TP-CASTT Title Ponder the title before reading the poem

Paraphrase Translate the poem into your own word s

Connotation Contemplate the poem for meaning beyond the literal (Interpretation)

Attitude Observe both the speaker’s and the poet’s attitude (tone, diction, images, mood, etc.)

Shifts Note shifts in speakers and in attitudes (are there changes?)

Title Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level

Theme Determine what the poet is saying

The 11 basic steps to reading a poem

Step 1: Read through the poem to get a sense of it.

Step 2: Identify the sentences and independent clauses (circle the periods, exclamation points, question marks, and semicolons). For some reason, people always forget that poetry is made up of complete sentences.

Step 3: Read a few lines to figure out the meter (figure out how many stresses there are in a typical line).

Step 4: Note the rhyme scheme (look for a pattern).

Step 5: Read the poem out loud. Try to follow the rhythm. If you do this you'll hear where the poet plays with the rhythm. And you'll hear the rhyme scheme.

Step 6: Look up any words you don't understand.

Step 7: Re-read the poem out loud.

Step 8: Mark off any sections in the poem. These sections may be speeches given by a character, discussions of a particular topic, changes in mood, or a new stage of an argument.

Step 9: Re-read the poem.

Step 10: Figure out the tone -- the emotion -- of the poem.

Step 11: Re-read the poem.

So far you haven't done any analysis. But you've got a rich understanding of the poem. You know how it works as verse, and you've probably read the poem the way the poet meant it to be read.

Now you can start on the analysis -- if you like. If you do choose to analyze the poem (or if you are forced into it by your power-mad professor) you will do a better job because you are alert to what the poem says, and where it changes meaning, tone, sound, or rhythm. This will help you zero in on the important moments in the poem.

A Few Poetry Terms

Anapestic Meter An end-stressed meter consisting of three syllables per foot. See meter.

Arcadia Originally a mountainous area in the Peloponnese; then a symbol for idyllic rural life. Virgil's Eclogues were set in Arcadia. See also pastoral.

Aubade Poem written to celebrate the dawn e.g. The Sun Rising by John Donne.

Ballad Term originating from the Portuguese word balada meaning 'dancing-song'. However, it normally refers to either a simple song e.g. Danny Boy or to a narrative poem (often with a tragic ending). Bob Dylan wrote and sang some wonderfully mournful ballads e.g. The Ballad of Hollis Brown.

The ballad stanza is a quatrain where the second and fourth lines rhyme. La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats is in ballad form. It usually features alternating four-stress and three-stress lines.

Beat The rhythmic or musical quality of a poem. In metrical verse, this is determined by the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. However, free verse often features a beat e.g. the work of Walt Whitman. Beat is one of the main things distinguishing poetry from prose.

Beat Poets/Poetry Group of American poets - including Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Kenneth Rexroth - who were disaffected by contemporary society. The word 'beat' comes from 'beat' as in music, 'beat' as in defeated and 'beat' as in to beatify or make blessed. Beat poetry had a big impact upon the lyrics of singers such as Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and Tom Waits.

Blank Verse Verse that does not employ a rhyme scheme. Blank verse, however, is not the same as free verse because it employs a meter e.g. Paradise Lost by John Milton which is written in iambic pentameters.

Cadence The natural rhythm of speech - as opposed to the rhythm of meter.

Caesura A break in the flow of sound in a line of poetry e.g. in Hamlet's famous soliloquy:To be or not to be || that is the question

Cavalier Poets Group of poets including Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling and Richard Lovelace who were all supporters of Charles I. Although not a formal group they were all influenced by Ben Jonson and wrote highly crafted, witty lyrics in praise of wine, women and song. See also Tribe of Ben.

Cinquain A five line poem, invented by Adelaide Crapsey, and based on Japanese forms such as haiku and tanka. The cinquain has a total of twenty-two syllables arranged in lines as follows: 2, 4, 6, 8 and 2 e.g.

Moon ShadowsStill asOn windless nightsThe moon-cast shadows are,

So still will be my heart when IAm dead.

Conceit An elaborate and complicated metaphor. An early exponent of conceits was the 14th Century Italian poet Petrarch. The Petrarchan conceit was imitated by many Elizabethan poets including Shakespeare. Conceits were also used extensively by the metaphysical poets. John Donne famously compared two lovers to a pair of compasses in his poem A Valediction: forbidding Mourning.

Concrete Poetry Experimental poetry which emerged during the 1950-1960s and concentrated on the visual appearance of the words on the page. It featured new typographical arrangements, shape poems and the use of collage etc. It owed much to early figure poems such as The Altar and Easter-Wings by George Herbert. The effect of Concrete Poetry is lost when the poem is read aloud. Confessional Poetry Where the poet writes intimately about his/her personal experiences. Confessional poetry is normally written using the 'I' form. The American poet Robert Lowell pioneered confessional verse with his 1959 collection Life Studies.

Couplet A stanza comprising of two lines.

Dactyl A foot consisting of three syllables where the first is long or stressed and the second two are short or unstressed e.g. as in 'MURmuring'.

Dactylic Meter A front stressed meter comprised of three syllables per foot. See meter.

Dirge Poem of lamentation. See elegy.

Doggerel Poor quality poetry. The Scottish poet William McGonagall is famous for his doggerel and enjoys the dubious distinction of being regarded as the world's worst poet.

Dramatic Monologue Poem narrated by an imaginary character (not the poet) in the manner of a speech from a play. Dramatic monologue poems were particularly developed during the 19th century by poets such as Tennyson, Hardy and most notably Robert Browning (e.g. My Last Duchess). The technique was then used to great effect by Eliot (e.g. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock) and Pound.

Elegy Poem written to lament the dead e.g. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray. Such a poem would employ a mournful or elegiac tone. Other examples of elegy include: Lycidas by Milton, In Memoriam by Tennyson, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd by Whitman (for Abraham Lincoln) and In Memory of W. B. Yeats by Auden. A more modern example of elegy is V by Tony Harrison.

End Stopped Line A line of verse which ends with a grammatical break such as a coma, colon, semi-colon or full stop etc. Compare this with enjambment - see below.

Enjambment The continuation of a sentence or phrase across a line break - as opposed to an end-stopped line. Philip Larkin frequently used enjambment e.g. in The Whitsun Weddings

Epigram Short, pithy poem - usually of a humorous nature. Ben Jonson wrote a series of epigrams e.g.He that fears death, or mourns it, in the just,Shows in the resurrection little trust.

Eye Rhyme /Spelling Rhyme This occurs where the end words of a line are spelled similarly e.g. 'love' and 'move' but don't chime together as rhymes.

Foot/feet A foot is a basic unit of a meter. In English, a metrical foot normally contains either two or three syllables with varying patterns of stress. See meter.

Form The structural components of a poem e.g. stanza pattern, metre, syllable count etc - as opposed to the content. T.S.Eliot said that: 'In the perfect poet they (form and content) fit and are the same thing'.

Free verse Verse without formal meter or rhyme patterns. Free verse, instead, relies upon the natural rhythms of everyday speech. The American poet Walt Whitman was a pioneer of free verse (see Song of Myself). However, it was fellow Americans T.S.Eliot and Ezra Pound who are generally regarded as the major instigators of free verse in English. Free verse is particularly associated with both the imagist and modernist movements.

Heptameter A line of poetry containing seven metrical 'feet'. An example of anapestic heptameter is The Lacking Sense by Thomas Hardy.

Heroic Couplet Pair of rhyming lines written in iambic pentameter. John Dryden and Alexander Pope used Heroic Couplets extensively in their work.

Hexameter A line containing six metrical 'feet'. An example of an iambic hexameter is the last line of each stanza of The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser.

Iamb A foot consisting of two syllables where the first is short or unstressed and the second is long or stressed e.g. as in 'beSIDE'. Iambic meter An end stressed two syllable foot. See meter.

Imagism/ Imagist Poets Movement of early 20th century American and English poets seeking clarity and economy of language (in a reaction against the abstraction of romanticism). Ezra Pound was one of the main pioneers of imagism but the movement also included poets such as William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), Amy Lowell, T. E. Hulme and D. H. Lawrence. Imagist poems tend to be short, focussed on specific images and written in free verse. Imagism was partly inspired by Japanese verse forms such as haiku and tanka. See also modernism.

Internal rhyme Either where a word in the middle of a line of poetry rhymes with the word at the end of the line e.g. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe or where two words in mid sentence rhyme e.g. 'dawn-drawn' in The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Light Verse Verse which is comical or light-hearted in tone. Light verse forms include the limerick, the clerihew and the Little Willie.

Lyric Poetry Term originally derived from the Greek word meaning 'for the lyre' and indicating verses that were written to be sung. However, more recently the term 'lyric' has been used to refer to short poems, often written in the 'I' form, where the poet expresses his or her feelings e.g. The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W.B.Yeats or London by William Blake. Lyrical Ballads Ground breaking poetry collaboration by Coleridge and Wordsworth, which first appeared in 1798. Subsequent extended versions appeared in 1800, 1801 and 1802. Most of the poems in the collection were written when the two poets lived in Somerset: Coleridge at Nether Stowey and Wordsworth at Alfoxden.

Metaphysical Poets A term originally coined by Samuel Johnson in his Life of Cowley to criticise a group of poets including: John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan, Thomas Traherne, Andrew Marvell and Abraham Cowley etc. whose poetry he regarded as being over intellectualised. The term is somewhat misleading as it pigeon holes a number of poets who, in reality, had little in common.

Meter/Metre Is the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up a line of poetry. Meter gives rhythm and regularity to poetry.

However, the English language does not always fit exactly into metrical patterns so many poems employing meter will exhibit irregularities.

In English verse the most common meters are: iambic, dactylic, trochaic and anapestic. Other meters are occasionally used, such as spondaic and pyrrhic. There are also a number of classical Greek meters which are very rare indeed - such as amphibrachic, amphimacer and choriambic.

Iambic meter

An end stressed two syllable foot e.g. from In Memoriam by Lord Tennyson

I DREAMED | there WOULD| be SPRING | no MORE

This example is an iambic tetrameter - i.e. it has four iambic feet and therefore the total number of syllables in the line is eight. Iambic is an example of rising meter.

Trochaic meter

A front stressed two syllable foot.

e.g. The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

BY the | SHORES of | GIT chee | GUMee,

This example is trochaic tetrameter - i.e. four two syllable feet. Therefore the total line has eight syllables. Trochaic meter is less commonly used than iambic meter. Trochaic is an example of falling meter.

Anapestic meter

An end stressed three syllable foot e.g. The Destruction of the Sennacherib by Byron:

And the SHEEN | of their SPEARS | was like STARS | on the SEA,

This line is an anapestic tetrameter i.e. it has four feet containing three syllables each. Therefore the total number of syllables in the line is twelve.

Dactylic Meter

A front stressed three syllable foot e.g. The Lost Leader by Robert Browning

WE that had | LOVED him so, | FOLlowed him | HONoured him,

This line is an example of dactyllic tetrameter i.e. it has four feet containing three syllables each. Therefore the total number of syllables in the line is twelve.

Each of the above meters can be used in lines with varying numbers of feet. The number of feet in a line is usually classified as follows: monometer (one foot), dimeter (two feet), trimeter (three feet), tetrameter (four feet), pentameter (five feet), hexameter (six feet), heptameter (seven feet) and octameter (eight feet).

Octameter Is a line of poetry containing eight metrical 'feet'. Octameter is the longest line included in the formal classification of lines. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe is written in trochaic octameters. Octave A stanza comprising of eight lines; sometimes known as an octet or octastich.

Ode Comes from the Greek word meaning song. Odes are normally written in an exalted style and are classified as either Pindaric (after Pindar) or Horatian (after Horace).

Ottava Rima A poem, of Italian origin, consisting of eight line stanzas with a rhyme scheme a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c.e.g. Don Juan by Lord Byron.Pastoral A poem about idyllic rural life - often featuring the life of shepherds. Early examples of the form include the idylls of Theocritus and the eclogues of Virgil. Milton's poem

Lycidas is also an example of a pastoral poem. Pastorals tended to die out with the rise of romanticism.

Pentameter A line of poetry comprising of five metrical 'feet'. Shakespeare's plays were largely written in iambic pentameter. See meter and Shakespeare's line.

Prose Poem Piece of writing which features the charged language normally associated with poetry but which does not feature stanzas or line breaks. An example of a prose poem is Season in Hell by Rimbaud.

Pyrrhic Meter A metrical foot comprising two unstressed syllables.

Quatrain A stanza comprising of four lines e.g. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray.

Quintet A stanza comprising of five lines e.g. Ode to a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Rhyme The effect produced when similar vowel sounds chime together and where the final consonant sound is also in agreement e.g. 'bat' and 'cat'. (See also assonance - which occurs when the vowel sounds are similar but where the consonant sounds are different.)

Rhyme is normally divided into masculine and feminine rhymes. Masculine or single rhymes occur when the last syllable in a word rhymes with the last syllable in another word. This can occur where the words are single syllable words such as 'bat' and 'cat' or where the words have more than one syllable but where the final syllable of each word is stressed e.g. 'instead' and 'mislead'. Masculine rhymes are usually associated with end-stressed meters such as iambic.

Feminine rhymes occur in words of more than one syllable where the stressed (or rhyming) syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable e.g. 'nearly' and 'clearly' or 'meeting' and 'greeting'. It is also possible to have triple feminine rhymes where the stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables - as in 'liable' and 'friable'. Feminine rhymes tend to be used in front stressed meters such as trochaic.

The rhyme patterns in a poem can be analysed by using letters at the end of lines to denote similar vowel sounds e.g.

Who will go drive with Fergus now, aAnd pierce the deep wood's woven shade, bAnd dance upon the level shore? cYoung man, lift up your russet brow, aAnd lift your tender eyelids, maid, bAnd brood on hopes and fear no more. C

Scansion The analysis of lines of poetry to identify their metrical pattern.

Septet A stanza comprising of seven lines.

Sestet A stanza comprising of six lines e.g. The Castaway by William Cowper. A sestet is also the last six lines of a sonnet - following the octave. See sonnet.

Sonnet A fourteen line poem usually in iambic pentameters (see meter) consisting of an octave and a sestet. The octave presents and develops the theme while the sestet reflects and brings the poem to a conclusion.

Over the years there have been many variations upon the sonnet form e.g.

Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet

The sonnet was originated by the Italian poet Guittone of Arezzo and then popularised by Petrarch (1304-74). The term sonnet derives from the Italian for 'little song'. The Italian sonnet has the following rhyme scheme: a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, c-d-e, c-d-e.

Shakespearean or English Sonnet

The Shakespearean or English sonnet employs an a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g rhyme scheme. Essentially it consists of three quatrains and a final couplet and usually features a break between the octave and the sestet. See Shakespeare's Sonnets.

Spenserian Sonnet

Edmund Spenser employed an a-b-a-b, b-c-b-c, c-d-c-d, e-e rhyme scheme - as evidenced in his Amoretti sequence. This form has not been particularly popular. See Whilst it is Prime.

Spondaic Meter Two syllable metrical foot where both syllables are stressed. This is a comparatively rare meter in English poetry but an example of spondaic meter can be seen in the first three feet of this line from Milton's Paradise Lost:

ROCKS, CAVES | LAKES, FENS | BOGS, DENS| and SHADES | of DEATH Spondee A foot consisting of two long or stressed syllables e.g. as in 'PANCAKE'. Sprung Rhythm A unique system of meter devised by Gerard Manley Hopkins and evident in poems such as Pied Beauty and The Windhover. In Sprung rhythm one stressed syllable can make up a foot e.g. in Pied Beauty:

With SWIFT,|- SLOW:|- SWEET,|- SOUR;|a DAZZ| le, DIM

Hopkins referred to the unstressed syllables in the line as 'hangers' or 'outrides'. The above line also demonstrates Hopkins use of alliteration. Stanza One or more lines that make up the basic units of a poem - separated from each other by spacing.

Stanza forms can be classified by the number of lines they employ e.g. the couplet, the triplet, the quatrain etc.

Syllable A unit of pronunciation making up a word. For example, the word 'badger' consists of two syllables 'bad' and 'ger'. In English, syllables can be defined as either stressed (long) or unstressed (short). See meter.

Terza rima A poem consisting of triplets with the following chain rhyme pattern: a-b-a, b-c-b, c-d-c etc. It can be written in any meter but in English it is usually iambic pentameter - see Ode to the West Wind by Shelley. Terza rima was also the form chosen by Dante in The Divine Comedy.See also my poem Gedney Drove End. Tetrameter A line of poetry consisting of four metrical 'feet'. An example of trochaic tetrameter is Haiwatha by Longfellow.

Trimeter A line of poetry consisting of three metrical 'feet'. An example of an iambic trimeter is The only news I know by Emily Dickinson.

Triplet/Tercet A stanza comprising of three lines e.g. The Old Familiar Faces by Charles Lamb.

Trochaic Meter A front stressed two-syllable meter. Trochee A foot consisting of two syllables where the first one is long or stressed and the second is short or unstressed e.g. as in 'FALLing'.

Villanelle A poem (normally) consisting of 19 lines - arranged as five triplets and one final quatrain. The intricate rhyme scheme of the villanelle is furnished by the first triplet: A(1)-B-A(2) and is then repeated twice in the form of A-B-A(1) and A-B-A(2) and then concluded with the quatrain rhymed A-B-A(1)-A(2). Examples of villanelles include Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas and If I Could Tell You by Auden.

Poetic Meter

Important Terms

Foot: a poetic foot is the pattern of stressed/unstressed syllables which

repeats in a line of poetry.

The Iamb, Trochee, Dactyl and Anapest are the most common, although the

Spondee and the Pyrrhus will show up occasionally.

Line Length: the poetic line is measured by the number of feet within the

line.

Dimeter, Trimeter, Tetrameter, and Pentameter will be the most common, but

Hexameter, Heptameter and Octameter are also used sometimes in English poetry.

Meter: the meter of a poem is simply a label telling how many and what

type of feet the poet used to compose the poem. For instance, a line of Iambic

Pentameter contains five iambs.

Iamb: one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable,

for example, in the word in tense the second syllable is vocalized for a bit longer, and both the pitch and the volume of the voice are raised slightly on that syllable.

Lines of poetry with iambs are called iambic.

Trochee: one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable (a trochee is sort of a backward iamb),

for example, the word ques tion

Lines of poetry with trochees are called trochaic.

Anapest: two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable,

for example, under stand

Lines of poetry containing anapests are referred to as anapestic.

Dactyl: one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (sort of like a

backward anapest),

for example, the word con fident

Lines of poetry containing dactyls are called dactylic.

Sonnet 130 (Shakespeare)

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

from Macbeth (you know who)

Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.

Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.

Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time!

Round about the caldron go;

In the poison'd entrails throw.—

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

“The Bridge of Sighs” (Thomas Hood)

One more Unfortunate,

Weary of breath,

Rashly importunate,

Gone to her death!

Take her up tenderly,

Lift her with care;

Fashion'd so slenderly

Young, and so fair!

from “The Destruction of Sennacherib” (Lord Byron)

The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

from “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

It is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,

Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide,

And I am next of kin;

The guests are met, the feast is set:

May'st hear the merry din.'

He holds him with his skinny hand,

'There was a ship,' quoth he.

'Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!'

Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

from “To His Coy Mistress” (Andrew Marvell)

Had we but world enough, and time,

This coyness, Lady, were no crime.

We would sit down and think which way

To walk and pass our long love's day.

Thou by the Indian Ganges' side

Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide

Of Humber would complain. I would

Love you ten years before the Flood,

from "The Burning Babe" (Robert Southwell)

As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow,

Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;

And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,

A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear.

from “You Are Old, Father William” (Lewis Carroll)

'You are old, Father William', the young man said,

'And your hair has become very white;

And yet you incessantly stand on your head --

Do you think, at your age, it is right?'

'In my youth', Father William replied to his son,

'I feared it might injure the brain;

But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,

Why, I do it again and again.'

from “The Tyger” (William Blake)

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare sieze the fire?

A Famous Anonymous Limerick

An epicure, dining at Crewe,

found quite a large mouse in his stew,

said the waiter, “Don’t shout,

and wave it about,

or the rest will be wanting one, too!”

from Doctor Faustus (Christopher Marlowe)

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.Her lips suck forth my soul: see where it flies!Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,And all is dross that is not Helena.I will be Paris, and for love of thee,Instead of Troy, shall Wittenberg be sack'd;And I will combat with weak Menelaus,And wear thy colours on my plumed crest;

Stanzas

The stanza is the paragraph of poetry. Blank space between lines will mark the stanza.

Couplet: a stanza or a grouping of two lines of poetry. For instance, sonnets end

with a rhymed couplet, or two lines that rhyme with each other.

Tercet: a three line stanza. Terza Rima, for instance is a form of poetry that uses tercets.

Quatrain: a four line stanza

Quintain (quintet): a five line stanza

Sestet (sextet): a six line stanza

Septet: a seven line stanza

Octave: an eight line stanza

This poem is really just an illustration of stanza lengths, so don’t expect anything wonderful

These two lines Make a couplet

These three lines Including this oneMake a tercet

A popular stanzaWhich you’ll see often Is the four line quatrain Like this one

A five line stanza,Called a quintain Or sometimes a quintet,Isn’t very common Which is why, I guess, they haven’t settled on one particular name for it yet

Sometimes stanzas Will be six lines long.They’re called sextetsOr sestets if you don’t want to offendanyone.

Seven lines in a row May seem like an arbitrary numberAnd I guess it is.But who am I to judge The great poetic geniusesWho like writing In septets

Where are the band geeks?They’ll know about the octave, Which is the standard range Of the traditional eight-noteWestern musical scale. There are also octaves in poetry This is an octave Flowers and clouds

Poetic Forms

Forms in poetry are sets of rules for writing a particular type of poem. Poems written in form will contain some combination of the following: a specific number of lines, a particular rhyme scheme, a particular meter, and/or a particular arrangement of ideas.

Haiku: A poetic form originating in Japan, the haiku follows a few simple rules. The first line contains five syllables (no particular meter), the second contains seven syllables and the third again contains five. The haiku traditionally contained a reflection onor description of a natural, seasonal phenomenon. Traditional haikus rarely contained any abstract information. The third line of the haiku, like the final couplet of an English sonnet, turns the idea or changes the tone of the first two lines.

Sonnet: The sonnet is one of the most popular forms in English.

14 Lines longIambic Pentameter English (Shakespearean) Sonnets follow an ababcdcdefefgg rhyme

schemeItalian Sonnets follow a abba abba rhyme scheme for the first 8 lines

(octave), then one of a few variations for the last six (sestet).

English Sonnets generally introduce and expand on a topic in the first twelve lines, then turn the idea in some way in the final rhymed couplet.

Italian sonnets introduce the topic in the first quatrain, expand on it in the second quatrain, then turn the idea in the final sestet.

Villanelle:A poetic form having nineteen lines; five tercets then a final quatrain. The first line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the second and fourth stanzas; the third line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the third and fifth stanzas; these two refrain lines follow each to become the second-to-last and last lines of the poem. The rhyme scheme is aba; rhymes are repeated according to the refrains

Limerick:

A poem written in quintain, with two lines of anapestic trimeter, two lines of anapestic dimeter and a final line of anapestic trimeter. Limericks are usually comical (and often rather offensive), as the arrangement of meter in the five lines works well with a setup and punchline.

Types of Poetry

Ballad: A type of poem which generally employs quatrains written in alternating iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, usually with a rhyme scheme of abcb. Ballads usually deal with stories of lost love, supernatural elements, crime and punishment or current events at the time of writing. They often use colloquial and/or informal styles of wording and, with a repeated phrase or verse (refrain), have a musical cadence.

Lyric:

Poetry that expresses emotion.

Ode:

A poem with a serious tone and a lyrical focus, written in praise of or as a description of something or someone inspirational to the poet.

Elegy:

A poem written in mourning over someone’s death.

Dramatic Monologue:

The name describes itself; dramatic monologue poems are written as if they are taken from a play. The poem is spoken from the perspective of a fictional character who is speaking to another fictional character. Browning was famous for his dramatic monologues, which often featured sinister, unsympathetic characters.

Didactic:

Poetry that teaches a lesson or argues an opinion. The word “didactic” is sometimes used in a critical context to describe something “preachy,” which somewhat describes didactic poetry, but of course, poets writing didactic poems do not intend pedanticism. You won’t see much didactic poetry because it tends to be preachy.

Light Verse:

Poetry that is light-hearted and comical. Light verse is sometimes seen as less important or meaningful by more serious poets.

Poetic Movements:

As times change, styles and ideas about poetry change as do styles and ideas about fashion or music or television. The following poetic movements, identifiable (sometimes) by their subject matter, style and philosophy, are some of the more famous and long-lasting.

Romanticism:

The Romantic movement, which started in the late 18th century, is characterized by its philosophical ideas and subject matter. Romantic poets (don’t think of romance novels; it’s a different thing) tend to appreciate nature, spirituality, inspiration, individual freedom and significance, childhood innocence, and the working class or poor. They tend to mistrust the industrial and scientific. Famous Romantic poets include Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Byron, Blake, Tennyson and Yeats.

Imagism:

The Imagist movement marked a shift from the Romanticism of the 19th century to the rationalism of the 20th century. The style is characterized by shorter, simpler sentence structure. Imagists tend to focus on physical detail and avoid abstract wording. William Carlos Williams’s famous expression, “no ideas but in things,” describes Imagism rather well. Among the most famous Imagists are Ezra Pound, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Amy Lowell and Williams.