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Poetry
Forms of Poetry
Aspects of Poetry
Forms of Poetry
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Ballad
Free Verse
Lyric
Narrative
Traditional
Forms of Poetry - Ballad
Ballad
A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or
legend and often has a repeated refrain. The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor
Coleridge is an example of a ballad.
Forms of Poetry – Free Verse
Free Verse
Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed
lines that have no set meter or rhythm. It is
free of limitations in structure.
Forms of Poetry - Lyric
Lyric
A poem that may resemble a song in
form or style. Lyrics express the
thoughts and feelings of the poet.
Lyrics are usually accompanied by
a musical instrument.
Forms of Poetry - Narrative
Narrative
A poem that tells a story (The
Odyssey by Homer). Ballads,
epics, and lays are different kinds
of narrative poems.
Forms of Poetry - Traditional
Traditional
A term used to describe all the poetry
based on a regular metre, whether
rhymed or not.
Aspects of Poetry
Alliteration
The repetition of the same or similar sounds
at the beginning of words:
“What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and wildness?”
Hyperbole
A figure of speech in which deliberate
exaggeration is used for emphasis. Many
everyday expressions are examples of
hyperbole:
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tons of money,
waiting for ages,
a flood of tears, etc.
A hyperbole is the opposite of an
understatement.
Imagery
A representation of an object or
experience. The author generally uses
imagery to allow you to experience the
image. Images are either literal –
words used simply create the picture or figurative. Figurative imagery does
not follow the literal meaning of the
words exactly. The most common type
of figurative images are metaphors,
similes, and symbols.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which two
things are compared to create imagery. Some
examples of metaphors:
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the world's a stage,
he was a lion in battle,
drowning in debt, and
a sea of troubles.
Metre
The arrangement of a line of poetry by the
number of syllables and the rhythm of
accented (or stressed) syllables. In short,
the rhythm of the words in the poem.
Some types of Metre:
1. monometer (1 foot)
2. dimeter (2 feet)
3. trimeter (3 feet)
4. tetrameter (4 feet)
5. pentameter (5 feet)
Onomatopoeia
A figure of speech in which words
are used to imitate sounds.
Examples of onomatopoeic words
are: buzz, hiss, zing, clippetyclop, cock-a-doodle-do, pop,
splat, thump, and tick-tock.
Personification
A figure of speech in which nonhuman things
or abstract ideas are given human attributes:
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the sky is crying,
dead leaves danced in the wind,
blind justice.
Refrain
A line or group of lines that is repeated
throughout a poem, usually after every
stanza. Similar to a chorus in a song.
Rhyme
The occurrence of the same or similar
sounds at the end of two or more
words.
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cat/hat,
desire/fire,
observe/deserve,
pleasure/leisure,
longing/yearning.
Simile
A figure of speech in which two things are
compared using the word "like" or
"as." An example of a simile using like
occurs in Langston Hughes’s poem
Harlem:
"What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?"
Stanza
Two or more lines of poetry that together form
one of the divisions of a poem. The stanzas
of a poem are usually of the same length
and follow the same pattern of meter and
rhyme. They can be compared to paragraphs
in poetic form.
Symbol
Something that suggests or stands for
something else without losing its
original meaning. Examples of symbols
are: sunshine suggesting happiness,
rain suggesting sorrow, and storm
clouds suggesting despair.
Understatement
Deliberately underplaying or undervaluing a
thing to create emphasis. An understatement
is the opposite of hyperbole.
“My students have shown no poor ability to
learn poetry!”
Verse
A single line of poetry.