What is poetry?

Complete the Sentence

MISS, WHY DO I NEED TO LEARN POETRY?

• There are many advantages to be found in studying & reciting poetry:
• Poetry offers examples of mastery of language
• Stocks the mind with images and ideas expressed in unforgettable words
• Poetry trains and develops our emotional intelligence
• Poetry reminds us that language is holistic (expressed through tone, inflection, rhythm)

Poetry lets us see the world through others eyes, equips us imaginatively and spiritually to face the joys and challenges of our lives, and widens our scope of sympathy for the vastness of human experience.

Brainstorm:
Reciting part or all of a poem can be useful in a variety of real-life situations. What could those situation be?

WHY DO POETS WRITE POETRY?

UNDERSTANDING POETRY
A poem may hold different meaning for each reader. You may read a poem and have an understanding that is different than the author's intended message.

POINT OF VIEW IN POETRY:
Poet - author of the poem
Speaker - "narrator" of the poem or the character within the poem
*The speaker/narrator is not the poet!

How is the poem organized?
Line: a group of words together on one line of the poem
Stanza: a group of lines arranged together

Kinds of Stanzas:
Couplet - Two lines
Triplet: Three lines
Quatrain: Four lines
Quintet: Five lines
Quintet: Five lines
Sestet: Six lines
Septet: Seven lines
Octave: Eight lines

POETIC DEVICES
Alliteration - The repetition of the same consonant (especially at the beginning of words)
WHY? - can create a musical effects or focus the reader's attention on certain qualities in the poem

ALLITERATION EXAMPLES:
"Leaves murmuring by myriads in the shimmering trees."
"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers."

HYPERBOLE
Hyperbole - hi-purr-bow-lee
- an exaggeration or overstatement
EXAMPLES:
"I'm so hungry, I could eat a cow!"
"These units will never end."

IMAGERY
Language that appeals to one or more of the five senses (seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching)
Describe smells, tastes, textures, sounds, visuals - should entice reader's imagination

IRONY
Irony of meaning: what is said is different from what is intended
- Situational irony: Expectations aroused by a situation are reversed
- Cosmic irony: Misfortune is a result of fate, chance or God
- Dramatic Irony: The audience knows more than the characters in the play - creates additional meaning for the audience.

"The Ancient Mariner" Coleridge

"Water, water, everywhere
And all the boards did shrink
Water, water, everywhere
Nor any drop to drink."

It is ironic that there is water everywhere but there is none available to be drunk.

ONOMATOPOEIA
- a word that imitates the sound it represents
Examples: splash, gush, buzz, rush, slush, ring, crunch, crack, slurp

PERSONIFICATION
Giving human qualities to animals or objects.
Examples: "The dawn walks over the dew of the high hills."
"The sun smiled warmly."

RHYME SCHEME
- The repetition of the same sound at the end of the line
- Usually follows a pattern.
- The first sound is assigned an "a", and all lines that rhyme with it are also marked with an "a". The next sound is assigned a "b" and so on.

EXAMPLE:
There once was a big brown cat.
That liked to eat a lot of mice.
He got all round and fat.
Because they tasted so nice.

If the stanza does not rhyme with the first, you begin by assigning the letter "c" and so on throughout the alphabet.

SYMBOL
Anything that represents or stands for something else.
Examples:
Cross - symbol for Christianity
Skull - symbol of death
Dove - symbol of peace, love

THEME
- The main point, message or argument of a piece of literature
- Can be general, but also usually involves some specific message about the general idea
Example: "love" is not good enough - what is the poet saying about love?

TYPES OF POEMS
Free Verse: Poetry that has no regular pattern of rhythm, rhyme or line length. Free verse poems experiment with words to create images of the reader.

CONCRETE:
Concrete poetry experiments with the very materials of the poem itself: words, letters, format. The final product does what it says in that the meaning of the poem is demonstrated through some kind of concrete image made with words, letters, etc. Concrete poems rely heavily on the visual or phonetic to get across the meaning.

BALLAD:
A long poem that tells a story, usually a folk tale or legend, in rhyme. Often set to music, the traditional ballad typically has a refrain or chorus that adds to its musical qualities.