3.1: Poetry

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Tweet by @CRLamothe on December 6, 2021 says: 2 years after my brother died, I showed a poem of my grief to a trusted friend who after reading told me I needed to just move on. I've since published countless essays abt my brother's loss & this is a reminder to not let anyone invalidate your grieving or creative expression.

chapter 3: poetry

Poetry\(^{42}\) is easy to recognize but hard to define.

Let's start with Webster's definition: "The art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts." As lovely as that sounds, it may already say too much about this unique and unpredictable art form. Rhythm is important; it's perhaps the only element in poetry we can truly count on. Rhymes are optional, but some sort of rhythm to the reading of quality poetry will always almost exist.

We can experience poetry through our eyes or our ears. It is usually meant to excite pleasure, but it can also reflect sorrow or regret. That brings us to "beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts."

Poetry often contains these things, but sometimes it can just be silly and simple. So, while Webster's Dictionary defines poetry in specific words, it still may not include the full picture of what poetry is.

Poetry does not mean to limit us. Find poems you love and share them with classmates and friends. Discover your own meanings in poetry and discuss those meanings without making them conform to an understood critical meaning. Poetry can be sweet or silly, short or long, fun, thoughtful, or personal. It can have more than one voice. Let poetry help you find connections in your life. Tie poetry into other areas. You could use a poem as an intro to a science report!\(^{43}\)

Subject yourself to several different forms and then choose a style to create your own stuff within. Have fun! If you do not enjoy poetry, try some different kinds. Keep looking until you find something you like and then expand upon that.

devices and forms

Poetry\(^{44}\) uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretations of words, or to evoke emotive responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and rhythm may convey musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony, and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly, figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, and metonymy establish a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.

devices of poetry

Alliteration

Repetition of consonants, particularly at the beginning of words. Ex: It was the sweet song of silence.

Allusion

A reference or mention of something from history or the arts, nature, society, etc. Ex: Saying that someone's love affair was like Romeo and Juliet's.

Ambiguity

Inexactness.

Assonance

Repetition of similar vowel sounds within a word rather than similar sounds at the beginning or end of a word. Ex: “I'm reminded to line the lid of my eye.”

IRONY

Expressing meaning using language that signifies the opposite, for humorous or emphatic effect.

Metaphor

A direct comparison between two things. Ex: This classroom is as stale as a hospital.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate sounds like Bang! Or Meow!

Personification

Giving humanistic characteristics to non-humans. Ex: The dog nodded in agreement.

Rhythm

A strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound.

Simile

A comparison using "like" or "as." Ex: That classroom is like a hospital.

Symbolism

The use of symbols to represent something.

forms of poetry:\(^{45}\)

COUPLET

A pair of lines of verse. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter. Two words that rhyme can be called a couplet.

Example:

I did but saw her passing by.

But I shall love her till I die.

Ballad

A ballad\(^{46}\) is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads are often 13 lines with an ABABBCBC form, consisting of couplets (two lines) of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables. Another common form is ABAB or ABCB repeated, in alternating eight and six syllable lines.

FREE VERSE AND NARRATIVE

There is no fixed pattern, and it can, but does not have to, use rhyming words. Lyric poems focus on feelings and visualizations rather than on a story. Narrative poems tell a story.

HAIKU

Usually about nature, this style from Japan consists of three unrhymed lines. The first and last line contain five syllables and the middle line has seven syllables. These are easy in theory to fill in the syllables, but it can be hard for the students to actually make them meaningful.

Limerick\(^{47}\)

A limerick is a form of verse, usually humorous and frequently rude, in five-line, predominantly anapestic trimeter with a strict rhyme scheme of AABBA, in which the first, second and fifth line rhyme, while the third and fourth lines are shorter and share a different rhyme.[3] The following example is a limerick of unknown origin:

The limerick packs laughs anatomical

Into space that is quite economical.

But the good ones I've seen

So seldom are clean

And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

Another Example:

There was a young woman named Sybil

who had the notion to scribble.

She set out one pen

one that was very zen

And the ink, it decided to dribble.

SONNET

A sonnet is made up of fourteen lines of rhymed iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is a line made up of five beats. English sonnets have a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. It is usually one stanza long. Here is an example of a sonnet by a student:

“Sonnet 1” by S. M. Prince\(^{48}\)

Oh, how this raucous crowd both cheers and sneers,

A tide of mirth unduly wrought on me,

‘Twas not my peerless wit nor jest I fear,

‘Twas not my prose which folk have come to see.

I come from forest pines which hide my form,

I grew out crooked, prodded but unbent,

My frozen boughs persist in seeking warmth,

My needles prick but leave a sapid scent.

If not for nimble fingers, rapt’rous song,

They’d call a lumberjack to cut me down,

Capricious folk claim I do not belong,

At worst, I’m useless and, at best, a clown.

But I am neither invalid nor fool;

I am the arbiter of truths most cruel.

QUATRAIN

A quatrain is a four-lined, rhyming poem or stanza. Quatrains have several possible rhyme schemes. The first is designed as two couplets joined together with the a a b b pattern. Other rhyme patterns are a b a b, a b b a, and a b c b.

Example: "Weather"

Evening red and morning gray (a)

Set the traveler on his way (a)

But evening gray and morning red (b)

Bring the rain upon his head (b)

Villanelle\(^{49}\)

The villanelle\(^{50}\) is a nineteen-line poem made up of five triplets with a closing quatrain; the poem is characterized by having two refrains, initially used in the first and third lines of the first stanza, and then alternately used at the close of each subsequent stanza until the final quatrain, which is concluded by the two refrains. The remaining lines of the poem have an a-b alternating rhyme.

examples of poetry

"O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman\(^{51}\)

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills,

For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding,

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head!

It is some dream that on the deck,

You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,

The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,

From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;

Exult O shores, and ring O bells!

But I with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

sunglasses' parts, a graveyard on my dash\(^{52}\)

seeking importance in my view, getting some sun

soon to cover crow's feet

a pulse behind my tattoo

constellation of a family tree, shooting stars

bring us closer?

some facial scar to heal

as it listens to Enigma, through a wiring job

through my electric genius

movement of arms in my daydream

to another song, in another time

a non-moment I cherish

more student example(s):

questions / activities.

HERE IS THE PRACTICE PROJECT =

Compose an original poem that tries out one form and two devices.

Forms: sonnet, couplet, quatrain, haiku, or free verse/narrative

\(^{42}\)"Choosing High Quality Children's Literature/Poetry." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project. 26 Feb 2013, 18:45 UTC. 18 Nov 2016, 16:47

<https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php...&oldid=2492503>. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

\(^{43}\)This might be a hidden bonus point? Write a poem about your recent science report and email it to the instructor.

\(^{44}\)Wikipedia contributors. "Poetry." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 Nov. 2021. Web. 12 Dec. 2021.

\(^{45}\)"Choosing High Quality Children's Literature/Poetry." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project. 26 Feb 2013, 18:45 UTC. 18 Nov 2016, 16:47

<https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php...&oldid=2492503>. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

"Creative Writing in the EFL Classroom/Poems." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project. 30 Oct 2009, 20:50 UTC. 18 Nov 2016, 17:30

<https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php...&oldid=1650139>. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

\(^{46}\)Wikipedia contributors. "Ballad." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 Oct. 2021. Web. 13 Dec. 2021. This text is available under the CC-BY-SA license.

\(^{47}\)Wikipedia contributors. "Limerick (poetry)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 Dec. 2021. Web. 12 Dec. 2021.

\(^{48}\)“Sonnet 1” by S.M. Prince licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA. Created for NDSCS English 211 course in the Spring of 2021.

\(^{49}\)Wikipedia contributors. "Poetry." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 Nov. 2021. Web. 12 Dec. 2021.

\(^{50}\)Need an example? Check this page: https://literarydevices.com/villanelle/

\(^{51}\)This poem is in the public domain.

\(^{52}\)This poem is by Sybil Priebe (20 September 2008). Text available under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).