Year 10 English

Introduction to Poetry

Poetry

Poetry is not a delicate piece of pottery that clumsy hands may drop and break into pieces. It

can be analysed, dissected, put under the microscope; and the closer and more detailed the

examination, the more one finds to admire, as with any work of art.

What is poetry?

Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic (artistic / tasteful) qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional (imaginary) and

semantic (functional) content.

Like art it is very difficult to define because it is an expression of what the poet thinks and feels and may take any form the poet

chooses for this expression.

Poetry is a creative use of words which, like all art, is intended to stir an emotion in the audience. Poetry generally has some structure

that separates it from prose (no formal structure).

Poetry Structure

The basic unit of poetry is the line. It serves the same function as the sentence in prose, although most poetry maintains the use of grammar within the structure of the poem. Most poems have a structure in which each line contains a set amount of

syllables; this is called meter. Lines are also often grouped into stanzas.

The stanza in poetry is equivalent or equal to the paragraph in prose. Often the lines in a stanza will have a specific rhyme scheme. Some of the more common

stanzas are:

Couplet: a two line stanza

Triplet: a three line stanza

Quatrain: a four line stanza

Cinquain: a five line stanza

Meter

Meter is the measured arrangement of words in poetry, the rhythmic pattern of a stanza,

determined by the kind and number of lines. Meter is an organised way to arrange stressed/accented syllables and unstressed/unaccented

syllables.

Whose woods / these are / I think /I know

RhymeDust of Snow

by Robert Frost The way a crow

Shook down on me The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And save some part

Of a day I had rued.

Rhyme is when the

endings of the words sound the

same. Read the poem with me out loud.

For example

RhymeRhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming words at the end of each line. Not all poetry has a rhyme scheme. They are not hard to

identify, but you must look carefully at which words rhyme and which do not.

Poems of more than one stanza often repeat the

same rhyme scheme in each

stanza.

Dust of Snow by Robert Frost The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And save some part Of a day I had rued.

A B A B C D C D

RepetitionRepetition is the repeating of a sound, word, or

phrase for emphasis.

Inside Inside the house

(I get ready)Inside the car (I go to school)

Inside the school (I wait for the bell to ring)

Try saying this

poem aloud with emphasis on the

lines with the star!

Figurative Language

Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else, you are using figurative language.

Figurative language is any language that goes beyond the literal meaning of words in order to furnish new effects or fresh

insights into an idea or a subject.

The most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, and alliteration. Figurative language is used in poetry to compare two

things that are usually not thought of as being alike.

 

SimileA simile is a figure of speech in which two

essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as.

The clouds looked like cotton candy.

Grandpa was as stubborn as a mule

Tom's head is as hard as a rock.

the clouds are soft and fluffy like cotton candy

mules are known for being hard to move

rocks are a hard and solid material

Metaphor

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.

Clouds are cotton candy. Grandpa was a mule.

Tom is a rock.

Instead of using “like” or “as” you are saying it “is”

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds or of the

same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables, as in "on

scrolls of silver snowy sentences" (Hart Crane).

To find an alliteration, you must look the repetitions of

the same consonant sound through out a line.

Silvery snowflakes fall silently

Softly sheathing all with moonlight

Until sunrise slowly shows

Snow softening swiftly.

Now try and write a few sentences using

alliterations of the letters t, d, and c

ImageryImagery is an appeal to the senses. The poet describes something to help you to see, hear, touch, taste, or smell the topic of the poem.

Fog

The fog comes on little cat feet.

It sits looking over harbour and city

on silent haunches and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

SEE, HEAR

SEE

HEAR, SEE, FEEL

Hyperbole

An exaggerated statement used to heighten effect is a

hyperbole. It is not used to mislead the

reader, but to emphasise a point.

I’ve told you a million times not to leave the

dirty glass on the table.

Im so hungry I could eat a horse!

This bag weighs a ton

I waited an eternity at the doctors surgery

IdiomAn idiom is a well known phrase where the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the

individual words. This can make idioms hard for students to understand.

A day late and a dollar short.  

This idiom means ...it is too little, too late.

Don’t judge a book by its cover

What does this mean?

Can you think of any others?

OnomatopoeiaThe formation or use of

words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds

associated with the objects or actions they refer to is called

onomatopoeia.

It is a word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing, such as animal noises like

"oink" or "meow", or suggesting its source object

(these are the more important ones), such as "boom", "click",

"bunk", "clang", "buzz", or "bang".

SOUND OF NATURE

by Marie Josephine Smith

Ticking, tocking.Head is rocking.

Tippy toeing.

Quietly.Snap, crack.

Crushing branch. Helter, skelter. Run for shelter.

Pitter, patter.Rain starts to fall.

Gathering momentum. Becomes a roar. Thunder booms.

Personification

A figure of speech, which gives the qualities of a person to an animal, an object, or an idea is called personification. It is a comparison, which the author uses to show something in an entirely new light, to communicate a certain feeling or attitude towards it and to control

the way a reader perceives it.

A brave handsome tree fell with a creaking

rending cry.

The author is giving a tree the human quality of bravery

and the ability to cry.

Choose an object in this room and personify it!

Types of Poetry

There are many forms and types of poetry. Some of them are:

- Narrative poems

- Free Verse

- Quatrains

- Haiku

- Cinquains

- Limerick

Free Verse

Free verse is just what it says it is - poetry that is written without proper rules about form, rhyme, rhythm, and meter. In

free verse the writer makes his/her own rules. The writer

decides how the poem should look, feel, and

sound.

Winter Poem

By Nikki Giovanni

Once a snowflake fell

on my brow and I loved

it so much. And I kissed

it and it was happy and called its cousins

and brothers; and a web

of snow engulfed me. Then

I reached to love them all;

and I squeezed them and they became

a spring rain. I stood perfectly

still, and was a flower.

Let’s look at another Free Verse poem...”The Jabberwocky!”

Haiku

Haiku is one of the most important forms of traditional Japanese poetry.

Haiku is, today, a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metered lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.

Each Haiku must contain a kigo, a season word, which indicate in which season the Haiku is set.

For example, cherry blossoms indicate spring, snow indicate winter, and mosquitoes indicate summer, but the season word isn't always that

obvious.

In the next three haikus, try to guess the theme...

HaikuFogOn the mountain topThe fog fell down thick and fastIt was like pea soup.

RainTip-tap goes the rain. As it hits the window paneI can hear the rain.

HailThey fell in showers.Like diamonds upon the groundBig hailstones were found.

The theme of these three poems is

weather in late autumn or early

winter.

LimerickThe simplicity of the limerick quite possibly accounts for its extreme longevity. It consists of five lines with the rhyme scheme a a b b a. The first, second, and fifth lines are trimeter, a verse with three measures, while the third and

fourth lines are dimeter, a verse with two measures. Often the third and fourth lines are printed as a single line with internal rhyme.

Old Man with a Beard Edward Lear

There was an Old Man with a beard,

Who said, 'It is just as I feared!

Two Owls and a Hen, Four Larks and a Wren,

Have all built their nests in my beard!'

A

A

B

B

A

Try and write a limerick about the person next to you. Start with, “There once was

a boy / girl called...

Narrative Poem

A narrative poem, often of folk origin and intended to be sung, consisting of simple stanzas and usually having a refrain.

The Ballade Of The Mistletoe Bough by Ellis Parker Butler I am standing under the mistletoe, And I smile, but no answering smile replies For her haughty glance bids me plainly know That not for me is the thing I prize;Instead, from her coldly scornful eyes, Indifference looks on my barefaced guile; She knows, of course, what my act implies— But look at those lips! Do they hint a smile?

I stand here, eager, and beam and glow, And she only looks a refined surpriseAs clear and crisp and as cold as snow, And as—Stop! I will never criticise! I know what her cold glance signifies; But I’ll stand just here as I am awhileTill a smile to my pleading look replies— But look at those lips! Do they hint a smile?

Just look at those lips, now! I claim they show A spirit unmeet under Christmas skies; I claim that such lips on such maidens oweA—something—the custom justifies; I claim that the mistletoe rule applies To her as well as the rank and file; We should meet these things in a cheerful guise—But look at those lips! Do they hint a smile?

Some might consider the study of poetry old fashioned, yet even in our hurried lives we are

surrounded by it: children's rhymes, verses from songs, trite commercial jingles, well written texts. Any time we recognise words as interesting for sound, meaning or construct, we note poetics.