Elements of

Poetry

Sound Techniques

Rhyme Scheme
Alliteration
Onomatopoeia
Assonance

Rhyme Scheme- The pattern in which end rhyme

occurs
Example:
Continuous as the stars that shine (A)
And twinkle on the milky way, (B)
They stretched in never-ending line (A)
Along the margin of a bay: (B)
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, (C)
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. (C)

Rhyme Scheme
Heavy is my heart,
Dark are thine eyes
Thou and I must part
Ere the sun rise

A
B
A
B

Example
All mine!" Yertle cried. "Oh, the things I now
rule!
I'm king of a cow! And I'm king of a mule!
I'm king of a house! And what's more, beyond
that,
I'm king of a blueberry bush and cat!
I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me!
For I am the ruler of all that I see!
from Yertle the Turtle
by Dr. Seuss

A
A
B
B
C
C

Alliteration
Repetition of the initial consonant
sound
She sells seashells at the sea
shore

ALLITERATION
Consonant sounds repeated at the
beginnings of words

If Peter Piper picked a peck of

pickled peppers, how many
pickled peppers did Peter Piper
pick?

Onomatopoeia
A word whose sound imitates its
meaning

More onomatopoeia
The bee buzzed by my ear
The clock ticked down the final
hour
The engine purred while awaiting
the green light

Assonance
The repetition of a vowel sound in
two or more words in the line of a
poem

Example: Which is the bliss

of solitude

ASSONANCE
Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line
or lines of poetry.
(Often creates near rhyme.)
Lake

Fate
Base
Fade
(All share the long a sound.)

ASSONANCE cont.
Examples of ASSONANCE:
Slow the low gradual moan came in
the snowing.
- John Masefield
Shall ever medicine thee to that
sweet sleep.
- William Shakespeare

STANZA
A unit of lines grouped
together
Similar to a paragraph in
prose

Couplet- A stanza
consisting of two lines that
rhyme
Quatrain - A stanza
consisting of four lines

Mood- the feeling a poem

creates for the reader
Tone - the attitude a poet
takes toward his/her
subject

IMAGERY
Representation of the five
senses: sight, taste, touch,
sound, and smell
Creates mental images about a
poems subject
Example: Continuous as
the stars that shine and
twinkle on the milky way

Symbol
A word or object that has its own
meaning and represents another
word, object or idea
Example: The daffodils
represent happiness and
pleasure to the author.

POETRY

POETRY
A type of

literature that
expresses ideas,
feelings, or tells
a story in a
specific form
(usually using
lines and
stanzas)

POETRY FORM
FORM - the
appearance of the
words on the page
LINE - a group of
words together on
one line of the
poem
STANZA - a group
of lines arranged
together

A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

FREE VERSE POETRY

Does NOT have
rhyme.

Free verse poetry

is very
conversational sounds like
someone talking
with you.
A more modern
type of poetry.

BLANK VERSE POETRY

from Julius Ceasar
Cowards die many times before
their deaths;
Written in lines of The valiant never taste of death but
once.
iambic
pentameter, but Of all the wonders that I yet have
heard,
does NOT use end It seems to me most strange that
men should fear;
rhyme.
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.

RHYME
Words sound alike
because they
share the same
ending vowel and
consonant sounds.

(A word always
rhymes with itself.)

LAMP
STAMP
Share the short

a vowel sound
Share the
combined mp
consonant sound

END RHYME
A word at the end of one line rhymes
with a word at the end of another line
Hector the Collector
Collected bits of string.
Collected dolls with broken heads
And rusty bells that would not ring.

INTERNAL RHYME
A word inside a line rhymes with
another word on the same line.
Once upon a midnight dreary,

while I pondered weak and weary.

From The Raven

by Edgar Allan Poe

TYPES OF POETRY

LYRIC
A short poem
Usually written in first person point
of view
Expresses an emotion or an idea or
describes a scene
Do not tell a story and are often
musical

HAIKU
A Japanese
poem written in
three lines
Five Syllables
Seven Syllables
Five Syllables

An old silent pond . . .

A frog jumps into the
pond.
Splash! Silence again.

CINQUAIN
A five line poem
containing 22
syllables
Two Syllables
Four Syllables
Six Syllables
Eight Syllables
Two Syllables

How frail
Above the bulk
Of crashing water
hangs
Autumnal, evanescent,
wan
The moon.

SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET
A fourteen line poem with a
specific rhyme scheme.
The poem is written in three
quatrains and ends with a
couplet.
The rhyme scheme is

abab cdcd efef gg

Shall I compare thee to a summers day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summers lease hath all too short a date.
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or natures changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owst;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growst
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Narrative Poetry
Narrative poetry is verse that tells a story.
Two of the major examples of narrative
poetry include:
Ballads a song or poem that tells a story.
Folk ballads, which typically tell of an
exciting or dramatic event, were composed
by an anonymous singer or author and
passed on by word of mouth for generations
before written down. Literary ballads are
written in imitation of folk ballads, but
usually given an author.
Epics a long narrative poem on a great and
serious subject that is centered on the
actions of a heroic figure

NARRATIVE POEMS
A poem that tells
a story.
Generally longer
than the lyric
styles of poetry
b/c the poet
needs to establish
characters and a
plot.

Examples of
Narrative Poems
The Raven
The Highwayman
Casey at the Bat
The Walrus and
the Carpenter

CONCRETE POEMS
In concrete
poems, the words
are arranged to
create a picture
that relates to the
content of the
poem.

Poetry
Is like
Flames,
Which are
Swift and elusive
Dodging realization
Sparks, like words on the
Paper, leap and dance in the
Flickering firelight. The fiery
Tongues, formless and shifting
Shapes, tease the imiagination.
Yet for those who see,
Through their minds
Eye, they burn
Up the page.

Dramatic Poetry
Dramatic poetry is poetry in which
one or more characters speak.
Each speaker always addresses a
specific listener.
This listener may be silent (but
identifiable), or the listener may be
another character who speaks in reply.
Usually the conflict that the speaker is
involved with is either an intense or
emotional.

Greek Lyric Poetry

LYRIC
from the Greek word, lyra,
meaning lyre, lyric poetry,
refers to a short song
accompanied by a musical
instrument, almost always
the lyre

Greek Lyric Poetry

SAPPHO (7th century)
Born on Island of Lesbos
head of the school of
poetry in Lesbos
The Tenth Muse

HYMN TO VENUS
IMMORTAL VENUS THRONED ABOVE
IN RADIANT BEAUTY, CHILD OF JOVE
O SKILLED IN EVERY ART OF LOVE
AND ARTFUL SNARE;

HYMN TO VENUS
DREAD POWER TO WHOM I BEND
THE KNEE
RELEASE MY SOUL AND SET IT FREE
FROM BONDS OF PIERCING AGONY
AND GLOOMY CARE

HYMN TO VENUS
YET COME THYSELF, IF EER BENIGN
THY LISTENING EARS THOU DIDST
INCLINE
TO MY RUDE LAY THE STARRY SHINE
OF JOVES COURT LEAVING

HYMN TO VENUS
IN CHARIOT YOKED WITH COURSES
FAIRTHY OWN IMMORTAL BIRDS
THAT BEAR
THESE SWIFT TO EARTH, THE
MIDDLE AIR
WITH BRIGHT WING CLEAVING

HYMN TO VENUS
SOON THEY WERE SPED-AND THOU,
MOST BLEST
IN THINE OWN SMILES AMBROSIAL
DRESSED,
DIDST ASK WHAT GRIEFS MY MIND
OPPRESSEDWHAT MEANT MY SONG-

HYMN TO VENUS
WHAT END MY FRENZIED THOUGHTS
PURSUEFOR WHAT LOVED YOUTH I SPREAD
ANEW
MY AMOROUS NETS-WHO SAPPHO,
WHO
HATH DONE THEE WRONG

HYMN TO VENUS
WHAT THOUGH HE FLY , HELL SOON
RETURN
STILL PRESSED THY GIFTS, THOUGH
NOW HE SPURN
HEED NOT HIS COLDNESS-SOON HELL
BURN
EEN THOUGH THOU CHIDE

HYMN TO VENUS
AND SAIDST THOU THUS DREAD
GODDESS? O,
COME THEN ONCE MORE TO EASE MY
WOE
GRANT ALL AND THY GREAT SELF
BESTOW
MY SHIELD AND GUIDE!

QUESTIONS:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

WHAT MOOD IS THE POEM WRITTEN?

WHO IS THE PERSONA IN THE POEM?
WHAT FAVOUR DOES THE PERSONA IN
THE POEM ASK VENUS?
WHAT ANSWER DOES VENUS GIVE?
WHY DOES THE PERSONA CALL VENUS
HER SHIELD AND GUIDE?