Poetry

What is a poem?

A poem isA fishing net

stronger than what it catchesThe sound of nature

In a capsuleLike a seedOr more-like

A mirrorFor man

To look throughTo expose himself

To blend as part of a wholeWhere one belongs

Poetry

• Poetry is the art of expressing one’s thoughts in verse.

• It uses few words to convey its message. It is meant to be read aloud.

• Poetry arouses our emotions. • Poems use imagery or figures of speech to

explain feelings or to create a mental picture or idea.

• These suggest action or mood. Many poems have a specific rhyme scheme. Poems can rhyme or not rhyme. 

Elements

Elements

• Line– A single line in a poem. – Often organized into stanzas.

• 2 lines is a couplet. • 3 lines is a triplet or tercet. • 4 lines is a quatrain. • 5 lines is a quinrain or a cinquain. • 6 lines is a sestet. • 8 lines is a octet.

Elements

• Line “To a Snowflake”

1 Hello little snowflake! 2 Where are all your friends?

3 Should I expect a lot of them 4 before the morning ends?

5 I love it when you come to me 6 and you all fall down together, 7 and I get dressed to visit you,

8 toasty warm in cold, cold weather

The poem has 8 lines. The lines are organized

into quatrains. 

Elements

• Stanza– A group of lines. – Usually develops one idea. – Give poems structure. – Emphasize different ideas. – Beginning a new stanzas often signals the

beginning of a new image, thought, or idea.

Elements• Stanza

– Four Stanzas in Couplets 1 2 3 4 Each Stanza Signals a New Image

“First and Last” by David McCord

A tadpole hasn’t a pole at all, And he doesn’t live in a hole in the wall.

You’ve got it wrong: a polecat’s not A cat on a pole. And I’ll tell you what:

A bullfrog’s never a bull; and how Could a cowbird possibly be a cow?

A kingbird, though, is a kind of king, And he chases a crow like anything. 

Each stanza signalsa new image

Elements

• Rhyme and rhyme scheme– Words rhyme when they have the same

sound. – Poems often use rhyme at the end of lines. – Rhyme scheme is a pattern of rhymes in a

poem. – Poets use rhyme to add a musical sound to

their poems.

Elements

• Rhyme and rhyme scheme

“Ten Minutes Till the Bus” by David L. Harrison

Ten whole minutes Till the bus,

Scads of time, What’s the fuss?

Two to dress, One to flush,

Two to eat, One to brush,

That leaves four To catch the bus,

Scads of time, What’s the fuss?

Elements• Rhyme and rhyme scheme

– Ottava rima• Ottava rima is a rhyming scheme using a stanza of eight

lines with an alternating a-b rhyming scheme for the first six lines followed by a closing couplet.

• First used by Boccaccio, it was developed for heroic epics but has also been used for mock-heroic poetry.

– Terza rima• Dante's Divine Comedy[58] is written in terza rima, where

each stanza has three lines, with the first and third rhyming, and the second line rhyming with the first and third lines of the next stanza (thus, a-b-a / b-c-b / c-d-c, et cetera.) in a chain rhyme.

• The terza rima provides a flowing, progressive sense to the poem, and used skilfully it can evoke a sense of motion, both forward and backward. Terza rima is appropriately used in lengthy poems in languages with rich rhyming structures (such as Italian, with its many common word endings).[59]

Elements

• Rhythm– Pattern of beats or a series of stressed and

unstressed syllables in poem. – Poets create rhythm by using words in which

parts are emphasized or not emphasized.

Elements

• Rhythm Windy Nights” By Robert Louis Stevenson

Whenever the moon and stars are set, Whenever the wind is high,

All night long in the dark and wet,

A man goes riding by.

Late in the night when the fires are out,

Why does he gallop and gallop about? 

Elements

• Rhythm Windy Nights” By Robert Louis Stevenson

Whenever the moon and stars are set, Whenever the wind is high,

All night long in the dark and wet,

A man goes riding by.

Late in the night when the fires are out,

Why does he gallop and gallop about? 

Elements

• Free Verse – Poetry written without a regular rhyme,

rhythm, and form. – Sounds natural, just like everyday

conversation. – Poets use free verse because it allows them

to experiment with the shapes and sounds in their poetry.

– No rhyme or regular rhythm 

Elements

• Free Verse Blossoms” by Walter Dean Myers

I never dreamt that tender blossoms

would be brown Or precious angels could come down

to live in the garden of my giving heart But here you are

brown angel  

Elements

• Imagery– Imagery Language that appeals to the 5

senses. – Are “word pictures”. – Helps the reader to experience familiar things

in a fresh way using the senses. – Strong Image Sensory Words Uses Senses

Sound Smell Taste Touch Sight

Elements• Imagery

“There is a Thing” by Jack Prelutsky

There is a thing beneath the stair with slimy face

and oily hair that does not move

or speak or sing or do another single thing

but sit and wait beneath the stair with slimy face and oily hair.

Elements

• Symbol– Something that stands for something more

than just itself. Suggests another larger meaning. Example: the American flag is a symbol of freedom.

Elements

• Symbol “The Farmer” By Carole Boston Weatherford

A plot of weeds, An old grey mule. Hot sun and sweat

On a bright Southern day. Strong, stern papa Under a straw hat,

Plowing and planting His whole life away.

His backbone is forged Of African Iron

And red Georgia clay. 

The farmer is a symbol of the proud African culture and the South. “African Iron” and “red Georgia clay” describe the farmer, but link him to his African ancestors in Africa and his fellow southerners. 

Elements

• Mood– Feeling that a poem creates in the reader. – Can be positive or negative. – Poet creates the mood with the length of

sentences, the words chosen, punctuation, and the sounds of the words.

Elements• Mood

“Poor” by Myra Livingston

I heard of poor. It means hungry, no food. No shoes, no place to live,

Nothing good.

It means winter nights And being cold,

It is lonely, alone. Feeling old.

Poor is a tired face. Poor is thin.

Poor is standing outsideLooking in. 

Short words and lines create a serious mood. Words create a feeling of sadness. 

Elements

• Tone– Attitude a writer takes toward the subject or

audience of a poem.

Elements

• Tone “The Crocodile”

How doth the little crocodile Improve his shining tail,

And pour the water of the Nile On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spreads his claws, And welcomes little fishes in

With gently smiling jaws! 

The subject of the poem is crocodiles. The author’s attitude towards crocodiles is that they are dangerous

Elements

• Figures of Speech– Hyperbole

• Exaggeration• Describe something as larger or wildly different

than it actually is. • Poets use exaggeration to create a mental picture

and spark a reader’s imagination

Elements

• Figures of Speech– Hyperbole

“Beetles” by Monica Shannon

Beetles must use polish,

They look so new and shiny!

Just like a freshly painted car,

Except for being tiny.

Poet stretches the truth about how beetles become shiny to make readers smile and to create greater interest in these

insects.

Elements

• Figures of Speech– Allusion

• a figure of speech making casual reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event

– "Like a modern Daniel, the brave little boy strode to the playground in order to face the school bully.

Elements

• Figures of Speech– Simile

• Comparison between 2 things, using the words like or as.

• Poets use comparisons between things to make you think about them in a new way.

• Used to surprise the reader and to create strong images.

Elements

• Figures of Speech– Simile

“The World” by Noel Berry

The trees are like the hair of the world. The city is like the heart of the world.

The wind is a flute player playing in the night.

The cars beeping horns are like buttons beeping inside the earth.

Each bird is like a single piccolo singing away

and the grass, just like me, being buried under the snow. 

Elements

• Figures of Speech– Metaphor

• Direct comparison between 2 things. • Does NOT use the words like or as. • Poet describes a thing or person as if it actually

were the other thing or person. • Creates a clear, memorable picture and tries to get

you to see the original subject in a new way.

Elements

• Figures of Speech– Metaphor

“Dreams” by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow. 

Elements

• Figures of Speech– Onomatopoeia

• Use of words that sound like the noises they describe.

• Poets choose words not just for what they mean, but what they sound like.

• Poets use onomatopoeia to liven up their writing and add fun sounds to it.

Elements• Figures of Speech

– Onomatopoeia “The Fourth” by Shel Silverstein

Oh CRASH!

my BASH!

it’s BANG!

the ZANG! Fourth

WHOOSH! Of

BAROOM! July

WHEW!

Elements

• Figures of Speech– Personification

• Type of figure of speech that gives human qualities to animals, objects, or ideas.

• Adds life to a poem and helps the reader view a familiar thing in a new way.

Elements

• Figures of Speech– Personification

“Snowy Benches” by Aileen Fisher

Do parks get lonely in winter, perhaps,

when benches have only snow on their laps?

Parks have feelings and benches have laps. The poet asks whether the parks feel lonely in winter,

like people sometimes do. 

Elements

• Figures of Speech– Idiom 

• An everyday saying that doesn’t exactly mean what the words say.

• Poet’s use idioms because that’s the way people talk to each other.

• Example: “easy as pie” means you are able to do something without difficulty

Elements

• Figures of Speech“Last Night” by David L. Harrison

Last night I knew the answers. Last night I had them pat.

Last night I could have told youEvery answer, just like that!

Last night my brain was cooking. Last night I got them right. Last night I was a genius.

So where were you last night!

“I had them pat” - knowing something well. “My brain is cooking” - it was working fast and bubbling over with ideas. 

Elements

• Sound– Alliteration:

• The repetition of similar initial consonant sounds. The repetition of consonant sounds, particularly at the beginning of words.

– Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

– Assonance• The repetition of similar stressed vowel sounds.

The repetition of similar vowel sounds. Similarity of sounds; particularly, as distinguished from rhyme, the similarity of like vowels followed by unlike consonants.

– I rose and told him of my woe

Elements

• Sound– Consonance

• The repetition of similar final consonant sounds.

– Elision• The omission of an unstressed vowel or syllable to

preserve the meter of a line of poetry. The running together of vowels in adjacent words, for the sake of eliminating a syllable.

– "th'eternal, as happy'as I."

Quiz: Identify the elements found in this poem

LineStanza

Rhyme/rhyming schemeFree verse or Traditional Form

ImagerySymbolMoodTone

Figures of Speech Sound

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date.Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Poetic Feet and Metrical Patterns

Different traditions and genres of poetry tend to use different meters, ranging from the

Shakespearian iambic pentameter and the Homeric dactylic hexameter to the Anapestic

tetrameter used in many nursery rhymes. However, a number of variations to the established

meter are common, both to provide emphasis or attention to a given foot or line and to avoid boring

repetition.

Poetic Feet

• Iamb– one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable; The

iamb is the most common metrical foot in English poetry; unrhymed iambic pentameter, also called blank verse, is perhaps the most common form of metrical verse in English.

A slumber did my spirit seal;I had no human fears:

She seemed a thing that could not feelThe touch of earthly years

No motion has she now, no force;She neither hears or sees;

Rolled round in earth's diurnal course,With rocks, and stones, and trees.

Poetic Feet• trochee

– one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable;

– a metrical foot used in formal poetry consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one.

Should you ask me, whence these stories?Whence these legends and traditions,

With the odours of the forest,With the dew and damp of meadows,

Poetic Feet

• Dactyl– one stressed syllable followed by two

unstressed syllables

• This is the / forest prim- / eval. The / murmuring / pines and the / hemlocks,

• Picture yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine tree-ees and marmalade skii-ii-es.

Poetic Feet

• Anapest– two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable– In classical quantitative meters it consists of two short syllables

followed by a long one (as in a-na-paest); in accentual stress meters it consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable.

– It may be seen as a reversed dactyl.

The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the foldAnd his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the seaWhen the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Poetic Feet

• Spondee– two stressed syllables together– It is unrealistic to construct a whole, serious poem

with spondees. Consequently, spondees mainly occur as variants within, say, an anapaestic structure.

This is my son, mine own TelemachusTo whom I leave the scepter and the isle,

Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfillThis labour, by slow prudence to make mildA rugged people, and through soft degrees

Subdue them to the useful and the good.

Poetic Feet

• Pyrrhic– two unstressed syllables together (rare, usually used to end

dactylic hexameter)– a metrical foot used in formal poetry. It consists of two

unaccented, short syllables– It is also known as a dibrach.

Be near me when my light is low, When the blood creeps and the nerves prick

And tingle; and the heart is sick,And all the wheels of Being slow.

—from In Memoriam.

Poetic Feet

• The number of metrical feet in a line are described in Greek terminology as follows:– dimeter – two feet– trimeter – three feet– tetrameter – four feet– pentameter – five feet– hexameter – six feet– heptameter – seven feet– octameter – eight feet

Common Metrical Patterns• Different traditions and genres of poetry tend to

use different meters, (Shakespearian iambic pentameter, the Homeric dactylic hexameter, Anapestic tetrameter in many nursery rhymes)

• Variation of these metrical patterns can also be made to provide emphasis or attention to a given foot or line and to avoid boring repetition. – Example of added variation:

• the stress in a foot may be inverted• a caesura (or pause) may be added (sometimes in place of a

foot or stress)• or the final foot in a line may be given a feminine ending to

soften it or be replaced by a spondee to emphasize it and create a hard stop.

Common Metrical Patterns• Some patterns (such as iambic pentameter) tend

to be fairly regular, while other patterns, such as dactylic hexameter, tend to be highly irregular.

• Regularity can vary between language. In addition, different patterns often develop distinctively in different languages.– iambic tetrameter in Russian will generally reflect a

regularity in the use of accents to reinforce the meter, which does not occur, or occurs to a much lesser extent, in English.

Common Metrical Patterns• Iambic pentameter

– John Milton, Paradise Lost

• Dactylic hexameter– Virgil, Aeneid– Homer, Iliad– Ovid, Metamorphoses

• Iambic tetrameter – Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress“– Aleksandr Pushkin– Eugene Onegin

• Trochaic octameter – Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven

• Anapestic tetrameter – Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark– Lord Byron, Don Juan

Identify the metric pattern used.

• And walked with inward glory crowned

• Woman much missed, how you call to me

• The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold.

• So rich and fair a vale in fortuning to wed.

• Piping down the valleys wind.

Identify the metric pattern used.

• Iambic Tetrameter

• Dactylic Trimeter

• Anapestic Tetrameter

• Iambic Hexameter

• Trochaic Trimeter

Forms

Forms

• Sonnet – a poem of fourteen lines with a set of rhyming scheme

and logical structure (iambic pentameter)– Poets who used sonnets

• William Shakespeare • Edmund Spenser• Michael Drayton• Samuel Daniel• Fulke Greville• William Drummond of Hawthornden

Forms

• Jintishi– a Chinese poetic form based on a series of set tonal

patterns using the four tones of the classical Chinese language in each couplet: the level, rising, falling and entering tones.

– It has eight lines in four couplets, with parallelism between the lines in the second and third couplets. The couplets with parallel lines contain contrasting content but an identical grammatical relationship between words

– Writers who used the Jintishi• Wang Wei • Cui Hao• Du Fu

Forms• Sestina

– The lines are grouped into six sestets and a concluding tercet. Thus a Sestina has 39 lines.

– Lines may be of any length. Their length is usually consistent in a single poem.

– The six words that end each of the lines of the first stanza are repeated in a different order at the end of lines in each of the subsequent five stanzas.

– The repeated words are unrhymed.– The first line of each sestet after the first ends with

the same word as the one that ended the last line of the sestet before it.

– In the closing tercet, each of the six words are used, with one in the middle of each line and one at the end.

Forms• Sestina

– Writers who used the sestina• Philip Sidney• Dante• Petrarca• Ezra Pound,• John Ashbery• Joan Brossa

The Concord Art Association RegretsPam White

Your entry was not accepted. We regret it wasn't (enough for us), a work of love. We liked many of the colors on the whole but the mass was just something unrelated to the rest of our show. We hope your work will have a bright future in another place.

We remember last year you tried to place another photograph and it was also with regret we turned you down. Though for that particular work we found nothing about it (no one could) to love. It was obscure and a little upsetting in relation to the rest of our show which we look on as a whole.

Now you may think us ungenerous. On the whole you are probably right, but this is our place and we can do what we want whether you relate to it or not. However we don't want you to regret your association with us. We want you to love us, send us money, but please, no more work. You see right now we need money to work on the building we're in. There's a hole in the roof and one wall needs all the love and attention it can get. Really the place needs so much, which all costs. I regret to remind you we need more space for related

works. We're trying to expand and relate to lots of different kinds of work so different people won't regret their visit with us but will see the whole beauty and tranquillity of the place and come with us, a journey of love

where people of all races, colors, and creeds love to look and bask and of course bring relations, friends, and lovers. All are welcome to our place here where all the world's magnificent work can be shown in its entirety, the whole place filled - with your exception, we regret.

We know you'll love the whole work we're doing for this place. We can't relate enough our regret.

Forms

• Villanelle– The Villanelle is a nineteen-line poem made up of five triplets

with a closing quatrain; the poem is characterized by having two refrains, initially used in the first and third lines of the first stanza, and then alternately used at the close of each subsequent stanza until the final quatrain, which is concluded by the two refrains. The remaining lines of the poem have an a-b alternating rhyme.

– Writers who used villanelle• Théodore de Banville• Austin Dobson• Elizabeth Bishop• Oscar Wilde• Edwin Arlington Robinson

Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

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.

Lewis Turco's "Terzanelle in Thunderweather“

This is the moment when shadows gatherunder the elms, the cornices and eaves.This is the center of thunderweather.

The birds are quiet among these white leaves where wind stutters, starts, then moves steadilyunder the elms, the cornices, and eaves--

these are our voices speaking guardedlyabout the sky, of the sheets of lightningwhere wind stutters, starts, then moves steadily

into our lungs, across our lips, tighteningour throats. Our eyes are speaking in the darkabout the sky, of the sheets of lightening

that illuminate moments. In the starkshades we inhibit, there are no words forour throats. Our eyes are speaking in the dark

of things we cannot say, cannot ignore.This is the moment when shadows gather,shades we inhibit. There are no words, forthis is the center of thunderweather.

Forms

• Pantoum– The pantoum is a rare form of poetry similar to a

villanelle. It is composed of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next.

– Writers who used the pantoum• Victor Hugo• Leconte de Lisle • William Marsden• David Trinidad• John Ashbery

As she dances on the moonlit glen

Taking in the freshness of the air

She is alone, but not lonely

She is surrounded by spirits

Taking in the freshness of the air

Searching again for her silent companions

She is surrounded by spirits

They watch the contentment she holds

Searching again for her silent companions

She is alone, but not lonely

They watch the contentment she holds

As she dances on the moonlit glen

A First Line

B Second Line

C Third Line

D Fourth Line

B Second Line

E Fifth Line

D Fourth Line

F Sixth Line

E Fifth Line

C Third Line

F Sixth Line

A First Line

Forms

• Rondeau– The rondeau was originally a French form,

written on two rhymes with fifteen lines, using the first part of the first line as a refrain.

In Flanders Fields, by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place, and in the sky,The larks, still bravely singing, fly,Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead; short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved, and now we lieIn Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe!To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high!If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Flanders fields.

Forms

• Tanka– Tanka is a form of unrhymed Japanese poetry, with

five sections totalling 31 onji (phonological units identical to morae), structured in a 5-7-5 7-7 pattern. There is generally a shift in tone and subject matter between the upper 5-7-5 phrase and the lower 7-7 phrase.

– Writers who used the Tanka• Murasaki Shikibu• Kojiki• Meiji

Izumi Shikibu

My longing for you -

too strong to keep

At least no one can blame me,

when I go to you at night,

along the road of dreams

Forms

• Haiku– Haiku is a popular form of unrhymed Japanese

poetry, which evolved in the 17th century from the hokku, or opening verse of a renku.

– Written in a single vertical line, the haiku contains three sections totalling 17 onji, structured in a 5-7-5 pattern.

– Traditionally, haiku contain (1) a kireji, or cutting word, usually placed at the end of one of the poem's three sections; and (2) a kigo, or season-word.

– Writers using Haiku• Matsuo Bashō• Masaoka Shiki

Matsuo Basho

the wind of Mt. Fuji

I've brought on my fan!

a gift from Edo

富士の風や扇にのせて江戸土産fuji no kaze ya oogi ni nosete Edo miyage

Haiku and Tanka

• SIMILARITIES– simplicity– Succinct (brief and to the point)– reflects nature– traditionally no violence– traditionally no war images

Haiku and Tanka

• Differences

Tanka Haiku

13 centuries 3 centuries

Beauty Is—ness

31 syllables 17 syllables

Feminine

Lyrical

Masculine

Fragmented

Reflects As it is

Forms

• Ruba'I– Ruba'i is a four-line verse (quatrain) practiced

by Arabian, Persian, Urdu, Azerbaijani (Azeri) poets.

– Famous for his rubaiyat (collection of quatrains) is the Persian poet Omar Khayyam.

– The most celebrated English renderings of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam were produced by Edward Fitzgerald…

They say the Lion and the Lizard keep

The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep:

And Bahram, that great Hunter—the Wild Ass

Stamps o'er his Head, and he lies fast asleep.

Forms

• Sijo– Sijo is a short musical lyric practiced by

Korean poets. – It is usually written as three lines, each

averaging 14-16 syllables, for a total of 44-46 syllables. There is a pause in the middle of each line and so, in English, a sijo is sometimes printed in six lines rather than three.

You ask how many friends I have? Water and stone, bamboo and pine.

The moon rising over the eastern hill is a joyful comrade.

Besides these five companions, what other pleasure should I ask?

Forms• Ode

– Odes were first developed by poets writing in ancient Greek, such as Pindarand Latin, such as Horace.

– The ode generally has three parts: a strophe, an antistrophe, and an epode.

• The antistrophes of the ode possess similar metrical structures and, depending on the tradition, similar rhyme structures.

• The epode is written with a different scheme and structure.

– Odes have a formal poetic diction, and generally deal with a serious subject.

• The strophe and antistrophe look at the subject from different, often conflicting, perspectives, with the epode moving to a higher level to either view or resolve the underlying issues.

– Odes are often intended to be recited or sung by two choruses (or individuals), with the first reciting the strophe, the second the antistrophe, and both together the epode.

Ode To A Nightingale by John Keats

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness painsMy sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,Or emptied some dull opiate to the drainsOne minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,But being too happy in thine happiness,That thou, light-winged Dryad of the treesIn some melodious plotOf beechen green, and shadows numberless,Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath beenCool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,Tasting of Flora and the country green,Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!O for a beaker full of the warm South,Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,And purple-stained mouth;That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Forms

• Cinquain– While "quintain" is the general term applied to

poetic forms using a 5-line pattern, there are specific forms within that category that are defined by specific rules and guidelines.

KnightsArmour ,shieldsFighting, charging, slaughteringWorried, delighted, brave, fearsomeCrusaders

SpaghettiMessy, spicySlurping, sliding, fallingBetween my plate and mouthDelicious

Line1: One wordLine2: Two wordsLine 3: Three wordsLine 4: Four wordsLine 5: One word

Line1: A nounLine2: Two adjectivesLine 3: Three -ing wordsLine 4: A phraseLine 5: Another word for the noun

Listen...With faint dry sound,Like steps of passing ghosts,The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from

the treesAnd fall.

Line1: Two syllablesLine2: Four syllablesLine 3: Six syllablesLine 4: Eight syllablesLine 5: Two syllables

Forms

• Limmerick– A limerick is a five-line poem with a strict form

(AABBA), which intends to be witty or humorous, and is sometimes obscene with humorous intent.

– It may have its roots in the 18th century Maigue Poets of Ireland[1], although the form can be found in England in the early years of the century.

There once was a man from Peru,

Who dreamed of eating his shoe,

He awoke with a fright,

In the middle of the night,

And found that his dream had come true!

Laura Black

GenresA poetic genre is generally a tradition or classification of poetry based on the subject matter, style, or other broader literary characteristics

Genres• Narrative poetry

– Narrative poetry is a genre of poetry that tells a story. Broadly it subsumes epic poetry, but the term "narrative poetry" is often reserved for smaller works, generally with more appeal to human interest.

– Narrative poetry may be the oldest type of poetry. Many scholars of Homer have concluded that his Iliad and Odyssey were composed from compilations of shorter narrative poems that related individual episodes and were more suitable for an evening's entertainment.

– Notable narrative poets have included Ovid, Dante, Juan Ruiz, Chaucer, William Langland, Luís de Camões, Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, Robert Burns, Fernando de Rojas, Adam Mickiewicz, Alexander Pushkin, Edgar Allan Poe and Alfred Tennyson.

Genres

• Epic poetry– Epic poetry is a genre of poetry, and a major form of

narrative literature. It recounts, in a continuous narrative, the life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group of persons.

– Examples of epic poems are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, the Nibelungenlied, Luís de Camões' Os Lusíadas, the Cantar de Mio Cid, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Mahabharata, Valmiki's Ramayana, Ferdowsi's Shahnama, Nizami (or Nezami)'s Khamse (Five Books), and the Epic of King Gesar.

Genres

• Epic poetry– Nine main characteristics

1. opens in medias res.2. The setting is vast, covering many nations, the

world or the universe.3. begins with an invocation to a muse.4. starts with a statement of the theme.5. the use of epithets.6. includes long lists.7. features long and formal speeches.8. shows divine intervention on human affairs.9. "Star" heroes that embody the values of the

civilization.

Genres

• Dramatic poetry– Dramatic poetry is drama written in verse to be

spoken or sung, and appears in varying, sometimes related forms in many cultures. Verse drama may have developed out of earlier oral epics, such as the Sanskrit and Greek epics.

– Examples of dramatic poetry in Persian literature include Nezami's two famous dramatic works, Layla and Majnun and Khosrow and Shirin, Ferdowsi's tragedies such as Rostam and Sohrab, Rumi's Masnavi, Gorgani's tragedy of Vis and Ramin,[84and Vahshi's tragedy of Farhad.

Genres• Satirical poetry

– Poetry can be a powerful vehicle for satire. The punch of an insult delivered in verse can be many times more powerful and memorable than that of the same insult, spoken or written in prose. The Romans had a strong tradition of satirical poetry, often written for political purposes. A notable example is the Roman poet Juvenal's satires, whose insults stung the entire spectrum of society.The same is true of the English satirical tradition.

- Notable satirical poems were written by Juvenal of the Roman Empire, Thomas Shadwell and John Dryden, John Wilmot, and Alexander Pope. The greatest satirical poets outside England include Poland's Ignacy Krasicki, Azerbaijan's Sabir and Portugal's Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage, commonly known as Bocage.

Genres• Lyric poetry

– Lyric poetry is a genre that, unlike epic poetry and dramatic poetry, does not attempt to tell a story but instead is of a more personal nature. It portrays the poet's own feelings, states of mind, and perceptions. While the genre's name, derived from "lyre," implies that it is intended to be sung, much lyric poetry is meant purely for reading.

– Though lyric poetry has long celebrated love, many courtly-love poets also wrote lyric poems about war and peace, nature and nostalgia, grief and loss. Notable among these are the 15th century French lyric poets, Christine de Pizan and Charles, Duke of Orléans. Spiritual and religious themes were addressed by such mystic lyric poets as St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Ávila. The tradition of lyric poetry based on spiritual experience was continued by later poets such as John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Antonio Machado and T. S. Eliot.

– Though the most popular form for western lyric poetry to take may be the 14-line sonnet, as practiced by Petrarch and Shakespeare, lyric poetry shows a bewildering variety of forms, including increasingly, in the 20th century, unrhymed ones. Lyric poetry is the most common type of poetry, as it deals intricately with an author's own emotions and views.

– Others take on a more free style pattern, without any clear pattern. This can be said of rap lyrics, considered by some to be poetry with a beat.

Genres• Elegy

– An elegy is a mournful, melancholy or plaintive poem, especially a lament for the dead or a funeral song. The term "elegy," which originally denoted a type of poetic meter (elegiac meter), commonly describes a poem of mourning. An elegy may also reflect something that seems to the author to be strange or mysterious. The elegy, as a reflection on a death, on a sorrow more generally, or on something mysterious, may be classified as a form of lyric poetry. In a related sense that harks back to ancient poetic traditions of sung poetry, the word "elegy" may also denote a type of musical work, usually of a sad or somber nature.

– Elegiac poetry has been written since antiquity. Notable practitioners have included Propertius (lived ca. 50 BCE – ca. 15 BCE), Jorge Manrique (1476), Jan Kochanowski (1580), Chidiock Tichborne (1586), Edmund Spenser (1595), Ben Jonson (1616), John Milton (1637), Thomas Gray (1750), Charlotte Turner Smith (1784), William Cullen Bryant (1817), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1821), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1823), Evgeny Baratynsky (1837), Alfred Tennyson (1849), Walt Whitman (1865), Louis Gallet (lived 1835–98), Antonio Machado (1903), Juan Ramón Jiménez (1914), William Butler Yeats (1916), Rainer Maria Rilke (1922), Virginia Woolf (1927), Federico García Lorca (1935), Kamau Brathwaite (born 1930).

Genres• Verse fable

– The fable is an ancient, near-ubiquitous literary genre, often (though not invariably) set in verse. It is a succinct story that features anthropomorphized animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that illustrate a moral lesson (a "moral"). Verse fables have used a variety of meter and rhyme patterns; Ignacy Krasicki, for example, in his Fables and Parables, used 13-syllable lines in rhyming couplets.

– Notable verse fabulists have included Aesop (mid-6th century BCE), Vishnu Sarma (ca. 200 BCE), Phaedrus (15 BCE–50 CE), Marie de France (12th century), Robert Henryson (fl.1470-1500), Biernat of Lublin (1465?–after 1529), Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95), Ignacy Krasicki (1735–1801), Félix María de Samaniego (1745 – 1801), Tomás de Iriarte (1750 – 1791), Ivan Krylov (1769–1844) and Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914). All of Aesop's translators and successors owe a debt to that semi-legendary fabulist.

Genres

• Verse fable– An example of a verse fable is Krasicki's "The

Lamb and the Wolves":

Aggression ever finds cause if sufficiently pressed.

Two wolves on the prowl had trapped a lamb in the forest

And were about to pounce. Quoth the lamb: "What right have you?"

"You're toothsome, weak, in the wood." — The wolves dined sans ado.

Genres

• Prose poetry– Prose poetry is a hybrid genre that shows attributes of

both prose and poetry. It may be indistinguishable from the micro-story (aka the "short short story," "flash fiction"). It qualifies as poetry because of its conciseness, use of metaphor, and special attention to language.

– While some examples of earlier prose strike modern readers as poetic, prose poetry is commonly regarded as having originated in 19th-century France, where its practitioners included Aloysius Bertrand, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé.