ELEMENTS OF POETRY

Speaker
Every poem has a speaker, or voice that talk to the reader. In prose, the narrator is the speaker but
not necessarily the author. In poetry, the speaker is not necessarily the poet. It can also be a
fictional person, an animal or a thing.
Example:
Speaker is a child

I once had a dear ring
With a precious stone rare,
It was given to me
By my mother so dear;
From My Lost Ring by Emilia S. Reysio Cruz
Lines and Stanzas
A line is a word or row of words that may or may not form a complete sentence. A stanza is a group
of lines forming a unit. The stanzas in a poem are separated by a space.

Example:

Josephine, Josephine line
Josephine, Josephine
Who to these shores have come
Looking for a nest, a home,
Like a wandering swallow;
If your fate is taking you Stanza
To Japan, China or Shanghai,
Don't forget that on these shores
A heart for you beats high.
From To Josephine By Jose Rizal



Philippine Literature
Lesson No.
Date

Lesson Title
Elements of Poetry
Lesson Target
To Identify the elements of a poem
References

Title
Philippine Literature, AMA Publications, 2011
Author
Riviera Guiyab Page
Number(s)

Rhythm and Meter
Rhythm is the pattern of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in
a line. Rhythm can be regular or irregular. Meter is a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables, which set the overall rhythm of certain poems. Typically, stressed syllables are marked
with () and unstressed syllables ().

Example:
, , , , , ,
Butterflies so bright, flying to and fro,
From The Butterfly courtesy of Emilia S. Reysio-Cruz

Rhyme
Rhyme is the repetition of the same stressed vowel sound and any succeeding sounds in two or
more words.

Internal rhyme occurs within a line in poetry.
End rhyme occurs at the ends of lines.
Rhyme scheme, the pattern of the end rhymes, may be designated by assigning a different letter of
the alphabet to each new rhyme.
The time came when I have to believe ---- a
Seeing us apart feels things had changed ---- b
Turning the time when I wont leave ---- a
Save me from this place of strange ---- b

From the poem Freedom
Other Sound Devices

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.

Example:
The stream, the stream, the purring stream,
From Canto 1, verse 9 by Serafin Lanot

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within a line of poetry.

Example:
Is it the amorous secret of the trees?
From Sonnet to a Gardene5r: II by Trinidad Tarrosa-Subido

Onomatopoeia is the use of a word or phrase, such as hiss or buzz, that imitates or suggests the
sound of what it describes.


Imagery
Imagery is a descriptive language that appeals to the sense sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell.
Some images appeal to more than one sense.

Example:
Candles, yellow and white, burning;
Incense-smoke heavenward ascending;
From Procession by Guillermo V. Sison
Figures of Speech
Figure of speech is a word or expression that is not meant to be read literally.
A simile is a figure of speech using a word such as like or as to compare seemingly unlike things.

Example:
Your face is unabashed, unremembering
And proud still
As the granite lions in the patios.
From Ermita, 1946 by Dominador I. Ilio

A metaphor also compares or equates seemingly unlike things, but does not use like or as.

Example:
But the bolo is a fish already captured
From Bolo by Simon Dumdum

Personification attributes human characteristics to an animal, object, or idea.
Example:
The sleeping river startled from repose,
From San Juan Bridge by Luis D. Dato