Reading

&
Writing Poetry
 ❑identify the various
elements, techniques,
Learning objectives: and literary devices in
poetry

❑produce a short, well-

crafted poem
Lesson # 2.

Reading & Writing Poetry

2.1 Elements of the Genre
B. Elements for Specific
A. Essential Elements Forms
A1. Theme B1. Conventional forms
A2. Tone B2. Free Verse
1. Which of the following consists of 14 lines
and is usually written in iambic pentameter?

a. ode b. elegy c. sonnet d. limerick

2. What refers to series of lines grouped
together and separated by a space
from others?

a. lines b. stanza c. form d. meter

3. What type of poetry is a long narrative
poem in elevated style recounting the
deeds of a legendary or historical hero?

a. epic b. descriptive c. ballad d. limerick

4. What stanza describes as having seven
lines?

a. sestet b. septet c. tercet d. cinquain

5. What type of poetry is usually organized into
quatrains or cinquains, has a simple rhythm
structure, and tells the tales of ordinary people?

a. Epic b. sonnet c. ode d. ballad

6. What is called the one-line stanza?

a. couplet b. tercet
c. monostich d. quatrain
7. What is referred to as a poem that is
usually humorous and composed of five
lines in an AABBA rhyming pattern?

a. haiku b. limerick c. ode d. elegy

8. What type of poetry describes the world that
surrounds the speaker?

a. sonnet b. lyric c. descriptive d. narrative

9. Which of the following sonnet does
not consist of three quatrains?

a. Petrarchan b. Shakespearean
c. Spenserian d. English sonnet
10. What is the lyric poem that praises an
individual, an idea or an event?

a. ballad b. ode c. elegy d. sonnet

11. What syllable is stressed in the word
“behold”?

a. be b. hold c. beh d. old

12. What do you call of the flow of the
sound continues to the second line?

a. enjambment c. paradox
b. hyperbole d. symbolism
13. Which of the following literary devices is
characterized by the use of the same consonant
at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line
of a verse?

a. Consonance b. ballad
b. c. alliteration d. diction
14. What do you call of a foot with two
syllables; an unstressed followed by stressed
syllables?

a. iamb b. trochee
c. dactyl d. anapest
15. What is the rhythmic pattern of the word
“difficult” (dif-fi-cult)?

a. stressed-unstressed-stressed
b. stressed-stressed-unstressed
c. unstressed-stressed-unstressed
d. unstressed-unstressed-stressed
POETRY
❑ derived from the Greek poiesis, "making“

❑ form of literature that uses aesthetic and

often rhythmic qualities of language

❑ Such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism,

and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to,
or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.
POETRY
❑ made to express thoughts and emotions in a
creative and imaginative way

❑ conveys thoughts and feelings, describes a

scene or tells a story in a concentrated,
lyrical arrangement of words
STRUCTURE OF POETRY

❑ way to analyse poems is by looking

into the stanza structure and the
form of the poem.

❑ overall organization of lines and/or

the conventional patterns of sound
STANZA
❑ refer to a series of lines grouped
together and separated by a space
from other stanzas

❑ They correspond to a paragraph in

an essay.

❑ done by counting the number of

lines.
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
STANZA
(1 line), monostich
(2 lines) couplet
(3 lines), tercet
(4 lines) quatrain
(6 lines) sestet (sometimes it's called a sexain),
(7 lines) septet
(8 lines) octave
“I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them Sa- I am.”
- Dr. Seuss’s book "Green Eggs and Ham."

*It consists of two lines.

*Hence, the stanza is called couplet.

forms
of
poetry
forms
of
poetry
Lyrical
poetry
LYRICAL POETRY

❑ any poem with one speaker (not

necessarily the poet) who expresses
strong thoughts and feelings

❑ common in modern poetry

 ode
Kinds
of
lyrical poetry

sonnet elegy
ODE
❑ Greek ‘’ aeidein’’, means to sing & dance
❑ praises an individual, an idea or an event.
❑ length is usually moderate, the subject is
serious,
❑ the style is elevated and the stanza pattern
is elaborate.
❑ In Ancient Greece, odes were originally
accompanied by music
 “Ode to the West Wind”
by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Scatter, as from an unextinguished

hearth Ashes and sparks, my words
among mankind! Be through my lips
to unawaken’d earth The trumpet of a
prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes,
can Spring be far behind?
ELEGY

❑ written with a purpose to

“mourn the dead”

❑ begins by reminiscing about

the dead person, then weeps
for the reason of death, and
then resolves the grief by
concluding that death leads to
immortality
ELEGY

❑has no set stanza or

metrical pattern

❑often uses "apostrophe"

as a literary technique.
Example:

Walt Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain,”

(written following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln)

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
SONNET
❑ lyric poem consisting of 14 lines

❑ in the English version, is usually

written in iambic pentameter

❑ Italian/Petrarchan sonnet,
Shakespearean sonnet,
Spenserian Sonnet
ITALIAN/PETRARCHAN
❑ named after Francesco Petrarch,
an Italian Renaissance poet.
❑ consists of an octave (eight lines) &
a sestet (six lines).
❑ It tends to divide the thought
into two parts (argument and
conclusion).
❑ ABBA ABBA CDECDE, or some
accepted sestet such as
CDCCDC, CDDCDE or CDCDCD-
The rhyming pattern
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide;
“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work or His own gifts. Who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
On His Blindess” by John Milton
When I consider how my light is spent, A
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, B
And that one talent which is death to hide B
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent A
To serve therewith my Maker, and present A
My true account, lest He returning chide; B
“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?” B
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent A
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need C
Either man’s work or His own gifts. Who best D
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state E
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed, C
And post o’er land and ocean without rest; D
They also serve who only stand and wait.” E
On His Blindess” by John Milton
SHAKESPEREAN SONNET
❑ consists of three quatrains
(four lines each) and a
concluding couplet (two
lines).

❑ final couplet is the summary.

❑ ABAB CDCD EFEF GG- rhyming

pattern
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Two households, both alike in dignity, A
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, B
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, A
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. B
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes C
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life; D
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows C
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife. D
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love, E
And the continuance of their parents’ rage, F
Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove, E
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage; F
The which if you with patient ears attend, G
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. G

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

SPENSERIAN SONNET
❑ EDMUND SPENSER- an English poet
of the renaissance period

❑ divided into three quatrains, or

segments of four lines, followed by
a rhyming couplet

❑ ABAB BCBC CDCD EE-rhyming

pattern
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I write it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalize,
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eek my name be wiped out likewise.
Not so, (quod I) let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse, your virtues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name.
Where when as death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.
- Amoretti #75 by Edmund Spenser
One day I wrote her name upon the strand, A
But came the waves and washed it away: B
Again I write it with a second hand, A
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. B
Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay, B
A mortal thing so to immortalize, C
For I myself shall like to this decay, B
And eek my name be wiped out likewise. C
Not so, (quod I) let baser things devise C
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame: D
My verse, your virtues rare shall eternize, C
And in the heavens write your glorious name. D
Where when as death shall all the world subdue, E
Our love shall live, and later life renew. E
- Amoretti #75 by Edmund Spenser
Narrative
poetry
 Narrative Poetry

❑ Tells a story
❑ Structure resembles the plot line of
story
❑ [i.e. the introduction of conflict and
characters, rising action, climax and
the denouement.
❑ ballad and epic.
ballad
Kinds
of
narrative poetry

epic
 Ballad

❑ narrative poem that has a musical

rhythm and can be sung.

❑ usually organized into quatrains or

cinquains

❑ has a simple rhythm structure and tells

the tales of ordinary people.
Example

Excerpt from “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me
 Epic
❑ long narrative poem in elevated style
recounting the deeds of a legendary or
historical hero

❑ Ex. Iliad by Homer, Beowulf, The Divine

Comedy by Dante Alighieri,
Metamorphoses by Ovid, Gilgamesh of
Sumer, Mahabharata and Ramayana
from India, Biag-ni-Lam-Ang of the
Ilocanos.
descriptive
poetry
Descriptive poetry

❑ describes the world that surrounds

the speaker

❑ uses elaborate imagery and

adjectives

❑ more "outward-focused" than lyric

poetry
Example: Excerpt from

William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a

Cloud”

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
 Other
forms of
poetry
HAIKU

❑ has an unrhymed verse form having three lines (a

tercet) and usually 5,7,5 syllables, respectively.

❑ usually considered a lyric poem.

❑ The Old Pond” by Matsuo Bashō

An old silent pond

A frog jumps into the pond—
Splash! Silence again
LIMERICK
❑ has a very structured poem.
❑ usually humorous & composed of five lines (a
cinquain)
❑ AABBA-A rhyming pattern;
❑ beat must be anapestic (weak, weak, strong)
❑ usually a narrative poem based upon a short and
often ribald anecdote
❑ Ex. A poem by Dixon Lanier Merritt
A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill can hold more than his beli-can.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week
But I’m damned if I see how the heli-can.
BLANK VERSE

❑ poetry written with a precise meter—almost always

iambic pentameter—that does not rhyme
❑ Ex. Act 2, Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet. It begins:

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.
FREE VERSE
❑ lacks a consistent rhyme scheme, metrical pattern, or
musical form
“Portrait of a Lady” by Carlos Williams
Your thighs are appletrees the tall grass of your ankles
whose blossoms touch the sky. Which flickers upon the shore –
sky? The sky Which shore? –
where Watteau hung a lady's slipper. the sand clings to my lips –
Your knees are a southern breeze -- or Which shore?
a gust of snow. Agh! what Agh, petals maybe. How
sort of man was Fragonard?
should I know?
---As if that answered
anything. -- Ah, yes. Below Which shore? Which shore?
the knees, since the tune ---the petals from some hidden
drops that way, it is appletree -- Which shore?
one of those white summer days, I said petals from an appletree.
PASTORAL POETRY
❑ genre that concerns the natural world, rural life, and
landscapes
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”
Christopher Marlowe
(excerpt)
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields, Woods,
or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the Rocks,

Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks, By
shallow Rivers to whose falls Melodious
birds sing Madrigals.
 VILLANEL POETRY
❑ A nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets and a
quatrain, with a highly specified internal rhyme scheme.
❑ evolved to describe obsessions and other intense subject
matters.
One Art
Elizabeth Bishop -1911-1979 Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was
The art of losing isn't hard to master; so many you meant to travel.
things seem filled with the intent to be lost that None of these will bring disaster.
their loss is no disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my
Lose something every day. last, or
Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
badly spent. The art of losing isn't hard to The art of losing isn't hard to master.
master.
tanaga

CONVENTIONAL FORMS

diona
CONVENTIONAL FORMS

❑short tagalong poems like

tanaga and diona

❑focuses on rhyme and meter;

metaphor.
TANAGA
❑indigenous type of Filipino PALAY
poem ni
Ildelfonso Santos
❑modern tanaga is used in a
variety of Philippine languages Palay siyang matino,
and English due to popularity Nang humangi’y yumuko
in the 20th century Ngunit muling tumayo
Nagkabunga ng ginto
❑poetic art uses four lines, each
line having seven syllables
only.
DIONA Anng paying ko’y si inay
❑pre-Hispanic rhyming poem Kapote ko si itay
of three lines with seven Sa maulan kong buhay
- RaymondPambit
syllables in each line
expressing a complete
thought.
Lolo, hwag malingkot
Ngayong uugod-ugod
❑Dalit is another type of short
Ako po’y inyongtungkod
Filipino poem
-Gregorio Rodillo
❑composed of four lines with
eight syllables in each line.
ELEMENTS
OF
POETRY
Elements of the poetry symbolism

speaker tone
stanzas
theme
subject
diction
ryhme
sound
imagery
form
rhythm
meter
Speaker
❑narrative voice of the poem

❑persona/ voice of a poem

can be the first person “I”,
second person “you”, the
third person “he or she”, or
the public person (large
audience, like society)
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide;
“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work or His own gifts. Who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
On His Blindess” by John Milton
Subject

❑is the topic of

the poem such as
nature, love,
death, and other
life events.
theme
❑ is defined as a main
idea or an
underlying meaning
of a literary work
that may be stated
directly or indirectly
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide;
“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work or His own gifts. Who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
On His Blindess” by John Milton
tone

❑ the attitude you feel

in it
❑ the writer's attitude
toward the subject
or audience.
❑ can be formal or
informal, serious or
humorous, sad or
happy.
Excerpt:

"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”

I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work or His own gifts."
 form

refers to a type of poem that

follows a particular set of
rules, whether it be the
number of lines, the length
or number of stanzas, rhyme
scheme, subject matter, or
really whatever rule you can
think of
 Sound
refers to a type of poem
that follows a particular
set of rules, whether it be
the number of lines, the
length or number of
stanzas, rhyme scheme,
subject matter, or really
whatever rule you can
think of
 meter

▪ a stressed and
unstressed syllabic
pattern in a verse, or
within the lines of a
poem.
▪ Stressed syllables tend
to be longer, and
unstressed shorter
 Imagery

refers to the use of

descriptive language
that creates vivid
pictures or sensory
experiences for the
reader.
 Symbolism
❑ is the use of a
specific object or
an image to
represent an
abstract idea.

❑ a word or phrase
that represents
something other
than its literal
meaning.
Literary
Devices
in
Poetry
ALLITERATION

❑ The repetition of a consonant

sound at the start of 2 or more
consecutive words in a series.

-D.H. Lawrence “Snake”

‘’And flickered his two-forked tongue

From his lips, and mused a moment,
And stopped and drank a little more,
From the burning bowels of the earth.
 ALLUSION

❑ A reference or suggestion to
a historical or well-known
person, place or thing.

-William Shakespeare “Not Marble Nor The Gilded Monuments”

“Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.” .
ANAPHORA

❑ The repeated use of word at

the start of two or more
consecutive lines.

Vikram Seth “The Frog and the nightingale”

Said the frog:” I tried to teach her, But she was a stupid creature
Far too nervous, far too tense.
Far too prone to influence.
ANTITHESIS

❑ Use of opposite words in

close placement

Kahlil Gibran “Song of the Rain”

“The voice of thunder dec lares my arrival;

The rainbow announces my departure.”
 ASSONANCE

❑ The repetition of a vowel

sound within a sentence.

William Shakespeare “Seven Ages of Man”

“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely
players:
They have their exits and entrances”
IMAGERY

❑ The creation of any sensory effect like

visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory,
tactile, kinesthetic, organic.( to create
scenes in the poem) .

Vikram Seth “The Frog and the nightingale”

“But one night a nightingale
In the moonlight cold and pale
Perched upon the sumac tree
Casting forth her melody”
ASYNDETON

❑ A writing style in which conjunctions are

omitted between words, phrases or
clauses.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson “The Brook”

I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance

HYPERBOLE

❑ It is a Greek word meaning “overcasting”.

❑ The use of exaggeration to lay emphasis.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley “Ozymandias”

“My name is Ozymandias, King of kings”

ENJAMBENT

❑ The sentence continues into two or more

lines in a poem
Langston Hughes, “Harlem”
“What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
INVERSION

❑ also known as “anastrophe” the normal

order of words is reversed, in order to
achieve a particular effect of emphasis.

-Thomas Campbell “Lord Ullin’s Daughter”

“His horsemen hard behind us ride

Should they our steps discover”
METAPHOR

❑ direct comparison by highlighting a

particular quality of two things.

Emily Dickenson “Hope is the thing with feathers” "Hope is

thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the
without the words, And never stops at all."
ONOMATOPOEIA

❑ It is the usage of sound words to create

a dramatic effect

Alfred, Lord Tennyson “The Brook”

“I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.
ONOMATOPOEIA

❑ It is the usage of sound words to create

a dramatic effect

Alfred, Lord Tennyson “The Brook”

“I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.
OXYMORON

❑ It is when apparently contradictory

terms appear in conjunction. (here the
words are not opposite to each other like
it is in antithesis but their meaning is
opposite)
-William Shakespeare “Romeo and Juliet”

“Why, then, o brawling love! O loving hate!

PERSONIFICATION

❑ It means to give human quality to an

object or a non-living thing

Sylvia Plath “Mirror”

“I am silver and exact.
I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately”
 SIMILE

❑ the comparison between two things or

persons by using like or as

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge “Rime of the ancient mariner”

“The bride hath paced into the hall,

Red as a rose is she”
SYNECDOCHE

❑ is a word or phrase in which a part of

something is used to refer to the whole of
it.

-Emily Dickinson "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died"

“The Eyes around—had wrung them dry—
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset—when the King
Be witnessed—in the Room”
REFRAIN
❑ A verse, a line, a set, or a group of lines that
repeats, at regular intervals, in different
stanzas. - Octavio Paz “Wind, Water,
Stone”
Water hollows stone,
wind scatters water,
stone stops the wind.
Water, wind, stone.
Wind carves stone,
stone's a cup of water,
water escapes and is wind.
- Stone, wind, water