QW 1

1. QW 1 • What type of music do you listen to the most? Why do you think you are most drawn to that genre? What’s your favorite song and why? (5-7 complete sentences)

2. Poetry terms • Stanza: Group of lines forming a unit in a poem. • Symbol: Using an object or action that means something more than its literal meaning. • Metaphor: a type of figurative language in which a comparison is made between two things that are essentially unalike but may have one quality in common • Figure of speech: When words are used to create an effect, often where they do not have their original or literal meaning (genre of speech that includes metaphors, similes etc. • Allusion: a reference to other literature, the Bible, history, or well-known characters, people or events

3. A few more terms… • Alliteration: a pattern of sound that includes the repetition of consonant sounds, such as Peter Piper picked a peck of picked peppers, etc. • Imagery: The use of words and phrases that appeal to the five senses; writers use sensory details to help readers imagine how things look, feel, smell, sound, and taste • Simile: A comparison between two otherwise unlike objects or ideas by connecting them with the words "like”, “than” or "as" • Hyperbole: a figure of speech that is a grossly exaggerated description or statement

4. Poetry: An Introduction “Poetry is the search for the inexplicable” - Wallace Stevens

5. What is Poetry? • One of the most misunderstood form of writing • Also, the purest form of writing- it is art with words • The truth is… poetry is not easy to define!

6. Generally speaking… *Poetry is a creative use of words intended on stirring an emotion from its audience *Poetry usually has some structure that separates it from prose

7. History of Poetry • Poetry as an art may out date literacy itself. • In prehistoric and ancient societies, poetry was used as a way to record cultural events or tell stories. • Poetry is amongst the earliest records of most cultures with poetic fragments found on monoliths, rune stones, and stelae.

8. History continued… • Once literacy became more prominent, so did poetry • Poetry, like language, is always evolving • Modern developments, such as the printing press, continued the evolution of poetry • As literacy developed, so did the structure of poetry-however, modern poets have begun to stray away from structure and go towards free verse

9. Today… • Modern theorists continue to debate on how to define poetry • We see poetry every day- mostly in music lyrics • Poetry continues to be considered the most concentrated, most pure, form of language across the globe

10. Three major genres • Epic: an epic poem is a long poem narrating the heroic exploits of an individual in a way central to the beliefs and culture of his or her society • Lyric: a lyric poem expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet. The term lyric is now commonly referred to as the words to a song. Lyric poetry does not tell a story which portrays characters and actions. The lyric poet addresses the reader directly, portraying his or her own feelings, state of mind, and perceptions. • Dramatic: is any poetry that uses the discourse of the characters involved to tell a story or portray a situation.

11. Structure basics • Rhythm: This is the music made by the statements of the poem, which includes the syllables in the lines. The best method of understanding this is to read the poem aloud. Listen for the sounds and the music made when we hear the lines spoken aloud • Meter: This is the basic structural make-up of the poem. Every line in the poem must adhere to this structure. A poem is made up of blocks of lines, which convey a single strand of thought. Within those blocks, a structure of syllables which follow the rhythm has to be included.

12. More Structure… • Rhyme: A poem may or may not have a rhyme. When you write poetry that has rhyme, it means that the last words of the lines match with each other in some form. • Theme: This is what the poem is all about. The theme of the poem is the central idea that the poet wants to convey. It can be a story, or a thought, or a description of something or someone – anything which is what the poem is all about.

13. Works Cited • www.quoteofpoems.com/history • www.poetry-portal.com/styles • www.typesofpoetry.com/definitions • www.buzzle.com/basic/elements/poetry