Poetry
Learning about Poetry
Elements of Poetry
What is poetry?
Poetry is not:
1. Prose chopped up into lines
2. Sweet, fluffy descriptions
3. Aphorisms that end in rhymes
4. Grand, stuffy language that sounds like
something from the 16th century
Elements of Poetry (cont.)
Poetry is language that’s alive.
Question: What are the 3 most important ingredients
in a poem?
Music
Emotion
Magic
Music is about rhythm and the way sounds
rub together. We’ve all appreciated that,
beginning at a very early age. Did you ever
bang pots and pans together or babble and
mix up different sounds?
Everyone has emotions. Just think of how
many emotions you have felt today. Now
Elements of Poetry
imagine all the emotions you have ever
experienced in your life. Tap into one of
these feelings and make the reader feel what
you felt, experience that same emotion.
Magic- not hocus pocus, abra-cadabra magic,
but the ability to see things around you in a
whole new way.
Elements of Poetry (cont.)
To do this, poets use a variety of
specific elements and techniques:
1. Sound Devices
2. Figurative Language
3. Sensory Language
Sound Devices
Sound devices add a musical
quality to poetry.
Poets use these devices to enhance
a poem’s mood and meaning.
There are five common sound
devices that poets use.
Sound Devices (cont.)
1. Rhyme: the repetition of sounds at the ends of
words, such as pool, rule and fool.
2. Rhythm: the beat created by the pattern of
stressed and unstressed syllables: The cat sat
on the mat.
3. Repetition: the use of any element of language
– a sound, word, phrase, clause or sentence –
more than once.
Sound Devices (cont.)
4. Onomatopoeia: the use of words that
imitate sounds: crash, bang, hiss, splat.
5. Alliteration: the repetition of consonant
sounds in the beginning of words: lovely
lonely lights.
Figurative Language
Figurative language is writing or speech
that is not meant to be taken literally.
The many types of figurative language
are called figures of speech.
Writers use three common figures of
speech to state ideas in a vivid and
imaginative way.
Figurative Language (cont.)
1. Metaphors describe one thing as if it
were something else. They often point
out a similarity between two unlike
things: The snow was a white blanket
over the town.
2. Similes use like or as to compare two
apparently unlike things and show
similarities between the two: She is as
slow as a turtle.
Figurative Language (cont.)
3. Personification gives human
qualities to something that is
nonhuman: The ocean crashed
angrily during the storm.
Sensory Language
Sensory language is writing or
speech that appeals to one or more
of the five senses – sight, sound,
smell, taste, and touch.
This language creates word
pictures, or images.
Forms of Poetry
Poems can tell stories, describe natural events, and
express feelings.
Some poems are shaped to look like their subjects,
and others follow strict patterns of rhyme, rhythm or
syllables.
By reading poems, you can learn a new way to see
something that you have looked at hundreds of
times before.
There are many different kinds - or forms - of
poems.
Forms of Poetry (cont.)
1. Narrative: Poetry that tells a story in
verse. Narrative poems often have
elements similar to those in a short
story, such as plot and characters.
The Little Boy and the Old Man by Shel Silverstein
Said the little boy, "Sometimes I drop my spoon."
Said the old man, "I do that too."
The little boy whispered, "I wet my pants."
"I do that too," laughed the little old man.
Said the little boy, "I often cry."
The old man nodded, "So do I."
"But worst of all," said the boy, "it seems
Grown-ups don't pay attention to me."
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
"I know what you mean," said the little old man.
Forms of Poetry (cont.)
2. Lyric: Poetry that expresses the thoughts
and feelings of a single speaker, often in
highly musical verse.
" I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth
I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That 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.
Forms of Poetry (cont.)
3. Concrete: Poems that are shaped to look like
their subjects. The poet arranges the lines to
create a picture on the page.
Triangle
I
am
a very
special
shape I have
three points and
three lines straight.
Look through my words
and you will see, the shape
that I am meant to be. I'm just
not words caught in a tangle. Look
close to see a small triangle. My angles
add to one hundred and eighty degrees, you
learn this at school with your abc's. Practice your
maths and you will see, some other fine examples of me.
Forms of Poetry (cont.)
4. Haiku: A three-line Japanese verse form.
The first and the third lines each have five
syllables, and the second line has seven.
An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again
5. Limerick: A humorous, rhyming, five-line
poem with a specific rhythm pattern and
rhyme scheme.
There was an Old Man who supposed,
That the street door was partially closed;
But some very large rats,
Ate his coats and his hats,
While that futile old gentleman dozed.
Forms of Poetry (cont.)
6. Cinquain: Poems that gradually increase
the number of syllables in each line until
the last line, which returns to two syllable
Spaghetti
Messy, spicy
Slurping, sliding, falling
Between my plate and mouth
Delicious
Forms of Poetry (cont.)
7. Diamonte: Poem that go from the subject
at the top of the diamond to another
totally opposite subject at the bottom
using a very specific structure
Winter
Rainy, cold
Skiing, skating, sledding
Mountains, wind, breeze, ocean
Swimming, surfing, scuba diving
Sunny, hot
Summer