Introduction to Poetry

Introduction to Poetry Honors English 3

Meter • Foot- metrical unit composed of stressed and unstressed syllables. ˘' - an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one • Iamb--An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, as in to-DAY. • Trochaic Meter- Trochaic is a meter beginning with stress, followed by unstressed • Spondee-A metrical foot represented by two stressed syllables, such as KNICK-KNACK.

Parts of a poem • Enjambment--A run-on line of poetry in which logical and grammatical sense carries over from one line into the next. • An enjambed line differs from an end-stopped line in which the grammatical and logical sense is completed within the line. In the opening lines of Robert Browning's“My Last Duchess," for example, the first line is end stopped and the second enjambed: That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,Looking as if she were alive. I callThat piece a wonder, now....

Parts of a poem 2. HeroicCouplet--A pair of rhymed lines written in iambic pentameter. Shakespeare's sonnets end in rhymed couplets, as in: "For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with kings." 3. Quatrain- a four-line stanza in a poem

Parts of a poem 4. Caesura--A strong pause within a line of verse. The following stanza from Hardy's "The Man He Killed" contains caesuras in the middle two lines: He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,Off-hand-like--just as I--Was out of work-had sold his traps--No other reason why.

Types of Poems • Sonnet--A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter. • The Shakespearean or English sonnet is arranged as three quatrains and a final couplet, rhyming ababcdcdefefgg. The • Italian sonnet divides into two parts: an eight-line octave and a six-line sestet, rhyming abbaabbacdecde or abbaabbacdcdcd.

Types of Poems 2. Lyric poem-A type of poem characterized by shortness, firmness, and the expression of feeling. (emotional, personal, reflective) 3. Elegy--A lyric poem that mourns the dead 4. Narrative poem-A poem that tells a story 5. Ballad- a poem that tells a story and is written in four line stanzas -4/3 beats per line with specific rhyme scheme and refrain…meant to be sung

Types of Verse • Blank verse--A line of poetry or prose in unrhymed iambic pentameter When I see birches bend to left and right / Across the lines of straighter darker trees, / I like to think some boy's been swinging them. 2. Free verse--Poetry without a regular pattern of meteror rhyme. The verse is "free" in not being bound by earlier poetic conventions requiring poems to adhere to an explicit and identifiable meter and rhyme scheme in a form such as the sonnet or ballad.

Literary terms • Circumlocution-- a roundabout or indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than necessary to express an idea. 2. Consonance- repetition of consonant sounds in the middle or end of words 3. Alliteration--The repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of words. Example: "Fetched fresh, as I suppose, off some sweet wood." Hopkins, "In the Valley of the Elwy.” 4. Assonance- The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence or a line of poetry or prose

Literary terms 5. Synecdoche- A figure of speech in which a part is substituted for the whole. An example: "Lend me a hand.” 6. Metonymy--A figure of speech in which a closely related term is substituted for an object or idea. An example: "We have always remained loyal to the crown.” 7. Antithesis- two terms presented together that strongly contrast—love/hate; peace/war; joy/sadness If, as our dreaming Platonists report,There could be spirits of a middle sort,Too black for heav'n, and yet too white for hell,Who just dropp'd halfway down, nor lower fell;

Literary terms 8. Conceit- an extended metaphor 9. Euphemism- the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt- “Pass away” for “die” 10. Masculine ending- line ending with a stressed syllable 11. Feminine ending- line ending with an unstressed syllable

Introduction to Poetry