ELEMEMTS OF POETRY

ELEMENTS

• Form
• Sound devices
• Imagery
• Mood/Tone
• Theme

POETRY IS A FORM OF WRITING THAT USES NOT ONLY WORDS

• Form
• Patterns of sound
• Imagery
• figurative language to convey the message
• All poetry will use some forms of these elements

FORM

• Appearance of the poem
• Many lines called stanzas
• Function like a paragraph each tells a story or idea
• The purpose of the first stanza sets the scene
• Ex) one dark and stormy winters night

TECHNIQUES

• Rhythm
• Rhyme

RHYTHM

• The pattern of beats or stresses in a poem
• Try beating out the rhythm:
• Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
• Humpy Dumpty had a great fall

RHYME SCHEME

• Pattern created at the-end of a line
• Mary had a little lamb
• Whose fleece was white as snow
• And everywhere that Mary went
• The lamb was sure to go

IMAGERY

• Poets use words that appeal to the senses
• Smell sight touch taste sound
• Figures of speech also create comparisons
• Places the reader in the moment

METAPHORS

• Describes one thing as it were another
• Her heart was as cold as ice...
• Her eyes shine like diamonds through the night

THEME

• The theme is it's central or main idea
• To identify a theme ask yourself what the main point is
• Is it happy, sad, moody, winter, spring, summer, fall