This document discusses different genres and forms of poetry. It describes narrative poetry, lyric poetry, and dramatic poetry. It also covers formal verse structures like meter, feet, and lines. Common rhyming patterns are discussed like couplets, tercets, and quatrains. Shakespearean sonnets follow a specific rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. Blank verse and free verse emerged in the 20th century with looser rhythms and forms. Concrete poems take written shapes that relate to their meaning.
2. Genres of Poetry
Narrative Poetry- a narrative poem is one that tells a
story. Types of narrative poetry include ballads and
epics. (Think of Homer… not the guy from The
Simpsons!)
Lyric Poetry- a highly musical verse that expresses
the emotions of the speaker. Common types are
sonnets, odes, free verse and elegies.
Dramatic poetry- a dramatic poem is a verse that
relies heavily on dramatic elements such as
monologue, or dialogue. Two types of dramatic
poetry are dramatic monologue and soliloquy.
3. Formal Verse
• Set patterns of rhythm and rhyme
– i.e. Beowolf
• Based on scansion (the counting of stresses
and syllables) and set verse pattern.
• Sometimes, a rhyme scheme matters, but not
always.
4. Meter
• The rhythmical patter of a piece
• English verse is made of rhythmical units
called feet. A foot is made up of weakly
stressed (˘) and strongly stressed (/) syllables.
• Meter is based on the number of feet in each
line.
5. Poetry has feet?
Type of Foot
Pattern
Example
Iamb, or iambic foot
˘/
afraid, the sky
Trochee, or trochaic foot
/˘
freedom, heaven
Anapest, or anapestic foot
˘ ˘/
in a flash, to the
dark
Dactyl, or dactylic foot
/˘˘
feverish, go and ask
Spondee, or spondaic foot
//
baseball
Pyrrhee or pyrrhic foot
˘˘
unbelievable
9. Shakespearean Sonnets
• This sonnet has the simplest and most flexible
pattern of all sonnets, consisting of 3
quatrains of alternating rhyme and a couplet:
• abab
cdcd
efef
gg
10. Sonnet 141
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors note;
But ’tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who in despite of view is pleased to dote.
Nor are mine ears with thy tongue’s tune delighted,
Nor tender feeling to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited
To any sensual feast with thee alone.
But my five wits, nor my five senses, can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who leaves unswayed the likeness of a man,
Thy proud heart’s slave and vassal wretch to be.
Only my plague thus far I count my gain,
That she that makes me sin awards me pain.
13. Transition
• Twentieth Century
• Likened to the transition from ballet to
contemporary dance
• Started with Emily Dickinson & Walt Whitman
• Loosened forms
14. Free Verse
•
•
•
•
Loosened rhythms
Rhymes set askew
Took on the rhythms of ordinary speech
Practiced by poets who first taught
themselves the rigors of earlier periods, of
formal verse.
15. Concrete poem is written in a shape that adds meaning to the
poem.
16. I propose
• …that you begin to play with sound and
rhythm.
• …that you imitate what you like; imitation,
which has been called the sincerest form of
flattery, is also the most teaching form of play.
• …that you begin by writing poems about the
subjects that matter to you.
