Look at poetry and how to understand it

Discuss some of the terms needed to

understand poetry
Overview some of the common types of
poems

What are the reasons for poetry, and what are

some of its uses? A poet who recently was
awarded the Nobel Prize has given a
memorable answer. "Poetry," writes T. S. Eliot,
"may make us see the world afresh, or some
new part of it. It may make us from time to
time a little more aware of the deeper,

unnamed feelings to which we rarely

penetrate." (qtd. In online lecture by Ted
Nellen)

Ted Nellen writes, Before we can appreciate a poem,

we must know how to read it. And as we read it, we
must be aware of certain values. It will not be difficult
if we remember five things about poetry.
First, Poetry is concentrated thought. A poem says
much in little; therefore, we should try to anticipate
that concentration. We must focus our attention on
the thought, not hurry past the idea.
Second, Poetry is a kind of word-music. A poem has a
tune of its own. In reading aloud we should be careful
not to spoil the music by using a high-pitched tone
or a sing-song voice. Follow the beat naturally; give it
full value, but do not force it.

Third, Poetry expresses all the senses. A poem

communicates thoughts by the poet's choice of

words; therefore, to extract full meaning from
the words we should listen with all our senses.
We should listen for the characteristic and
changing sounds as well as for the descriptive
and unusual words. We should look for catchy
phrases and the illuminating image. We should
feel the power of fresh epithets and old allusions.
We should smell the perfume and taste the flavor
carried by the words themselves.

Fourth, Poetry answers our demand for

rhythm. A poem beats time simply and

strongly; therefore, we need only respond to

it with our own natural rhythm. Whether or
not we are poets, we are all rhythmical by
nature; we breathe, walk, run, sing, cheer,
dance, even work in rhythm. The poet
patterns this rhythm, and the reader enjoys
the beat of the lines because they satisfy a
deep-seated rhythmic impulse.

Finally, Poetry is observation plus imagination.

The poet has written under the spell of emotional

and intellectual excitement. He has been seized
by some mood or the force of some incident, and
there has been conceived in him this living thing,
this order out of chaos: a poem. The reader
should react imaginatively to this intense
creation. He should share as much of the
emotion as possible. He will then understand not
only the meaning of the poem, but its
suggestions and implications.
Ted Nellen, http://www.tnellen.com/

(From our Terms handout)

Ballad a story poem meant to be sung

Concrete poetry (also known as shaped poems) - the external shape of the poem mirrors the
meaning
Confessional poetry -- poetry that shares secret
thoughts and feelings with the reader
Free verse (also called open form) -- a
nontraditional type of verse not dependent on
using set patterns of rhyme
Elegies -- poems of mourning and lamentation
Epic a long story in poetic form that tells the
heroic deeds and words of a character

Epigram a special kind of couplet: a brief and pithy

saying.
Haiku one of the oldest fixed forms, it is a very short
poem. It consists of three lines, with five syllables in
the first, seven in the second, and five in the third.
Sonnet -- a fourteen line poem that follows a
structured pattern. There are two types of Sonnets:
English (sometimes called Shakespearean) and Italian.
Villanelle a 19 line poem in which the first and third
lines of the first group of three lines are alternately the
last lines of the following four groups of three lines
and become a couplet that end the concluding set of
lines.

The Rose by Donna Brock

The red blossom bends

(5)
and drips its dew to the ground. (7)
Like a tear it falls
(5)
Here is a classic Haiku, reinterpreted by Drury
(based on a famous one by Basho)
In the ancient pond
A frog leaps-and then the splash
Of all that water

A short, two lined poem that rhymes

'Reflections on Ice-Breaking' by Ogden Nash.
Candy Is Dandy -- But liquor Is quicker.
Note: these are often called epigrams
They are short and punchy (like a punch line)
One source commented that you should not
confused epigrams with epigraphs (the head
notes that preface a poem) or epitaphs
(words engraved on a tombstone) (John
Drury, Creating Poetry, p. 104)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge-- "On a volunteer

singer" and "What Is an Epigram?"
Swans sing before they die--'twere no bad
thing
Should certain people die before they sing!
What is an epigram? a dwarfish whole,
Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

http://www.okcom.net/~ggao/Forms/Concrete/herrick1.html
Herrick's poem
The Pillar of Fame
Fames pillar here, at last, we set,
Charm'd and enchanted so,
As to withstand the blow
Of
overthrow:
Nor shall the sea,
Or
OUTRAGES
Of storms forebear
What we up-rear,
Tho Kingdoms fall,
This pillar
never shall
Decline or waste at all;
But stand for ever by his own
Firm and well fixed foundation.

Ballad a narrative poem (sometimes put to music and sung)

Example -- Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (written

1787)

How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the
cold Country towards the South Pole ; and how from thence she
made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific
Ocean ; and of the strange things that befell ; and in what
manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country.

http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Rime_Ancient_Ma
riner.html
Online version of the poem

An ancient Mariner meeteth three Gallants bidden to

a wedding-feast, and detaineth one. It is an ancient
Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
`By thy long 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.

Confessional poetry -- poetry that shares secret thoughts

and feelings with the reader
One of the most well-known poems by a confessional poet
is "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath. Addressed to her father, the
poem contains references to the Holocaust but uses a
sing-song rhythm that echoes the nursery rhymes of
childhood:
Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time-Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5650

Elegies -- poems of mourning and

lamentation
According to poets.org, The elegy began as
an ancient Greek metrical form and is
traditionally written in response to the death
of a person or group. Though similar in
function, the elegy is distinct from the
epitaph, ode, and eulogy: the epitaph is very
brief; the ode solely exalts; and the eulogy is
most often written in formal prose.

The elements of a traditional elegy mirror

three stages of loss. First, there is a lament,
where the speaker expresses grief and
sorrow, then praise and admiration of the
idealized dead, and finally consolation and
solace. These three stages can be seen in W.
H. Audens classic "In Memory of W. B. Yeats,"
written for the Irish master, which includes
these stanzas:

With the farming of a verse

Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;
In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.

Epic a long story in poetic form that tells the

heroic deeds and words of a character
Poetry Portal explains it this way: An epic poem
is a long poem narrating the heroic exploits of an
individual in a way central to the beliefs and
culture of his society. Typical elements are
fabulous adventures, superhuman deeds,
polyphonic composition, majestic language and a
craftsmanship deploying the full range of literary
devices, from lyrical to dramatic.
The first epics included the Iliad and Odyssey.
http://www.poetry-portal.com/styles10.html

http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html
The Iliad -- By Homer. Written 800 B.C.E.
Translated by Samuel Butler.
Book I
Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus,
that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many
a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and
many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures,
for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day
on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great
Achilles, first fell out with one another.

Villanelle a 19 line poem in which the first

and third lines of the first group of three lines
are alternately the last lines of the following
four groups of three lines and become a
couplet that end the concluding set of lines.
This form originated from French poetry-One famous example: Dylan Thomas, Do
Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

Pattern for the Villanelle

Rhymes

Refrains

lst refrain

2nd refrain

1st refrain

2nd refrain

1st refrain

2nd refrain

1st refrain

2nd refrain

I am obliged to repossess
Some nooks and crannies of my soul.
I do not think of you the less.
Tonights ragout would be a mess
without the red clay casserole
I am obliged to repossess.
The green chair suits my dinner dress.
The silk throw makes a pretty stole
I do not think of you the less.

Six forks, two serving-spoons, and, yes,

A platter and a salad bowl
I am obliged to repossess.

Indeed, I say, more courtliness

Would land me quickly on the dole,
I do not think of you the less.

Malicious mischief? I confess

The quicker I forget the role
And do not think of you, the less
I am obliged to repossess.

Sonnet -- a fourteen line poem that follows a

structured pattern.
There are two types of Sonnets:
First, English (sometimes called
Shakespearean)
Second, Italian

A
B
A
B

(first quatrain group of four lines)

C
D
C
D

(first quatrain group of four lines)

E
F
E
F

(first quatrain group of four lines)

G
G

(Couplet)

When I have fears that I may cease to be

Before my pen has gleand my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactry,
Hold like rich graners the full-ripend grain;
When I behold, upon the nights starrd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,

A
B
A
B
C
D

And think that I may never live to trace

Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love!then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

C
D
E
F
E
F
G
G

The poetry of earth is never dead:

When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshoppershe takes the lead
In summer luxury,-he has never done
With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed,
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The crickets song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
The Grasshoppers among some grassy hills.

A
B
B
A
A
B
B
A
C
D
E
C
D
E

Free verse is just what it says it is - poetry that

is written without proper rules about form,
rhyme, rhythm, meter, etc. The greatest
American writer of free verse is probably Walt
Whitman. His great collection of free verse was
titled Leaves of Grass and it was published in
1855.
In free verse the writer makes his/her own rules.
The writer decides how the poem should look,
feel, and sound.
http://volweb.utk.edu/school/bedford/harrisms/
lesson.htm Source for quote.

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=
174770
Online source for poem

One source said, The greatest American

writer of free verse is probably Walt Whitman.
His great collection of free verse was titled
Leaves of Grass and it was published in
1855.
Two others I like include William Carlos
Williams and Nikki Giovanni

once a snowflake fell

on my brow and i loved
it so much and i kissed
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me then
i reached to love them all
and i squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and i stood perfectly
still and was a flower