WHAT IS POETRY?

1. WHAT IS POETRY? • Poetry: an imaginative response to experience. • A kind of rhythmic, compressed language that uses figures of speech and imagery designed to appeal to our emotions. If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold that no fire can ever warm me, I know that it is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that it is poetry. ----Emily Dickinson

2. Poetry as a “play on words” • Poets play with words, rhymes, and rhythms as they write. • PUN: a play on the multiple meanings of a word, or on two words that sound alike but have different meanings. • Puns are like jokes and are often used for their humorous effect. Ex.) An elevator makes ghosts happy because it lifts the spirits. Because of their creativity, poets often confuse and frustrate their readers. DON’T GET DISCOURAGE! POETRY IS NOT THE ENEMY!!

3. Look for punctuation. Do not stop at the end of a line if there is no period, comma, colon, semicolon, or dash there. Look for the subject, verb, and complement of each sentence if you are having trouble with a passage of a poem. Look up words you do not understand. Be alert for comparisons Read the poem aloud; understand it with your mind, hear it with your ears, and feel it in your heart. Know and understand the use of figurative language READ THE POEM AGAIN! What is the first difference that a reader notices when they read poetry verses a story or play? How do I read poetry?

4. Variety of Poems and Structures • We will be studying a variety of poems throughout this unit, each will have their own structure, rhyme, rhythm and meter. All of the figurative language that you have practiced in the past will come into play as we move through the unit.

5. Types of poetry we will be studying… • Free Verse: Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme. • Blank Verse: unrhymed form of poetry that normally consists of 10 syllables in iambic pentameter. • Lyric: poetry that focuses on expressing emotion or thoughts rather than telling a story. • Ballad: Poem in verse form that tells a story. Ballad’s are usually set up in stanzas (4) and have a regular rhythm and rhyme. • Narrative Poem: Poem that tells a story

6. Types of poetry we will be studying… • Haiku: Japanese poetry consisting of three lines. (5,7,5) • The structure of a Haiku is based on a particular syllable count for each line(seventeen sounds); line one—5 beats, line two, 7 beats, line three—5 beats • Include a lot of Imagery • Subject is often tied to nature, common experience or the essence of a moment • Ode: Complex generally long lyric poem on a serious subject. • Formal/Ceremonial • Personal/Reflective

7. Types of poetry we will be studying… • The Sonnet: 14 line poem • Italian Sonnet (Petrarchan): set up in two parts—octave and a sestet. • Octave—stanza consisting of 8 lines. • Sestet—stanza consisting of 6 lines. • The author will ask a question in the octave and answer it in the sestet. • ABBAABBA, CDECDE

8. Sonnets cont… • Shakespearean Sonnet (English): A sonnet with 3 quatrains and ending with a couplet. • Quatrain—4 lined stanza • Couplet—two lined stanza • Question will be raised in the quatrains and answered in the couplet. • ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG

9. Some structures and types of poetry we will be studying… • Epigram: brief, witty poem or saying often dealing with its subject in a satirical manner. • Epitaph: Short poem or verse written in memory of someone/thing. • Metaphysical Poetry: poetry that focus’ on philosophy andtheology.

10. Patterns of Poetry • Rhyme: repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them, in words that are close together in a poem. • Scheme—the pattern of rhymes in a poem • To indicate the rhyme scheme of a stanza or poem, use a separate letter of the alphabet for each rhyme. • Perfect—words that rhyme; choice and voice • Approximate/Slant—when 2 words are alike in some sounds, but do not rhyme exactly • End—rhyme at the end of lines • Internal– rhymes in the middle of a line

11. Patterns of Poetry --Rhyme • Identify the end rhymes in the poem #1. • Identify the perfect rhymes in poem #1. • Identify an example of slant rhyme poem #1. • Identify an internal rhyme in poem #2. • Identify the rhyme scheme of poem #1. Poem #1—Gwendolyn Brooks My last defense Is the present tense. It little hurts me now to know I shall not go Cathedral-hunting in Spain Nor cherrying in Michigan or Maine. Poem #2—Edgar Allan Poe Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak And weary.

12. The Rhyme and Rhythm in Poetry • Rhythm: a musical quality produced by the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables, or by the repetition of certain other sound patterns, in poetry. • Meter: is the patterned repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. • Foot/Verse: is the smallest repeated pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poetic line. • Iamb: an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable (repeat) • Iambic pentameter: a line of poetry that contains five iambs for a line total of 10 syllable. (5+5=10)  • Iambic tetrameter: a line of poetry that contains four beats or iambs for a line total of ______ By day the bat is cousin to the mouse. He likes the attic of an aging house. --from “ The Bat”, Theodore Roethke

13. Literary Terms for Poetry Unit • Stanza: is a division of poetry named for the number of lines it contains. • Refrain: reoccurring phrase, stanza, chorus • Mood: feeling a piece of poetry tries to convey to the reader. • Tone: is the overall feeling , or effect, created by a writer’s use of words.

14. Literary Terms for Poetry Unit • Parody: form of writing intended to mock a particular literary work or its style; comic effect • Alliteration: is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in words such as • “Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter...” • “fl” sound and “t” sound--**What are the other 2? • Assonance: is the repetition of vowel sounds without the repetition of consonants. “My words like silent rain drops fell…”

15. Literary Terms for Poetry Unit • Enjambment: the running over of a sentence or thought from one line to another. • Canto: main division of a long poem • Metonymy: Substitution of 1 word for another that is closely related. • Syntax: Word order/placement • Paradox: contradictory sentence in a line or piece of writing/poetry.

16. Literary Terms for Poetry Unit • Conceit: brief metaphor; makes a surprising connection between two dissimilar things. • Antithesis: opposition or contrast of idea in poetry • Motif: reoccurring theme, idea • Understatement: stating an idea with restraint or holding back to emphasize what is being talked about throughout the poem.

17. Literary Terms for Poetry Unit • Caesura: a pause or sudden break in a line of poetry. • Imagery: language that appeals to our 5 senses. • Personification: giving human characteristic to inhuman objects. • Symbol: a noun that represents something greater than itself

18. Literary Terms for Poetry Unit • Onomatopoeia: the use of a word whose sound suggests its meaning, as in clang or buzz. • Hyperbole: excessive use of exaggeration to express strong emotion. • Metaphor: a comparison of two unlike things in which no word of comparison (like or as) is used. • “The school is a prison”

19. Literary Terms for Poetry Unit • 3 types of Metaphors • Direct—Comp. is directly stated. • Implied—Comp. is implied by the line of poetry. “Time shall waste away his wings” • Extended—the comparison is taken throughout the entire poem.

20. Literary Terms for Poetry Unit • Simile: a comparison using like or as. “She looks like a wet dog!” • Dramatic Monologue: literary work (piece of poetry) in which a character (speaker) is speaking about him or herself as if another person were present. • Inner Monologue: Talking to ones self. (in your head)