Intro to poetry types and terms

Poetry - A type of writing that uses language to express imaginative and emotional qualities instead of or in addition to meaning. Poetry may be written as individual poems or included in other written forms as in dramatic poetry, hymns, or song lyrics.

Length Visual impressions Concentrated, intense language that makes deliberate sound effects which can involve rhythm, rhyme, or other sounds Written in lines and stanzas rather than sentences or paragraphs (Deeper) Meaning is gleaned from understanding the use of metaphor, symbol, imagery, etc.

Fixed or free form Fixed form is a poem that may be categorized by the pattern of its lines, meter, rhythm, or stanzas; a style of poetry that has set rules. Ex: sonnet, villanelle, limerick Free Form is a poem that has neither regular rhyme nor regular meter. Free verse often uses cadences rather than uniform metrical feet. Subject matter can cover the intellectually safe or the profane; the marginal or society…

Love Poem, Political Poem, Metaphysical Poem, Confessional Poem Elegy (poem that reflects on death or solemn themes) Epithalamion (poem that praises a wedding) Proverb (a poem that imparts wisdom, learning, and aid memory) Found poem (poems that are discovered in everyday life) Pun (word play, humor, or cleverness--“Pasteurize: Too far to see.”) Epigram (short, witty, concise saying—can be sarcastic or parodic, about a person or an idea— “Swans sing before they die--'twere no bad thing / should certain people die before they sing!”)

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Look for punctuation in the poem telling you where sentences being and end. Do not make a full stop at the end of a line if there is no period, comma, colon, semicolon, or dash there. If a passage of a poem is difficult to understand, look for the subject, verb, and complement of each sentence. Be alert for comparisons—for figures of speech. Read the poem slowly and out loud to help hear the “musicality” of the poem. Be patient, for poems can be ambiguous or confusing. Talk about it with others who have read it when possible. Read the poem several times!! Do outside research.

**Hearing the Words Rhyme (end, internal, approximate) Rhyme scheme (Roses are red. . .abcb) Neologism (a new word or expression) Oxymoron

Lines - a single line of poetry. Stanzas - a group of lines set off from the other lines in a poem; the poetic equivalent of a paragraph in prose. In traditional poems, the stanza usually contains a unit of thought, much like a paragraph. Tercet The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, Each like a corpse within its grave, until Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow Punctuation – used for emphasis Structure of images / symbols within the poem Watch for colors, patterns, figurative language **DICTION

Connotation Denotation Snake evil or danger any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles; having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions

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FIXED FORM POEMS Sonnet 14-line poem with specific rhyme scheme English (a.k.a. Shakespearean) ababcdcdefefgg (three quartrains and a couplet) Italian (a.k.a. Petrarchan) abbaabbacdecde (octet, sestet, volta is between lines 8 and 9)

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (Sonnet 18) by William Shakespeare Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

FIXED FORM POEMS Haiku – Japanese poem with 17 syllables -- first line has 5, second has 7, last line has 5. It combines form , content , and language in a meaningful, yet compact form Haiku doesn't rhyme. A Haiku must "paint" a mental image in the reader's mind. A Rainbow by Donna Brock Curving up, then down. Meeting blue sky and green earth Melding sun and rain.

FIXED FORM POEMS Cinquain: a poem with five lines Line 1 is one word (the title) Line 2 is two words that describe the title. Line 3 is three words that tell the action Line 4 is four words that express the feeling Line 5 is one word that recalls the title Tree Strong, Tall Swaying, swinging, sighing Memories of summer Oak

Villanelle - 19 lines long, but only uses two rhymes, while also repeating two lines throughout the poem. The first five stanzas are triplets, and the last stanza is a quatrain such that the rhyme scheme is as follows: "aba aba aba aba aba abaa." The tricky part is that the 1st and 3rd lines from the first stanza are alternately repeated such that the 1st line becomes the last line in the second stanza, and the 3rd line becomes the last line in the third stanza. The last two lines of the poem are lines 1 and 3 respectively, making a rhymed couplet. Confused? A villanelle needs no particular meter or line length. It is terribly obsessive and can bring out the emotions of any neurotic writer.

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night, Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night, Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. “ Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” By Dylan Thomas

Dramatic Monologue: a poem in which a single speaker who is not the poet utters the entire poem at a critical moment. The speaker has a listener within the poem, but we too are his/her listener, and we learn about the speaker's character from what the speaker says. In fact, the speaker may reveal unintentionally certain aspects of his/her character.

Ode: usually a lyric poem of moderate length, with a serious subject, an elevated style, and an elaborate stanza pattern. There are various kinds of odes. The ode often praises people, the arts of music and poetry, natural scenes, or abstract concepts.

Elegy: a sad and thoughtful poem lamenting the death of a person. Limerick: short sometimes bawdy, humorous poems consisting of five anapestic lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 of a limerick have seven to ten syllables and rhyme with one another. Lines 3 and 4 have five to seven syllables and also rhyme with each other.

There was an Old Person whose habits, Induced him to feed upon rabbits; When he'd eaten eighteen, He turned perfectly green, Upon which he relinquished those habits. http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/examples-of-limericks.htm

Concrete Poetry uses word arrangement, typeface, color or other visual effects to complement or dramatize the meaning of the words used.

Bird #3 by Don J. Carlson Poe's raven told him nothing nevermore and Vincent's circling crows were a threat to destroy sunlight. Now I saw a bird, black with a yellow beak, orange rubber legs pecking to kill the lawn, storm bird hates with claw, evil beak, s u n and eye

An Epic Poem is a long story told in verse which tells the great deeds of a hero. Example: The Odyssey by Homer

Narrative Poem is a poem that tells a story . Example: T’was the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore

Verse Fable is a brief story told in verse that illustrates a moral and features human-like animals, plants, objects, or forces of nature.

A Boy Cries Wolf Once there was a foolish boy Whose job it was to guard some sheep In case a hungry wolf might come To pounce upon them in their sleep. The owners told him: If a wolf Should come, be sure to give a cry So we can come and save the sheep And give that wolf a swift goodbye. The foolish boy grew bored one night, And cried out Wolf! Wolf! just for jokes, And farmers came from far and wide, But left disgusted by his hoax. But then at midnight that boy spied A savage wolf about to strike, Wolf! Wolf! he screamed, but no one came And sheep and shepherd died alike. MORAL: Those who enjoy making fools of others often make fools of themselves. from the book Aesop's Best: 80 Fables in Verse by William Cleary

Lyric Poetry portrays the poet's own feelings, states of mind, ideas, and perceptions.

Acrostic poems use letter patterns to create multiple messages Example: When the first letters of lines read downward form a separate phrase or word.

E nergetic R owdy I rritating C lown -Mrs. Chi, 2/08

Figurative Language is the use of words outside of their literal or usual meaning to add beauty or force. It is characterized by the use of similes and metaphors .

Metaphor is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, in which one thing becomes another without the use of the words like, as , than, or resembles.

Simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, using words such as like, as , than, or resembles. Example: My love is like a red, red rose . - Robert Burns

Onomatopeia is the use of a word or words whose sound imitates its meaning. Examples: crackle, pop, fizz, click, chirp

Personification is a special kind of metaphor in which a nonhuman thing is talked about as if it was human ( given human characteristics ).

Example : This poetry gets bored of being alone, It wants to go outdoors to chew on the wings, To fill its commas with the keels of rowboats…. -Hugo Margenat, from”Living Poetry”

Symbolism is when a person, place, thing or idea stands for itself and for something else. Example: Use of the bald eagle to represent the United States.

Alliteration occurs when a series of words in a row (or close to a row) have the same first consonant sound. For example, “She sells sea-shells down by the sea-short” or “Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers” are both alliterative phrases.

Assonance , (or medial rime) is the agreement in the vowel sounds of two or more words, when the consonant sounds preceding and following these vowels do not agree. Thus, strike and grind , hat and man , 'rime' with each other according to the laws of assonance.” "Rhyme, alliteration, assonance , and consonance combined often produce tongue-twisting linguistics. Big Punisher's 'Twinz' includes this couplet . . .: 'Dead in the middle of little Italy / Little did we know that we riddled a middle man who didn't know diddly.' . . . Keying in on a single sound, he runs a staggering series of rhyme variations ('middle,' 'little,' 'riddled,' 'middle,' 'diddly'), which he further builds upon with consonance ( d ) and assonance ( i ) and alliteration ( d and l ). This is what happens when a poet is in complete control of his rhymes."

An iamb ic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable .

We could write the rhythm like this: da DUM

Meter is the pattern of rhythm established for a verse.

Rhythm is the actual sound that results from a line of poetry .

Iambic Pentameter is a line of poetry with five iambic feet in a row This is the most common meter in English poetry.

Example of Iambic pentameter Literary Term - Excerpt Paradise Lost by John Milton : Chapter 1 - Book 1 Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed In the beginning how the heavens and earth Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed Fast by the oracle of God, I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, That with no middle flight intends to soar

Rhyme is the placement of identical or similar sounds at the ends of lines or at predictable locations within lines.

Poetry is separated into lines on a page. Lines may be based on the number of metrical feet, or may stress a rhyme pattern at the ends of lines.

Stanza s are groups of lines in a poem which are named by the number of lines included. Two lines is a couplet. Three lines is a triplet or tercet. Four lines is a quatrain. Five lines is a quintain or cinquain. Six lines is a sestet. Eight lines is an octet.

Life Works Theory Audience Concepts: Borderlands Border Art Hybrid vs. Binary Approaches to Identity Anti-colonialism: Anti-imperialism , strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism . Anti-imperialism includes opposition to wars of conquest, particularly of non-contiguous territory or people with a different language or culture; it also includes people opposing the expansion of a country beyond earlier borders

Themes: Chicano/a Life Identity Borders Spirituality Diversity Education Medicine East vs West? Theory/Personal Writing

**Poetry Short Stories Theory Talks Interviews Art Journals Reflections

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