Introduction to Poetry

1. Introduction to Poetry Unit 3

2. What is poetry? • Poetry uses words, form, sound, patterns, imagery, and figurative language (similes, metaphors, etc.) to convey a message, tell a story, evoke a feeling… • ALL poems contain some (or all) of the above mentioned elements. • Generally two types: narrative poetry (tells a story) and lyrical poetry (doesn’t tell a story)

3. Form and structure • The term form in poetry refers to the poem’s appearance. • Poems are divided into lines; some are long, some are short. • Oftentimes lines are divided into stanzas. Stanzas, in a way, function like paragraphs in a story or novel. Usually each stanza contains an idea or does something to move an earlier idea further. • Types of stanzas: couplet (2); triplet (3); quatrain (4); quintain (5); sestet (6) and so on…

4. Sound • Poems often rhyme, but poems DO NOT have to rhyme, of course. • Rhyme, rhythm, and alliteration create the sound in a poem. • Poets will often repeat words, lines, and sounds within a poem to create an effect.

5. Sound: Rhythm • Rhythm: pattern of beats or stresses in a poem. • Poets use patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables to create a regular rhythm. • There is a musical quality to many poems, though free verse poems often have a looser rhythm.

6. Sound: Rhyme • Rhyme: the repetition of the same or similar sounds., usually stressed syllables at the ends of lines, but sometimes within a line. • Some poems (especially older poems) incorporate a rhyme scheme (the rhyming pattern that is created at the ends of lines of poetry). • Mary had a little lamb A • Its fleece as white as snow. B • And everywhere that Mary went, C • The lamb was sure to go. B ***If the poem doesn’t have a rhyme scheme it is considered to be a free verse poem.

7. More on RHyme • Types of rhymes: • End rhymes: rhymes that occur at the ends of lines • Near rhymes (also called slant rhymes): words that look like they should rhyme (love and move, for example) but they don’t actually rhyme • Internal rhymes: occur within lines

8. Sound: alliteration • The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words is alliteration. • Alliteration is another way poets create sound patterns and music in their poem. • For example: • Seven silver swans swam silently seaward.

9. Imagery • Poets use words that appeal to the reader’s senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. They especially rely on imagery to create pictures in the minds of readers. • Figures of speech • Simile: comparison using like or as • Metaphor: describes one thing as if it actually were another thing • Extended metaphor: a metaphor that extends throughout the entire poem instead of just a few lines. • Personification: gives human characteristics to something nonhuman

10. Mood, tone, Theme • Mood and tone are the feelings generated by the author’s words choices. • As with short stories, the theme is the central or main idea. • Ask yourself what ideas or insights about life or human nature have you found in the poem?

11. Our poems • William Blake – “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” (English Romantic) • Theodore Roethke – “My Papa’s Waltz” (American Modern) • Elizabeth Bishop – “In the Waiting Room” (American Modern) • Emily Dickinson – “There’s a certain Slant of light,” “The Soul selects her own Society—,” “After a great pain, a formal feelings comes—” and “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—” (American) • A. Van Jordan – “How Does a Man Write a Poem” and “To My Brothers” (African American Modern ) • Blas Falconer – “And Though We Know It Does No Good” and “A Question of Gravity and Light” (Puerto Rican American Modern) • Laura Newbern – “A Kindness” and “Little Bird” (American Modern) • Natasha Trethewey – “Incident” and “Myth” (African American Modern)

12. Questions?