Elements of Poetry

POETRY ASSUMPTIONS

Readers of poetry often bring with them many related assumptions:

That a poem is to be read for its "message,"

That this message is "hidden" in the poem,
The message is to be found by treating the words as symbols which
naturally do not mean what they say but stand for something else,
You have to decipher every single word to appreciate and enjoy the
poem.

There are no easy ways to dispel these biases. Poetry is difficult because very
often its language is indirect. But so is experience - those things we think, feel,
and do. The lazy reader wants to be told things and usually avoids poetry
because it demands commitment and energy. Moreover, much of what poetry
has to offer is not in the form of hidden meanings. Many poets like to "play"
with the sound of language or offer an emotional insight by describing what
they see in highly descriptive language. In fact, there can many different ways
to enjoy poetry; this reflects the many different styles and objectives of poets
themselves. For an overview of the many ways to read a poem, click here.
Finally, if you are the type to give up when something is unclear, just relax!
Like we just said, there can be many different approaches to examining
poetry; often these approaches (like looking for certain poetic devices or
examining the meaning of a specific phrase) do not require a complete and
exhaustive analysis of a poem. So, enjoy what you do understand!

FIRST APPROACHES

Read the poem (many students neglect this step). Identify the speaker and
the situation. Feel free to read it more than once! Read the sentences literally.
Use your prose reading skills to clarify what the poem is about.Read each line
separately, noting unusual words and associations. Look up words you are
unsure of and struggle with word associations that may not seem logical to
you.Note any changes in the form of the poem that might signal a shift in point
of view. Study the structure of the poem, including its rhyme and rhythm (if
any). Re-read the poem slowly, thinking about what message and emotion the
poem communicates to you.
STRUCTURE and POETRY
An important method of analyzing a poem is to look at the stanza structure or
style of a poem. Generally speaking, structure has to do with the overall
organization of lines and/or the conventional patterns of sound. Again, many
modern poems may not have any identifiable structure (i.e. they are free
verse), so don't panic if you can't find it!

STANZAS: Stanzas are a series of lines grouped together and separated by

an empty line from other stanzas. They are the equivalent of a paragraph in
an essay. One way to identify a stanza is to count the number of lines. Thus:

couplet (2 lines)
tercet (3 lines)
quatrain (4 lines)
cinquain (5 lines)
sestet (6 lines) (sometimes it's called a sexain)
septet (7 lines)
octave (8 lines)

FORM: A poem may or may not have a specific number of lines, rhyme
scheme and/or metrical pattern, but it can still be labeled according to its form
or style. Here are the three most common types of poems according to
form:

1. Lyric Poetry: It is any poem with one speaker (not necessarily the poet)
who expresses strong thoughts and feelings. Most poems, especially
modern ones, are lyric poems.

2. Narrative Poem: It is a poem that tells a story; its structure resembles the
plot line of a story [i.e. the introduction of conflict and characters, rising action,
climax and the denouement].
3. Descriptive Poem: It is a poem that describes the world that surrounds
the speaker. It uses elaborate imagery and adjectives. While emotional, it is
more "outward-focused" than lyric poetry, which is more personal and
introspective.

In a sense, almost all poems, whether they have consistent patterns of

sound and/or structure, or are free verse, are in one of the three categories
above. Or, of course, they may be a combination of 2 or 3 of the above styles!
Here are some more types of poems that are subtypes of the three styles
above:

Ode: It is usually a lyric poem of moderate length, with a serious subject, an

elevated style, and an elaborate stanza pattern.

Elegy: It is a lyric poem that mourns the dead. [It's not to be confused with
a eulogy.]It has no set metric or stanzaic pattern, but it usually begins by
reminiscing about the dead person, then laments the reason for the death,
and then resolves the grief by concluding that death leads to immortality. It
often uses "apostrophe" (calling out to the dead person) as a literary
technique. It can have a fairly formal style, and sound similar to an ode.

Sonnet: It is a lyric poem consisting of 14 lines and, in the English version, is

usually written in iambic pentameter. There are two basic kinds of sonnets:
the Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet and the Shakespearean (or
Elizabethan/English) sonnet. The Italian/Petrarchan sonnet is named after
Petrarch, an Italian Renaissance poet. The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an
octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). The Shakespearean sonnet
consists of three quatrains (four lines each) and a concluding couplet (two
lines). The Petrarchan sonnet tends to divide the thought into two parts
(argument and conclusion); the Shakespearean, into four (the final couplet is
the summary).

Ballad: It is a narrative poem that has a musical rhythm and can be sung. A
ballad is usually organized into quatrains or cinquains, has a simple rhythm
structure, and tells the tales of ordinary people.

Epic: It is a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a

legendary or historical hero.

Qualities of an Epic Poem:

narrative poem of great scope; dealing with the founding of a

nation or some other heroic theme requires a dignified
 theme requires an organic unity requires orderly progress of the
action always has a heroic figure or figures involves supernatural
forces
written in deliberately ceremonial style

Other types of poems include:

Haiku: It has an unrhymed verse form having three lines (a tercet) and
usually 5,7,5 syllables, respectively. It's usually considered a lyric poem.

Limerick: It has a very structured poem, usually humorous & composed of five
lines (a cinquain), in an aabba rhyming pattern; beat must
be anapestic (weak, weak, strong) with 3 feet in lines 1, 2, & 5 and 2 feet in
lines 3 & 4. It's usually a narrative poem based upon a short and often ribald
anecdote.

For more about poetic forms, see the Open School Notes on Poetry Forms.

SOUND PATTERNS
Three other elements of poetry are rhyme scheme, meter (ie. regular
rhythm) and word sounds (like alliteration). These are sometimes collectively
called sound play because they take advantage of the performative, spoken
nature of poetry.

RHYME

Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds. In poetry, the most common kind of
rhyme is the end rhyme, which occurs at the end of two or more lines. It is
usually identified with lower case letters, and a new letter is used to identify
each new end sound. Take a look at the rhyme scheme for the following poem
:
I saw a fairy in the wood,
He was dressed all in green.
He drew his sword while I just stood,
And realized I'd been seen.

The rhyme scheme of the poem is abab.

Internal rhyme occurs in the middle of a line, as in these lines from

Coleridge, "In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud" or "Whiles all the
night through fog-smoke white" ("The Ancient Mariner"). Remember that most
modern poems do not have rhyme.

NOTE: Rhyme (above) and rhythm (below) are two totally

different concepts!

RHYTHM AND METER

Meter: the systematic regularity in rhythm; this systematic rhythm (or sound
pattern) is usually identified by examining the type of "foot" and
the number of feet.

1. Poetic Foot: The traditional line of metered poetry contains a number of rhythmical
units, which are called feet. The feet in a line are distinguished as a recurring pattern
of two or three syllables ("apple" has 2 syllables, "banana" has 3 syllables, etc.). The
pattern, or foot, is designated according to the number of syllables contained, and
the relationship in each foot between the strong and weak syllables.Thus:

__ = a stressed (or strong, or LOUD) syllable

U = an unstressed (or weak, or quiet) syllable

In other words, any line of poetry with a systematic rhythm has a certain number of feet,
and each foot has two or three syllables with a constant beat pattern .

a. Iamb (Iambic) - weak syllable followed by strong syllable. [Note that the pattern is
sometimes fairly hard to maintain, as in the third foot.]
b. Trochee (Trochaic): strong syllable followed by a weak syllable.

c. Anapest (Anapestic): two weak syllables followed by a strong syllable.

e.g.
In her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed...

From "The Writer", by Richard Wilbur

d. Dactyl (Dactylic): a strong syllable followed by two weak syllables.

DD

Here's another (silly) example of dactylic rhythm.

DDDA was an / archer, who / shot at a / frog
DDDB was a / butcher, and / had a great / dog
DDDC was a / captain, all / covered with / lace
DDDD was a / drunkard, and / had a red / face.

e. Spondee (Spondaic): two strong syllables (not common as lines, but

appears as a foot). A spondee usually appears at the end of a line.

2. The Number of Feet: The second part of meter is the number of feet
contained in a line.
Thus:
one foot=monometer
two feet=dimeter
three feet=trimeter
four feet=tetrameter
five feet=pentameter
six feet=hexameter (when hexameter is in iambic rhythm, it is called an
alexandrine)

Poems with an identifiable meter are therefore identified by the type of feet
(e.g. iambic) and the number of feet in a line (e.g. pentameter). The following
line is iambic pentameter because it (1) has five feet [pentameter], and (2) each foot
has two syllables with the stress on the second syllable [iambic].

That time | of year | thou mayst | in me | behold

Thus, you will hear meter identified as iambic pentameter, trochaic tetrameter,
and so on.

3. Irregularity: Many metered poems in English avoid perfectly regular

rhythm because it is monotonous. Irregularities in rhythm add interest and
emphasis to the lines. In this line:

The first foot substitutes a trochee for an iamb. Thus, the basic iambic
pentameter is varied with the opening trochee.

4. Blank Verse: Any poetry that does have a set metrical pattern (usually
iambic pentameter), but does not have rhyme, is blank verse. Shakespeare
frequently used unrhymed iambic pentameter in his plays; his works are an
early example of blank verse.

5. Free Verse: Most modern poetry no longer follows strict rules of

meter or rhyme, especially throughout an entire poem. Free verse, frankly,
has no rules about meter or rhyme whatsoever! [In other words, blank
verse has rhythm, but no rhyme, while free verse has neither rhythm nor
rhyme.] So, you may find it difficult to find regular iambic pentameter in a
modern poem, though you might find it in particular lines. Modern poets do
like to throw in the occasional line or phrase of metered poetry, particularly if
theyre trying to create a certain effect. Free verse can also apply to a lack of
a formal verse structure.

http://learn.lexiconic.net/elementsofpoetry.htm

POETRY and ITS ELEMENTS

Theory of Poetry
by jzr
meister_z

NOTES on POETRY
by jzr

[meister_z Enterprises]

Poetry has perhaps always lay in some men's hearts. Perhaps, as seen
from some of the evidence we have discovered in our times, even
primitive man held close to him the origins of poetry. He had, for
example, the pristine sky above him filled at night with such marvelous
stars, such supernumerary lanterns and sparkling bits of sky, all
suspended by who knew what, right in the middle of the overwhelming
darkness and space of the night -- yes, right in the middle of that
stunning vacuum and depth which seemed to go out deeper and deeper
and forever. These sensational ideas and thoughts perhaps ran through
the inexpert mind of the primordial being hundreds of thousands of
years ago, when man was not even man yet, and when man was just on
the evolutionary machinery and path of becoming what he has been
since about ten or twenty thousand years ago.

These were surely the wonderments which captivated his mind and
attention when outdoors at night. They must have been truly marvelous
sights to look at in those times. Things have changed since then, and
yet if we just take time when we are away from the city, or maybe even
when we are in our own back yard, if we just look above us in total
darkness, we will still be able to admire the depth of the starry skies
which we look at. How much more marvelous must it have been for
ancient and primitive man!

It is the sensations that were captivated by the formative human mind

that were stored genetically in the remotest depths of the unconscious,
that were evolutionarily reserved in the unconscious and instinctive part
of the brain and mind. These sensations of admiration and awe for the
stars and the wondrous things in nature were the ones responsible for
the communion and romance between the very individual and nature;
between a man and the world; between a person and the universe; yes,
even between a person and God himself. It was the admiration itself
which was also responsible for creating the feeling and knowledge of
someone or something much, much greater than ourselves. And it was
all these things combined, perhaps, which led some person to express
these admirations and marvels through a special and very personal
manner, the one which we now translate as poetry. He created a kind of
expression which turned out to be externally a product or a form called
"poetry."

This kind of expression was different from all the other kinds of
expression which he had already accumulated. Even if it were in the
form of pictographs or something of the like, this kind of expression was
different from the rest. And thus poetry was born. Thus poetry came to
be part of man's evolutionary heritage.

This is why we still study and enjoy of poetry. It became an intimate part
of men's and women's cultures. It became an evolutionary asset,
possession, of mankind. And even today we still feel, many of us, the
sensations of communion and romance and love or strong feeling which
lead us to yet create more and more poetry. Poetry is not only the
heritage of mankind -- poetry is the music of the heart, the language of
the soul, the expression of the parts we do not see in humans. And it is
not only male possessed -- women are part of it, too. Even children form
part of our poetry. Poetry is for everyone. /JZR

THE ELEMENTS of POETRY

Poetry, as man's inherited possession, is the expression of strong
feeling and thought which leads to a communion between the individual
and his surroundings, but most usually between a person and nature,
the world, or the universe. Poetry is the means of universalizing and
perpetuating a thought, an idea, a feeling, sensation, or internal
experience.

FORM
Whenever we look at a poem, the first thing we will probably notice is its
form. In other words, poems have a given FORM. One poem will look
very different from another, and still another poem will look very distinct
from the second one, and so on. Each poet uses the "form" which will
most effectively EXPRESS what he wants to convey to other human
beings.

Traditional poetry used to follow very strict forms. People who still
follow these forms nowadays are following the traditional manner and
style. But nowadays we know that there is a strong tendency to break
from the traditional and to become even very unorthodox,
unconventional or even unusual. This kind of poetry is called FREE
VERSE. It is most often used in modern times and presents a multitude
of possibilities. The poet uses free form to make the poem fit the
contents and to express the mood or feeling of his work.

LINES
After looking at a poem and seeing that it has some sort of FORM, we
often notice that it also consists of LINES. These are the vehicle of the
authors thoughts and ideas. These are the building blocks with which to
create a poem. The WORDS of each line proceed as usual from left to
right, but they curiously end where the poet wants them to stop.
Therefore, you may have some lines that are of equal length and others
which are not.

Besides the length and margining of the first word in each line, the
PUNCTUATION at the end of each is also a major tool for the poet. At
times he will want us to make a full stop, other times a gentle or slight
pause, and even others perhaps a sudden break, and so on. Ultimately,
then, poetry creates sensations, moods, and images in the reader's
mind.

STANZAS
The lines in a poem are most often divided into sections looking as
some sort of paragraphing. These we call STANZAS. A stanza, therefore,
is the grouping of the lines, sort of like a paragraph.

RHYME
Rhyme is the SONIC imitation usually of end syllables of words. There
are basically two kinds of rhyme used in poetry. The first is the most
typical and best known by young people, END RHYME, in which the
words at the end of a given line rhyme. The second kind of rhyme is
called INTERNAL RHYME. This kind of rhyming is different from end
rhyme in that the rhyming takes place somewhere within the line and not
at the end. But most of us find it more natural to use rhyming at the end
and not in the middle of our poem's lines. Still, the most widely read and
enjoyed poetry artfully combines these and other patterns and
techniques for the creation of the poems.

(Internal Rhyme):

It won't be LONG before my SONG ends the day,

And the FLOWERS near the TOWERS reach the sky.
PATTERN:
Rhyme contributes in creating a pattern when read appropriately. It
creates a special effect which results in being pleasant and motivating.
Humans in general are susceptible to patterns. As a matter of fact, we
live with all sorts of patterns every day of our lives. Our very lives are
patterns themselves. The human mind itself has an inherent (internal)
patterning force and capacity which allows the individual to perceive
and create the patterns inherent in poems. And it is rhyme which is one
of the contributors to the pattern created in reading or writing a poem:

SQUEEZE ... TEASE;

RUN ... FUN;

DEMONSTRATE ... WHAT SHE ATE.

Another contributor to pattern is the number of syllables, as can be seen

in the third set of the examples given right above. DE-MONS-TRATE as
imitated by WHAT-SHE-ATE. Still another element which contributes to
pattern is the accomodation and distribution of the lines. The reader is
thus led or even forced into following a given pattern, and BEAT.

But the ultimate creator of pattern is the combination of the STRESSED

SYLLABLES IN ANY PARTICULAR LINE of a poem.

RHYTHM
This brings us to the topic of RHYTHM, perhaps the pivot point of all the
elements, because it is rhythm which creates the pleasant gliding effect
when we read a poem. It helps us as readers to travel along the lines of
the poem with a certain enjoyable tempo created by the components of
rhythm.

Never in my lonely life,

Could you make it -- be my wife.

or,

If only then she had seen,

That crime and anger were to have been.

The length of the lines are different, but it is the combination that
creates a certain rhythm.

Now, if the poet just repeats the same pattern with every set of lines in a
stanza, and from stanza to stanza, then he will be effectively creating a
rhythm. It is the REGULARITY of the REPETITION that tends to create
the rhythmical pattern. A BEAT is created when we analyze the
STRESSED and UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES within the lines of a poem.

Observe the following lines from a poem:

And as she WALKED to the MOON,

We could ALL hear her SWOON,
To the MARvelous SIGHTS,
In which she NOW so deLIGHTS,
EUPHONY
EUPHONY is simply the combination of agreeable and melodious
sounds which make a poem pleasant to listen to. It is the nice- sounding
tone of a poem when read. This is the reason why a poem is never as
effective as when read aloud -- simply because poetry in general deals a
lot with the euphonic sounds contained within it. EUPHONY is perhaps
one ultimate aim of poetry. The esthete -- the beautiful. It is poetry which
allows mankind to express such beauty from within. Poetry itself is
beauty created.

POETIC DEVICES
Poetry, like every other art, has its techniques and DEVICES. Becoming
a poet liked by others is not always an easy thing to do, and it so
happens that the cause of this is the way the author of a poem uses the
available devices to his advantage or purposes. Below are some of the
major devices used in many of the poems we encounter as students of
poetry.

1.- ALLITERATION:

The purposeful repetition of a consonant sound in two or more

consecutive words, usually at the beginning of such words.

2.- REPETITION:

a) of WORDS/ IDEAS/ or, IMAGES;

b) ANAPHORA:
The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines
or stanzas.

Tomorrow when the sun comes out,

Tomorrow when the birds sing out,
Tomorrow it will come to be,
Tomorrow, when you'll come to me.

c) ANADIPLOSIS:

The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of one line and at the
beginning of the next; or, at the end of the last line in a stanza or verse,
and at the beginning of the next stanza.

She will never come to this my land,

To this my land where I belong.

3.- ONOMATOPOEIA:

The use of words which imitate the sounds they stand for.

4.- INVERSION:

a) ANASTROPHE:

To the sea she went,

Without smiling they parted,

b) HYSTERON-PROTERON (the last first):

Then came the thunder.

Out she went.

Fear she felt.

5.- FIGURES OF SPEECH:

a) SIMILE

b) METAPHOR

c) PERSONIFICATION

d) HYPERBOLE

e) UNDERSTATEMENT

6.- IMAGERY:

The use of language, sensory language, language which stimulates the

reader's imagination. The use of the sensory language which serves to
transmit or invoke the same or similar images in the reader's mind.

7.- VARIETY:

The use of variety in length of lines, rhythm, rhyme, distribution of lines

and words, and anything else which adds to the EFFECTIVENESS of the
poem. Variety may be used to create humor, depression, or many other
moods or sensations. The effective poet learns to use variety whenever
and wherever it serves his purposes of expression and externalization of
internal experiences.

FORMS (of poetry):

HAIKU
BALLAD
LIMERICK
FREE VERSE

TYPES (of poetry):

NARRATIVE
LYRIC/DESCRIPTIVE
 HUMOROUS
PARODY

TYPES of POETRY:

I. NARRATIVE:

There are many kinds or types of poems. Some describe what poets see;
some what they remember; and others what they perceive through other
senses. But other poems are intended to tell a story. These are called
NARRATIVE POEMS. Just like the regular stories which you read in your
literature courses, a narrative poem also has the same basic elements. It
has a setting, one or more characters in it, usually a conflict, a plot
which builds up to a climax, and even a conclusion, oftentimes. The
story which the narrative poem tells can also be about almost anything.

II. LYRIC/DESCRIPTIVE:

LYRIC poetry, also called DESCRIPTIVE poetry, is a very personal kind

of poetry. It is usually brief, melodic, and very expressive. It is
descriptive in essence, and conveys IMPRESSIONS, FEELINGS,
EMOTIONS, SENSATIONS, and very personal and INTIMATE VIEWS
concerning an experience. Lyric or Descriptive poetry may touch such
themes as: nature, beauty, love and friendship, the joy of life, death,
patriotism, and the like.

III. HUMOROUS:

It is probable that you, as student of literature, have never really stopped

to think how versatile poetry is. But it is because poetry is so FLEXIBLE,
so PLASTIC, that there are so many varieties of poetry in the world or
nation. The plasticity of poetry makes it possible therefore for author's
to bend and shape this kind of written expression to suit their needs or
purposes.

It is no wonder then that some poets should choose HUMOR as their

main purpose in writing a poem.

FORMS of POETRY:
As seen from the introduction of this document, poems possess form.
And we also now understand that poems have different forms. Four of
these forms will be studied in the course, and they are briefly presented
and described in the following and last section.

I. LIMERICK
A LIMERICK is a special type of poem intended to be humorous. It
consists of five lines only. It is usually a nonsense verse which often
concerns something ridiculous. But even so, it follows a regular and
distinctive pattern. Of the five lines, the FIRST, SECOND, and FIFTH
lines have the same length. Each one of these contains NINE
SYLLABLES, ... and they RHYME. The THIRD and FOURTH lines, which
are shorter, contain only FIVE syllables, and they too rhyme. Also, these
third and fourth lines are slightly indented -- that is, they are indented by
three letters. Following is an example.

There once was a pretty young girl Who had pretty teeth like a pearl, But
her fortune did change, When her mom dis-ar-ranged, The nice girl, and
her teeth and a curl. This limerick form probably originated in the old
town of Limerick in Ireland, and thus borrowed the name from it. But
limericks are just for fun and laughter. Here is another example.

A puppy whose hair was so flowing,

There really was no means of knowing
Which end was his head,
 Once stopped me and said,
"Please, sir, am I coming or going?"

II. HAIKU
This is a traditional form of poetry which originated in Japan. In form, it
is apparently a very simplistic sort of poetry, but the truth is that it is an
art trying to create Haiku poetry with the beauty and effectiveness it
requires. Haiku poetry consists of only THREE lines in all. Incredible!
But, the "trick" here is trying to create as much beauty in such few
words as possible.

The first line of the Haiku poem must have FIVE syllables; the second
line must have SEVEN syllables; and finally, the third must consist of
another FIVE, just like the first. (5/7/5). Thus, the Haiku poet is obliged to
describe as vividly as possible, in only seventeen syllables, a picture or
IMAGE or SCENE which beautifully forms sharply in the reader's mind.
To do this well is a true challenge!

HAIKU may seem like child's play at first... especially to most of us who
look on it as merely a game or sort of toy to fool around with. But on
closer study and relaxed scrutiny, anyone can easily begin to discover
that HAIKU is absolutely NOT mere child's play, but, rather, an ART form
-- a POETIC-ART form which requires INTERNAL expression of sensed
feelings, impressions, images, colors, visions, and, ultimately, authentic
and legitimate Internal, SPIRITUAL and SPONTANEOUS EXPERIENCES
which have blended and communed with the elements of Nature, and the
universal components of the Cosmos, of the Whole, of the Tao, of the
Sacred or Refined blendings with the Absolute and God himself, all
expressed in these transcendental sensations and impressions acquired
through the oneness with the Natural. Naturalness, Spontaneity, and
letting go are therefore crucial to the EXPERIENCE of Haiku.

Below are some samples of Haiku to easily begin to discover that HAIKU
is in fact an ART form -- a POETIC-ART form -- which has developed and
remained for hundreds of years. Last, notice how Haiku is a very
personal event achieved artfully by only a very few, as are all Arts. Only
some are gifted or destined to become Masters of the Art. Nevertheless,
we can all enjoy of attempting to follow in the footsteps of the Exalted
and enjoy making our very own Haiku when we feel ready for it.
You will need to read and learn about the Masters, especially the original
creator of the genuine HAIKU, Basho, along with a couple of others who
aided furthering Basho's Art into a Traditional form of Japanese and
worldly poetry. These you will find in another Section of this Site. You
may wish to continue this document on the theory of poetry -- or you
may wish now to go on to more learning and information on this
POETIC-ART form called Haiku. [Click Here.]

HAIKU SAMPLES:

_____________________________________________________
__________________
|Dampness and clear dew | Warmth
against my skin |
|pine smell, grass smell fill the air, | sand dust in
the warm moist air,
|sun star bright above. | sounds of
sea water. |
|______________________________________|_____________
___________________|

_____________________________________________________
__________________
|No mo yama mo | Mountains and plains,
| Japanes Haiku: |
| yuki ni torareta| all are taken by the snow,
| by Naito Joso |
| nani mo nashi | nothing remains.
| (1661-1704) |
|- - - - - - - - - | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
| - - - - - - - - -|
|Samidare ya | All the rains of June,
| Japanese Haiku: |
| aru yo hisoka ni| and then one evening,
secretly| by Oshima Ryota |
| matsu no tsuki| through the pines, the
moon!| (1718-1787) |
|__________________|_________________________________
|__________________|

As a note of interest, HAIKU was developed during the Tokugawa period

in Japan (1603-1620) for the townspeople (commoners), then growing in
wealth and power, but whose education was informal: 2 lines set a
scene; and the third ends with a sort of spiritual "twist." The third line
SPIRITUALIZES the EXPERIENCE and scene depicted through the (first
two lines of the) HAIKU.

[End of Haiku Section.]

III. BALLAD
One of the oldest types of poetry is a special kind of Narrative poem
known as the BALLAD. The Ballad tells a story and happens to be quite
lengthy. As a rule, a Ballad is concerned with a sharp CONFLICT and
with deep HUMAN EMOTION. Once in a great while, though, a ballad
here and there will deal with the funnier side of life. But, as a rule ballads
dealt with love, honor, courage, and death. Characteristics of a Ballad
include the following.

1) They usually involve the common people (although there are some
about nobles, too).
2) They usually deal with physical courage and tragic love.
3) They contain little characterization or description.
4) The action in ballads usually moves forward through dialogue.
5) Much of the story is IMPLIED or suggested, forcing the listener to fill
in the details.
6) They tell the story in ballad stanzas.
The BALLAD STANZA contains FOUR LINES. The FOURTH line rhymes
with the SECOND. The FIRST and THIRD lines usually have FOUR
ACCENTED SYLLABLES while the SECOND and FOURTH have THREE
each.

BALLAD RHYTHM: Lines 1/3 = 4 BEATS; Lines 2/4 = 3 BEATS.

Come LISten to ME,

you GALlants so FREE,
All YOU that love MIRTH for to HEAR,
And I will you TELL of a BOLD outLAW,
That LIVED in NOTtinghamSHIRE.

As ROBin Hood IN the FORest STOOD,

All UNder the GREENwood TREE,
There WAS he WARE of a BRAVE young MAN,
As FINE as FINE can BE.

[Note: The capitalized syllables are stressed.]

[These stressed syllables create the BEATS.]

IV. FREE VERSE

The poet uses free form to make the poem fit the contents and to
express the mood or feeling of his intentions or purposes. The length of
the lines is irregular, the indentation of the lines may also vary from one
to the next, it does use rhythm, but it seldom uses end rhyme nor
regular stanzas. Capitalization of the first letter in each line and proper
nouns is unorthodox or conveniently changed. Punctuation is equally
affected, and the distribution of the lines and words is entirely in the
hands of the writer. Most poetry we read today, therefore, is Free Verse.

The BASICS of POETRY

 Synoptic Chart

Elements: Lines/ Stanzas/ Rhyme/ Rhythm/ Beat/ (Un)Stressed Syllables/

Euphony/ Pattern.

Forms: Limerick/ Haiku/ Ballad/ Free Verse.

Types: * Narrative/ * Lyric-Descriptive/ Humorous/ Parody

Devices: Simile/ Metaphor/ Personification/ Repetition/ Anaphora/

Anadiplosis/ Alliteration/ Inversion/ Onomatopoeia/ Imagery/ Refrain/
Variety.

http://www.meister-z.com/meister_z/POETRY.htm

Elements of Poetry - and Description of Quality

Characteristics
Elements of Poetry
POETRY- has an overall central theme or idea within each poem

Images - the mental pictures the poet creates through language

Diction - the selection of specific words

Form - the arrangement of words, lines, verses, rhymes, and other features.

Cadence - A rhythmic change in the inflection of sounds from words being spoken. Sometimes
referred to the flow of words.

Couplet - two lines of verse that rhyme at the end and are thought as one unit

Meter - A rhythm that continuously repeats a single basic pattern.

Rhyme - Words that end with similar sounds. Usually at the end of a line of the poem.

Rhyming - Two lines of a poem together with the same rhythm

Rhythm - A pattern created with sounds: hard - soft, long - short, bouncy, quiet - loud, weak - strong
.

Stanza - A part of a poem with similar rhythm and rhyme that will usually repeat later in the poem.

Verse - A line of a poem, or a group of lines within a long poem.

Quality Characterisics
 Imaginative
Creative
Descriptive and vivid language that often has an economical or condensed use of words chosen
for their sound and meaning
Meaning is enhanced by recalling memories of related experiences in the reader or listener
Provokes thought
Causes an emotional response: laughter, happy, sad
Uses figurative language (personification, similies, methaphors...)
Imagery where the reader/listener creates vivid mental images
Often has rhythm and rhyme
Often includes words and phrases that have a pattern made with rhythm and rhyme.
Story in verse
Can have physical and grammatical arrangement of words usually enhance the reader's overall
experience

Questions to ask to evaluate the quality of poetry

Does it have figurative language and imagery?

Does it create images? (pictures, sounds, smells, tastes, touching sensations)
Is what the author says or doesnt say helpful in creating imagery?
Does it move from the familiar to the unfamiliar or unfamiliar to familiar in a manner that
enlightens and/or amazes?
Is it understandable? (literally, interpretively, and emotionally) Alone or with help?
Does it appeal to me? To who else would it appeal?
Does the poem touch people emotionally?
Are words combined in a mixture that communicates both a literal and suggested meaning.
Not so precise as to limit the imagination or so suggestive as to not communicate? (denotation
and connotation).
Does it get to the heart of an idea?
Is it creative with language? Use language and words in interesting ways? (metaphors, similes,
personifications).
Are words used in a highly powerful manner? Is there a lot of zap with few words?
Is it a language of simplicity?
Does it sing to you? [sounds (alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia), verse, rhythm, patterns,
beat (words, phrases), rhyme (end of line, inline, and/or link rhyme)
Does it include ideas that people can use?

Children like to write poetry because they

feel there are no limitations

can be creative without taking risks
don't need to worry about conventions (punctuation, complete sentences).

Children might not like to write poetry because they

don't like to struggle with word choices

don't like the struggle with a desire to be original
don't want to risk creating something someone might not like
don't have strategies to help be creative
struggle with words (spelling, vocabulary, small repetooire of words)
desire to have it rhyme, have rhythm,and/or a melody
 Dr. Robert Sweetland's Notes

http://www.homeofbob.com/literature/genre/poetry/elements.html

Glossary of Poetic Terms

Allegory
A symbolic narrative in which the surface details imply a secondary meaning. Allegory often takes
the form of a story in which the characters represent moral qualities. The most famous example
in English is John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, in which the name of the central character,
Pilgrim, epitomizes the book's allegorical nature. Kay Boyle's story "Astronomer's Wife" and
Christina Rossetti's poem "Up-Hill" both contain allegorical elements.

Alliteration
The repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of words. Example: "Fetched
fresh, as I suppose, off some sweet wood." Hopkins, "In the Valley of the Elwy."

Anapest
Two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one, as in com-pre-HEND or in-ter-VENE. An
anapestic meter rises to the accented beat as in Byron's lines from "The Destruction of
Sennacherib": "And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, / When the blue wave
rolls nightly on deep Galilee."

Antagonist
A character or force against which another character struggles. Creon is Antigone's antagonist in
Sophocles' play Antigone; Teiresias is the antagonist of Oedipus in Sophocles' Oedipus the King.

Assonance
The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence or a line of poetry or prose, as in "I rose and
told him of my woe." Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" contains assonantal
"I's" in the following lines: "How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, / Till rising and
gliding out I wander'd off by myself."

Aubade
A love lyric in which the speaker complains about the arrival of the dawn, when he must part
from his lover. John Donne's "The Sun Rising" exemplifies this poetic genre.

Ballad
A narrative poem written in four-line stanzas, characterized by swift action and narrated in a
direct style. The Anonymous medieval ballad, "Barbara Allan," exemplifies the genre.

Blank verse
A line of poetry or prose in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Shakespeare's sonnets, Milton's epic
poem Paradise Lost, and Robert Frost's meditative poems such as "Birches" include many lines of
blank verse. Here are the opening blank verse lines of "Birches": When I see birches bend to left
and right / Across the lines of straighter darker trees, / I like to think some boy's been swinging
them.

Caesura
A strong pause within a line of verse. The following stanza from Hardy's "The Man He Killed"
contains caesuras in the middle two lines:

He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,

Off-hand-like--just as I--
Was out of work-had sold his traps--
No other reason why.

Character
An imaginary person that inhabits a literary work. Literary characters may be major or minor,
static (unchanging) or dynamic (capable of change). In Shakespeare's Othello, Desdemona is a
major character, but one who is static, like the minor character Bianca. Othello is a major
character who is dynamic, exhibiting an ability to change.

Characterization
The means by which writers present and reveal character. Although techniques of
characterization are complex, writers typically reveal characters through their speech, dress,
manner, and actions. Readers come to understand the character Miss Emily in Faulkner's story "A
Rose for Emily" through what she says, how she lives, and what she does.

Climax
The turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story. The climax represents the point of
greatest tension in the work. The climax of John Updike's "A&P," for example, occurs when
Sammy quits his job as a cashier.

Closed form
A type of form or structure in poetry characterized by regularity and consistency in such
elements as rhyme, line length, and metrical pattern. Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy
Evening" provides one of many examples. A single stanza illustrates some of the features of
closed form:

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.

Complication
An intensification of the conflict in a story or play. Complication builds up, accumulates, and
develops the primary or central conflict in a literary work. Frank O'Connor's story "Guests of the
Nation" provides a striking example, as does Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal."

Conflict
A struggle between opposing forces in a story or play, usually resolved by the end of the work.
The conflict may occur within a character as well as between characters. Lady Gregory's one-act
play The Rising of the Moon exemplifies both types of conflict as the Policeman wrestles with his
conscience in an inner conflict and confronts an antagonist in the person of the ballad singer.

Connotation
The associations called up by a word that goes beyond its dictionary meaning. Poets, especially,
tend to use words rich in connotation. Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
includes intensely connotative language, as in these lines: "Good men, the last wave by, crying
how bright / Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, / Rage, rage against the dying
of the light."

Convention
A customary feature of a literary work, such as the use of a chorus in Greek tragedy, the
inclusion of an explicit moral in a fable, or the use of a particular rhyme scheme in a villanelle.
Literary conventions are defining features of particular literary genres, such as novel, short story,
ballad, sonnet, and play.

Couplet
A pair of rhymed lines that may or may not constitute a separate stanza in a poem.
Shakespeare's sonnets end in rhymed couplets, as in "For thy sweet love remembered such
wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with kings."

Dactyl
A stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones, as in FLUT-ter-ing or BLUE-ber-ry. The
following playful lines illustrate double dactyls, two dactyls per line:

Higgledy, piggledy,
Emily Dickinson
Gibbering, jabbering.
Denotation
The dictionary meaning of a word. Writers typically play off a word's denotative meaning against
its connotations, or suggested and implied associational implications. In the following lines from
Peter Meinke's "Advice to My Son" the references to flowers and fruit, bread and wine denote
specific things, but also suggest something beyond the literal, dictionary meanings of the words:

To be specific, between the peony and rose

Plant squash and spinach, turnips and tomatoes;
Beauty is nectar and nectar, in a desert, saves--
...
and always serve bread with your wine.
But, son,
always serve wine.

Denouement
The resolution of the plot of a literary work. The denouement of Hamlet takes place after
the catastrophe, with the stage littered with corpses. During the denouement Fortinbras makes
an entrance and a speech, and Horatio speaks his sweet lines in praise of Hamlet.

Dialogue
The conversation of characters in a literary work. In fiction, dialogue is typically enclosed within
quotation marks. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names.

Diction
The selection of words in a literary work. A work's diction forms one of its centrally important
literary elements, as writers use words to convey action, reveal character, imply attitudes,
identify themes, and suggest values. We can speak of the diction particular to a character, as in
Iago's and Desdemona's very different ways of speaking in Othello. We can also refer to a poet's
diction as represented over the body of his or her work, as in Donne's or Hughes's diction.

Elegy
A lyric poem that laments the dead. Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" is elegiac in tone.
A more explicitly identified elegy is W.H. Auden's "In Memory of William Butler Yeats" and his
"Funeral Blues."

Elision
The omission of an unstressed vowel or syllable to preserve the meter of a line of poetry.
Alexander uses elision in "Sound and Sense": "Flies o'er th' unbending corn...."

Enjambment
A run-on line of poetry in which logical and grammatical sense carries over from one line into the
next. An enjambed line differs from an end-stopped line in which the grammatical and logical
sense is completed within the line. In the opening lines of Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess,"
for example, the first line is end-stopped and the second enjambed:

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now....

Epic
A long narrative poem that records the adventures of a hero. Epics typically chronicle the origins
of a civilization and embody its central values. Examples from western literature include
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, and Milton's Paradise Lost.

Epigram
A brief witty poem, often satirical. Alexander Pope's "Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog"
exemplifies the genre:
 I am his Highness' dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

Exposition
The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is
provided. Ibsen's A Doll's House, for instance, begins with a conversation between the two
central characters, a dialogue that fills the audience in on events that occurred before the action
of the play begins, but which are important in the development of its plot.

Falling action
In the plot of a story or play, the action following the climax of the work that moves it towards its
denouement or resolution. The falling action of Othello begins after Othello realizes that Iago is
responsible for plotting against him by spurring him on to murder his wife, Desdemona.

Falling meter
Poetic meters such as trochaic and dactylic that move or fall from a stressed to an unstressed
syllable. The nonsense line, "Higgledy, piggledy," is dactylic, with the accent on the first syllable
and the two syllables following falling off from that accent in each word. Trochaic meter is
represented by this line: "Hip-hop, be-bop, treetop--freedom."

Fiction
An imagined story, whether in prose, poetry, or drama. Ibsen's Nora is fictional, a "make-
believe" character in a play, as are Hamlet and Othello. Characters like Robert Browning's Duke
and Duchess from his poem "My Last Duchess" are fictional as well, though they may be based
on actual historical individuals. And, of course, characters in stories and novels are fictional,
though they, too, may be based, in some way, on real people. The important thing to remember
is that writers embellish and embroider and alter actual life when they use real life as the basis
for their work. They fictionalize facts, and deviate from real-life situations as they "make things
up."

Figurative language
A form of language use in which writers and speakers convey something other than the literal
meaning of their words. Examples include hyperbole or exaggeration, litotes or understatement,
simile and metaphor, which employ comparison, and synecdoche and metonymy, in which a part
of a thing stands for the whole.

Flashback
An interruption of a work's chronology to describe or present an incident that occurred prior to
the main time frame of a work's action. Writers use flashbacks to complicate the sense of
chronology in the plot of their works and to convey the richness of the experience of human time.
Faulkner's story "A Rose for Emily" includes flashbacks.

Foil
A character who contrasts and parallels the main character in a play or story. Laertes, in Hamlet,
is a foil for the main character; in Othello, Emilia and Bianca are foils for Desdemona.

Foot
A metrical unit composed of stressed and unstressed syllables. For example, an iamb or iambic
foot is represented by ', that is, an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one. Frost's line
"Whose woods these are I think I know" contains four iambs, and is thus an iambic foot.

Foreshadowing
Hints of what is to come in the action of a play or a story. Ibsen's A Doll's House includes
foreshadowing as does Synge's Riders to the Sea. So, too, do Poe's "Cask of Amontillado" and
Chopin's "Story of an Hour."

Free verse
Poetry without a regular pattern of meter or rhyme. The verse is "free" in not being bound by
earlier poetic conventions requiring poems to adhere to an explicit and identifiable meter and
rhyme scheme in a form such as the sonnet or ballad. Modern and contemporary poets of the
twentieth and twenty-first centuries often employ free verse. Williams's "This Is Just to Say" is
one of many examples.

Hyperbole
A figure of speech involving exaggeration. John Donne uses hyperbole in his poem: "Song: Go
and Catch a Falling Star."

Iamb
An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, as in to-DAY. See Foot.

Image
A concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling, or an idea. Imagery refers to the
pattern of related details in a work. In some works one image predominates either by recurring
throughout the work or by appearing at a critical point in the plot. Often writers use multiple
images throughout a work to suggest states of feeling and to convey implications of thought and
action. Some modern poets, such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, write poems that
lack discursive explanation entirely and include only images. Among the most famous examples
is Pound's poem "In a Station of the Metro":

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

Imagery
The pattern of related comparative aspects of language, particularly of images, in a literary work.
Imagery of light and darkness pervade James Joyce's stories "Araby," "The Boarding House," and
"The Dead." So, too, does religious imagery.

Irony
A contrast or discrepancy between what is said and what is meant or between what happens and
what is expected to happen in life and in literature. In verbal irony, characters say the opposite
of what they mean. In irony of circumstance or situation, the opposite of what is expected
occurs. In dramatic irony, a character speaks in ignorance of a situation or event known to the
audience or to the other characters. Flannery O'Connor's short stories employ all these forms of
irony, as does Poe's "Cask of Amontillado."

Literal language
A form of language in which writers and speakers mean exactly what their words denote.
See Figurative language, Denotation, and Connotation.

Lyric poem
A type of poem characterized by brevity, compression, and the expression of feeling. Most of the
poems in this book are lyrics. The anonymous "Western Wind" epitomizes the genre:

Western wind, when will thou blow,

The small rain down can rain?
Christ, if my love were in my arms
And I in my bed again!

Metaphor
A comparison between essentially unlike things without an explicitly comparative word such
as like or as. An example is "My love is a red, red rose,"

From Burns's "A Red, Red Rose." Langston Hughes's "Dream Deferred" is built entirely of
metaphors. Metaphor is one of the most important of literary uses of language. Shakespeare
employs a wide range of metaphor in his sonnets and his plays, often in such density and
profusion that readers are kept busy analyzing and interpreting and unraveling them.
Compare Simile.

Meter
The measured pattern of rhythmic accents in poems. See Foot and Iamb.

Metonymy
A figure of speech in which a closely related term is substituted for an object or idea. An
example: "We have always remained loyal to the crown." See Synecdoche.

Narrative poem
A poem that tells a story. See Ballad.

Narrator
The voice and implied speaker of a fictional work, to be distinguished from the actual living
author. For example, the narrator of Joyce's "Araby" is not James Joyce himself, but a literary
fictional character created expressly to tell the story. Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" contains a
communal narrator, identified only as "we." See Point of view.

Octave
An eight-line unit, which may constitute a stanza; or a section of a poem, as in the octave of
a sonnet.

Ode
A long, stately poem in stanzas of varied length, meter, and form. Usually a serious poem on an
exalted subject, such as Horace's "Eheu fugaces," but sometimes a more lighthearted work, such
as Neruda's "Ode to My Socks."

Onomatopoeia
The use of words to imitate the sounds they describe. Words such as buzz and crack are
onomatopoetic. The following line from Pope's "Sound and Sense" onomatopoetically imitates in
sound what it describes:

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,

The line too labors, and the words move slow.

Most often, however, onomatopoeia refers to words and groups of words, such as Tennyson's
description of the "murmur of innumerable bees," which attempts to capture the sound of a
swarm of bees buzzing.

Open form
A type of structure or form in poetry characterized by freedom from regularity and consistency in
such elements as rhyme, line length, metrical pattern, and overall poetic structure. E.E.
Cummings's "[Buffalo Bill's]" is one example. See also Free verse.

Parody
A humorous, mocking imitation of a literary work, sometimes sarcastic, but often playful and
even respectful in its playful imitation. Examples include Bob McKenty's parody of Frost's "Dust of
Snow" and Kenneth Koch's parody of Williams's "This is Just to Say."

Personification
The endowment of inanimate objects or abstract concepts with animate or living qualities. An
example: "The yellow leaves flaunted their color gaily in the breeze." Wordsworth's "I wandered
lonely as a cloud" includes personification.

Plot
The unified structure of incidents in a literary work. See Conflict, Climax, Denouement,
andFlashback.

Point of view
The angle of vision from which a story is narrated. See Narrator. A work's point of view can be:
first person, in which the narrator is a character or an observer, respectively; objective, in which
the narrator knows or appears to know no more than the reader; omniscient, in which the
narrator knows everything about the characters; and limited omniscient, which allows the
narrator to know some things about the characters but not everything.

Protagonist
The main character of a literary work--Hamlet and Othello in the plays named after them, Gregor
Samsa in Kafka's Metamorphosis, Paul in Lawrence's "Rocking-Horse Winner."

Pyrrhic
A metrical foot with two unstressed syllables ("of the").

Quatrain
A four-line stanza in a poem, the first four lines and the second four lines in a Petrachan sonnet.
A Shakespearean sonnet contains three quatrains followed by a couplet.

Recognition
The point at which a character understands his or her situation as it really is. Sophocles' Oedipus
comes to this point near the end of Oedipus the King; Othello comes to a similar understanding
of his situation in Act V of Othello.

Resolution
The sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a play, novel, or story. See Plot.

Reversal
The point at which the action of the plot turns in an unexpected direction for the protagonist.
Oedipus's and Othello's recognitions are also reversals. They learn what they did not expect to
learn. See Recognition and also Irony.

Rhyme
The matching of final vowel or consonant sounds in two or more words. The following stanza of
"Richard Cory" employs alternate rhyme, with the third line rhyming with the first and the fourth
with the second:

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,

We people on the pavement looked at him;
He was a gentleman from sole to crown
Clean favored and imperially slim.

Rhythm
The recurrence of accent or stress in lines of verse. In the following lines from "Same in Blues"
by Langston Hughes, the accented words and syllables are underlined:

I said to my baby,
Baby take it slow....
Lulu said to Leonard
I want a diamond ring

Rising action
A set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's or story's plot leading up to
the climax. See Climax, Denouement, and Plot.

Rising meter
Poetic meters such as iambic and anapestic that move or ascend from an unstressed to a
stressed syllable. See Anapest, Iamb, and Falling meter.

Satire
A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.
Swift's Gulliver's Travels is a famous example. Chekhov's Marriage Proposal and O'Connor's
"Everything That Rises Must Converge," have strong satirical elements.

Sestet
A six-line unit of verse constituting a stanza or section of a poem; the last six lines of an
Italian sonnet. Examples: Petrarch's "If it is not love, then what is it that I feel," and Frost's
"Design."

Sestina
A poem of thirty-nine lines and written in iambic pentameter. Its six-line stanza repeat in an
intricate and prescribed order the final word in each of the first six lines. After the sixth stanza,
there is a three-line envoi, which uses the six repeating words, two per line.

Setting
The time and place of a literary work that establish its context. The stories of Sandra Cisneros
are set in the American southwest in the mid to late 20th century, those of James Joyce in
Dublin, Ireland in the early 20th century.

Simile
A figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike things using like, as, or as though. An
example: "My love is like a red, red rose."

Sonnet
A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter. The Shakespearean or English sonnet is arranged as
three quatrains and a final couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. The Petrarchan or Italian sonnet
divides into two parts: an eight-line octave and a six-line sestet, rhyming abba abba cde cde or
abba abba cd cd cd.

Spondee
A metricalfoot represented by two stressed syllables, such as KNICK-KNACK.

Stanza
A division or unit of a poem that is repeated in the same form--either with similar or identical
patterns or rhyme and meter, or with variations from one stanza to another. The stanzas of
Gertrude Schnackenberg's "Signs" are regular; those of Rita Dove's "Canary" are irregular.

Style
The way an author chooses words, arranges them in sentences or in lines of dialogue or verse,
and develops ideas and actions with description, imagery, and other literary techniques.
See Connotation, Denotation, Diction, Figurative
language, Image, Imagery, Irony, Metaphor, Narrator, Point of view, Syntax, and Tone.

Subject
What a story or play is about; to be distinguished from plot and theme. Faulkner's "A Rose for
Emily" is about the decline of a particular way of life endemic to the American south before the
civil war. Its plot concerns how Faulkner describes and organizes the actions of the story's
characters. Its theme is the overall meaning Faulkner conveys.

Subplot
A subsidiary or subordinate or parallel plot in a play or story that coexists with the main plot. The
story of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern forms a subplot with the overall plot of Hamlet.
Symbol
An object or action in a literary work that means more than itself, that stands for something
beyond itself. The glass unicorn in The Glass Menagerie, the rocking horse in "The Rocking-Horse
Winner," the road in Frost's "The Road Not Taken"--all are symbols in this sense.

Synecdoche
A figure of speech in which a part is substituted for the whole. An example: "Lend me a hand."
See Metonymy.

Syntax
The grammatical order of words in a sentence or line of verse or dialogue. The organization of
words and phrases and clauses in sentences of prose, verse, and dialogue. In the following
example, normal syntax (subject, verb, object order) is inverted:

"Whose woods these are I think I know."

Tercet
A three-line stanza, as the stanzas in Frost's "Acquainted With the Night" and Shelley's "Ode to
the West Wind." The three-line stanzas or sections that together constitute the sestet of a
Petrarchan or Italian sonnet.

Theme
The idea of a literary work abstracted from its details of language, character, and action, and
cast in the form of a generalization. See discussion of Dickinson's "Crumbling is not an instant's
Act."

Tone
The implied attitude of a writer toward the subject and characters of a work, as, for example,
Flannery O'Connor's ironic tone in her "Good Country People." See Irony.

Trochee
An accented syllable followed by an unaccented one, as in FOOT-ball.

Understatement
A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker says less than what he or she means; the
opposite of exaggeration. The last line of Frost's "Birches" illustrates this literary device: "One
could do worse than be a swinger of birches."

Villanelle
A nineteen-line lyric poem that relies heavily on repetition. The first and third lines alternate
throughout the poem, which is structured in six stanzas --five tercets and a concludingquatrain.
Examples include Bishop's "One Art," Roethke's "The Waking," and Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle
into That Good Night."

http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0072405228/student_view0/poetic_glossary.html

http://www.bestlibrary.org/murrayslit/2009/09/poetic-devices.html