The Essential

Elements of
Poetry
Objectives:

– Identify various elements, techniques,

and literary devices in poetry;
– Use selected elements of poetry in
short exercises
“Poetry continues to be the
universal language of
humanity.”
“ Reading poetry is viewing life
through splashes of mental
images and feeling raw emotions
through vivid words.”
Poetry
– Has long been considered as one of the
oldest forms of creative expression.
– Has been the language of humanity’s
cultural, historic, religious and literary
preoccupation
Renowned poets:

– William Shakespeare – Rabindarath

– William Wordsworth Tagore
– Homer
– Pablo Neruda
– Rumi
– Maya Angelou
– Dante Alighieri
Poetry
– Employs aesthetic and rhythmic
qualities of language to convey
meanings different from the more
objective, prosaic forms of writing
The Raven
Edgar Allan Poe
Discussion Questions:
1. What was the attitude of the persona toward the
raven?
2. How did the poet use the raven in getting across
his message?
3. What images and emotions does the poem
invoke?
Essential Elements of
Poetry
1. Theme
–Is the main idea or the
underlying meaning that is
continuously developed
throughout the poem.
Theme vs. Subject
Theme Subject
– The universal – Serves as the
foundation of your
values expressed
poem as it naturally
in relation to the becomes the topic
subject where you navigate
Piano
BY D. H. LAWRENCE
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the
tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother
who smiles as she sings.
In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our
guide.
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child
for the past.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had
sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—
sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the
angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.
Image 1

Once upon a midnight dreary,

while I pondered, weak and
weary,
Over many a quaint and curious
volume of forgotten lore—
Image 2

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in

the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember
wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Image 3

And the silken, sad, uncertain

rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with
fantastic terrors never felt before;
Image 4

Darkness there and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering,
long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no
mortal ever dared to dream before;
What do the imgaes of dark
night and sound of the
wind evoke?
Key words would let the
readers identify the
poet’s attitude or
feeling towards the
subject
What is its implication
to writing poetry?
“ Use themes that are historically
common and cross culturally
recognizable ideas such as
timeless themes of love, death,
and beauty.”
Exercise
Provide any word that will
describe the ideas that are
found in the center circles.
family love
Exercise
Using the words you associated
with your subject and theme,
combine the two in a simple verse
where “family” is the topic you will
use to discuss the theme of love.
2. Tone

–The attitude of the poet towards

the subject
–Conveyed through the choice of
words or standpoint
The Road Not Taken
BY ROBERT FROST

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Varying tones are usually employed
for varying agenda or purposes.
Tone Meaning Example

Praising Shows
approval
Satiric Shows irony
protesting Shows moral
indignation
Hemingway's A Clean, Well-
Lighted Place
It was very late and everyone had left the cafe
except an old man who sat in the shadow the
leaves of the tree made against the electric light. In
the day time the street was dusty, but at night the
dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit
late because he was deaf and now at night it was
quiet and he felt the difference.
The School by Donald
Barthelme.
And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don't
know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with
the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the
nursery wasn't the best. We complained about it. So we've
got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree
to plant and we've got these thirty dead trees. All these
kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing.
 Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale
Heart,"
It was A LOW, DULL, QUICK SOUND -- MUCH SUCH A SOUND AS A WATCH MAKES
WHEN ENVELOPED IN COTTON. I gasped for breath, and yet the officers heard it
not. I talked more quickly, more vehemently but the noise steadily increased. I
arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but
the noise steadily increased. Why WOULD they not be gone? I paced the floor to
and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men, but
the noise steadily increased. O God! What COULD I do? I foamed -- I raved -- I
swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the
boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder --
louder -- louder!
 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles
Dickens
There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed in its
forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding
none. A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through
the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as
the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. It was dense enough to
shut out everything from the light of the coach-lamps but these its
own workings, and a few yards of road; and the reek of the labouring
horses steamed into it, as if they had made it all.
Untitled, Liu Tsung Yuan

From one thousand mountains the birds’ flight are

gone;
From ten thousand byways the human track has
vanished.
In a single boat, an aged man, straw cloak and hat,
Fishes alone; snow falls, cold in the river
Exercise
Using the poem you have written in
the previous activity, add several
more lines, using images or
statements that will show your tone
towards the subject
Writing Activity: Part I Poems
Choose one (1) among the subjects provided below and write a poem about it with
any one of the given themes.

Subject Themes
Friendship Love
Relationship Faith
Nature Death