ELEMENTS OF POETRY

WHAT IS POETRY?
Poetry is something that follows a particular flow of rhythm and
meter.
As a mans inherited possession, is the expression of strong feeling
and thought which leads to a communion between the individual
and his surroundings but mostly between a person and nature, the
world, or the universe.
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
1. LINES
These are the vehicles of the authors thoughts and ideas. These are the
building blocks with which to create a poem.
2. STANZAS
Stanza in poetry is defined as a smaller unit or group of lines in a poem.
One way to identify a stanza is to count the number lines. Thus:
Couplet (2 lines)
Tercet (3 lines)
Quatrain (4 lines)
Cinquain (5 lines)
Sestet (6 lines)
Septet (7 lines)
Octave (8 lines)
 3. RHYME
It is the repetition of similar sound.
The most common kind of rhyme is the End Rhyme.
Internal Rhyme occurs in the middle of a line.
End Rhyme- occurs at the end of two or more lines.
Example:
END RHYMES
I saw a fairy in the wood,
He was dressed all in green.
He drew his sword while I just stood,
And realized id been seen.
INTERNAL RHYME
In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud
While all the night through fog-smoke white
4. RHYME SCHEME
Rhyme is the SONIC imitation usually of end syllables of words.
e.g
I saw a fairy in the wood,
He was dressed all in green.
He drew his sword while I just stood,
And realized id been seen.
The rhyme scheme of the poem is a b a b.
 5. METER
A rhythm that continuously repeats a single basic pattern.
EXAMPLE

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.

That strain again! It had a dying fall:

O, it came oer my ear like a sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
6. FORM
A poem may or may not have a specific number of lines, rhyme
scheme and/or metrical pattern, but it can still be labelled according
to its form or style.
1. LYRIC POETRY
It is any poem with one speaker who expresses strong
thoughts and feelings.
2. NARRATIVE POEM
It is a poem that tells a story; its structure resembles the
plot line of the story.
 3. DRAMATIC POETRY
A poem where the speaker is someone other than the
poet themselves.
Example of Dramatic Poem
DREAM it was in which I found myself.
And you that hail me now, then hailed me king,
In a brave palace that was all my own,
Within, and all without it,
Mine ; until,
Drunk with excess of majesty and pride,

7. SYMBOLISM
A symbol can stand for many things at one time and leads the reader
out of a systematic and structured method of looking at things.
8. IMAGERY
This device used by the poet for readers to create an image in their
imagination.
9. THEME
This is what the poem all about.
EXAMPLE OF POEM

Shakespeare Sonnet Number 18

Shall I compare thee to a summers day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough wind do shake the darling buds of May,
And summers lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines
By chance, or natures changing course untrimmed:

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owst,
Nor shall death brag thou wanderst in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growst,

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

SHIENA MARIE F. CANDIDO

10-ROXAS