Understanding%20Poetic%20Structure

1
Understanding Poetic Structure

• Rhyme
• Meter
• Figurative Language
• Poetic Terms

2
Rhyme

• The repetition of vowel sounds in accented
  syllables and all syllables that follow (ex.
  glisten listen)
• When rhyme is found within the same line of
  poetry, it is internal rhyme
• When rhyme is found at the end of lines of
  poetry, it is end rhyme

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Rhyme

• The purpose of rhyme is to create a sound
  cadence for the reader
• Poets often create a pattern of end rhyme
• This pattern, when identified, is called a rhyme
  scheme
• When determining the rhyme scheme, each rhyming
  sound is represented by a different letter of the
  alphabet

4
Rhyme

• Because rhyming is difficult, and to create
  different effects on the reader, poets also use
  approximate rhyme
• Approximate rhyme is also known as off rhyme,
  half rhyme, or slant rhyme
• These rhymes can be equated to a sharp or flat
  note in music

5
Meter

• A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
  in a line of poetry
• Each syllable in a line of poetry is labeled
  with a stress mark, or an unstressed mark
• The purpose of meter is to create a recognizable
  rhythm through a regular sound pattern of
  stressed and unstressed syllables

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Meter

• Metrical patterns, composed of stressed and
  unstressed syllabic marks, create a foot of meter
• Common metrical feet are iambic, anapestic,
  trochaic, and dactylic
• Each is a different combination of stressed and
  unstressed syllabic marks

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Meter

• An iambic foot of meter is composed of an
  unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
  syllable
• An anapestic foot of meter is composed of two
  unstressed syllables followed by a stressed
  syllable

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Meter

• A trochaic foot of meter is composed of a
  stressed syllable followed by an unstressed
  syllable
• A dactylic foot of meter is composed of a
  stressed syllable followed by two unstressed
  syllables
• Reading a poem to determine its metrical pattern
  is called scansion

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Meter

• A poem that has two of a particular metrical
  foot in each line is written in dimeter
• If it has three metrical feet in each line it is
  written in trimeter
• If it has four feet, it is written in tetrameter
• If it has five feet, it is written in pentameter
• Six feet hexameter Seven feet heptameter
• Eight feet - octameter

10
Figurative Language

• Using words or phrases to describe something in
  terms of another thing, with the intent that the
  description will not be taken literally
• The more common figures of speech are simile,
  metaphor, personification, and symbol
• Conceit is an elaborate figure of speech that is
  often lengthy, and which compares two startlingly
  different objects

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Figurative Language

• Sound devices are also a form of figurative
  language
• Some common sound devices are assonance,
  alliteration, consonance, onomatopoeia
• Other figures of speech are hyperbole, metonymy,
  oxymoron, synecdoche

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Poetic Devices and Terms

• Allusion is a reference to someone of something
  known from history, literature, religion, sports,
  science, etc. allusion is a device also used in
  other forms of writing
• Apostrophe is a technique a poet uses to address
  an inanimate object, idea, or person who is dead
  or absent apostrophe is also used in other
  forms of writing

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Poetic Devices and Terms

• Caesura is a pause or break within a line of
  poetry
• Concrete Poem is a poem in which the words of
  the poem themselves are arranged in a manner to
  visually suggest the poems subject of meaning
• Couplet consists of two rhyming lines of poetry

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Poetic Devices and Terms

• Dramatic monologue is a poem in which a
  character in the poem speaks to one or more
  listeners
• Epic is a long narrative poem it uses very
  formal language and recounts heroic figures
• Free verse is poetry that does not conform to a
  regular meter or rhyme scheme

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Poetic Devices and Terms

• Lyric Poem is a poem that does not tell a story,
  but expresses the personal thoughts or feelings
  of the speaker/poet
• Octave is an eight line poem, or more often, the
  first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet
• Ode is a lyric poem that is usually very long
• Quatrain is a poem consisting of four lines that
  function as a unit of thought

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Poetic Devices and Terms

• Refrain is a word, phrase, line, or group of
  lines in a poem that are repeated for effect
  several times during a poem
• Sestet is a six line poem, especially the last
  six lines of a Petrarchan sonnet
• Sonnet is a fourteen line poem, usually written
  in iambic pentameter, and following a Petrarchan
  or Shakespearian structure