1. ELEMENTS OF
POETRY
Invitation
By Jack Prelusky
If you are a dreamer, come in
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er. a magic bean buyer…
If you are a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!
2. What is Poetry?
a type of literature that expresses
ideas, feelings, or tells a story in a specific form
the art of expressing one’s thoughts in verse
Uses few words to convey it’s message
Arouses our emotions
Poems use imagery or figures of speech to explain
feelings or to create a mental picture or idea
Suggest action or mood
Many poems have a specific rhyme scheme using
lines and stanzas
Poems can rhyme or not rhyme
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4. Kinds of Stanzas
• COUPLET = two line stanza
• TRIPLET = three line stanza
• QUATRAIN = four line stanza
• QUINTET = five line stanza
• SESTET = six line stanza
• SEPTET = seven line stanza
• OCTAVE = eight line stanza
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5. More on Stanzas
Example of stanzas in poetry
“First & Last” by David McCord
1 A tadpole hasn’t a pole at all.
And he doesn’t live in a hole in the wall
4 stanzas in couplets
2 You’ve got it wrong: a polecat’s not
A cat on a pole. And I’ll tell you what:
3 A bullfrog’s never a bull; and how
Could a cowbird possibly be a cow?
Each stanza signals a
new image
4 A kingbird though, is a kind of king
And he chases a crow like anything.
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6. Use of Lines in Poetry
1
2
3
4
“To a Snowflake”
Hello little snowflake!
Where are all your friends?
Should I expect a lot of them
before the morning ends?
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6
7
8
I love it when you come to me
and you all fall down together
And I get dressed to visit you
Toasty warm in cold, cold weather.
8 lines organizes
into 2 quatrains
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7. Point of View in Poetry
POET: author of the poem
“It’s Dark in Here”
By Shel Silverstein
SPEAKER: “narrator” of the
poem
“As Soon as Fred Gets Out of Bed”
By Jack Prelusky
I am writing these poems
As soon as Fred gets out of bed,
From inside a lion,
his underwear goes on his head.
His mother laughs, "Don't put it there,
And it's rather dark in here.
a head's no place for underwear!"
So please excuse the handwriting
But near his ears, above his brains,
is where Fred's underwear remains.
Which may not be too clear.
But this afternoon by the lion's cage
At night when Fred goes back to bed,
I'm afraid I got too near.
he deftly plucks it off his head.
His mother switches off the light
And I'm writing these lines
and softly croons, "Good night! Good
From inside a lion,
night!"
And it's rather dark in here.
And then, for reasons no one knows,
Fred's underwear goes on his toes.
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8. Figures of Speech
used in Poetry
•
•
•
•
•
•
Hyperbole (exaggeration)
Simile
Metaphor
Onomatopoeia (bang, pow)
Personification
Idiom
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9. Sound Effects in Poetry
• Rhythm
– The beat created by the sounds of the words in a
poem
– Can be created by meter, rhyme, alliteration, and
refrain
• Meter
– Pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
– Occurs when the stressed and unstressed syllables
of the words in a poem are arranged in a repeating
pattern.
• Rhyme
– Words sound alike because they share the same
ending vowel and consonant sound
– Ex. LAMP & STAMP
• Share the short “a” vowel sound
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• Share the combined “mp” consonant sound
10. Sound Effects in Poetry
• End Rhyme
– Word at the end of one line rhymes with a
word at the end of another line
– EX. Hector the Collector
Collected bit of string
Collected dolls with broken heads
And rusty bells that would not ring
• Internal Rhyme
– A word inside a line rhymes with another word
on the same line
– Ex. Upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered
weak and weary.
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11. Sound Effects in Poetry
• Rhyme Scheme
– A pattern of
rhyme (usually
end rhyme, but
not always)
– Use the letters
of the alphabet
to represent
sounds to be
able to visually
“see” the pattern
“The Germ” by Ogden Nash
A mighty creature is the germ
A
Though smaller than the pachyderm. A
His customary dwelling place
B
Is deep within the human race.
B
His childish pride he often pleases
C
By giving people strange diseases.
C
Do you, my poppet, feel infirm?
A
You probably contain a germ.
A
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12. Sound Effects in Poetry
• Refrain
– A sound, word, phrase, or line
repeated regularly in a poem
• Alliteration
– Consonant sounds repeated at the
beginning of words
– Ex. If Peter Piper picked a peck of
pickled peppers, how many pickled
peppers did Peter Piper pick?
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16. Types of Poetry
Fire
Red, hot
Burning, scalding, blistering
Heat, flames – frost, freezer
Cooling, soothing, refreshing
Cold, chilly
Ice
a. 7 line
poem;
describes
two nouns
opposite
each
other
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17. Types of Poetry
a. Simple narrative poem
b. Story told though
action and dialogue
c. Deals with subjects
such as
adventure, love, jealous
y, heroism, disaster, or
revenge.
d. 4 line stanza
e. ABAB rhyme scheme
f. Usually has a refrain
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19. Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
When the blazing sun is gone,
When there's nothing he shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, through the night.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
In the dark blue sky so deep
Through my curtains often peep
For you never close your eyes
Til the morning sun does rise
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
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20. Let’s put some
TWISTS on Poetry!
TONE & MOOD
WORD CHOICE
convey a message)
(words or phrases the author uses to
IMAGERY & DETAIL
STYLE (figures of speech, symbols & other devices)
THEME (determine what the poet is saying)
STRUCTURE
(punctuation, line length, stanzas, etc.)
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