Elements of Poetry Is Not Enough

Elements of Poetry is not enough

…so, let’s add some other Stuff! J

What is Poetry? A piece of writing that follows a particular flow of rhythm and meter – may or may not tell a story, a composition forming rhythmic lines.

SOUND / RHYTHM

Line: a group of words spaced together in a poem

Stanza: a group of lines within a poem which may have two or many lines (They are like paragraphs.)

Couplet: really short stanza made up of two lines that rhyme, one after the other, usually equal in length

Quatrain: a four line stanza often with the ABAB rhyme scheme (pattern)

Rhyme: repetition of letter sounds – ending, beginning, middle

Rhythm: sounds that agree– giving balance and pleasure to the ear, sometimes exact or just similar

Assonance: vowels that agree in words (similar), though they may not rhyme (peach,tree)

Consonance: Consonants agree in words, though they may not rhyme (fast, lost)

Repetition: a word or phrase is purposely used more than once, can create a pattern

Refrain: lines repeated in the same way, repeating at significant times in the poem, usually at end of stanza

Theme: the message of the poem, what the poem is all about

Voice: the personality and/or style of the writer, (the writer’s attitude about the topic)

Tone: the mood or attitude of the writing

RHYME STYLES: “Repetition of letter sounds”

End: Rhyme that comes at the end of a line of verse (most poetry used this style of rhyme)

Internal: rhyme between two or more words within a single line of verse

External: “End Rhyme”

Masculine: rhyme consisting of a single stressed syllable (“car” and “far”)

Feminine: rhyme consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (“mother” and “brother”)

Perfect: an exact match of sounds in a rhyme

FIGURES of SPEECH

Alliteration: several words begin with the same alphabet or syllable sound (think tongue twister)

Black Humor: the juxtaposition (being close together/side by side) of morbid and farcical (ridiculous/absurd) elements (in writing or drama) to give a disturbing effect

Dialect: a “special” language that is specific region or group

Imagery: the use of words that create vivid images in the reader’s mind by appealing to the senses

Metaphor: comparing two unlike things by implying one IS the other

Onomatopoeia: a word that represents a sound

Personification: giving a human characteristic to a inanimate object

Simile: comparing two unlike objects using “like” or “as”

Irony: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning

POETIC FORMS

Ballad: a story told in verse, usually four lined stanzas – often with a repetitive refrain

Clerihew: poem about a celebrity that gently pokes fun (humorous), made up of two couplets, first line ends with the person’s name

Concrete: a poem that looks like its topic through graphics or physical arrangement (shape poems)

Free Verse: a modern type of poetry which can be free of regular rhythm, rhyme, line or stanza length

Haiku: a short poem with 17 syllables, usually written in three lines (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables)

Limerick: five-line poem – usually meant to be funny. Lines 1,2,5 rhyme, and 2,4 rhyme.

Lyric: poems that express the feelings of the writer

Narrative: poems that tell a story

Triolet: an 8 line poem - line 1 repeats as line 4 and 7; line 2 repeats as line 8, so rhyme scheme is abaaabab