Poetry Introduction and Vocabulary

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Poetry Introduction and Vocabulary
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Forms of Poetry

• Lyric Poem
• Sonnet
• Free Verse
• Haiku
• Catalog Poem
• Ballad

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Lyric Poem

• A Blessing
• By James Wright
• Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
• Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass,
• And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
• Darken with kindness.
• They have come gladly out of the willows
• To welcome my friend and me.
• We step over barbed wire into the pasture
• Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
• They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain
  their happiness
• That we have come.
• They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each
  other.
• There is no loneliness like theirs.
• At home once more,
• They begin munching the young tufts of spring in
  the darkness.
• I would like to hold the slenderer one in my
  arms,
• For she has walked over to me

• Expresses a speakers emotions or thoughts.
• It does not tell a story.
• Usually short and focused on one single, strong
  emotion.

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Sonnet

• A fourteen line lyric poem.
• Usually written in iambic pentameter and have a
  regular rhyme scheme.

• Once by the Pacific
• By Robert Frost
• The shattered water made a misty din.
• Great waves looked over others coming in,
• And thought of doing something to the shore
• That water never did to land before.
• The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
• Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
• You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
• The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
• The cliff in being backed by continent
• It looked as if a night of dark intent
• Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
• Someone had better be prepared for rage.
• There would be more than ocean-water broken
• Before Gods last Put out the Light was spoken.

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Free Verse

• in Just
• By E.E. Cummings
• in Just-
• spring when the world is mud-
• luscious the little
• lame balloonman
• whistles far and wee
• and eddieandbill come
• running from marbles and
• piracies and its
• spring
• when the world is puddle-wonderful
• the queer
• old balloonman whistles

• Poetry that doesnt have a regular meter or
  rhyming scheme.
• Free verse tries to capture the rhythm of
  ordinary speech.

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Haiku

• A three line poem with seventeen syllables.
• Lines 1 and 3 have five syllables each, and line
  2 has seven syllables.
• Usually contrast two images from nature or daily
  life.

• Untitled
• By Miura Chora
• Get out of my road
• and allow me to plant these
• bamboos, Mr. Toad.

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Catalog Poem

• The Car
• By Raymond Carver
• The car with a cracked windshield The car with
  a sticky carburetor
• The car that threw a rod The car that hit the
  dog and kept going
• The car without brakes The car with a hole in
  its muffler
• The car with a faulty U-joint The car with no
  muffler
• The car with a hole in its radiator The car my
  daughter wrecked
• The car I picked peaches for The car with
  corroded battery cables
• The car with a cracked block The car bought
  with a bad check
• The car with no reverse gear Car of my
  sleepless nights
• The car I traded for a bicycle The car with a
  stuck thermostat
• The car with steering problems The car whose
  engine caught fire
• The car with no back seat The car with no
  headlights
• The car with a torn front seat The car with a
  broken fan belt
• The car that burned oil The car with wipers
  that wouldnt work
• The car with rotten hoses The car I gave away
• The car that left the restaurant without paying
  The car with transmission trouble
• The car with bald tires The car I washed my
  hands of

• Presents a list of many different images.
• Image is repeated with different descriptions
  over and over throughout the poem.

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Ballad

• Perfect Two
• You can be the peanut butter to my jelly
• You can be the butterflies I feel in my belly
• You can be the captain and I can be your first
  mate
• You can be the chills that I feel on our first
  date
• You can be the hero and I can be your side kick
• You can be the tear that I cry if we ever split
• You can be the rain from the cloud when it's
  stormin
• Or you can be the sun when it shines in the
  mornin'
• Don't know if I could ever be
• Without you cause boy you complete me
• And in time I know that we'll both see
• That we're all we need
• Cause you're the apple to my pie
• You're the straw to my berry
• You're the smoke to my high
• And you're the one I wanna marry
• Cause your the one for me (for me)

• A song that tells a story.
• Use a steady rhythm, strong rhymes, and
  repetition of a refrain.

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Imagery

• Image
• A word or phrase that appeals to one more of the
  five senses.
• Sensory Detail
• Elements that help the reader imagine how
  something looks, sounds, smells, feels, or tastes.

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Figurative Language

• Simile
• Two unlike things are compared using a word such
  as like, as, than, or resembles.
• Metaphors
• A comparison of two unlike things in which one
  thing is said to be another.
• Example
• Simile You eat like a pig.
• Metaphor You are a pig.

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Metaphor Continued

• Direct Metaphor
• Directly compares two things by using a verb like
  are.
• Example
• The days are nouns touch them
• The hands are churches that worship the world.

• Indirect Metaphor
• Implies or suggests a comparison between two
  things rather than stating it directly.
• Example
• Golden Baked Skin
• Shut your trap

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Figurative Language Continued

• Personification
• A type of metaphor in which human qualities are
  given to something that is not human (an object,
  animal, force of nature, or idea).

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Rhyme

• The repetition of a stressed vowel sound and any
  sounds that follow it in words that are close
  together.
• End Rhymes
• Rhymes in poetry that occur at the ends of lines.
• Internal Rhymes
• Rhymes in poetry that occur when at least one
  rhymed word falls within a line.

• Rhyme Scheme
• A regular pattern of end rhymes.
• Approximate Rhyme
• Repeat some sounds, but are not exact echoes.
• Marking a Rhyme Scheme
• ABAB
• ABBA

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Rhythm

• A musical quality based on repetition. When you
  talk about the beat you hear when you read a
  poem, you are describing its rhythm.

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Meter

• A common form of rhythm.
• A regular pattern of stressed () and unstressed
  (U) syllables in the lines of a poem.

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Foot

• Usually consists of one stressed and one
  unstressed syllable.
• Iamb a foot that has one unstressed syllable
  followed by a stressed syllable.
• Example
• Barack Obama
• This line is written in iambic pentameter and has
  five iambs
• But soft! / What light/ through yon / der win /
  dow breaks?

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Sound Devices

• Onomatopoeia
• Words that sound like what they mean.
• EXAMPLE
• Buzz, hiss, boom, bang.
• Alliteration
• Repeating the same consonant sound in several
  words.
• EXAMPLE
• Fragrant flowers, dog days, cool as a cucumber.
• Assonance
• Repeating the same vowel sounds in several words.
• EXAMPLE
• Quick fix, around town.

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Weekend Homework

• Find a poem that you like.
• Label the poem type.
• Mark the rhyme scheme (if there is one)
• Bring a copy of the poem to class Monday.
• If you dont bring a copy of your poem, then you
  will have a separate writing assignment to
  complete while the rest of the class does a fun
  activity!