Elements of PoetryFrom: Elements of Literature

How to read a poem Read the poem aloud at least once. Read from the “inside out.” Be aware of punctuation, especially

periods and commas. If a line of poetry doesn’t end with

punctuation, don’t stop. Read the poem for its meaning, using a

natural voice. Let the music come through on its own.

Pay attention to each word. Pay attention to the title.

Read it out loud!Read the poem aloud at least

once. Don’t stop just because you’re at the end of the line.

Only stop for punctuation marks. Each poem has its own pulse,

which you can hear more clearly by reading it aloud.

Inside out

Read from the “inside out.” If you read a poem and try to worry about finding the metaphor or identify rhyme schemes, you’ve missed the point of the poem. You’ve read it from the “outside in.” Don’t do that!

First, enjoy the poem. Then, ask yourself why you liked it.

(metaphors, rhyme, etc. can be found after the first reading.)

Punctuation matters Be aware of punctuation, especially

periods and commas. A period signals the end of a sentence-

which is not always at the end of a line. You should make a full stop when you

come to a period. If a line of poetry doesn’t end with

punctuation, don’t stop. Continue reading until you read a punctuation mark.

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/p180-howtoread.html

Poetry is music If the poem is written in meter

(pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables-most poems use meter), don’t read it in a singsong way.

Read the poem for its meaning, using a natural voice. Let the music of the poem come through on its own.

Words are importantPay attention to each word. Poets

generally use only a few words, so each word is important. Look up unfamiliar words.

Pay attention to the title. Sometimes-but not always-the meaning of the poem is hinted at in the title.

Try it! Read this excerpt from a poem out

loud, remember to read it first. Stop at the punctuation-not the end of the line. Listen for the natural singsong tone-don’t force it.

“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I'll rise.

Just like moons and like suns,With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,Still I'll rise.

You may shoot me with your words,You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,But still, like air, I'll rise.

The Sound of PoetryPoetic Elements

The musical sound of poetry comes from several elements used wisely in the poem. Not all are used in every poem. The poet chooses the elements that best deliver the poem and sound the poet wants to create. Here are a few of the elements commonly used in poetry:

Rhythm Meter Rhyme Refrain Alliteration Assonance Onomatopoeia Metaphors and Similes Imagery Symbolism

Rhythm The repetition of stressed and

unstressed syllables Provides the poem’s beat MU-sic MOUNT-ain Be-CAUSE Try your name: Where is the stressed

sound? That is the stressed syllable.

“For My Grandmother” by Countee Cullen

This lovely flower fell to seed;Work gently, sun and rain;

She held it as her dying creedThat she would grow again.

This lovely flower fell to seed; stressed unstressed

Meter When a clear pattern of stressed and

unstressed syllables is repeated, that is called meter.

Cullen’s poem “For My Grandmother” uses meter because the stressed and unstressed syllable pattern is repeated throughout the entire poem.

Listen to the consistent pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in the poem one more time.

“For My Grandmother” by Countee Cullen

This lovely flower fell to seed;Work gently, sun and rain;

She held it as her dying creedThat she would grow again.

This lovely flower fell to seed; stressed unstressed

Rhyme The chiming effect a poem creates-the

singsong sound, the music- is done with rhyme.

Rhyme is when sounds match in words. There are several types of rhyme.

Types of Rhyme End rhyme (rhyme at the end) Couplet (two end words in two lines next

to each other in a poem rhyme) Internal rhyme (the rhyming words are in

the middle of the lines, not the ends.) Exact rhyme (the rhyming sounds are

exactly the same sounds) Approximate rhyme-sometimes called:

near rhyme, imperfect rhyme, slant rhyme (the rhyming sounds are close, but not exactly the same)

End rhyme End rhyme is when the end words of lines rhyme with each other.

Excerpt from “Peanut-Butter Sandwich”From Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

I'll sing you a poem of a silly young kingWho played with the world at the end of a string,But he only loved one single thing—And that was just a peanut-butter sandwich.

His scepter and his royal gowns,His regal throne and golden crownsWere brown and sticky from the moundsAnd drippings from each peanut-butter sandwich.

His subjects all were silly foolsFor he had passed a royal ruleThat all that they could learn in schoolWas how to make a peanut-butter sandwich.…

More end rhymes: The panther is like a leopard,Except is hasn’t been peppered.

-Ogden NashFrom “The Panther”

Even though it’s spelled differently, the ending sound is the same in both words.

“The Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss

"We looked!Then we saw himstep in on the mat!We looked!And we saw him!The Cat in the Hat!"

“I know it is wetAnd the sun is not sunny.But we can haveLots of good funthat is funny!”

  “Look at me!  Look at me!  Look at me NOW!  It is fun to have fun  But you have   to know how.”

  “'Have no fear, little fish,'  Said the Cat in the Hat.  'These Things are

  good Things.'  And he gave them a pat."

Couplet

A couplet is when two consecutive lines (lines following each other-right next to each other in the poem) rhyme with each other at the end.

Shakespearean sonnets perfect the use of couplets! Each sonnet closes with a couplet.

Shakespearean sonnets: SONNET 54O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem By that sweet ornament which truth doth give.The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem For that sweet odour which doth in it live. The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye As the perfumed tincture of the roses, Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly When summer's breath their masked buds discloses:But, for their virtue only is their show, They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade, Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so; Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:   And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,   When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth.

(That’s a perfect couplet!)

Shakespeare Sonnet #130My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

(Here’s another perfect couplet.)

Internal rhymeRhymes occurring within lines.

“The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert W. Service

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where theCotton blooms and blows.Why he left his home in the South to Roam ‘round the Pole, God only knows. He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell; Though he’d often say in his homely way that he’d ‘sooner live in hell.”

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail. Talk of your cold! Through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail. If our eyes we’d close, the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn’t see; It wasn’t much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee. …

“So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you’ll cremate my last remains”

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear; But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near; I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: “I’ll just take a peep inside. I guess he’s cooked, and it’s time I look”: . . .then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar; And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: “Please close that door. It’s fine in here, but I greatly fear you’ll let in the cold and storm- Since I Left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it’s the first time I’ve been warm.”

Exact rhyme

The vowel and end sound in a word are exactly the same as in its rhyming word (although they don’t have to be spelled exactly the same… just sound the same.)

Toad-Road Jog-hog Tapping-rapping State-fate Confess-less Home-roam

Ode to a Toad by Anne-Marie Wulfsberg, Concord-Carlisle High School, Concord, MassachusettsI was out one day for my usual jog(I go kinda easy, rarely full-hog)When I happened to see right there on the roadThe squishy remains of a little green toad.

I thought to myself, where is his home? Down yonder green valley, how far did he roam? From out on the pond I heard sorrowful croaks, Could that be the wailing of some his folks?

I felt for the toad and his pitiful state, But the day was now fading, and such was his fate. In the grand scheme of things, now I confess, What’s one little froggie more or less?

Homework Write a poem using a type of rhyme we

have discussed thus far. End rhyme, Exact Rhyme, Internal

Rhyme Poem must be at least 6 or more lines

long.

Approximate rhyme (near rhyme, imperfect rhyme, slant rhyme)

Modern poets often prefer approximate rhyme.

These words have similar vowel or end sounds but are not exactly the same.

Fellow-hollow Inside-Light Mouse- out

Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the lightlike a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch it probe his way out,

Or walk inside the poem’s room and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to water-skiAcross the surface of a poem waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with a ropeand torture a confession of out it.

They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.

Homework Write a poem using approximate rhyme Must be at least 6 lines long

Refrain A line or group of lines that is repeated

throughout a poem, usually after every stanza.

“Lord Neptune” an example of using a refrain http://

www.poetryarchive.org/childrensarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=398

“Refrain” Refrain by Allen Ginsberg

The air is dark, the night is sad,I lie sleepless and I groan.Nobody cares when a man goes mad:He is sorry, God is glad.Shadow changes into bone.

Every shadow has a name;When I think of mine I moan,I hear rumors of such fame.Not for pride, but only shame,Shadow changes into bone.

When I blush I weep for joy,And laughter drops from me like a stone:The aging laughter of the boyTo see the ageless dead so coy.Shadow changes into bone.

“The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! prophet still, if bird or devil! Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore, Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted On this home by Horror haunted tell me truly, I implore Is there is there balm in Gilead? tell me tell me, I implore!" Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!' said I, "thing of evil! prophet still, if bird or devil! By that Heaven that bends above us by that God we both adore Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?" Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked upstarting "Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!" Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted nevermore.

Homework Write a poem using refrain. This poem

MAY NOT CONTAIN ANY RHYME. Poem must be at least 10 lines in

length.

Alliteration The repetition of the same CONSONANT

sound in words that are close together.

The see-saw sunk softly into the sand. The silken, sad, uncertain rustling of

each purple curtain… The purple people-eater

Alliteration, cont’d Little Tommy Tucker sings for his supper,

What shall we give him? Brown bread and butter.How shall he cut it without a knife?How shall he marry without a wife?

Excerpts from “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

…Just as the moon rose over the bay, Where swinging wide at her moorings layThe Somerset, British man-of-war; A phantom ship, with each mast and sparAcross the moon like a prison bar, And a huge black hulk that was magnified by its own reflection in the tide.

Assonance Repetition of VOWEL sounds in words

that are close together.

Annie chose an apple. The creature bleated when the floor

creaked.

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas http://

www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,Because their words had forked no lightning theyDo not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how brightTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sightBlind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.Do not go gentle into that good night.Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Homework Write a poem using two or three

examples (or more, if you feel it ADDS to the poem) of alliteration and/or assonance.

The poem must be at least 6 lines in length.

Onomatopoeia Words that sound like what the word refers to… Drip, drip, drip Crackle Sizzle Pop Rustle Snap Etc. Onomatopoeias are words that sound like

sounds.

“Cynthia in the Snow” by Gwendolyn Brooks (remember “We Real Cool”? She wrote that, too)

It SUSHES.It hushesThe loudness in the road.It flitter-twitters,And laughs away from me. It laughs a lovely whiteness,And whitely whirs away,To be,Some otherwhere,Still white as milk or shirts.So beautiful it hurts.

“Honkey Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio” by Carl Sandburg

It's a jazz affair, drum crashes and cornet razzes. The trombone pony neighs and the tuba jackass snorts. The banjo tickles and titters too awful. The chippies talk about the funnies in the papers.

The cartoonists weep in their beer. Ship riveters talk with their feet To the feet of floozies under the tables.

A quartet of white hopes mourn with interspersed snickers: "I got the blues. I got the blues. I got the blues."

And . . . as we said earlier: The cartoonists weep in their beer.

“BOUNCING BASKETBALL” by Lee Emmett bounce, dribble, bounce

stumble, thud, stopbounce, bounce, take aiminto basket drop

rebound, dribble, bouncejump, reaching, stretchsmack, hit back-boardthump, weeping, retch

umpire whistles, calls ‘foul’coach mumbles, players grumbleshrill blast, time-out’s pastback to task, run, rumble

Homework Write a poem using onomatopoeia. Poem must be at least 6 lines or longer.

Metaphors and Similes Compare two unlike things to each

other. Similes use “like” or “as” to signify

comparison Metaphors just say it is the other thing.

Simile: Uses “like” or “as” to make comparison. The river is like a snake winding

through the grass. The moon is like a yellow piece of

cheese sitting in the sky. Her smile is as cutting as a scythe.

A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

The Base Stealer by Robert Francis

Poised between going on and back, pulledBoth ways taut like a tightrope-walker,Fingertips pointing the opposites,Now bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ballOr a kid skipping rope, come on, come on,Running a scattering of steps sidewise,How he teeters, skitters, tingles, teases,Taunts them, hovers like an ecstatic bird,He's only flirting, crowd him, crowd him,Delicate, delicate, delicate, delicate - now!

Predictable by Bruce Lansky Poor as a church mouse.

strong as an ox, cute as a button, smart as a fox.

thin as a toothpick, white as a ghost, fit as a fiddle, dumb as a post.

bald as an eagle, neat as a pin, proud as a peacock, ugly as sin.

When people are talking you know what they'll say as soon as they start to use a cliché.

You try it: Clever by _____________

As poor as a _______. As strong as an ______, As cute as a ______, As smart as ______.

As thin as a ______, As white as a ______, As fit as a ______ As dumb as a ______.

As bald as an ______, As neat as a ______, As proud as a ______, As ugly as ______.

Use fresh similes when you speak and you write, so your friends will think you are quite clever and bright.

Daffodil 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.

Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched 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 leaves in glee;A poet could not be but gay,In such a jocund company!I gazed—and gazed—but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils.

The Weakness by Toi DerricotteThat time my grandmother dragged methrough the perfume aisles at Saks, she held me upby my arm, hissing, "Stand up," through clenched teeth, her eyes bright as a dog's cornered in the light. She said it over and over, as if she were Jesus, and I were dead. She had been solid as a tree, a fur around her neck, a light-skinned matron whose car was parked, who walked on swirling marble and passed through brass openings--in 1945. There was not even a black elevator operator at Saks.

The saleswoman had brought velvet leggings to lace me in, and cooed, as if in service of all grandmothers. My grandmother had smiled, but not hungrily, not like my mother who hated them, but wanted to please, and they had smiled back, as if they were wearing wooden collars. When my legs gave out, my grandmother dragged me up and held me like God holds saints by the roots of the hair. I begged her to believe I couldn't help it. Stumbling, her face white with sweat, she pushed me through the crowd, rushing away from those eyes that saw through her clothes, under her skin, all the way down to the transparent genes confessing.

Homework Write a poem using a simile or two or

three or four or… Poem must be at least 6 lines or longer.

Metaphors: It is what it is. Uses “is”, “was”, “am” to compare.

-a figure of speech in which a word or phrase, literally denoting one kind of object or idea, is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them. -From Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The river is a snake winding through the grass.

Extended metaphor Metaphor developed and used over

multiple lines or an entire poem. For example: when you compare

yourself to a ship on the sea and refer back to that comparison and image over and over again in your poem, that is an extended metaphor.

Love It slithers through your heart

When you least expectAnd coils in the grassFor the venomous attack

Digging by Seamus Heaney

Between my finger and my thumbThe squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.

Under my window a clean rasping soundWhen the spade sinks into gravelly ground:My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbedsBends low, comes up twenty years awayStooping in rhythm through potato drillsWhere he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaftAgainst the inside knee was levered firmly.He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deepTo scatter new potatoes that we pickedLoving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade,Just like his old man.

My grandfather could cut more turf in a dayThan any other man on Toner's bog.Once I carried him milk in a bottleCorked sloppily with paper. He straightened upTo drink it, then fell to right awayNicking and slicing neatly, heaving sodsOver his shoulder, digging down and downFor the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slapOf soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edgeThrough living roots awaken in my head.But I've no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumbThe squat pen rests.I'll dig with it.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The free bird leapson the back of the winand floats downstreamtill the current endsand dips his wingsin the orange sun raysand dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalksdown his narrow cagecan seldom see throughhis bars of ragehis wings are clipped andhis feet are tiedso he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird singswith fearful trillof the things unknownbut longed for stilland is tune is heardon the distant hill for the caged birdsings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breezean the trade winds soft through the sighing treesand the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawnand he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreamshis shadow shouts on a nightmare screamhis wings are clipped and his feet are tiedso he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird singswith a fearful trillof things unknownbut longed for stilland his tune is heardon the distant hillfor the caged birdsings of freedom.

Homework Write a poem using a metaphor or an

extended metaphor Poem must be at least 10 lines or

longer.

PERSONIFICATION Giving human characteristics to an

inanimate object. The animal or object acts/thinks/feels

like a human would.

Dinnertime Chorus

The teapot sang as the water boiledThe ice cubes cackled in their glassthe teacups chattered to one another.While the chairs were passing gasThe gravy gurgled merrily As the oil danced in a pan.Oh my dinnertime chorusWhat a lovely, lovely clan!

April Rain Song by Langston Hughes

Let the rain kiss you Let the rain beat upon your head with silver

liquid drops Let the rain sing you a lullaby The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk The rain makes running pools in the gutter The rain plays a little sleep song on our

roof at night And I love the rain.

Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room.by William Blake

"Ah, William, we're weary of weather,"said the sunflowers, shining with dew."Our traveling habits have tired us.Can you give us a room with a view?"

They arranged themselves at the windowand counted the steps of the sun,and they both took root in the carpetwhere the topaz tortoises run.

Brown Penny by William Butler Yeats I whispered, 'I am too young,' And then, 'I am old enough'; Wherefore I threw a penny To find out if I might love. 'Go and love, go and love, young man, If the lady be young and fair.' Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny, I am looped in the loops of her hair. O love is the crooked thing, There is nobody wise enough To find out all that is in it, For he would be thinking of love Till the stars had run away And the shadows eaten the moon. Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny, One cannot begin it too soon.

Homework Write a poem using personification. Poem must be at least 6 lines or longer

Symbolism The image, symbol, person or object

represents something else The image acts as a symbol for something else Most symbolism is pretty well-known in the

literary world. If you use symbolism, it should be pretty common knowledge (to those who read literature) what that symbol represents. white doves are symbolic of peace. Crows are symbolic of death or warnings

Examples of symbolism in poetry:

Examples of symbolism in poetry:

Examples of symbolism in poetry:

Homework

Choose a symbol from the list below and write a poem using that symbol to represent an idea in your poem.

Poem should be at least 10 lines in length or longer. Doves Crows Water