• is literature in verse form, a controlled

arrangement of lines and stanzas. Poems

use concise, musical, and emotionally
charged language to express multiple
layers of meaning.
• the word poetry is derived from the Greek
poiesis, meaning a “making” or “creating.”
It is a form of art in which language is
used.
In poetry the
sound and meaning
of words are
combined to
express feelings,
thoughts, and
ideas.
ELEMENTS

Sound
Imagery
Figures of Speech
Form
Mood/Tone
Theme
 Sound
Writers love to use interesting sounds in
their poems. After all, poems are meant to
be heard. These sound devices include:
• Rhythm
• Rhyme
• Alliteration
• Onomatopoeia
• Repetition

4
 Rhythm:
• Rhythm is the flow of the
beat in a poem.
• Gives poetry a musical feel.
• Can be fast or slow,
depending on mood and
subject of poem.
• You can measure rhythm in
meter, by counting the
beats in each line.
 Rhythm Example
The Pickety Fence by David McCord
The pickety fence
The pickety fence
Give it a lick it's
The pickety fence
Give it a lick it's
A clickety fence
Give it a lick it's a lickety fence
Give it a lick
Give it a lick
Give it a lick
With a rickety stick
pickety The rhythm in this poem is fast –
pickety to match the speed of the stick
pickety striking the fence.
pick.
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 Rhythm Example
Where Are You Now?
When the night begins to fall
And the sky begins to glow
You look up and see the tall
City of lights begin to grow –
In rows and little golden squares
The lights come out. First here, then
there
Behind the windowpanes as though The rhythm in this poem is
A million billion bees had built slow – to match the night
Their golden hives and honeycombs gently falling and the
Above you in the air. lights slowly coming on.

By Mary Britton Miller

7
 RHYME:

The repetition of the same or similar sounds,

usually in stressed syllables at the ends of
lines, but sometimes within a line.

• Internal rhyme occurs within a line of poetry.

• End rhyme occurs at the end of lines.
Example
“All mine!" Yertle cried. "Oh, the things I now rule! A
I'm king of a cow! And I'm king of a mule! A
I'm king of a house! And what's more, beyond that, B
I'm king of a blueberry bush and cat! B
I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me! C
For I am the ruler of all that I see!” C
from “Yertle the Turtle”
by Dr. Seuss
“Penelope” by Dorothy Parker
A
In the pathway of the sun,
B
In the footsteps of the breeze,
Where the world and sky are one, A

He shall ride the silver seas, B

He shall cut the glittering wave. C
I shall sit at home, and rock; D
Rise, to heed a neighbor’s knock; D
Brew my tea, and snip my thread; E
Bleach the linen for my bed. E
They will call him brave. C
 Rhyme Scheme
The rhyming pattern that is created at
the end of lines of poetry.

Mary had a little lamb, A

Its fleece as white as snow. B
And everywhere that Mary went, C
The lamb was sure to go. B

If the poem does not have a rhyme

scheme it is considered to be a
free verse poem.
 ALLITERATION:
The repetition of consonant sounds at the
beginnings of words.

Seven silver swans swam silently seaward.

Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers.

 Onomatopoeia
• Words that represent the
actual sound of something
are words of
onomatopoeia. Dogs
“bark,” cats “purr,”
thunder “booms,” rain
“drips,” and the clock
“ticks.”
• Appeals to the sense of
sound.
• (See next slide for
example.) 13
 Onomatopoeia Example
Listen
Scrunch, scrunch, scrunch.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
Frozen snow and brittle ice
Make a winter sound that’s
nice
Underneath my stamping feet
And the cars along the street.
Scrunch, scrunch, scrunch.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
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by Margaret Hillert
 Repetition
The repeating of a particular sound
devise to create an effect.

To create emphasis, a poet may repeat

words or lines within the poem.
 Repetition Example
The Sun

Some one tossed a pancake,

A buttery, buttery, pancake.
Someone tossed a pancake
And flipped it up so high,
That now I see the pancake,
The buttery, buttery pancake,
Now I see that pancake
Stuck against the sky.

by Sandra Liatsos
16
 Imagery
 Imagery is the use of
words to create pictures,
or images, in your mind.
 Appeals to the five senses:
smell, sight, hearing, taste
and touch. Five Senses

 Details about smells,

sounds, colors, and taste
create strong images.
 To create vivid images
writers use figures of
speech. 17
IMAGERY
Poets use words that Which senses does the
appeal to the reader’s following stanza appeal
senses of sight, to?
sound, touch, taste,
and smell. Back, he spurred like a madman,
shouting curses to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind
him and his rapier brandished high.

Sight?
Sound?
FIGURES OF SPEECH

Figures of speech are a special kind of

imagery.

They create pictures by making

comparisons.
 SIMILE
A comparison using like or as.

Talk of your cold! through the parka’s

fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
 METAPHOR:

Describes one thing as if it were

another.

The moon was a ghostly galleon

tossed upon cloudy seas.
 PERSONIFICATION:

Gives human characteristics to something

nonhuman.

…and the stars o’erhead

were dancing heel and toe…
 In “The Highwayman,” images create a
picture of Tim.

Which figures are used to describe his eyes

and his hair?

His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like

moldy hay,

eyes : hollows of madness : Metaphor

hair : moldy hay : Simile
 Which figures are used to
describe the following?
• My love is like a • Simile
rose.

• Our love bloomed in • Personification

the garden.

• The rose tipped its • Personification

head as we passed
by.
Mood
• Mood is the atmosphere,
or emotion, in the poem
created by the poet.
• Can be happy, angry, silly,
sad, excited, fearful or
thoughtful.
• Poet uses words and
images to create mood.
• Author’s purpose helps
determine mood.

25
 Tone

– a reflection of the poet’s attitude toward the

subject of a poem. Tone can be serious,
sarcastic, humorous, etc.

The only other sounds the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
THEME
The theme of a poem is its central or
main idea.

To identify a poem’s theme, ask

yourself what ideas or insights about
life or human nature you have found in
the poem.
FORM
• A poem’s form is its What is the purpose of the first
appearance. Poems are stanza of “The Highwayman”?
divided into lines. Many
poems, especially longer ones, The wind was a torrent of darkness,
may also be divided into among the gusty trees.
groups of lines called stanzas. The moon was a ghostly galleon
tossed upon cloudy seas.
• Stanzas function like The road was a ribbon of moonlight
paragraphs in a story. Each over the purple moor,
one contains a single idea or And the highwayman came riding -
takes the idea one step
Riding – riding –
further.
The highwayman came riding up to
the old inn door.

Sets the scene

 Forms of Poetry
There are many forms of poetry including the:
• Couplet
• Tercet
• Quatrain
• Acrostic
• Traditional Cinquain
• Word COunt
• Diamante
• Haiku
• Senryu
• Concrete Poem
• Free Verse 29
• Limerick
 Lines and Stanzas
• Most poems are March
written in lines. A blue day
• A group of lines in A blue jay
a poem is called a
stanza. And a good beginning.
• Stanzas separate
ideas in a poem. One crow,
They act like Melting snow –
paragraphs.
Spring’s winning!
• This poem has two
stanzas. By Eleanor Farjeon

30
 Tercet
• A tercet is a poem, or
stanza, written in
three lines.
• Usually rhymes.
• Lines 1 and 2 can
rhyme; lines 1 and 3
can rhyme; sometimes
all 3 lines rhyme. Winter Moon
How thin and sharp is the moon tonight!
How thin and sharp and ghostly white
Is the slim curved crook of the moon tonight!
By Langston Hughes
31
 Quatrain
• A quatrain is a poem, or
stanza, written in four
lines.
• The quatrain is the most
common form of stanza
used in poetry.
• Usually rhymes. The Lizard
• Can be written in variety The lizard is a timid thing
of rhyming patterns. That cannot dance or fly or sing;
• (See slide 9 entitled He hunts for bugs beneath the floor
“Rhyming Patterns.”)
And longs to be a dinosaur.
By John Gardner
32
 Traditional Cinquain
• A cinquain is a poem
written in five lines that
do not rhyme.
• Traditional cinquain has
five lines containing 22
syllables in the following
pattern: Oh, cat
Line 1 – 2 syllables are you grinning
Line 2 – 4 syllables curled in the window seat
Line 3 – 6 syllables
as sun warms you this December
Line 4 – 8 syllables
Line 5 – 2 syllables morning?
By Paul B. Janezco
33
 Word-Count Cinquain
• Word-count cinquain for
younger students uses the
following pattern:

Line 1: One word (title)

Line 2: Two words (describe the
title)
Line 3: Three words (describe an
Owl
action)
Line 4: Four words (describe a Swift, ferocious
feeling) Watches for food
Line 5: One word (another word
for Soaring through the night
title) Hunter
34
 Diamante
Diamante Pattern
• A diamante is a seven- Line 1 – Your topic (noun)
line poem written in
Line 2 – Two adjectives about
the shape of a
diamond. Line 3 – Three “ing” words about

• Does not rhyme. Line 4 – Four nouns or short

phrase linking topic (or topics)
• Follows pattern. Line 5 – Three “ing” words about
• Can use synonyms or Line 6 – Two adjectives about
antonyms.
Line 7 – Your ending topic (noun)
• (See next two slides
for examples.)
35
 Synonym Diamante
Monsters
Creepy, sinister,
Hiding, lurking, stalking,
Vampires, mummies, werewolves and more –
Chasing, pouncing eating,
Hungry, scary,
Creatures

36
 Antonym Diamante
Day
Bright, sunny,
Laughing, playing, doing,
Up in the east, down in the west
–
Talking, resting, sleeping,
Quiet, dark,
Night

37
 Haiku
• A haiku is a Japanese
poem with 3 lines of 5,
7, and 5 syllables.
(Total of 17 syllables.)
• Does not rhyme.
• Is about an aspect of
nature or the seasons. Little frog among

• Captures a moment in rain-shaken leaves, are you, too,

time. splashed with fresh, green paint?

by Gaki

38
 Senryu

• A senryu follows same

pattern as haiku.
• Written in 3 unrhymed
lines of 5, 7, and 5
syllables, with total of
17 syllables.
First day, new school year,
• Is about human nature,
rather than natural backpack harbors a fossil…
world. last June’s cheese sandwich.

By Cristine
O’Connell George
39
 Concrete Poem
• A concrete poem (also
called shape poem) is
written in the shape of
its subject.
• The way the words are
arranged is as
important what they
mean.
• Does not have to
rhyme. 40
 Free Verse
Revenge
• A free verse poem
When I find out
does not use rhyme who took
or patterns. the last cooky

• Can vary freely in out of the jar

and left
length of lines, me a bunch of
stanzas, and subject. stale old messy
crumbs, I'm
going to take

me a handful
and crumb
up someone's bed.

By Myra Cohn
Livingston
41
 Acrostic
• In an acrostic poem
the first letter of
each line, read down
the page, spells the
subject of the poem.
• Type of free verse Loose brown parachute

poem. Escaping

• Does not usually And

rhyme. Floating on puffs of air.
by Paul Paolilli

42
An acrostic poem using the
beginning of lines
 An acrostic poem using the end of
lines
 An acrostic poem using the middle of the
lines
 Limerick

• A limerick is a funny
poem of 5 lines.
• Lines 1, 2 & 5 rhyme.
• Lines 3 & 4 are
shorter and rhyme. THERE SEEMS TO BE A PROBLEM
• Line 5 refers to line I really don’t know about Jim.
1. When he comes to our farm for a swim,

• Limericks are a kind The fish as a rule,

of nonsense poem. jump out of the pool.

Is there something the matter with him?
By John Ciardi
46
 A Wonderful Bird Is The Pelican

A wonderful bird is the pelican,

His bill will hold more than his belican,
He can take in his beak
Enough food for a week
But I'm damned if I see how the helican!