Poetry

By Tara Cavanaugh
and David Jagusch
ED 205 P
 All About Poetry
Elements
History Allegory & Meta Authors
Epic Poetry phor Styles
Rhyme & Meter T.S. Eliot
Elizabethan Irony & Image Sonnet
Poetry Haiku Homer
Simile & Epic
Symbol Elizabeth Bishop
Modern Poetry Free Verse
Alliteration & Limerick Langston Hughes
Assonance
Monorhyme
Tone & Word Quatrain W.B. Yeats
order
Emily Dickinson
William Shakespeare
William Wordsworth
Works Cited
E.E. Cummings
 Epic poetry
• Characteristics: usually found in preliterate
societies, this style of poetry was typically
passed down through oral traditions, until
someone eventually wrote them down- this is
why we can read them today. These poems
usually take the form of a long narrative, which
means it is usually a very long story told in the
first person (“I did this” instead of “he or she did
that”). These poems were written a long time
ago- The Odyssey, for example, is t thought to
have been written anywhere between 8 and 7
B.C.
• The Odyssey by Homer
 Elizabethan Poetry
• Most of our ideas about how poetry
should be written come from this era.
Elizabethan poetry was written in
through the17th and 19th
centuries.This poetry has a heavy
emphasis on many rules regarding
rhythm, rhyme, meter.
• Major themes of this poetry are:
discovery of the self, political
turbulence, and originality (later in the
era)
• For examples of this poetry, please
see: William Shakespeare,
William Wordsworth
 Modern Poetry

• In modernism, we see poets breaking the rules of gentlemanly

Elizabethan poetry, and forming new definitions of what makes a
poem interesting. No longer did poetry have to follow rules about
rhythm, rhyme, and meter. Poetry from this era ranges from small
poems about an image (see E.E. Cummings), to long, sprawling epics
written in several languages (see T.S. Eliot). For more examples of
20th and 21st century poetry, see below:
• Elizabeth Bishop
• Langston Hughes
 T.S. Eliot
See also: Modern Poetry
• 1888-1965
• Was extremely studious- he studied in Harvard AND the
Sorbonne in Paris!
• Pioneer of “high modernism” (a.k.a. hard-to-understand
poetry)
• His poetry usually has a depressing tone.
• Liked to use Italian, Greek, Russian, French, and German in
his poems- because he spoke nearly all of them!
Fragment from “The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock”
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants and oyster shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question…
Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’
Let us go and make our visit.
 E.E. Cummings [in- Just]
in Just-
spring       when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame baloonman
whistles       far       and wee
and eddieandbill come
• running from marbles and
1894-1962 piracies and it's
• Liked to play with the spring
use of punctuation when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
and to make new old baloonman whistles
words. far       and         wee
• and bettyandisbel come dancing
Studied at Harvard
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's
spring
and
       the
               goat-footed
See also: Modern Poetry baloonMan       whistles
far
and
wee
 Elizabeth Bishop
Fragment from “The Fish”
I caught a tremendous fish
• 1911-1979
and held him beside the boat
half out of water,
• She was a
with my hook perfectionist and
fast in the corner of his mouth. did not publish
He didn’t fight. many poems.
He hadn’t fought at all. • She wrote in
many different
types of forms.
• Taught at Harvard
and Cambridge
Fragment from “Sestina” Universities
September rain falls on the house.
In the failing light, the old grandmother
sits in the kitchen with the child
beside the Little Marvel Stove,
see: Modern Poetry
reading jokes from the almanac,
laughing and talking to hide her tears.
 William Shakespeare
• 1564-1616
• Regarded as the best writer in the Also: Elizabethan
English language
• Master of the sonnet Sonnet 138
• Was a poet and playwright- he wrote by William Shakespeare
When my love swears that she is made of truth
37 plays and 134 sonnets. I do believe her, though I know she lies,
• The most-quoted author in the English That she might think me some untutor'd youth,
language! Unlearned in the world's false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young.
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false speaking tongue:
On both side thus is simple truth supress'd:
And wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore says not I that I am old?
O! love's best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told:

Therefore I lie with her and she with me,

And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be.

 William Wordsworth
• 1770-1850
• Major poem is “The Prelude,”
published after his death
• Was England’s poet laureate
• He wanted to write poetry “in the real
words of men”
Fragment from “The
Prospectus”
my voice proclaims
How exquisitely the individual
Mind
(And the progressive powers
perhaps no less
Of the whole species) to the
external World
Is fitted:--and how
exquisitely, too, Please see Elizabethan
Theme this but little heard of
among Men,
The external World is fitted to
the Mind . . .
• Whether he was a real man Homer The opening of The Odyssey:
or not is disputed!
TELL ME, O MUSE, of that
• Is credited with recording the ingenious hero who travelled far
Iliad and the Odyssey and wide after he had sacked the
• If he was a real man, he is famous town of Troy. Many cities
did he visit, and many were the
rumored to have been blind. nations with whose manners and
• The movie Oh Brother Where customs he was acquainted;
moreover he suffered much by sea
Art Thou? is based on the
while trying to save his own life and
Odyssey! bring his men safely home; but do
what he might he could not save his
men, for they perished through their
own sheer folly in eating the cattle
see: Epic Poetry of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the
god prevented them from ever
reaching home. Tell me, too, about
all these things, O daughter of Jove,
from whatsoever source you may
know them.
 W.B.Yeats
• 1865-1939
• He is an Irish cultural Fragment of “Easter 1916”
nationalist I have met them at the close of day
Coming with vivid faces
• His poems are very political From counter or desk among grey
and were written during political Eighteenth-century houses.
turmoil in Ireland I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley was born:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

see Modern Poetry

• 1830-1886
Emily Dickinson
• Is credited with inventing
American poetry
• Was considered very strange
and mentally disturbed; spent
most of her life in seclusion
• Common theme of death and
Christianity in her poems

49
I never lost as much but twice,
And that was in the sod.
Twice have I stood a beggar
Before the door of God!
See also
Modern Poetry Angels- twice descending
Reimbursed my store-
Burglar! Banker! –Father!
I am poor once more!
 Langston Hughes
Fragment from “THEME FOR ENGLISH B”
The instructor said, Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you---
Then, it will be true. I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page: It's not easy to know
what is true for you or me • 1902-1967
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you: • Is considered a “Harlem
hear you, hear me---we two---you, me, talk on this page. Renaissance” Poet- he was
(I hear New York too.) Me---who? an African American that was
one of the first of his race to
be a published and respected
poet.
see: Modern Poetry • His poetry has been set to
jazz music
 And if you’re hankering for even more information about
poetry…

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_poetry
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_poetry#The_Restoration_and_1
8th_century
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_poetry#The_20th_century
• Norton’s Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, 3rd ed.
Volumes 1 and 2
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slam_poetry
 An allegory tells a story that can be read symbolically.
Interpreting an allegory is complicated because you need to be
aware of what each symbol in the narrative refers to. Allegories
thus reinforces symbolic meaning.

Closely related to similes, metaphors immediately identify one object or

idea with another, in one or more aspects. The meaning of a poem
frequently depends on the success of a metaphor. Like a simile, a
metaphor expands the sense and clarifies the meaning of something.
 The basic definition of rhyme is two words that sound alike. The vowel
sound of two words is the same, but the initial consonant sound is
different.. Rhyme helps to unify a poem; it also repeats a sound that links
one concept to another, thus helping to determine the structure of a poem.
There are true rhymes (bear, care) and slant rhymes (lying, mine).

Meter is the rhythm established by a poem, and it is usually

dependent not only on the number of syllables in a line but also on
the way those syllables are accented. This rhythm is often described
as a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.
 Something concrete and representational. Literal images appeal to
our sense of realistic perception. There are also figurative images
that appeal to our imagination. Poetic imagery alters or shapes the
way we see what the poem is describing.

Irony refers to a difference between the way something appears and what
is actually true. Irony allows us to say something but to mean something
else, whether we are being sarcastic, exaggerating, or understating. Irony
is generally more restrained than sarcasm, even though the effect might be
the same. The key to irony is often the tone, which is sometimes harder to
detect in poetry than in speech.
The word like signifies a direct comparison between two things that are
alike in a certain way. Usually one of the elements of a simile is concrete
and the other abstract. Sometimes similes force us to consider how the two
things being compared are dissimilar, but the relationship between two
dissimilar things can break down easily, so similes must be rendered
delicately and carefully.

A symbol works two ways: It is something itself, and it also

suggests something deeper. It is crucial to distinguish a symbol
from a metaphor: Metaphors are comparisons between two
seemingly dissimilar things; symbols associate two things, but their
meaning is both literal and figurative. No symbols have absolute
meanings, and, by their nature, we cannot read them at face value.
Rather than beginning an inquiry into symbols by asking what they
mean, it is better to begin by asking what they could mean, or what
they have meant.
Alliteration occurs when the initial sounds of a word, beginning either with a consonant
or a vowel, are repeated in close succession. The function of alliteration, like rhyme,
might be to accentuate the beauty of language in a given context, or to unite words or
concepts through a kind of repetition. Alliteration, like rhyme, can follow specific
patterns. Sometimes the consonants aren't always the initial ones, but they are generally
the stressed syllables.

Assonance occurs when the vowel sound within a word matches the same
sound in a nearby word, but the surrounding consonant sounds are different.
"Tune" and "June" are rhymes; "tune" and "food" are assonant. The function
of assonance is frequently the same as end rhyme or alliteration: All serve to
give a sense of continuity or fluidity to the verse.
The tone of a poem is roughly equivalent to the mood it creates in the
reader. Much depends on interpretation. A poem gives its readers clues
about how to feel about it. The tone may be based on a number of other
conventions that the poem uses, such as meter or repetition. Tone is not
in any way divorced from the other elements of poetry; it is directly
dependent on them.

Word order matters, sometimes for clarity of meaning, and

sometimes for effect. Readers should always question why poets
have chosen a particular order, whether the choice is conventional or
just the opposite.
A Sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines (iambic pentameter) with a particular
rhyming scheme.

Examples of a rhyming scheme:

#1) abab cdcd efef gg
#2) abba cddc effe gg
#3) abba abba cdcd cd

Example:
Sonnet of Demeter--Italian Sonnet
Oh the pirate stars, they have no mercy!
Masquerading as hope they tell their lies; TIFF QuickTime™ and dec
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But I am barren and I am thirsty
Since she has gone. No hope is there for me.
I will roam and curse this earth and these skies--
Death from life which Zeus sovereign denies.
My heart's ill shall the whole world's illness be

Till she is returned-- my daughter, my blood--

From the dark hand of Hades to my care.
With my tears these mortals shall know a flood
To show Poseidon's realm desert and bare.
No myrtle shall flower, no cypress bud
Till the gods release her...and my despair.
Haiku (also called nature or seasonal haiku) is an unrhymed
Japanese verse consisting of three unrhymed lines of five,
seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17 syllables in all. Haiku is
usually written in the present tense and focuses on nature
(seasons).

Example:
Come on let us see
All the real flowers of this
Sorrowful world
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~Basho 1644-1694
An Epic is a long narrative poem celebrating the adventures
and achievements of a hero...epics deal with the traditions,
mythical or historical, of a nation.
Examples: Beowulf, The Iliad and the Odyssey, the Aeneid,
Gilgamesh

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Free Verse is an irregular form of poetry in which the content free of traditional rules of
versification, (freedom from fixed meter or rhyme).

In moving from line to line, the poet's main consideration is where to insert line breaks. Some
ways of doing this include breaking the line where there is a natural pause or at a point of
suspense for the reader.

Authors: Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound, T.S. Elliot

Example:
“I celebrate myself,
And what I assume you shall assume, TIFFQuickTime™ and
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~Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
A Limerick is a rhymed humorous, and or nonsense poem
of five lines. With a rhyming scheme of: a-a-b-b-a.

Example:
I love ta see the morning sun
that's how I tell the days begun.
Birds all singing a happy song
it tis the place where I belong.
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A poem in which all the lines have the same end rhyme.

Example:
I was sitting in my chair
wanting to become a millionaire
It won't happen I'm well aware
but I still think its very unfair TIFF QuickTime™
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I have even said a little prayer
are needed to see t
but I don't have that special flair
And my bodies in great despair
I think I look more like a pear
But at least I still have my hair
and a table to play solitaire
A poem consisting of four lines of verse with a specific
rhyming scheme.

Quatrain rhyming scheme’s:

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#3) aabb
#4) aaba, bbcb, ccdc, dddd -- chain rhyme