Poetry

Definition:

Poetry is a genre of literature, spoken or written, that mediates the expression of a thought, a story or a concept in a structured or non-structured form. Most poets emphasize rhythm, other intricate forms, structures, patterns of sound and imagery, and the many possible ways that words can suggest meaning. All types of poetry are often written in several styles. These styles are defined by the number of lines in each stanza, the syllables used in each line or the structures of rhyme used and so on.

• The Orature or the oral tradition stands for the spoken and sung cultural history preserved and passed on from one generation to the next in spoken, not written, stories and songs. Orature is in a way the predecessor of written form of poetry we are familiar with today.
• Run-on line (Enjambment): a line that ends without a pause and continues into the next line to complete its meaning. Also known as End-stopped line.

Genres of Poetry:

Throughout poetry’s long history, poets kept fashioning evolving rules about what a poem is, creating in the process new kinds of poetry that built on earlier kinds to create greater possibilities of expression as well as to achieve maximum stimulation of both the minds and senses of readers. Actually, poetry can be narrative, lyrical and dramatic.

1. Narrative poetry:

Tells a story and describes events in a vivid way through the use of poetic diction either real or imaginary (in verse); its elements and structure resemble the plot line of a story i.e., the introduction of conflict and characters, dialogue, rising action, climax and denouement, though it may not follow the recognizable plot structure. Example “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. A number of narrative poems are very old and were originally intended to be recited to audiences, for example: Homer’s “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”. Types of narrative poetry include:

• Epic: is a long narrative poem (may even take up a book) that celebrates the adventures and achievements of a hero. – Epics deal with the traditions, mythical or historical, of a nation – “Beowulf” by an unknown author, “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” by Homer, and “Metamorphoses” by Ovid. Epics can be oral stories or can be poems in written form.
• Ballad: a ballad is a song that tells a story and originally was a musical accompaniment to a dance. Ballads develop a dramatic story, like epic poems however, ballad poetry; a primarily oral form, often treats topics from legend or a folklore as well as local and national history. There are certain basic characteristics common to large numbers of ballads: (a) the beginning is often abrupt; (b) the language is simple; (c) the story is told through dialogue and action seldom with detail; (d) the theme is often tragic (though there are a number of comic ballads); (e) ballads often feature a refrain; a regular repeated line or group of lines. (f) most ballads are written in four-six stanzas and has a regular rhythms and rhyme schemes (ballad meter, i.e., alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with the last words of the second and fourth lines rhyming). Ballads are a major part of oral tradition. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a good example.

2. Lyrical Poetry:  

Typically describes the poet’s innermost feelings or candid observations and evokes a musical quality in its sounds and rhythms. It pertains to a single mood and is more personal in nature (personal expression of an ‘I’). Lyric poems are typically short and exhibit an endless variety of forms. Most lyric poems use imaginative figures of speech, musical language, and follow no set pattern. Most poems, especially modern ones, are lyric poems.  Types of lyrical poetry include:

• Sonnet: the name sonnet derives from Italian word sonneto which means ‘little song’. a very old form of poetry, having gained prominence during the Renaissance. A sonnet a poem of an expressive thought or idea, relatively short; consisting of merely fourteen lines, each line with five iambic feet (or ten syllables). It is known to follow a strict pattern of rhyme. Classified into Petrarchan, Shakespearean, Spenserian and Miltonic sonnets. Italian or Petrarchan sonnet is divided with an emotion into an octave- stanza of 8 lines consisting of two quatrains which normally open the poem as a question followed by sestet-stanza (6 lines) that are the answer. Shakespearean or Spenserian (also called English) sonnet is divided into three quatrains and a couplet (this sonnet is the more common).
• Elegy: is a lyric poem which expresses lament and mourning the death of an individual. Feelings of grief and melancholy permeate this kind of poems. The main theme being death. “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray is an example of elegy.
• Ode: is a lengthy and complex lyrical poem that explores an idea, whether political, philosophical, intellectual, or personal in details. Typically, of a serious or meditative nature, ode relates nobling feeling, expressed with dignity and praises and glorifies some persons, objects, events, or ideas. John Keats wrote a handful of odes, for example “Ode on a Grecian Urn”.
• Haiku: a lyric, unrhymed poem of Japanese origin with seventeen syllables divided into three lines that rarely rhyme. It is usually on the subject of nature and human’s relationship to nature.  The best-known Japanese haiku is Bashō's “Old Pond”.
• Cinquain: a five-line stanza apparently of medieval origin. This five-line poem also originated in Japan.
• Limerick: a witty and often vulgar kind of a poem, which is quite short. It has a five-line stanza. The first, second and fifth lines have the same metrical structure and they rhyme with each other. They contain seven to ten syllables each. The third and fourth lines have the same metrical structure and they rhyme. “Book of Nonsense” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
• Free Verse: a loose type of poems wherein it doesn’t adhere to predetermined rules, but usually with its own intricate patterns of rhyme and rhythm. It requires the same thoughtful choice of words and rhythmical patterns as the more rigid stanza forms. It can consist of as many lines as the writer wants and either rhyme or not and has no fixed metrical pattern. This type of poem is openly called as “Poem with no rules.”.
• Concrete Poetry: (also called Shape Poem) the words of a poem are arranged to form a pictorial representation of the poem’s subject. The way the words are arranged is as important as what they mean. It does not have to rhyme.

3. Dramatic Poetry:  

Has elements and uses techniques closely associated with drama. It presents characters, often in tense situations, who speak to silent listeners, to themselves, or directly to the reader and may unfold a story. It emphasizes the character rather than the narrative. A Dramatic poem often includes characters and dialogue. Types of dramatic poetry include:

• Dramatic Monologue: most popular form of dramatic poetry in which a combination of drama and poetry occurs. It is often from a single fictional character’s point of view who is in a particular but complicated situation and sometimes in a dilemma. “Meeting at Night” By Robert Browning is a good example.
• Soliloquy: a passage spoken by a speaker in a poem or a character in a play. No one present to hear the speaker. The thoughts expressed, the emotions displayed, and the revelations made, freely and without inhibition this gives deep insights into the character. Hamlet by Shakespeare offers a good example.

Other types of poems:

Ø  ABC: a poem that has five lines that create a mood, picture, or feeling. Lines one through four are made up of words, phrases or clauses while the first word of each line is in alphabetical order. Line five is one long sentence and begins with nay letter.

Ø  Villanelle: is defined as a poetic device which requires a poem to have 19 lines and a fixed form. It has five tercets (first 15 lines), a quatrain (last four lines), and a couplet at the end of the quatrain. Usually in iambic pentameter with a fixed rhyme scheme.

Literary Elements of Poetry: 

Can be defined as a set of instruments used to create a poem. Many of these were created thousands of years ago and have been linked to ancient story telling. They help bring imagery and emotion to poetry, stories, and dramas. The different elements to mention:

1- Content: it is what the poem is all about; the ideas, themes and storyline that it contains. One way of approaching a poem is by getting a general idea of what it is about and this is sometimes called the surface meaning of the poem on which to build more complex ideas that form the analysis of it.

2- Poetic Voice: also known as the speaker, mask, or persona (Latin for mask). It refers to the voice that speaks a poem; this speaker is not usually identical to the author who writes the poem. The author assumes a role, or counterfeits the speech of a person in a particular situation.

3- Structure: 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. Many modern poems, however, may not have any identifiable structure (i.e., they are free verse).

4- Form: poems may display different forms: The Conventional/Traditional forms have fixed rules such as a set number of lines or a repeating pattern of rhythm or rhyme limericks and haikus are examples of this form. Free Verse represents an open form that has rhythm like everyday speech but does not have a regular rhyme pattern. The Graphical Elements of form help convey meaning. They include position, appearance of words, capital letters, lines and stanzas on a page.

5- Stanza: poems are divided into stanzas and verses (lines). 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. Stanza divides a poem in such a way that does not harm its balance but rather it adds to the beauty and the symmetry of a poem. Moreover, it allows poets to shift their moods and present different subject matters in their poems. One way to identify a stanza is to count the number of lines. Thus:

• Verse (=line):1 line;
• Couplet: 2 successive lines which rhyme with each other and have the same meter;
• Triplet/Tercet: 3 lines following a same rhyming scheme a a a or have a rhyming pattern a b a;
• Quatrain: 4 lines (especially lines that rhyme alternatively). This form of stanza was popularized by a Persian poet, Omar Khayyam, who called it a Rubai. It has common rhyming schemes a a a a, a a b b, a b a b;
• Cinquain/Quintain/Penta: a five-line stanza which may be rhymed or unrhymed and has a typical stress pattern. Its invention is attributed to Crapsey;
• Sestet/Sexain: 6 lines stanza. It is the second division of Italian or sonnets of Petrarch following an octave or the first division comprising eight lines;
• Septet: 7 lines;
• Octave: 8 lines.

The Musical or Sound Devices of Poetry: are part of the literary elements but they play a role in adding a certain sound effect unique to poetry. They are: Rhyme, Rhythm, Repetition, Refrain, Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, Onomatopoeia.

6- Rhyme and Rhyme Scheme: rhyming in poetry is one convention that makes this form of literature recognizably different from prose and drama. A very unique quality of rhyme in poetry is that it has the ability to provide a systematic flow to a bundle of thoughts that may seem absolutely chaotic if put together otherwise. It smoothens out the rough edges and abrupt protrusions.  A rhyme is a repetition of same or similar sounding words occurring at the end of lines in poems or songs. Rhyme is a tool that utilizes repeating patterns that brings rhythm or musicality in poems. It is employed for the specific purpose of rendering a pleasing effect to a poem which makes its recital an enjoyable experience. Rhyme can be:

     a-      Internal: rhyme within a line of poetry.

     b-      External: rhyme at the end of lines.

7- Rhythm and Meter: the primary thing to keep in mind here is that ‘rhyme’ and ‘rhythm’ are not the same at all. As a literary device, rhythm is basically the pattern in which a poet chooses to sequence the stressed and unstressed syllables in every line of a poem, for the creation of oral patterns (pattern of stresses within a line of verse). Rhythm in writing acts as beat does in music. All spoken word has a rhythm formed by stressed and unstressed syllables. In poetry pre-measured patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables are called meters. Stressed syllables - long sounding Unstressed syllables - short sounding.

The three factors that help determine the rhythm in a poem are: 1. The total number of syllables present in each line. 2. The total count of accented (stressed) syllables in each line. 3. The tally of recurring patterns of two or three syllables - stressed and unstressed - clubbed in every line. Each recurring pattern is individually called a foot. And a number of feet, on identification, can tell us the systematic rhythm or the meter that a poem follows. In poetry, a stressed syllable is tagged with a (/) and an unstressed one is marked with a (X).

8- Foot: individual units of rhythm made up of patterns of syllables. A sentence is made up of one or more feet containing one strong beat and one or two weak ones. To form a line of verse a poet can use repetitions of feet. There are various types of foot and they are named accordingly.

• One foot: Monometer.
• Two feet: Dimeter.
• Three feet: Trimeter.
• Four feet: Tetrameter.
• Five feet: Pentameter.
• Six feet: Hexameter.

There are five different types of constant beat patterns that the feet can occur in:

• Iamb (Iambic): One weak syllable followed by one accented syllable.
• Trochee (Trochaic): One accented syllable followed by one weak syllable.
• Anapæst (Anapæstic): Two weak syllables followed by one accented syllable.
• Dactyl (Dactylic): One accented syllable followed by two weak syllables.
• Spondee (Spondaic): Two consecutive accented syllables. This can usually be found at the end of a line.

Iambic Pentameter: (5 iambs, 10 syllables) Iambic pentameter is a commonly used metrical line in traditional verse and verse drama. The term describes the particular rhythm that the words establish in that line. The word "iambic" describes the type of foot that is used (in English, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). The word "pentameter" indicates that a line has five of these "feet."

                        That time       of year         thou mayst     in me         behold

                        X        /        X     /            X         /       X    /          X    /

Trochaic Tetrameter: (4 Trochees, 8 syllables) The word "trochee" describes the type of foot that is used (in English, a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable). The word "tetrameter" indicates that a line has four of these "feet."

                        Tell me        not   in           mournful           numbers

                            /      X           /      X            /       X             /        X

9- Rhyme Scheme: a pattern of rhyme (usually end rhyme, but not always). In the analysis of a poem. We use the letters of the alphabet to represent sounds to be able to visually “see” the pattern (aa bb cc dd…).

10- Repetition: poets often choose to repeat sounds, words, phrases, or whole lines in a poem. Sometimes, repetition reinforces or even substitutes for meter (the beat), the other chief controlling factor of poetry. The repetition of a phrase in poetry may have an incantatory effect (spell like). Sometimes the effect of a repeated phrase in a poem will be to emphasize an idea, a development or change by means of the contrast in the words following the identical phrases or to create a certain feeling.

11- Refrain: the repetition of one or more phrases or lines at certain intervals, usually at the end of each stanza and similar to the chorus in a song.

12- Alliteration: is a stylistic device in which a series of words or phrases, having the same first consonant sound, occur together in close succession. Alliteration includes tongue twisters. Example: She sells seashells by the seashore.

13- Assonance: takes place when two or more words close to one another repeat the same vowel sound but start with different consonant sounds. Assonance is primarily used in poetry in order to add rhythm and music, by adding an internal rhyme to a poem.

14- Onomatopoeia: is the use of a word to describe or imitate a natural sound or the sound made by an object or an action it represents. Example: snap, crackle, pop, hiss…etc.

15-  Diction: can be defined as style of speaking or writing determined by the choice of words by a speaker or a writer. (denotative vs. connotative diction).

16- Tone: refers to the writer's attitude towards the subject of a literary work as indicated in the work itself. One way to think about tone in poetry is to consider the speaker's literal "tone of voice": just as with tone of voice, a poem's tone may indicate an attitude of joy, sadness, solemnity, silliness, frustration, anger, puzzlement, etc.

17- Mood: the attitude a reader takes toward his/her subject. It is one element in the narrative structure of a piece of literature. It can also be referred to as atmosphere because it creates an emotional setting enveloping the reader. Mood is established in order to affect the reader emotionally and psychologically and to provide a feeling for the narrative. It is a complex reading strategy.

Literary Devices and Techniques:

Are structures (words or phrases) in literary texts (found in the three genres and not strictly poetry). These tools are employed by authors to convey meaning, attain aesthetic value, and ultimately lend depth and richness to their writings. They include:

• Allegory: is a story or image with several layers of meaning: behind the literal or surface meaning lie one or more secondary meanings, of varying degrees of complexity.
• Allusion: usually an implicit reference, perhaps to another work of literature or art, to a person or an event. It is often a kind of appeal to a reader to share some experience with the writer. An allusion may enrich the work by association and give it depth.
• Symbolism and Symbols: the presentation of a tangible object that actually represents an abstract or intangible concept or idea is symbolism. Symbols in poetry are said to be those words and group of words, which have a range of reference beyond their literal denotation.  A symbol can be presented to the readers in the form of a character, an object strategically placed in the narrative, a word or phrase, or even a place. A symbol is mostly subtle in nature or at least never blatantly explained. Symbols are mostly multi-layered and can be interpreted differently by different people.
• Metonymy: the term for when one thing is applied to another with which it has become closely associated. ‘The crown’, for example, can be used to refer to a king.
• Synecdoche: in synecdoche a part of something is used to signify the whole or vice versa, although the latter form is quite rare. An example of synecdoche from everyday speech can be found in the proverb ‘Many hands make light work’, where the expression ‘many hands’ means ‘the labour of many people’. An example of the whole representing a part can be found in expressions such as ‘I’m reading Dickens’, where an attribute of a literary work (i.e., it was written by Charles Dickens) is substituted for the work itself.
• Idioms: according to Webster's Dictionary, an idiom is defined as: peculiar to itself either grammatically (as no, it wasn't me) or in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements. Example: Monday week for the Monday a week after next Monday.
• Imagery: is the use of vivid description, usually rich in sensory words, to primarily create pictures, or images, in the reader’s mind, and to also represent objects, actions, feelings, thoughts, ideas, states of mind and any sensory or extra-sensory experience. Although most of the image-making words in any language appeal to the sense of sight (visual images), there are different kinds of it that has been used by writers over the ages. There are also images of touch (tactile), sound (auditory), taste (gustatory), smell (olfactory), movement (kinaesthetic), and internal sensations (organic). A good writer does not use imagery merely to decorate a piece of writing (be it a poem, fiction, or drama). He/she asks himself/herself, “How can I make my subject appear to the reader exactly as it appears to me?”. Imagery helps him/her solve this problem, for it enables him/her to present his/her subject as it is: as it looks, smells, tastes, feels and sounds. To the reader, imagery is equally important: it provides his/her imagination with something palpable to seize upon.
• Figures of Speech: a figure of speech is any use of language which deviates from the obvious or common usage in order to achieve a special meaning or effect. The density and originality of a writer’s use of figures of speech is part of his characteristic style. There are many different figures of speech. The most widely used are:

Ø  Simile: a simile is a figure of speech in which a direct comparison is drawn between two distinctly different concepts, objects, or people using a verb like ‘resembles’ or connectives such as ‘like’, ‘as’ or ‘than’ to suggest they are alike.

Ø  Metaphor: is a figure of speech which is the basic figure and most commonly used in poetry. It is an implied comparison (indirect parallel drawn between two completely unrelated things) which creates a total identification between the two things being compared. connectives such as ‘like’ or ‘as’ are not used. A metaphor usually has more layers and depth than a simile which in the resemblance is usually more linear. Any metaphor can also have multiple interpretations depending on how complicated the poet chooses to make it.

Ø  Personification: is a figure of speech in the form of comparison in which human qualities and characteristics, such as emotions, personality, and behavior and so on, are attributed to an animal, object or idea. The primary function of personification is to make abstract ideas clearer to the reader by comparing them to every human experience. Humanizing cold and complex abstractions can bring them to life, render them more interesting and make them easier to understand.

Ø  Oxymoron: a figure of speech which combines incongruous and apparently contradictory words and meanings for a special effect; as in Milton’s ‘darkness visible’ or Lamb’s celebrated remark: ‘I like a smuggler. He is the only honest thief.’ It is a common device, closely related to antithesis and paradox, especially in poetry.

Ø  Irony: (dissimulation) is a device that emphasizes the contrast between the way things are expected to be and the way they actually are. An example of irony from Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is when lost in the sea, the sailors reflect saying “Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink”. The irony lies in the fact that surrounded by water and only water, yet the sailors cannot drench their thirst.

Ø  Paradox: an apparently self-contradictory (even absurd) statement which, on closer inspection, is found to contain a truth reconciling the conflicting opposites. Example from Milton’s description of God: ‘Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear’.

Ø  Hyperbole: an exaggeration that is so dramatic that no one would believe the statement is true yet used for the purpose of emphasis. Example: He was so hungry, he ate that whole cornfield for lunch, stalks and all.

18- Theme: all the poetic elements we have just covered; whether the literary elements or devices, help the poet establish the theme. Just as in fiction, the theme of the poem talks about the central idea, the thought behind what the poet wants to convey. A theme can be anything from a description about a person or thing, a thought or even a story. In short, a theme stands for whatever the poem is about. A theme usually may be expressed in several different ways and is often presented in a subtle manner (implicitly).

Note: the literary devices and techniques presented in this lesson are not unique to Poetry alone. They can be found and are used widely in all the genres of literature discussed.