Poetry Short Review

7/31/2019 Poetry Short Review

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Poetry: An Essential Review

A brief, essential review of lyric poetry,which are short poems packing an idea

and an emotionalresponse to thatidea.


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Poetry: An Essential Review Lyric poems can be thought of as snapshots

of a moment in time that have some

meaning, some significance to the poet.Instead of using a camera, however, the poetuses words to express the idea and emotionof the moment.

The poet uses words to make pictures, just asyou might use a camera to take a picture of abeautiful sunset or to capture forever aspecial moment with friends or family.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewIn the same way as a special photograph, at

the heart of each lyric poem is an idea and anemotional response to that idea. This is the

soul or core of any lyric poem, the poetexpressing feelings and thoughts abouthis/her life experiences in the world aroundhim/her.

A poet chooses to reveal this idea andemotional response using the tools availableto him/her as a writer.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewA writer chooses the tools that best work, in the same way a

carpenter uses hammer, nails, a level and saw to build a house,or a cook uses flour, eggs, flavour and milk to make a cake.

The more skilled the builder or cook, the more interesting andenjoyable will be the house or cake. In the same way, the skillof the poet using the tools at his/her disposal will produce themore interesting and captivating poem.

But what are these tools?


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewThe first tool available to the poet is

words. This ingredient is as essential as

wood to the builder or flour to the cake-maker.

The term we use to discuss the use ofwords by a poet is the word diction.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewDiction is simply the word choices the poet

makes. But finding the exact word to use to

be the most effective at his/her goal, which isto communicate those two things

- what are they again?

- is part of a pain-staking and timely process.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewWhen discussing word choice, we

must differentiate between thedenotationof a word and theconnotationof that word.


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Poetry: An Essential Review Denotationis the objective dictionary

meaning of a word.

Connotationis the subjective, emotionalmeaning of a word.


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Poetry: An Essential Review An example that might help to understand

this concept is the word vomit. If we look itup on Dictionary.com, we find the wordmeans:

to eject the contents of the stomach throughthe mouth; regurgitate; throw up or to

eject from the stomach through the mouth.

This is the words denotation.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewBut the words connotationfor most of us would

definitely be a negative one.

For example, if a poet says of the words of a lover to aloved one, She vomited words of love into his ear,the meaning is substantially different than if he orshe used verbs like cooed, whispered orbreathed.

But remember, and this is important: the choice of aword is entirely dependent on the intention of thewriter and what he/she wants to communicate.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewThe second tool a poet has at his/her disposal

is imagery.

There are three categories of imagery:A. Sensuous ImageryB. Figurative Imagery and

C. Symbolic Imagery

Lets take a look at these categories.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewThere are 6 types of sensuous imagery that we will examine. They

are:

Visual:Words that appeal to our sense of vision.

Auditory:Words that appeal to our sense of hearing.Tactile:Words that appeal to our sense of touch.Gustatory:Words that appeal to our sense of taste.Olfactory:Words that appeal to our sense of smell.Motor:Words that appeal to our sense of motion.

Lets look at real examples of these to help us understand.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewThe Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams

so much dependsupon

a red wheelbarrow

glazed with rainwater

beside the whitechickens.

What words in this short poem appeal to our sense ofsight?http://www.roberthuntstudio.com/alterego/archives/red-wheelbarrow2.jpg
http://www.roberthuntstudio.com/alterego/archives/red-wheelbarrow2.jpghttp://www.roberthuntstudio.com/alterego/archives/red-wheelbarrow2.jpghttp://www.roberthuntstudio.com/alterego/archives/red-wheelbarrow2.jpghttp://www.roberthuntstudio.com/alterego/archives/red-wheelbarrow2.jpg


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewThis Is Just to Say: William Carlos Williams

I have eatenthe plumsthat were inthe icebox

and whichyou were probablysavingfor breakfast

Forgive methey were deliciousso sweet

and so cold

Are there words in this short poem that appeal to your sense of taste? Or touch?In the following poem by Archibald Lampman, what words appeal to our sense of touch? Ofsight? Of hearing? Of motion?


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Winter Uplands:Archibald LampmanThe frost that stings like fire upon my cheek,The loneliness of this forsaken ground,

The long white drift upon whose powdered peakI sit in the great silence as one bound;The rippled sheet of snow where the wind blewAcross the open fields for miles ahead;The far-off city towered and roofed in blueA tender line upon the western red;

The stars that singly, then in flocks appear,Like jets of silver from the violet dome,So wonderful, so many and so near,And then the golden moon to light me homeThe crunching snowshoes and the stinging air,And silence, frost and beauty everywhere.


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B. Figurative Imagery.Figurative imagery are figures of speech that help us to see things orunderstand things in a fresh new way. There are six to which well giveour attention here.

1. Simile: Comparisons using like or as2. Metaphor: Direct comparisons3. Personification: Giving life-like qualities to an inanimate object4.Apostrophe: Addressing the dead or absent as if alive or present5. Hyperbole: Gross exaggeration not meant to deceive

6. Metonymy: Using a part to represent the whole

Lets take a closer look at each.


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1. Simile: A simile compares two unlike objects, finding the qualitythey share, using like or as. Again, the poet wants thesecomparisons to be fresh and new to engage us in ourexperience with the poem.

Lets check out some examples.In the following piece by Christina Rossetti, can you find anumber of similes? What two things are being compared?Name some visual imagery from the second stanza.

It may help you to know that halcyon means calm and peaceful;dais is a raised platform where people are placed to give themrespect and honour; and vair are furs.


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A BIRTHDAY: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

MY heart is like a singing birdWhose nest is in a water'd shoot;My heart is like an apple-tree

Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;My heart is like a rainbow shellThat paddles in a halcyon sea;My heart is gladder than all these,Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a das of silk and down;Hang it with vair and purple dyes;

Carve it in doves and pomegranates,And peacocks with a hundred eyes;Work it in gold and silver grapes,In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;Because the birthday of my lifeIs come, my love is come to me.


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2. Ametaphor is a comparison of two unlikeobjects with a quality in common, just as in asimile, but a metaphor is a directcomparison.

Lets checkout a poem that contains examplesof metaphors.

Ask yourself: What is the metaphor in thefollowing poem? What are the commonattributes to the two things compared?


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I Am a Rock: Paul Simon

A winters dayIn a deep and dark December-I am alone

Gazing from my windowTo the streets belowOn a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.I am a rock;I am an island.

I build walls.A fortress deep and mightyThat none may penetrate.I have no need of friendship;Friendship causes pain.Its laughter and its loving I disdain.I am a rock;I am an island. (more)



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Don't talk of love.Well, I've heard the word before;Its sleeping in my memory.I wont disturb the slumberOf feelings that have died.If I never loved I never would have cried.

I am a rock,I am an island.

I have my booksAnd my poetry to protect me.I am shielded in my armor,Hiding in my roomSafe within my tomb.I touch no one and no one touches me.

I am a rock;I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain,And an island never cries.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=X4_-uinXzwo
http://youtube.com/watch?v=X4_-uinXzwohttp://youtube.com/watch?v=X4_-uinXzwohttp://youtube.com/watch?v=X4_-uinXzwohttp://youtube.com/watch?v=X4_-uinXzwo


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3. Personification is the giving of life-likequalities to a non-living or inanimate

object.

What is personified in the following

poem? Why do you suppose the poetchose to use personification in thisway?


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The Sound of the Stream: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,

And round the pebbly beaches far and wide

I heard the first wave of the rising tide

Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;

A voice out of the silence of the deep,

A sound mysteriously multiplied

As of a cataract from the mountain's side,

Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.

So comes to us at times, from the unknown

And inaccessible solitudes of being,The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;

And inspirations, that we deem our own,

Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing

Of things beyond our reason or control.


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4. Another figure of speech is apostrophe. Thisis when the poet addresses the absent as if

present or the inanimate as if alive.

The most famous example would be the poemTwinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, in which thespeaker is speaking to the absent star as if itwere alive and present.a double whammyapostrophe! Heres another


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Dandelion: Hilda Conkling

O little soldier with the golden helmet,What are you guarding on my lawn?

You with your green gun

And your yellow beard,Why do you stand so stiff?

There is only the grass to fight!


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5. The next figure of speech is hyperbole.Hyperbole is a gross exaggeration that

is not intended to deceive, but used foremphasis.

Example: Ive told you a million timesnot to shoot fireworks in the house!


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6. Metonymy is a figure of speech in which part ofsomething represents the whole.

Examples:All hands on deck!

Friends, Romans, countrymen: lend me your ears!

May I approach the bench, your honour? (in this

case, its the judge the lawyer wants to approach,not the bench itself; the bench represents the judge)


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C. Symbolic Imagery.Asymbolis the use of a concrete object torepresent an abstract idea.

Symbolic imagery, then, is the extended useof a symbol in a poem to communicatemeaning.

In the following poem, what symbols are used?What abstract ideas do they represent?


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Up-Hill: Christina Rossetti

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?Yes, to the very end.

Will the day's journey take the whole long day?

From morn to night, my friend.But is there for the night a resting-place?A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.

May not the darkness hide it from my face?You cannot miss that inn.

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?Those who have gone before.

Then must I knock, or call when 'ust in sight?

They will not keep you standing at that door.Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?

Of labor you shall find the sum.Will there be beds for me and all who seek?

Yea, beds for all who come.


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Another set of tools available to the poet, the thirdinour review, are sound devices. These help bring outthe musical qualities of lyric poems. The six we willexamine are:

a.Alliteration: The repetition of initial soundsb.Assonance: The repetition of vowel soundsc. Consonance: The repetition of consonant sounds

d. Euphony: An overall pleasant and calming sounde. Cacophony: An overall harsh, unpleasant soundf. Onomatopoeia: Words that imitate sounds


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Alliteration is the repetition ofinitialconsonant or vowel sounds in a line of

poetry.

The well-known childrens poem, Peter

Piper Picked a Peck of PickledPeppers illustrates this well. Lets lookat another example.


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High Flight by John Gillespie MaGee

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earthAnd danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred thingsYou have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swungHigh in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring thereI've chased the shouting wind along, and flungMy eager craft through footless halls of air.Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,I've topped the windswept heights with easy graceWhere never lark, or even eagle flew -

And, while with silent lifting mind I've trodThe high untrespassed sanctity of space,Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Look for the alliteration used in lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11 & 13.


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B. Consonance is the repetition ofconsonant sounds in a line of poetry.

Do you remember what consonants are?

Lets re-visit High Flight, and findexamples ofconsonance.


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C.Assonance is the repetition of vowelsounds in a line of poetry.

Do you remember what vowelsare?

Look for assonancein the followingpoem.


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"REQUIEM"

ByRobert Louis Stevenson (1850-94)

Under the wide and starry sky,Dig the grave and let me lie,Glad did I live and gladly die,

And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:Here he lies where he longed to be,Home is the sailor, home from sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.
http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Literary/BiosEssayists.htmhttp://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Literary/BiosEssayists.htm


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D. Euphony is the use of long vowels and soft-sounding consonants that result in a poem

having an overall sound of quiet, calm andpleasantness.

What sounds in the following poem help create

a sense of quiet and calm? Let us read thepoem, and then make a list of sounds usedthat create euphony.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewVelvet Shoes: ELINOR WYLIE

Let us walk in the white snowIn a soundless space;With footsteps quiet and slow,

At a tranquil pace,Under veils of white lace.

I shall go shod in silk,And you in wool,White as a white cow's milk,More beautifulThan the breast of a gull.

We shall walk through the still townIn a windless peace;We shall step upon white down,Upon silver fleece,

Upon softer than these.We shall walk in velvet shoes:Wherever we goSilence will fall like dewsOn white silence below.We shall walk in the snow.


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E. Cacophony is the use of hard consonants and shortvowel sounds that give a poem an unpleasant, harshsound.

Look at the following excellent example. How does theharshness of the sound of this poem helpcommunicate the idea within it? After reading it,make a list of the harsh sounds used.

By the way, the expression Dulce et Decorum Est ProPatria Mori means It is good and honorable to diefor ones country.


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Dulce Et Decorum Est : Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.Men marched asleep. Many had lost their bootsBut limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hootsOf disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--Dim, through the misty panes and thick green lightAs under a green sea, I saw him drowning. (more)


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Dulce Et Decorum Est (continued)

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could paceBehind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;If you could hear, at every jolt, the bloodCome gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--My friend, you would not tell with such high zestTo children ardent for some desperate glory,The old Lie: Dulce et decorum estPro patria mori.


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F. Onomatopoeia is the use of words thatimitate the sound they represent.

A partial list of words would includeoink, bark, ring, meow, clang,

bang and hundreds more. Make a listof at least 5 more.


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The fourth group of tools the poet uses tocreate his/her work are formal devices.

Formal devicesare the use offormin a poem,or the physical structure of the poem.

Lets focus on two: formal structure andrhythm.


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A poet has the option of a variety of styles for building a poem. Here is apartial list:

Stanza: the paragraphs in which any poem is divided

Ballad: a sung story, divided into 4-line stanzasSonnet: both types are 14 lines of iambic pentameter, but each isorganized differently from the other

Elizabethan or English Sonnet Petrarchan or Italian Sonnet

Couplets: two rhymed lines of iambic pentameterBlank Verse: 5 feet or groups of iambic pentameter

Free Verse: a non-regular rhythmic and organic formConcrete: takes a shape that reflects its contentHaiku: a three-lined, short poem of Japanese originLimerick: 5 lines of usually humorous poetry


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Stanzas are the building blocks of poems. It is the namewe give the paragraphs found in a poem.

Well see many examples and uses of stanzas as weread poetry.

How many stanzas are in the following poem?

And to review, how is personification used in this poem?And in what form is the poem written? Be specific!


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewCheck by James Stephens

The Night was creeping on the ground!

She crept, and did not make a sound

Until she reached the tree, And then

She covered it, and stole again

Along the grass beside the wall.

I heard the rustle of her shawl

As she threw blackness everywhere

Along the sky, the ground, the air,

And in the room where I was hid!

But, no matter what she did

To everything that was without,

She could not put my candle out!

So I stared at the Night! And she

Stared back solemnly at me!


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Ballads are made up of quatrains (four-line stanzas),the typical form being that the first and third lines areof four feet, and the second and fourth lines of three

feet.

Balladsare probably the oldest poetic form in English. Itis a form meant to be sung, and many popular songsare still written is this form.

Some relatively recent, famous examples are The Odeto Billy-Joe, by Bobbie Gentry or The Wreck of theEdmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewO MY LUVE'S LIKE A RED, RED ROSE by: Robert Burns (1759-1796)

O MY Luve's like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June.

O, my Luve's like the melodie,

That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,

So deep in luve am I,

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi' the sun!

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve,

And fare thee weel a while!

And I will come again, my luve,

Tho' it were ten thousand mile!


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Ode To Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta dayI was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay

And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eatAnd Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge""Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please""There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"

And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhowSeems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge

And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge


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And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie JoePut a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show

And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right""I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"

"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?""I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite""That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today""Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way""He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge""And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"


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A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'boutBilly Joe

And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a storein Tupelo

There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he diedlast SpringAnd now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anythingAnd me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on ChoctawRidge

And drop them into the muddy water off the TallahatchieBridge

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crc
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crchttp://youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crchttp://youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crchttp://youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crc


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The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on downOf the big lake they call Gitche GumeeThe lake, it is said, never gives up her deadWhen the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons moreThan the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed emptyThat good ship and true was a bone to be chewedWhen the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American sideComing back from some mill in WisconsonAs the big freighters go it was bigger than mostWith a crew and the Captain well seasoned.


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Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firmsWhen they left fully loaded for ClevelandAnd later that night when the ships bell rangCould it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

The wind in the wires made a tattletale soundAnd a wave broke over the railingAnd every man knew, as the Captain did, too,T'was the witch of November come stealing.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait

When the gales of November came slashingWhen afternoon came it was freezing rainIn the face of a hurricane West Wind


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When supper time came the old cook came on deckSaying fellows it's too rough to feed ya

At 7PM a main hatchway caved inHe said fellas it's been good to know ya.

The Captain wired in he had water coming in

And the good ship and crew was in perilAnd later that night when his lights went out of sightCame the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does anyone know where the love of God goesWhen the words turn the minutes to hoursThe searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish BayIf they'd fifteen more miles behind her.

They might have split up or they might have capsizedThey may have broke deep and took waterAnd all that remains is the faces and the namesOf the wives and the sons and the daughters.


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Lake Huron rolls, Superior singsIn the ruins of her ice water mansionOld Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,The islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario

Takes in what Lake Erie can send herAnd the iron boats go as the mariners all knowWith the gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayedIn the Maritime Sailors' CathedralThe church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 timesFor each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on downOf the big lake they call Gitche GumeeSuperior, they say, never gives up her deadWhen the gales of November come early.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eS6G_3TTbmE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eS6G_3TTbmEhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=eS6G_3TTbmE


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Sonnets are another popular poetic form. Thereare two kinds of sonnets. Both types have 14

linesand are written in iambic pentameter,but they differ in their internal structure.

The two types of sonnets are

A. Elizabethan orEnglish orShakespearean

B. Petrarchan orItalian


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The Shakespearean sonnet has 14 lines, andhas a rhyme scheme of abab, cdcd, efef &

gg.The rhyme scheme helps its organization; using

it, the poet expresses a thought or problem inthree different ways in the first three groups

of four lines, and then summarizes in a wittyor thoughtful way in the last two lines.


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Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day? by William Shakespeare

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 fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Does the rhyme scheme follow the pattern described earlier in these notes?


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"London, 1802" by William Wordsworth

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:

England hath need of thee: she is a fen

Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,

Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,Have forfeited their ancient English dower

Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;

Oh! raise us up, return to us again;

And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,

So didst thou travel on life's common way,

In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart

The lowliest duties on herself did lay.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewThe simplest stanza form is the couplet, two lines which form a rhymed pair.Here are some examples.

True wit is nature to advantage dressed,

What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.

-- Eve King

Whether or not we find what we are seeking

is idle, biologically speaking.

-- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Deck the halls with boughs of hollyAnd have some egg nog; it'll make you jolly.

-- Unknown

When shall we three meet again,

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

-- from Macbeth by William Shakespeare

O, what a tangled web we weave

When first we practice to deceive!

--Sir Walter Scott


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Blank verse is written in iambicpentameter, and is often used in

English poetry because it mostresembles the rhythm of the Englishlanguage.

All of Shakespeares plays were primarilywritten in blank verse.


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Free verse is an organic form of poetry. Ituses irregular rhythm, and rhyme is

also used irregularly, both useddepending on the needs of the poet.

Check out this example by the poet e ecummings.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewYour Little Voice by e.e. cummings

your little voiceOver the wires came leaping

and i felt suddenlydizzy

With the jostling and shouting of merry flowerswee skipping high-heeled flamescourtesied before my eyes

or twinkling over to my side

Looked upwith impertinently exquisite facesfloating hands were laid upon meI was whirled and tossed into delicious dancingupUpwith the pale important

stars and the Humorousmoon

dear girlHow i was crazy how i cried when i heard

over timeand tide and deathleapingSweetly

your voice
http://plagiarist.com/poetry/poets/17/http://media.fastclick.net/w/click.here?sid=10231&m=3&c=1http://plagiarist.com/poetry/poets/17/


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Concrete poems resemble an object,usually one related to the poem.

A Christmas Tree by William Burford

Star

If you are

A love compassionate,

You will walk with us this year.

We face a glacial distance, who are hereHuddld

At your feet.


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Another form used by poets is the haiku.

Haikusare three-lined poems, the first line ofwhich contains five syllables, the second lineseven syllables, and the third line fivesyllables. The first two lines usually introducean image, and the third line makes an

unusual but charged connection.

Examples:


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A broken pencil

tip and a rusty breadknife;

no matter: begin.

-- Unknown

Faceless, just numbered.

Lone pixel in the bitmap-I, anonymous.

-- Chris Spruck


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The last form well look at is the limerick.

Limericksconsist of five anapestic lines.

Lines 1, 2, and 5 of limericks have seven to tensyllables and rhyme with one another.Lines 3 and 4 of limericks have five to seven syllablesand also rhyme with each other.

These poems are often humorous, and sometimesbawdy or dirty.


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Here are three limericks by Edward Lear from A Book of Nonsense:

There was an Old Person whose habits,Induced him to feed upon rabbits;When he'd eaten eighteen,He turned perfectly green,Upon which he relinquished those habits.

There was an Old Person of Buda,Whose conduct grew ruder and ruder;Till at last, with a hammer,They silenced his clamour,By smashing that Person of Buda.

There was an Old Lady of Chertsey,Who made a remarkable curtsey;She twirled round and round,Till she sunk underground,Which distressed all the people of Chertsey.


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The second aspect well look at for formal structure isrhythm.

There are several ways a poet can create rhythm in apoem (remember, lyric poems are musical beasts,and rhythm is a part of music). Well look at three:

1. punctuation,2. run-on lines and

3. meter.


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Punctuation is a way to create rhythm bystarting and stopping, slowing down or

speeding up the reading of the poem.

Read the following poem with a sharp eye

to the way the punctuation helps createrhythm.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewSweet And Low by Alfred Tennyson

Sweet and low, sweet and low,Wind of the western sea,Low, low, breathe and blow,Wind of the western sea!

Over the rolling waters go,Come from the dying moon, and blow,Blow him again to me;While my little one, while my pretty one sleeps.

Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,Father will come to thee soon;Rest, rest, on mother's breast,Father will come to thee soon;

Father will come to his babe in the nest,Silver sails all out of the westUnder the silver moon:Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep.


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The use ofrun-on lines is another tool at thedisposal of the poet. This happens when themeaning of the words may only be heard bycontinuing on from the end of a line ofpoetry, rather than stopping at the lines end.

Read this next poem to see how the use ofrun-on linesaffects the reading and therefore themeaning of the poem.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewIn a Hospital by Fred Cogswell

in a hospital

a breath of infant birth blends

with a last-gasp death

the child does not know

he is alive nor the manthat his breathings done

nor can those watchers

who pronounce the one is dead

and the other born

say with certainty

of what they saw before them

any more than this

in a hospital

we watched two breaths meet in time

the rest is theory


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A third rhythm device a poet has to use is meter. Meteris thepattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem. Thereare names for the rhythm patterns a poet can employ.

They are:1. Iambic: unstressed/stressed (te DUM)2. Trochaic: stressed/unstressed (DUM te)3. Spondee: stress/stress (DUM DUM)4. Dactylic: stressed/unstressed/unstressed (DUM te te)5.Anapestic: unstressed/unstressed/stressed (te te DUM)

Lets check out some examples of each, and how each serves theintention of the poet.


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Poetry: An Essential ReviewRoofs by Joyce Kilmer

The road is wide and the stars are out and the breath of the night is sweet,And this is the time when wanderlust should seize upon my feet.But I'm glad to turn from the open road and the starlight on my face,And to leave the splendour of out-of-doors for a human dwelling place.

I never have seen a vagabond who really liked to roamAll up and down the streets of the world and not to have a home:

The tramp who slept in your barn last night and left at break of dayWill wander only until he finds another place to stay.

A gypsy-man will sleep in his cart with canvas overhead;Or else he'll go into his tent when it is time for bed.He'll sit on the grass and take his ease so long as the sun is high,But when it is dark he wants a roof to keep away the sky.

If you call a gypsy a vagabond, I think you do him wrong,For he never goes a-travelling but he takes his home along.And the only reason a road is good, as every wanderer knows,Is just because of the homes, the homes, the homes to which it goes.

They say that life is a highway and its milestones are the years,And now and then there's a toll-gate where you buy your way with tears.It's a rough road and a steep road and it stretches broad and far,But at last it leads to a golden Town where Golden Houses are. (iambic & anapastic)


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From a Railway Carriage by by Robert Louis Stevenson

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;

And charging along like troops in a battleAll through the meadows the horses and cattle:All of the sights of the hill and the plainFly as thick as driving rain;And ever again, in the wink of an eye,Painted stations whistle by.Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,

All by himself and gathering brambles;Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;

And here is the green for stringing the daisies!

Here is a cart runaway in the roadLumping along with man and load;And here is a mill, and there is a river:Each a glimpse and gone forever! (trochaic & dactyl)


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One two,Buckle my shoe;Three, four,Shut the door;Five, six,Pick up sticks;

Seven, eight,Lay them straight;Nine, ten,

A big fat hen;Eleven, twelve,Dig and delveThirteen, fourteen,Maids a-courtingFifteen, sixteen,

Maids in the kitchen;Seventeen, eighteen,Maids in waiting;Nineteen, twenty,My stomaches empty.


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Each repetition of a particular rhythmic pattern is called a foot. Severalfeet can be identified in a line of poetry.

The number of repetitions of a particular rhythmic pattern have names,derived from the number of feet.

So, then, one measure or footis called a monometer;Two feet: DimeterThree feet: TrimeterFour feet: tetrameterFive feet: pentameterSix feet: hexameter

Lets re-examine the previous poems to determine how many feetof eachrhythm there are in a line of the poem.


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Poetry Short Review

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