Poetry is the oldest of the arts.
Poem
- a thought or feeling expressed in rhythmic
and colorful language.
- appeals to our imagination
- can be structured or free-verse
- lines and stanzas
Stanzas are a series of lines grouped together and
separated by an empty line from other stanzas.
- couplet (2 lines)
- tercet (3 lines)
- quatrain (4 lines)
- cinquain (5 lines)
- sestet (6 lines)
- septet (7 lines)
- octave (8 lines)
Elements of Poetry
1. Sensory Images/ Imagery
- using words to create a picture in the reader’s
mind
- words that help the reader see, hear, taste,
smell, and feel what the writer is describing.
Examples:
- It was dark and dim in the forest.
- The girl ran her hands on a soft satin fabric.
- “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear,”
2. Symbolism
- a word or image that signifies something
other than what is literally represented
- the connotative meaning of the word varies
based on the context they are used in
Examples:
chain
friendship imprisonment
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
they have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,”
3. Rhyme
- Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds.
Example:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses, And all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again!
❗ Note: Most modern poems do not have rhymes.
Kinds of Rhyme:
- In poetry, the most common kind of rhyme is
the end rhyme, which occurs at the end of
two or more lines. See example above.
- Internal rhyme occurs within a line.
Example:
“In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud.”
- Coleridge
“Whiles all the night through fog-smoke
white.”
- The Ancient Manner
- Eye Rhymes, also
called sight or spelling rhymes, refer to words
having the same spelling but different sounds.
Examples are: move and love, cough and
bough, food and good, death and wreath.
4. Rhyme Scheme is the pattern of rhyme
that comes at the end of each stanza or line in
poetry.
- Alternate rhyme occurs at the end of every
other line. Also known as ABAB rhyme
scheme. This ABAB rhyme scheme is built into
the famous poetic form called the
Shakespearean sonnet.
Example:
I saw a fairy in the wood
He was dressed all in green.
He drew his sword while I just stood
And realized I’d been seen.
- Monorhyme is known as the AAAA rhyme
scheme.
- Enclosed Rhyme is a rhyming pair sandwiched
inside of another rhyming pair. Also known as
the ABBA rhyme scheme. The ABBA rhyme
scheme is found in the poetic form called the
Petrarchan sonnet.
Example:
Once in a forest, a long time ago,
there dwelt a young maiden, bright, sweet
and fair
Flowers she wore in her long wavy hair,
and each day she’d vanish into gloaming’s
glow
- AABB – when the first and second lines
rhyme and the third and fourth lines rhyme
Example:
Upon a nice mid-spring day,
Let’s take a look at Nature’s way
Breathe the scent of nice fresh air,
Feel the breeze within your hair.
- ABCB – when the second and fourth lines of
the stanza rhyme while the first and third lines
do not rhyme with any others.
Example:
Here in your arms
is where I belong.
The beating of your heart
is like a beautiful song.
5. Repetition
- Words, syllables, sounds or phrases repeated
in writings to produce emphasis, rhythm, and
or a sense of urgency. They may appear from
beginning to end or in any part of the poem.
Example:
1. To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells –
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells
Bells, bells, bells –
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
5. Dactyl: The dactyl is the opposite of the
anapest, in that it has one stressed syllable
followed by two unstressed syllables as in the
phrase: FLY a-way.
Example:
Double, double, toil, and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble

2. Valued Treasure by Chris R. Carey Example:

Time to spend For the moon never beams
Time to mend
Time to hate Without bringing me dreams
Time to wait
Time is the essence Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
Time is the key
Time will tell us 8. Figures of Speech
what we will be - Alliteration is the repetition of the initial letter
or sound in words that are close to each
6. Refrain other.
- the repetition of a word, phrase, line, or lines Example: Once upon a midnight dreary while I
in a poem, song or speech at regular pondered weak and weary.
intervals. Refrains often appear at the end of
stanzas.
Example: - Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds.
It was many and many a year ago, Example: My why should you lie
In a kingdom by the sea, I rely on your eyes so shy
That a maiden there lived whom you may know…
By the name of Annabel Lee
- Onomatopoeia – it is the use of words whose
I was a child and she was a child, sounds suggest their meanings.
In this kingdom by the sea, Example:
But we loved with a love that was more than whoosh, passing breeze
love— flags flutter and flap
I and my Annabel Lee… frog croaks, bird whistles
babbling bubbles from tap
7. Rhythm
- The word rhythm is derived
from rhythmos (Greek) which means, - Simile – a comparison between two usually
“measured motion”. Rhythm is a literary unrelated things using the words “like” or
device which demonstrates the long and short “as”.
patterns through stressed and unstressed Example: Joe is as hungry as a bear.
syllables particularly in verse form.

Types of Meter - Metaphor – an implied comparison between

two usually unrelated things.
1. Iamb: The Iamb is a pattern of one
unstressed syllable followed by one stressed
Example: Lenny is a snake.
syllable, as in the word: en-JOY.
- Hyperbole – an exaggeration for the sake of
2. Trochee: The trochee is one stressed syllable
emphasis.
followed by one unstressed syllable, as in the
word: CON-quer.
Example: I may sweat to death.

3. Spondee: Spondee is a pattern of two

- Personification – giving human characteristics
stressed syllables in poetry. The pattern may
to inanimate objects, ideas or animals.
cross over from word to word in a poem. An
example of spondee might be: GO! GO! Both
Example: The sun stretched its lazy fingers
1-syllable words are stressed.
over the valley.

4. Anapest: The anapest is a combination of

two unstressed syllables followed by one
stressed syllable. Take this phrase: to the
NORTH. The first two syllables are unstressed,
while the final syllable is stressed.