ELEMENTS OF POETRY

STRUCTURE – over all organization of lines and/or the conventional patterns of sound.

1. Stanza – stanzas are a series of lines grouped together and separated by an empty line from other
stanzas. They are the equivalent of a paragraph in an essay. One way to identify a stanza is to count the
number of lines.

 couplet (2 lines)  cinquain (5 lines)  septet (7 lines)

 tercet (3 lines)  sestet (6  octave (8 lines)

lines) (sometimes it's
 quatrain (4 lines) called a sexain)
Example:

Josephine, Josephine

Josephine, Josephine Who to these shores have come Looking for From
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 “To Josephine” By Jose Rizal
shores A heart for you beats high.

2. Form – A poem may or may not have a specific number of lines, rhyme scheme and/or metrical
pattern, but it can still be labeled according to its form or style.

Lyric Poetry: It is any poem with one speaker (not necessarily the poet) who expresses strong
thoughts and feelings.
Narrative Poem: It is a poem that tells a story; its structure resembles the plot line of a story

Descriptive Poem: It is a poem that describes the world that surrounds the speaker. It uses
elaborate imagery and adjectives. While emotional, it is more "outward-focused" than lyric
poetry, which is more personal and introspective.

SOUND AND PATTERN – These are sometimes collectively called sound play because they take
advantage of the performativity, spoken nature of poetry.

3. Rhyme -The repetition of sounds within different words, either end sound, middle or beginning.

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.
Ex.
The time came when I have to believe ---- a
Seeing us apart feels things had changed ---- b
Turning the time when I won’t leave---- a
Save me from this place of strange ---- b
From the poem “Freedom”
4. RHYTHM AND METER – 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.

Poetic Foot: The traditional line of metered poetry contains a number of rhythmical units,
which are called feet. The feet in a line are distinguished as a recurring pattern of two or three
syllables("apple" has 2 syllables, "banana" has 3 syllables, etc.). The pattern, or foot, is
designated according to the number of syllables contained, and the relationship in each foot
between the strong and weak syllables.

Thus:

__ = a stressed (or strong, or LOUD) syllable

U = an unstressed (or weak, or quiet) syllable

In other words, any line of poetry with a systematic rhythm has a certain number of feet, and each
foot has two or three syllables with a constant beat pattern .

Iamb (Iambic) - weak syllable followed by strong syllable. [Note that the pattern is sometimes
fairly hard to maintain, as in the third foot.

Trochee (Trochaic): strong syllable followed by a weak syllable.

Anapest (Anapestic): two weak syllables

followed by a strong syllable.

e.g.
In her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed...

From "The Writer", by Richard Wilbur

Dactyl (Dactylic): a strong syllable followed by two weak syllables.

DD

Here's another (silly) example of dactylic rhythm.

DDDA was an / archer, who / shot at a / frog
DDDB was a / butcher, and / had a great / dog
DDDC was a / captain, all / covered with / lace
DDDD was a / drunkard, and / had a red / face.
 Spondee (Spondaic): two strong syllables (not common as lines, but appears as a foot). A
spondee usually appears at the end of a line.

5. WORDS and SOUNDS

Figures of speech – are departures from the direct way of speaking or writing, intended to explain,
emphasize, elucidate or embellish what is being said. They are chiefly used in poetry for the sake of
vividness. They are also used in prose especially in public speeches to give added effect or beauty to
what is said.

1. Alliteration – the repetition of initial sounds on the same line or stanza

e. g The loveliest lady in the llian land (Troy) was Helen
Ruin seizes thee, ruthless King!
2. Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds (anywhere in the middle or end of a line or stanza) –
e. g Tilting at windmills
3. Consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds (anywhere in the middle or end of a line or
stanza)
e. g And all the air a solemn stillness holds. (T. Gray)
4. Onomatopoeia: words that sound like that which they describe
e. g Boom! Crash! Pow! Quack! Moo! Caress...
5. Repetition: the repetition of entire lines or phrases to emphasize key thematic ideas.
6. Parallel Structure: a form of repetition where the order of verbs and nouns is repeated; it may
involve exact words, but it more importantly repeats sentence structure
e. g "I came, I saw, I conquered"

Based on similarities

7. Simile: is a figure in which a comparison is made between objects of different kinds, which are
alike at least in one point .In this figure words like, as or like are always used.
e.g Suresh is as strong as a lion.
Thy smile is as the dawn of vernal day.
8. Metaphor: figure of speech in which there is comparison of one thing with another without the
words ‘like or as’. The resemblance is implied.
e. g The fairest rose in all Greece was Helen of Troy.
She accepted it as the kind cruelty of the surgeon’s knife
9. Personification: inanimate objects and abstract motions are spoken of as having life and
intelligence.
e. g Laughter is holding her both sides
10. Apostrophe: is a direct address to the dead, to the absent, or to a personified object or idea. This
figure is a special form of personification.
e. g Milton! Thou should’st be living in this home.
Based on Contrast, Difference of Surprise

11. Antithesis: a striking opposition or contrast of words or sentiments is made in the same
sentence. It is employed to secure emphasis
e. g Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
12. Epigram: is a brief pointed saying, frequently introducing antithetical idea, which excites surprise
and arrest attention.
e. g The child is father of the man
13. Oxymoron: is a special form of antithesis, whereby two contradictory things are predicted at
once of the same thing.
e. g So innocent arch, so cunningly simple.
14. Irony: is the use of words, the natural meaning of which is just the opposite of what is intended
to be expressed. By this figure, therefore, we say one thing but mean just the opposite.
e. g A very fine friend you are to forsake me in my trouble
15. Euphemism is a figure by means of which we speak in pleasing or favorable terms of an
unpleasant or bad thing.
e. g Yet beneath the hallowed soil, the peasant rests him, from his toil
16. Litotes is the use of a negative to express a strong affirmative of the opposite kind
e. g We had no small difficulty in finding his house.

Based on Association

17. Synecdoche: or “the understanding of one thing by means of another”. By this figure one noun is
changed for another of a similar meaning.
e. g There is a mixture of the tiger and the ape in the character of a Frenchman
18. Metonymy: this means “a change of name” and is so called because in this figure a thing is
spoken of not by its own name, but by the name of some conspicuous accompaniment
e. g Swiftly flies the feathered death

Based on Construction

19. Interrogation: is a statement thrown into the form of a question for rhetorical effect. No answer
was expected to such a question.
e. g Who would be so wicked as to slay his own father?
20. Exclamation is a figure in which the exclamatory form is used to draw greater attention to a point
than a mere bold statement of it could do.
e.g.What a piece of works is man
21. Climax: is a figure in which the sense rises by successive steps to what is more and more
important and impressive.
e. g He begs, he lies, he steals, he kills for gold.
22. Anti-Climax or Bathos: this is the opposite to Climax, and signifies a ludicrous descent from the
higher to the lower.
e. g He was remarkable for commanding intelligence, perfect virtue ,and above all a snub nose.
23. Hyperbole is a greatly exaggerated statement, used mainly for effect, but not intended to be
taken literally.
e. g The sky shrank upward with unusual dread. And trembling Tiber dived beneath his bed
24. Transferred Epithet: In this figure, an epithet is transferred from a word to which it properly
belongs to some other word closely connected with it.
e. g He tossed from side to side on his restless pillow
25. Tautology: is the use of unnecessary words to express the same idea
e.g His voice has a tone of monotony and sameness
26. Pun: is a play upon words
e.g A boy who eats dates makes good use of his time.
If she was an angle, she’d be acute.

POETRY AS A LANGUAGE OF INDIRECTION

Thus, if we recognize that much of the essential quality of our experience is more complex than a
simple denotative statement can describe, then we must recognize the value of the poet's need to
search for a language agile enough to capture the complexity of that experience. Consider this four-
line stanza:

O Western wind, when wilt thou blow

That the small rain down can rain?

Christ, that my love were in my arms,

And I in my bed again!

The center of the poem is the lover's desire to be reunited with his beloved (lines 3 and 4). But the
full meaning of the poem depends on the first two lines also. Obviously, the lover associates his grief
with the wind and rain, but the poet leaves to implication, to indirection, just how the lover's
situation and the wind and rain are related. We note that they are related in several ways: the need
for experiencing and manifesting love is an inherent need, like nature's need for rain; in a word, love,
like the wind and rain, is natural. Secondly, the lover is living in a kind of drought or arid state that
can only be slaked by the soothing presence of the beloved. Thirdly, the rising of the wind and the
coming of the rain can neither be controlled nor foretold exactly, and human affairs, like the lover's
predicament, are subject to the same sort of chance.

Undoubtedly, too, there are associations with specific words, like "Western" or "small rain" that the
reader is only half aware of but which nonetheless contribute to meaning. These associations or
connotations afford a few indirections that enrich the entire poem. For example, "small rain" at once
describes the kind of rain that the lover wants to fall and suggests the joy and peace of lover's tears,
and "small" alone might suggest the daintiness or femininity of the beloved.