Download Poetic Elements - Period 6: Honors American Literature Overview

Fundamental Poetic Elements
1.
Poetry is a patterned form of verbal or written expression of ideas in concentrated,
imaginative, and rhythmical terms. Poetry usually contains rhyme and a specific meter but
not necessarily.
2.
Meter is the patterned of stressed and unstressed syllables established in a line of
poetry. The stressed syllables is also called the accented or long syllable. The unstressed
syllable is also called the unaccented or short syllable. In determining the meter, the
importance of the word, the position in the metrical pattern and other linguistic factors
should be considered.
3.
Foot is a unit of meter. A metrical foot can have two or three syllables. A foot consists
generally of one stressed and one or more unstressed syllables. A line may have one foot,
two feet, etc. Poetic lines are classified according to the number of feet in a line. Types of
metrical feet are: iambic (u/), trochaic (/u) , anapestic (uu/) , dactylic (/uu), spondaic
(//), pyrrhic (uu).
Longfellow‘s ―The Ropewalk:‖ In(/) that(u) build(/)ing(u), long(/) and(u) low(/)
4.
Alliteration is the repetition of the initial letter or sound in two or more words in a line of
verse. Related to assonance (repetition of vowels) and consonance (repetition of
consonants); assonance and consonance are generally found within or at the end of words.
―She sells seashells by the seashore‖
5.
Onomatopoeia is the use of a word to represent or imitate natural sounds. ~Pow!
6.
Refrain is a repetition of one or more phrases or lines at intervals in a poem usually at the
end of a stanza.
Edgar Allan Poe‘s ―The Raven:‖ Quoth the raven, ‗Nevermore.‘
7.
Repetition is the reiterating of a word or phrase within a poem.
8.
Figure of speech is an expression in which the words are used in a nonliteral sense to
present a figure, picture, or image. Also called a trope.
9.
Metaphor is an implied comparison between two usually unrelated things indicating a
likeness or analogy between attributes found in both things. A metaphor unlike the simile
does not use like or as to indicate the comparison.
10.
Simile is a direct or explicit comparison between two usually unrelated things indicating a
likeness or similarity between some attribute found in both things.
11.
personification is giving human characteristics to inanimate objects, ideas, or animals.
William Cullen Bryant‘s ―Thanatopsis:‖ She [Nature] has a voice of gladness, and a smile
12.
Symbol is a word or image that signifies something other than what is literally represented.
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13.
The different kinds of metrical lines are: monometer – 1 line
pentameter - 5 lines
dimeter - 2 lines
trimester - 3 lines
tetrameter - 4 lines
hexameter - 6
lines
heptameter - 7 lines
octometer - 8 lines
14.
End-stopped line is a line that ends a phrase, clause, or sentence; usually punctuated
―The Ropewalk:‖ In that building long and low, (ends a phrase)
spin (ends a clause)
15.
Human spiders spin and
Enjambment is a line that breaks a phrase, clause, or sentence.
―Thanatopsis:‖ To him who in the love of Nature holds / Communion with her visible forms
16.
Rhymed verse consists of verse with end rhyme and usually with a regular meter.
17.
Blank verse consists of lines of iambic pentameter without end rhyme.
18.
Free verse consists of lines that do not have a regular meter and do not contain rhyme.
19.
Internal Rhyme—Internal rhyme consists of the similarity occurring between two or more
words in the same line of verse.
Poe‘s ―The Raven:‖ Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.
20.
End Rhyme—End rhyme consists of the similarity occurring at the end of two or more
lines of verse.
21.
Rhyme scheme is the pattern of sequence in which the rhyme occurs. The first sound is
represented or designated as a, the second sound is b, and so on. When the first sound is
repeated, it is designated as a also.
22.
Stanza is a division of a poem based on thought or form. Stanzas based on form are
marked by their rhyme scheme. Stanzas are known by the number of lines they contain.
couplet has two lines
triplet has three lines quatrain has four lines quintet has five
lines
sestet has six lines
septet has seven lines octave has eight lines
*others are identified as nine, ten, eleven-line stanza, etc.
23. Sonnet is a fourteen line stanza form consisting of iambic pentameter lines. The two major
sonnet forms are the Petrarchan (Italian) and Shakespearean (English) sonnet.
24. Petrarchan is a fourteen line stanza form consisting of an octave and a sestet. The rhyme
scheme is abbaabba for the octave and either cdecde or cdcdcd for the sestet. The octave
makes a statement or states a problem and the sestet is a summary or gives a solution to
the problem in the octave.
25. or Shakespearean is a fourteen line stanza form consisting of three quatrains abab cdcd efef
and a couplet gg. . The rhyme scheme is quatrains state a problem or statement and the
couplet is the turn it gives an epigrammatic ending for that problem or statement.
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