
A poem not only tells the feelings of the poet; it
recreates them for the reader.
A poem says a great deal with a very little.
A poem expresses beauty of thought and sound
through the medium of human language.
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What is the purpose of poetry?
Every poem has a topic, and many poems have a
theme.
Sometimes the poet reflects on death… or life…
or love…
Often the purpose is to transport the reader… to
make the reader know that she is not alone.
What is the purpose of poetry for you?
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To analyze poetry, you look at the parts. To understand poetry, you look
at the whole in light of what you know about the parts.
THE READING PROCESS
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The Title
What does the title tell you about the poem?
“Sonnet 116”
“The Charge of the Light Brigade”
“The Old Violin”
Note: Usually you need to read the whole poem for
the meaning of the title to make sense!
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Reading 1:
The poem as a whole.
Go at a steady pace.
Just read it all.
Just be introduced.
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Reading 2:
Questioning the poem.
• What words did you not know?
– Look them up.
• Where are the sentences?
– Find the subjects and verbs.
– Find the periods.
– Note the semicolons and colons and commas.
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Reading 3, 4, 5, 6…
• Look for everything we’re going to talk about
in the next 2 sections:
“The Elements of Poetry”
“The Poem as a Whole”
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Different ways to categorize the poems that you read and write.
THE POEM AS A WHOLE
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1. Context: who wrote the poem, and when;
where the poem is from
2. Form: how the poem is structured
3. Content: what the poem is about
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2. CONTEXT
Where does the poem come from?
The life / personal history of the poet…
The philosophy / beliefs of the poet…
The personality / attitudes of the poet…
The politics of his or her place and time…
The culture of his or her place and time…
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“Dreams” by Langston Hughes (p. 73)
• Langston Hughes was a black poet who wrote
during the 1920s / 1930s as part of the Harlem
Renaissance.
“The Pulley” by George Herbert (p. 74)
• Herbert was a contemporary of Shakespeare; he
was also English, and was a devout (Protestant)
Christian.
How does knowing this about the poet effect how
you read the poems?
Can you read the poems without this information?
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Categories of poems based on context include:
By author: “The works of _____________.”
By era: Classical, Anglo-Saxon, Medieval,
Renaissance, Neo-Classical, Romantic, Victorian,
Modern
By place: English, French, American, Spanish, etc.
By philosophy: transcendentalist, existentialist,
naturalist, Christian, etc.
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2. FORM
Title
Words & Phrases
Diction is word choice.
artful diction = TROPES
Syntax is word arrangement.
artful syntax = SCHEMES
Sentences & Clauses
Lines
Stanzas
Quatrains, Couplets, Octets, etc.
Length
Here we will talk about the form of the poem as a whole.
The discussion of rhyme and meter occurs later in this PPT.
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Haiku
A form of Japanese lyric verse that encapsulates a single
impression of a natural object or scene, within a
particular season, in 17 syllables arrange in 3
unrhymed lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables
An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
- Bashō
http://www.haiku-poetry.org/famous-haiku.html
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Epic
a book-length story poem of a great hero
Examples: Milton’s Paradise Lost, Homer’s The Iliad; Virgil’s The Aeneid
“Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought
countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send
hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs
and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day
on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell
out with one another.” – The first lines of Homer’s Iliad, translated
from the Greek
http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html
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Ballad
a story told in stanzas, usually quatrains
The quatrains of a ballad typically have abab
rhyme scheme, and is stressed like this 4 stresses:
said,
3 stresses:
4 stresses:
blood
3 stresses:
“O art thou blind, Lord Thomas?” She
“Or canst thou not very well see?
Or does thou not see my own heart’s
Runs trickling down my knee?”
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Sonnet
14 lines + iambic pentameter
Petrarchan (Italian)
8 lines (2 quatrains): abbaabba
+ 6 lines: cdecde or cdcdcd
Shakespearean:
3 quatrains: abab cdcd efef
+ turn to final couplet / epigram: gg
Spenserian: ababbabccdcdee
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Petrarchan Sonnet
William Wordsworth: “London, 1802”
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: - A
England hath need of thee: she is a fen – B
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, - B
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, - A
Have forfeited their ancient English dower – A
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; - B
Oh! raise us up, return to us again; - B
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. – A
Octave - Introduces the theme or problem
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; - C
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: - D
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, - D
So didst thou travel on life's common way , - E
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart – C
The lowliest duties on herself did lay. – E
Sestet - Solves the problem
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Spenserian Sonnet
Amoretti LXVII: Like as a Huntsman
– Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
Like as a huntsman after weary chase,
Seeing the game from him escap'd away,
Sits down to rest him in some shady place,
With panting hounds beguiled of their prey:
So after long pursuit and vain assay,
When I all weary had the chase forsook,
The gentle deer return'd the self-same way,
Thinking to quench her thirst at the next brook.
There she beholding me with milder look,
Sought not to fly, but fearless still did bide:
Till I in hand her yet half trembling took,
And with her own goodwill her firmly tied.
Strange thing, me seem'd, to see a beast so wild,
So goodly won, with her own will beguil'd.
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Limerick
English verse form consisting of 5 anapaestic lines
rhyming aabba, the third and fourth lines having
2 stresses and the others three. See p. 73 for
examples
Writing a Limerick's absurd,
Line one and line five rhyme in word,
And just as you've reckoned
They rhyme with the second;
The fourth line must rhyme with the third.
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2
3
4
5
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Free Verse
Free verse: a kind of poetry that does not
conform to any regular meter: the length of its
lines is irregular, as is its use of rhyme; was
established in the late 19th and early 20th
century
See “Knoxville, Tennessee”
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3. CONTENT
A poem can be categorized based on what the
poem is about. Does the poem focus on
something in nature? Does it talk about love?
Does it honor someone who has died?
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Topic / Subject
• What is the poem about?
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Voice
From whose point of view is the poem written?
What do we know about the writer of the poem,
if anything?
What is the “voice” of the poet?
How does this voice manifest itself?
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Tone
• How does the author feel about his or her
subject matter?
• Tone is always an emotion, or a combination
of emotions.
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Mood
• How does the author make you feel about the
subject?
• (This might be different than the tone!)
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Theme
• In what sentence: what is the poet (not the
narrative voice, but the poet – be it Robert
Frost or Emily Dickinson or any other poet) –
what is the poet saying about his or her
subject?
• The answer is always a full sentence.
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For example:
Carpe Diem: “Seize the day!”
Elegy: Honors and mourns someone who has
died
Narrative: Tells a story
Pastoral: celebrates the innocent life of
shepherds and shepherdesses
Dream Vision: tells the story of an author’s
dream of going to Heaven
ETC….
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Diction (word choice).
Syntax (word arrangement).
Prosody (rhyme & meter).
THE ART OF POETRY
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1. Diction (word choice)
Clues to Voice, Tone & Mood
What is conveyed with these kinds of diction?
• Formal
• Informal
• Colloquial
• Archaic: no longer used
• Latinate: derived from Latin words
• Slang
• Jargon: the language of a particular group
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Tropes
See handout.
The ones you need to know are:
• Metaphor
• Simile
• Pun
• Synechdoche
• Onomatapeia
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2. Syntax (word arrangement)
Sentences are Thoughts.
Remember: it’s all about finding the subjects &
verbs, and counting up independents &
subordinate clauses.
Simple: 1 independent clause
Compound: 2 or more independent clauses
Complex: 1 independent clause w/ 1 or more
subordinate clauses
Compound-complex: 2 or more independent clauses
w/ 1 or more subordinate clauses
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Schemes
See handout.
The ones you need to know are:
• Parallel Structure
• Antithesis
• Alliteration
• Assonance
• Anaphora
• Epistrophe
• Rhyme
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Rhyme
• Rhyme Scheme: ababcdcd etc.
• End rhyme – when words rhyme at the end of
lines
• Internal rhyme – when words in the lines rhyme
• Masculine rhyme: love / dove
• Feminine rhyme: whether / together
• Triple rhyme: glamorous / amorous
• Eye rhyme: love / prove
• Half rhyme: love / have or love/ leave
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3. Prosody
Rhythm = Meter
It’s all about the number and pattern of
syllables!
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RHYTHM
The foot.
A poetic “foot” is a syllable group of 2, 3, or 4
syllables.
¯ = stressed/long syllable, ˘ = unstressed/short
syllable
Meter is … well, we’ll get there! 
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Feet of 2 Syllables
Disyllables
• ˘ ˘pyrrhus, dibrach
• ˘ ¯iamb – deDUM:
Iambic: “That time of year thou mayst in me behold…”
(Shakespeare)
• ¯ ˘trochee, choree (or choreus) – DUMde
Trochaic: “Tell me not in mournful numbers…”
(Longfellow)
• ¯ ¯spondee – DUMDUM
Spondaic: “Break, break, break/ On thy cold gray
stones, O Sea!”
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Feet of 3 Syllables
Trisyllables
• ˘ ˘ ˘tribrach
• ¯ ˘ ˘dactyl – DUMdede
Dactylic: “This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines
and the hemlock” (a trochee replaces the final dactyl)
• ˘ ¯ ˘amphibrach
• ˘ ˘ ¯anapest, antidactylus – dedeDUM
Anapestic: “And the sound of a voice that is still”
• ˘ ¯ ¯bacchius
• ¯ ¯ ˘antibacchius
• ¯ ˘ ¯cretic, amphimacer
• ¯ ¯ ¯molossus
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Feet of 4 Syllables
(This is just interesting.
You don’t need to know this. )
Tetrasyllables
• ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘tetrabrach, proceleusmatic
• ¯ ˘ ˘ ˘primus paeon
• ˘ ¯ ˘ ˘secundus paeon
• ˘ ˘ ¯ ˘tertius paeon
• ˘ ˘ ˘ ¯quartus paeon
• ¯ ¯ ˘ ˘major ionic, triple trochee
• ˘ ˘ ¯ ¯minor ionic, double iamb
• ¯ ˘ ¯ ˘ditrochee
• ˘ ¯ ˘ ¯diiamb
• ¯ ˘ ˘ ¯choriamb
• ˘ ¯ ¯ ˘antispast
• ˘¯ ¯ ¯first epitrite
• ¯ ˘ ¯ ¯second epitrite
• ¯ ¯ ˘ ¯third epitrite
• ¯ ¯ ¯ ˘fourth epitrite
• ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯dispondee
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Meter
Each line of a poem contains a certain number of feet of iambs, trochees,
spondees, dactyls or anapests. The number of syllables in a line varies
therefore according to the meter.
monometer (1)
dimeter (2)
trimeter (3)
tetrameter (4)
pentameter (5)
hexameter (6)
heptameter (7)
octameter (8)
A good example of trochaic monometer, for example, is this poem:
“Fleas”
Adam
Had’em
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Putting Rhythm Together:
• iambic pentameter (5 iambs, 10 syllables)
That time | of year | thou mayst | in me | behold
• trochaic tetrameter (4 trochees, 8 syllables)
Tell me | not in | mournful | numbers
• anapestic trimeter (3 anapests, 9 syllables)
And the sound | of a voice | that is still
• dactylic hexameter (6 dactyls, 17 syllables; a trochee replaces the
last dactyl)
This is the | forest pri | meval, the | murmuring | pine and the |
hemlocks
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Imagery
• Sensory images
• Metaphorical language
• Similes
ALMOST ALL POEMS USE IMAGERY. IMAGERY IS
ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL WAYS TO USE
LANGUAGE!
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Theme: Again
A poet chooses words and sounds to create a
certain effect. When you are done analyzing a
poem, you should understand how all the
words have been chosen to create a certain
effect in you, to feel that effect, and (if the
poem is worthy of admiration!) to admire the
poet’s skill and creativity.
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The St. Cecilia Girl & Poetry
1.) will read and memorize poems all her life;
2.) will know the difference between better and
worse poems;
3.) will find at least one poet that she especially
loves, and buy a book of that poet’s poems;
4.) will at times express herself by writing
poems;
5.) will write poetry with awareness of her
choices in diction, syntax and prosody
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Your Assignment
A portfolio of poems!
Due on December 13.
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Poem #1: A Song
8 lines divided into 2 quatrains
Abab rhyme scheme
A consistsent meter, preferrably tetrameter
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Poem #2: A Lyric
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Poem #3: A Haiku
2 lines
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Poem #4: A Sonnet
14 lines
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Poem #5: Free Verse
Whatever you want!
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