1. Words / Form

2. Words Poets are in love with words. Language is their tool, but it is a tool that fascinates and challenges them. As the reader you have to be prepared to slow down and respond fully to a single word, taking in its full meaning.

3. The Poet’s Word Choice Poets are sticklers for the right word. Poets have a keen ear for the emotional quality of words. Poets have a keen ear for differences in tone. Poets have a keen ear for the sound of words. (onomatopoeia, euphony, cacophony, assonance, dissonance)

4. Author’s Carefully Select Their Words Connotation – the emotional overtones and attitudes that words carry. Denotation – bare-fact meaning of a word. Authors carefully use connotations and denotations of words to create the theme/meaning of the poem.

5. Dialects Poets may chose to have a certain manner of speaking in their poems so you are able to get a feel for the persona and meaning of the poem.

6. Tips for looking at Words Define your key term. Show that you have read carefully for implications. You have gone through the poem line by line looking for key words. Don not take words out of context Work out a clear overall plan. What are you looking for in the words? (pattern, connotative language)

7. Form – Rhyme, Meter, Stanza Poetry today moves between the poles of traditional form and the open form that became second nature to many modern poets. Traditional poetry is shaped by features like rhyme, rhythm, and stanza. Open form in varying degrees modifies or abandons these, allowing the poet to give each poem its own unique pattern and rhythm.

8. Looking for form To read with an alert eye and attentive ear, you need to respond to formal features like the following: 1. Poets exploit our delight in the echo effects of language.

9. 2. Poets build on the natural rhythms of language. The drumbeat of the poem is known as meter. 3. Poets appeal to our delight in recurrent patterns.

10. Rhyme Internal Rhyme - multiply the echo effect of rhyme within a line. “All is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil.” End Rhyme – most rhymes are end rhyme. The use of rhyme at the ends of lines of poetry. (tap/clap) Off Rhyme (slant rhyme) - rhymes that are close but not exact: lap/shape, glorious/nefarious Rhyme Scheme - the pattern of rhymes, esp. end rhymes, used in a piece of verse, usually indicated by letters

11. Meter Meter regularizes the natural rhythm of speech. It is a recurring beat over the poem. A stress makes one syllable stand out. Shakespeare’s plays are written in iambic pentameter.

12. Stanza A group of lines of verse forming one of the divisions of a poem or song: it is usually made up of four or more lines and often has a regular pattern in the number of lines and the arrangement of meter and rhyme Much traditional poetry is laid out in stanzas.

13. Questions to ask regarding form What use does the poem make of rhyme? Does the poem set up a strong underlying beat, or meter? Is the poem is divided into stanzas? How are the stanzas organized? In a poem using open form, look for features that help give shape to the poem.