Introduction to Poetry

You cut me down a tree

And brought it back to me

And that's what made me see

Where I was going wrong

You put me on a shelf

And kept me for yourself

I can only blame myself

You can only blame me

And I could write a song

A hundred miles long

Well, that's where I belong

And you belong with me

And I could write it downor spread it all aroundGet lost and then get

foundOr swallowed in the sea

You put me on a lineAnd hung me out to dryAnd darling that's when IDecided to go to sea

Swallowed In The Sea

Performed by Coldplay

Songwriters: Guy Berryman, Jon Buckland, Will Champion, Chris Martin

RHYTHM

RHYTHM is…

A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

Poets use rhythm to: bring out the musical quality of language Emphasize ideas Create moods Unify works Heighten emotional responses

What Creates Rhythm in Poetry?

Devices such as…AlliterationAssonanceConsonanceRepetitionRhyme

Alliteration

Repetition of initial (first) consonant sound “ like lake water lapping”

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds

Poor vaunt of life indeed, Were man but formed to feed On joy, to solely seek and find and feast

--Robert Browning, Rabbi Ben Ezra

Late August was a pressure drop,   

rain, a sob in the body…Bruce Smith, Obbligato   

Consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds anywhere in the word.

Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made.

--Robert Browning

"All mammals named Sam are clammy"

Repetition

…And not one will know of the war, not one

Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree

If mankind perished utterly;

RHYME

End Rhyme: Words that have identical end sounds “bad” “sad”I will not eat green eggs and ham,

I will not eat them…SAM I AM!

Words can have different letters but still rhyme:Grocer/closer

Slant Rhyme

Close, but not e

xact rhyme

For example:

•Low, prow

RHYME

Internal

Internal rhyme is rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry

•…the grains beyond age, the dark veins of her mother

Rhyme Scheme

The pattern of end rhymes in a poem.

Ex: a a b b OR a b a b OR a b c c b a

METER

Some common types of METER include Iambic Trochaic Anapestic Dactylic

Foot= measurement of rhythm

Iamb= smallest foot, “Rising” U / unstressed & stressed

5 iambs= u/ u/ u/ u/ u/ Remember: rhythm is counted out in syllables

Blank Verse

Poetry that has METER but does not have RHYME.

Shakespeare used blank verse when he wrote his plays in iambic pentameter:

“Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

Like a Colossus , and we petty men Walk under his huge legs, and peep about To find ourselves, dishonorable graves. “

Foot= measurement of rhythm

Iamb= smallest foot, “Rising” U / unstressed & stressed

5 iambs= u/ u/ u/ u/ u/ Remember: rhythm is counted out in syllables

Rhymed Verse

Verse with both rhyme and meter

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Robert Frost

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Eveningby Robert Frost

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.

My little horse must think it queer (strange)To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep. 

Free Verse

Poetry not written in regular rhyme pattern or meter

Dominant form in contemporary (modern) poetry

Oxymoron

Connecting two words with opposite meanings.

Icy-Hotjumbo shrimpalltogether separateanxious patientloose tightsThe living dead (dun duh!)

Denotation

The dictionary meaning of a word

Example: “snap” means to make a sudden, sharp, distinct sound.

Connotation

Implied meaning associated with a word

“OH, SNAP!”

Metaphor

Direct comparison of unlike objects

“All the world’s a stage.”

“She had too much on her plate.”

Extended Metaphor

• A metaphor that is carried throughout a piece of literature. Example: the “crystal stair” in Langston Hughes’ Mother to Son.

Langston Hughes' Mother to Son

Well, son, I'll tell you:Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.It's had tacks in it,And splinters,And boards torn up,And places with no carpet on the floor -Bare.But all the timeI'se been a-climbin' on,And reachin' landin's,And turnin' corners,And sometimes goin' in the darkWhere there ain't been no light.

So boy, don't you turn back.Don't you set down on the steps'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.Don't you fall now --For I'se still goin', honey,I'se still climbin',And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

In this poem, Hughes writes about a mother speaking to her son about life's experiences. He uses the metaphor of a crystal stair.

A metaphor that has been used so much that it doesn’t have an impact anymore.

Dead Metaphor

The End

That’s a wrap…The fat lady has sung…Let’s put this puppy to bed!