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Introduction to Poetry
Poetry is the most misunderstood form of writing. It is
also arguably the purest form of writing. Poetry is a
sense of the beautiful; characterized by a love of
beauty and expressing this through words. It is art.
Like art it is very difficult to define because it is an
expression of what the poet thinks and feels and may
take any form the poet chooses for this expression.
Poetry is not easily defined. Often it
takes the form of verse, but not all
poetry has this structure. Poetry is a
creative use of words which, like all
art, is intended to stir an emotion in
the audience. Poetry generally has
some structure that separates it from
prose.
The basic unit of poetry is the line. It serves the same
function as the sentence in prose, although most
poetry maintains the use of grammar within the
structure of the poem. Most poems have a structure
in which each line contains a set amount of syllables;
this is called meter. Lines are also often grouped into
stanzas.
The stanza in poetry is equivalent or
equal to the paragraph in prose. Often
the lines in a stanza will have a
specific rhyme scheme. Some of the
more common stanzas are:
Couplet: a two line stanza
Triplet: a three line stanza
Quatrain: a four line stanza
Cinquain: a five line stanza
Meter is the measured arrangement of words in poetry, the
rhythmic pattern of a stanza, determined by the kind and
number of lines. Meter is an organized way to arrange
stressed/accented syllables and unstressed/unaccented
syllables.
Whose woods / these are / I think /I know
Rhyme is when the endings of the words sound the
same. Read the poem with me out loud.
Dust of Snow
by Robert Frost
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And save some part
Of a day I had rued.
Rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming words at the
end of each line. Not all poetry has a rhyme
scheme. They are not hard to identify, but you must
look carefully at which words rhyme and which do not.
Dust of Snow
Poems of
more than
one stanza
often repeat
the same
rhyme
scheme in
each stanza.
by Robert Frost
A
B
A
B
C
D
C
D
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And save some part
Of a day I had rued.
Repetition is the repeating of a sound, word,
or phrase for emphasis.
Inside
☺ Inside the house
(I get ready)
☺ Inside the car
(I go to school)
☺ Inside the school
(I wait for the bell to ring)
Whenever you describe something by comparing it with
something else, you are using figurative language.
Figurative language is any language that goes beyond
the literal meaning of words in order to furnish new
effects or fresh insights into an idea or a subject. The
most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor,
and alliteration. Figurative language is used in poetry
to compare two things that are usually not thought of
as being alike.
A simile is a figure of speech in which two
essentially unlike things are compared, often in
a phrase introduced by like or as.
The clouds looked like cotton candy.
Grandpa was as stubborn as a mule
Tom's head is as hard as a rock.
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied
comparison is made between two unlike things that
actually have something important in common.
Clouds are
cotton candy.
They are fluffy.
Grandpa was a
mule.
They are stubborn.
Tom is a rock.
They are hard.
Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds or of
the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words
or in stressed syllables, as in "on scrolls of silver
snowy sentences" (Hart Crane). Modern alliteration is
predominantly consonantal. To find an alliteration, you
must look the repetitions of the same consonant
sound through out a line.
Silvery _
_
snowflakes fall _silently
_
Softly _
sheathing all with moonlight
Until _
sunrise _
slowly _
shows
_
Snow _
softening _swiftly.
Now you try the one in your packet.
Imagery is an appeal to the senses. The poet
describes something to help you to see, hear, touch,
taste, or smell the topic of the poem.
Fog
The fog comes on little cat feet.
SEE, HEAR
It sits looking over harbor and city
SEE
on silent haunches and then moves
HEAR, SEE,
on.
FEEL
Carl Sandburg
Now do the poem in your packet.
An exaggerated statement used to heighten effect is
a hyperbole. It is not used to mislead the reader, but
to emphasize a point.
I’ve told you a million times not to leave
the dirty glass on the table.
The exaggeration in the number
of times.
In your packets, write two more hyperbole. Have
your partner check them.
An idiom is a phrase where the words together
have a meaning that is different from the
dictionary definitions of the individual words.
This can make idioms hard for students to
understand.
A day late and a dollar short.
This idiom means
it is too little, too late.
Write two more examples of idioms to share
with the class.
The formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur
that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or
actions they refer to is called an alliteration. It is a word
or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is
describing, such as animal noises like "oink" or "meow",
or suggesting its source object (these are the more
important ones), such as "boom", "click", "bunk", "clang",
"buzz", or "bang".
SOUND OF NATURE
by Marie Josephine
Smith
Ticking,
____ tocking.
____
Head is rocking.
Tippy toeing.
Quietly.
________
Snap, crack.
Crushing branch.
Helter, skelter.
Run for shelter.
____
____
Pitter, patter.
Rain starts to fall.
Gathering momentum.
Becomes a roar.
____
Thunder booms.
A figure of speech, which gives the qualities
of a person to an animal, an object, or an
idea is called personification. It is a
comparison, which the author uses to show
something in an entirely new light, to
communicate a certain feeling or attitude
towards it and to control the way a reader
perceives it.
A brave handsome tree fell with a
creaking rending cry.
The author is giving a tree the human
quality of bravery and the ability ot
cry.
Free verse is just what it says it is - poetry that
is written without proper rules about form,
rhyme, rhythm, and meter. In free verse the
writer makes his/her own rules. The writer
decides how the poem should look, feel, and
sound.
Winter Poem
By Nikki Giovanni
once a snowflake fell
on my brow and i loved
it so much and i kissed
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me then
i reached to love them all
and i squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and i stood perfectly
still and was a flower
Haiku is one of the most important forms of traditional
Japanese poetry. Haiku is, today, a 17-syllable verse form
consisting of three metered lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.
Each Haiku must contain a kigo, a season word, which
indicate in which season the Haiku is set. For example,
cherry blossoms indicate spring, snow indicate winter,
and mosquitoes indicate summer, but the season word
isn't always that obvious.
In the next three haikus, try to
guess the theme.
Fog
Haikus By Paul McCann
On the mountain top
The fog fell down thick
and fast
It was like pea soup.
Hail
Rain
Tip-tap goes the rain.
As it hits the window pane
I can hear the rain.
They fell in showers.
Like diamonds upon the
ground
Big hailstones were
found.
The theme of these three poems is
weather in late autumn or early
winter.
The simplicity of the limerick quite possibly accounts for its
extreme longevity. It consists of five lines with the rhyme
scheme a a b b a. The first, second, and fifth lines are
trimeter, a verse with three measures, while the third and
fourth lines are dimeter, a verse with two measures. Often
the third and fourth lines are printed as a single line with
internal rhyme.
Old Man with a Beard
Edward Lear
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, 'It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!'
A
A
B
B
A
A narrative poem, often of folk origin and intended to
be sung, consisting of simple stanzas and usually
having a refrain.
The Ballade Of The Mistletoe Bough
by Ellis Parker Butler
I am standing under the mistletoe,
And I smile, but no answering smile replies
For her haughty glance bids me plainly know
That not for me is the thing I prize;
Instead, from her coldly scornful eyes,
Indifference looks on my barefaced guile;
She knows, of course, what my act implies—
But look at those lips! Do they hint a smile?
I stand here, eager, and beam and glow,
And she only looks a refined surprise
As clear and crisp and as cold as snow,
And as—Stop! I will never criticize!
I know what her cold glance signifies;
But I’ll stand just here as I am awhile
Till a smile to my pleading look replies—
But look at those lips! Do they hint a smile?
Just look at those lips, now! I claim they show
A spirit unmeet under Christmas skies;
I claim that such lips on such maidens owe
A—something—the custom justifies;
I claim that the mistletoe rule applies
To her as well as the rank and file;
We should meet these things in a cheerful guise—
But look at those lips! Do they hint a smile?
Some might consider the study of poetry old
fashioned, yet even in our hurried lives we are
surrounded by it: children's rhymes, verses
from songs, trite commercial jingles, well
written texts. Any time we recognize words as
interesting for sound, meaning or construct, we
note poetics.