So, What is Poetry?

1. So, What is Poetry? • Here are some quotes from poets about what they think poetry is: • Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.  ~Edgar Allan Poe • Poetry is what gets lost in translation.  ~Robert Frost

2. So, What is Poetry? • Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history. ~Plato • Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.  ~Percy Shelley • Everything in creation has its appointed painter or poet and remains in bondage like the princess in the fairy tale 'til its appropriate liberator comes to set it free.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. So, What is Poetry? • God is the perfect poet.  ~Robert Browning • Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.  ~Carl Sandburg • Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.  ~Thomas Gray • A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman.  ~Wallace Stevens

4. So, What is Poetry? • As you can guess, poetry is different for every author • There is a method to analyze and study poetry for this class • Elements of Sound • Figures of Speech • Style • Theme

5. Elements of Sound- Rhyme Scheme • Rhyme Scheme • Typically, the end word of one line might rhyme with the end word of another line • Rhyme scheme adds rhythm to the poem and looks like this: Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. -Robert Frost A A B A

6. Elements of Sound – Meter • Meter • Measured in “feet,” or pairs of syllables • Types of lengths are as follows: • One foot: Monometer • Two feet: Dimeter • Three feet: Trimeter • Four feet: Tetrameter • Five feet: Pentameter • Six feet: Hexameter • Seven feet: Heptameter • Eight feet: Octameter

7. Elements of Sound – Meter • Identify the line lengths in our previous example (you can clap the syllables if needed) Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. -Robert Frost • Each line has 8 syllables, so each line is 4 feet long, written in Tetrameter.

8. Elements of Sound – Meter • During the Romantic Period, American poets liked to imitate their English counterparts • They wrote their own sonnets, a specific poetic type • Comes in 2 main forms • Shakespearean of English • Petrarchian or Italian

9. Elements of Sound – Meter • English sonnet mastered by William Shakespeare • Written in the following format: • # of Lines = 14 • Line Length = 5 feet per line (pentameter) • Rhyme scheme = a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g

10. Elements of Sound – Meter • Italian sonnet made famous by Francesco Petrarch • A bit more complex than the English version • Written in the following format: • # of Lines = 14 • Line Length = 5 feet per line (pentameter) • Rhyme scheme = a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, c-d-e-c-d-e • First 8 lines state a problem • Lines 9 -14 provides a solution to the problem

11. Elements of Sound - Alliteration • Alliteration – using several words that begin with the same pronunciation • Adds to the rhythm of the poem • Example: An axe angles from my neighbor's ashcan; It is hell's handiwork, the wood not hickory. The flow of the grain not faithfully followed. The shivered shaft rises from a shell heap Of plastic playthings, paper plates. Richard Wilbur

12. Elements of Sound – As/Consonance • Assonance – repeating vowel sounds in a line of poetry • Consonance – repeating consonant sounds in a line of poetry • Both add to the rhythm of the poem “And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the sideOf my darling, my darling, my life and my bride.” Edgar Allan Poe “Rap rejects my tape deck, ejects projectile Whether Jew or gentile I rank top percentile” The Fugees

13. Elements of Sound - Onomatopoeia • Onomatopoeia – words that imitate the sound it’s describing • Some examples: • Click, buzz, oink, quack, meow, bang, beep, splash • Provides and reinforces imagery in a poem Oink? Meow!

14. Figures of Speech – Simile/Metaphor You all should know what simile and metaphor are by now!! But just in case you forgot… • Simile - making an explicit comparison between two unlike things, using a word such as like, as, than, or resembles. • Metaphor - making an explicit comparison between two unlike things without using like, as, than, or resembles.

15. Figures of Speech – Personification • Personification – giving living qualities to inanimate objects. • Example: “Because I could not stop for Death He kindly stopped for me” Emily Dickinson • Death is not human, yet Dickinson gives the quality of life to the idea of death

16. Figures of Speech – Verbal Irony You all should know what verbal irony is, too!! But, if you forgot this one… • Verbal Irony - when someone says one thing but means something else; known as sarcasm • Example: - “Oh great!” when something bad happens

17. Figures of Speech – Symbolism • Symbolism – when an object represents an idea or concept • Examples: = Halt or stop = Peace = Money or Sale

18. Figures of Speech – Symbolism • Imagery – words or phrases that recreate sensory experiences • Example: I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the Milky Way,They stretch'd in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.The waves beside them danced; but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company… - William Wordsworth

19. Style – Word Choice • Word Choice – poets choose their words carefully. • This is because poems have fewer words than prose, or regular writing • Every word counts in poetry, which means every word is there for a reason

20. Style – Word Order • Word Order – the order in which words are placed in a poem. • Prose writing is usually written in Active voice, where the sentence is in the order of Subject- Verb-Object • Jackkicked the ball. • Poetry can be written in Passive voice, where the sentence is in the order of Object-Verb- Subject • The ballwas kicked by Jack

21. Style – Word Order • So, instead of writing: • I have not seen so fair and foul a day. • A poet might write” • “So fair and foul a day I have not seen,” Macbeth, William Shakespeare • Sounds much like “Yoda talk” Feed me, you must!

22. Style – Tone • Tone – the author’s attitude about the subject, i.e. the emotion behind the poem. • Word choice and word order all play a role in establishing tone • When identifying tone, you may use the following tone: • formal, informal, intimate, solemn, somber, playful, serious, ironic, condescending, or many other possible attitudes

23. Theme – What Does it All Mean? • Theme – the main, or universal, idea the poet wants to share • It is not the same as a moral • Remember, morals point fingers! • In the fable, “The Three Little Pigs” the moral of the story is… “If you do things as well as you can, you will survive in the world.”

24. Theme – What Does it All Mean? • A theme is a view about life and how people behave or act • You have to extract the theme of a poem by analyzing the 3 previous topics in order to establish the theme of a poem • In other words, you must figure out the theme of a poem yourself