Poetry Terms

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Poetry Terms
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• stanza- a group of lines within a poem
• lyric- words of a song taken from Greek lyric
  odes

• On Top of Spaghetti
• On top of spaghetti,
• All covered with cheese,
• I lost my poor meatball,
• When somebody sneezed.
• In this example, 4 lines 1
  stanza

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Poetry has different forms for different purposes

• ballad- a simple narrative poem, composed in
  short stanzas and adapted for singing
• Usually has a rhyming pattern- aabb, abac, or
  abcb
• On Top of Spaghetti
• On top of spaghetti,
• All covered with cheese,
• I lost my poor meatball,
• When somebody sneezed.

• It rolled off the table,
• And on to the floor,
• And then my poor meatball,
• Rolled out of the door.
• It rolled in the garden,
• And under a bush,
• And then my poor meatball,
• Was nothing but mush.

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Poetry has different forms for different purposes

• epic- a long narrative poem telling of a heroes
  deeds

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Poetry has different forms for different purposes

• Ode to Myself
• Just as Walt Whitman would say,
• if he were with me today.....
• There is a "Song of Myself",
• A song that sings of my internal wealth.
• A child of God, and also
• able to make a friend out of every foe.
• For I have true love inside
• Any egotisms have surely died.
• The beautiful song that strives to be heard
• this song is clearer than any songbird.
• There is no reason to feel pity
• for my God and his love is always with me.

• Ode- a lyric poem of some length usually written
  for an occasion or on a particular subject. They
  are usually dignified and serious with a formal
  structure.

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Poetry has different forms for different purposes

• "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
• Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
• Thou art more lovely and more temperate
• Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
• And summer's lease hath all too short a date
• Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
• And often is his gold complexion dimm'd
• And every fair from fair sometime declines,
• By chance, or nature's changing course,
  untrimm'd
• But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
• Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest
• Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
  
• When in eternal lines to time thou growest
• So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
• So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

• Sonnet- a poem that expresses a single idea or
  feeling consists of 14 lines usually written in
  iambic pentameter
• Ends with a couplet- a pair of successive lines
  that rhyme and is the same length

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Poetry has different forms for different purposes

• "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
• Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
• Thou art more lovely and more temperate
• Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
• And summer's lease hath all too short a date
• Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
• And often is his gold complexion dimm'd
• And every fair from fair sometime declines,
• By chance, or nature's changing course,
  untrimm'd
• But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
• Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest
• Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
  
• When in eternal lines to time thou growest
• So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
• So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

• Sonnet- a poem that expresses a single idea or
  feeling consists of 14 lines usually written in
  iambic pentameter
• Ends with a couplet- a pair of successive lines
  that rhyme and is the same length

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Poetry has different forms for different purposes

• "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
• Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
• Thou art more lovely and more temperate
• Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
• And summer's lease hath all too short a date
• Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
• And often is his gold complexion dimm'd
• And every fair from fair sometime declines,
• By chance, or nature's changing course,
  untrimm'd
• But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
• Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest
• Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
  
• When in eternal lines to time thou growest
• So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
• So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

• A sonnet has an abab rhyming pattern
• It is also written in iambic pentameter
• An iambic foot is one unstressed syllable
  followed by a stressed syllable
• Iambic pentameter means there are _ iambic feet
  for a total of _ syllables

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Poetry has different forms for different purposes

• 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,

• elegy- a mournful, sad poem often a funeral song
  or lament for the dead
• The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three
  stages of loss 1) lament- where the speaker
  expresses grief and sorrow 2) praise and
  admiration of the idealized dead 3) consolation
  and solace.

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Rhyming Patterns- aabb

• a There was a smart spider named Charlotte
• a Whose spinning made her a starlet.
• b An awesome pig named Wilbur she saved
• b Through her friendship, which was quite brave.

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Rhyming Patterns- abcb

• a Dance band on the Titanic
• b Sing "Nearer, my God, to Thee
• c The iceberg's on the starboard bow
• b Won't you dance with me

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Rhyming Patterns- abac

• a Let's show the world we can dance-
• b Bad enough to strut our stuff.
• a The music gives us a chance.
• c We do more out on the floor.