Introduction to Poetry

Poetry is the most misunderstood form of

writing. It is also arguably the purest form of
writing. Poetry is a sense of the beautiful;
characterized by a love of beauty and
expressing this through words. It is art. Like art it
is very difficult to define because it is an
expression of what the poet thinks and feels and
may take any form the poet chooses for this
expression.
Poetry is not easily defined. Often it
takes the form of verse, but not all
poetry has this structure. Poetry is a
creative use of words which, like all
art, is intended to stir an emotion in
the audience. Poetry generally has
some structure that separates it from
prose.
The basic unit of poetry is the line. It serves
the same function as the sentence in prose,
although most poetry maintains the use of
grammar within the structure of the poem.
Most poems have a structure in which each
line contains a set amount of syllables; this
is called meter. Lines are also often grouped
into stanzas.
The stanza in poetry is equivalent or
equal to the paragraph in prose. Often
the lines in a stanza will have a
specific rhyme scheme. Some of the
more common stanzas are:
Couplet: a two line stanza
Triplet: a three line stanza
Quatrain: a four line stanza
Cinquain: a five line stanza
 Meter is the measured arrangement of words in
poetry, the rhythmic pattern of a stanza,
determined by the kind and number of lines.
Meter is an organized way to arrange
stressed/accented syllables and
unstressed/unaccented syllables.

Whose woods / these are / I think /I know

Rhyme is when the endings of the words sound the
same. Read the poem with me out loud.

Dust of Snow
by Robert Frost
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And save some part
Of a day I had rued.
 Rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming
words at the end of each line. Not all
poetry has a rhyme scheme. They are not
hard to identify, but you must look carefully
at which words rhyme and which do not.

Dust of Snow
Poems of by Robert Frost
more than A The way a crow
one stanza B Shook down on me
often repeat A The dust of snow
the same B From a hemlock tree
rhyme C Has given my heart
scheme in D A change of mood
each stanza. C And save some part
D Of a day I had rued.
Repetition is the repeating of a sound, word,
or phrase for emphasis.

Inside
☺Inside the house
(I get ready)
☺ Inside the car
(I go to school)
☺Inside the school
(I wait for the bell to ring)
Whenever you describe something by
comparing it with something else, you are
using figurative language. Figurative
language is any language that goes beyond
the literal meaning of words in order to
furnish new effects or fresh insights into an
idea or a subject. The most common figures
of speech are simile, metaphor, and
alliteration. Figurative language is used in
poetry to compare two things that are usually
not thought of as being alike.
 A simile is a figure of speech
in which two essentially
unlike things are compared,
often in a phrase introduced
by like or as.

The clouds looked like cotton candy.

Grandpa was as stubborn as a mule
Tom's head is as hard as a rock.
A metaphor is a figure of speech in
which an implied comparison is made
between two unlike things that actually
have something important in
common.

Clouds are cotton

They are fluffy.
candy.
Grandpa was a They are stubborn.
mule.
They are hard.
Tom is a rock.
Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds
or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning
of words or in stressed syllables, as in "on scrolls
of silver snowy sentences" (Hart Crane). Modern
alliteration is predominantly consonantal. To find
an alliteration, you must look the repetitions of
the same consonant sound through out a line.

_
Silvery _
snowflakes fall _
silently
_
Softly _
sheathing all with moonlight
Until _
sunrise _
slowly _
shows
_
Snow _
softening _swiftly.

Now you try the one in your notebook.

 Imagery is an appeal to the senses. The poet
describes something to help you to see, hear, touch,
taste, or smell the topic of the poem.

Fog
The fog comes on little cat feet. SEE, HEAR
SEE
It sits looking over harbor and city
HEAR, SEE,
on silent haunches and then moves
on. FEEL

Now do the poem in your notebook.

 An exaggerated statement used to heighten effect is
a hyperbole. It is not used to mislead the reader, but
to emphasize a point.

I’ve told you a million times not to leave

the dirty glass on the table.

The exaggeration in the number

of times.

In your notebook, write two more hyperbole. Have

your neighbor check them.
An idiom is a phrase where the words together
have a meaning that is different from the
dictionary definitions of the individual words.
This can make idioms hard for students to
understand.

A day late and a dollar short.

This idiom means
it is too little, too late.

Write two more examples of idioms to share

with the class.
The formation or use of words such as buzz or
murmur that imitate the sounds associated
with the objects or actions they refer to is
called an onomatopoeia. It is a word or a
grouping of words that imitates the sound it is
describing, such as animal noises like "oink"
or "meow", or suggesting its source object
(these are the more important ones), such as
"boom", "click", "bunk", "clang", "buzz", or
"bang".

Write two more examples of

onomatopoeia.
SOUND OF NATURE
by Marie Josephine
Smith
____ tocking.
Ticking, ____
Head is rocking.
Tippy toeing.
Quietly.
________
Snap, crack.
Crushing branch.
Helter, skelter.
Run for shelter.
____ ____
Pitter, patter.
Rain starts to fall.
Gathering momentum.
Becomes a roar.
____
Thunder booms.
A figure of speech, which gives the qualities
of a person to an animal, an object, or an
idea is called personification. It is a
comparison, which the author uses to show
something in an entirely new light, to
communicate a certain feeling or attitude
towards it and to control the way a reader
perceives it.

A brave handsome tree fell with a

creaking rending cry.
The author is giving a tree the human
quality of bravery and the ability to
cry.
Write your two of your own examples.
Free verse is just what it says it is - poetry that
is written without proper rules about form,
rhyme, rhythm, and meter. In free verse the
writer makes his/her own rules. The writer
decides how the poem should look, feel, and
sound.
Winter Poem
By Nikki Giovanni
once a snowflake fell
on my brow and i loved
it so much and i kissed
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me then
i reached to love them all
and i squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and i stood perfectly
still and was a flower
Haiku is one of the most important forms of
traditional Japanese poetry. Haiku is, today,
a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three
metered lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Each
Haiku must contain a kigo, or a season
word, which indicates in which season the
Haiku is set. For example, cherry blossoms
indicate spring, snow indicates winter, and
mosquitoes indicate summer, but the
season word isn't always that obvious.

In the next three haikus, try to

guess the theme.
Fog
Haikus By Paul McCann
On the mountain top Rain
The fog fell down thick
and fast Tip-tap goes the rain.
It was like pea soup. As it hits the window pane
Hail I can hear the rain.

They fell in showers.

Like diamonds upon the
ground
Big hailstones were
found.
The theme of these three poems is
weather in late autumn or early
winter.

Write your own Haiku…

The simplicity of the limerick quite possibly
accounts for its extreme longevity. It consists of
five lines with the rhyme scheme a a b b a. The
first, second, and fifth lines are trimeter, a verse
with three measures, while the third and fourth
lines are dimeter, a verse with two measures.
Often the third and fourth lines are printed as a
single line with internal rhyme.
Old Man with a Beard
Edward Lear
There was an Old Man with a beard, A
Who said, 'It is just as I feared! A
Two Owls and a Hen, B
Four Larks and a Wren, B
Have all built their nests in my beard!' A

Write your own limerick…have fun!

 A narrative poem, often of folk origin and
intended to be sung, consisting of simple stanzas
and usually having a refrain.

The Ballade Of The Mistletoe Bough

by Ellis Parker Butler

I am standing under the mistletoe,

And I smile, but no answering smile replies
For her haughty glance bids me plainly know
That not for me is the thing I prize;
Instead, from her coldly scornful eyes,
Indifference looks on my barefaced guile;
She knows, of course, what my act implies—
But look at those lips! Do they hint a smile?
 I stand here, eager, and beam and glow,
And she only looks a refined surprise
As clear and crisp and as cold as snow,
And as—Stop! I will never criticize!
I know what her cold glance signifies;
But I’ll stand just here as I am awhile
Till a smile to my pleading look replies—
But look at those lips! Do they hint a smile?

Just look at those lips, now! I claim they show

A spirit unmet under Christmas skies;
I claim that such lips on such maidens owe
A—something—the custom justifies;
I claim that the mistletoe rule applies
To her as well as the rank and file;
We should meet these things in a cheerful guise—
But look at those lips! Do they hint a smile?
Some might consider the study of poetry old
fashioned, yet even in our hurried lives we are
surrounded by it: children's rhymes, verses
from songs, corny commercial jingles, well
written texts. Any time we recognize words as
interesting for sound, meaning or construct, we
note poetics.