Literary Terms #5 A.P. Literature Poetry Types and terms

Metric feet make up lines of poetry. Lines of poetry make up stanzas. Divisions in poetry Metric feet make up lines of poetry. Lines of poetry make up stanzas. Stanzas make up cantos. Cantos are like chapters in a novel.

Lyric Poetry Short verse stressing emotional over story A type of brief poem that expresses the personal emotions and thoughts of a single speaker. It is important to realize, however, that although the lyric is uttered in the first person, the speaker is not necessarily the poet. There are many varieties of lyric poetry, including the dramatic monologue, elegy, haiku, ode, and sonnet forms.

Verse that tells a story Narrative Poetry Verse that tells a story A poem that tells a story. A narrative poem may be short or long, and the story it relates may be simple or complex

Epic Poetry Long story in verse A long narrative poem, told in a formal, elevated style, that focuses on a serious subject and chronicles heroic deeds and events important to a culture or nation. Milton’s Paradise Lost, which attempts to “justify the ways of God to man,” is an epic.

Epic poetry Anglo-Saxon Epic: Beowulf Greek Epics: The Illiad & The Odyssey by Homer, Greek mythology Epic of Gilgamesh, Mesopotamian mythology Aeneid by Virgil, Roman mythology Mahābhārata, by Vyasa, Hindu mythology

English Sonnet Fourteen line poem with three quatrains and a couplet The English sonnet, also known as the Shakespearean sonnet, is organized into three quatrains and a couplet, which typically rhyme abab cdcd efef gg. This rhyme scheme is more suited to English poetry because English has fewer rhyming words than Italian.

English sonnet English sonnets, because of their four-part organization, also have more flexibility with respect to where thematic breaks can occur. Frequently, however, the most pronounced break or turn comes with the concluding couplet, as in Shakespeare’s “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. 

Italian Sonnet Fourteen line poem with octave and sestet The Italian sonnet, also known as the Petrarchan sonnet, is divided into an octave, which typically rhymes abbaabba, and a sestet, which may have varying rhyme schemes. Common rhyme patterns in the sestet are cdecde, cdcdcd, and cdccdc.

Italian sonnet Very often the octave presents a situation, attitude, or problem that the sestet comments upon or resolves. Example: John Keats’s “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer.”

“on first looking into chapman’s homer” by john keats Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,  And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;  Round many western islands have I been  Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.  Oft of one wide expanse had I been told  That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne;   Yet did I never breathe its pure serene  Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:  Then felt I like some watcher of the skies  When a new planet swims into his ken;  Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes  He star'd at the Pacific — and all his men  Look'd at each other with a wild surmise —  Silent, upon a peak in Darien. 

Italian sonnets, Sonnet 23, by Louise Labé What good is it to me if long ago You eloquently praised my golden hair, Compared my eyes and beauty to the flare Of two suns where, you say, love bent the bow, Sending the darts that needled you with grief? Where are your tears that faded in the ground? Your death? By which your constant love is bound In oaths and honor no beyond belief? Your brutal goal was to make me a slave Beneath the ruse of being served by you. Pardon me, friend, and for once hear me through: I am outraged with anger and I rave. Yet I am sure, wherever you have gone, Your martyrdom is hard as my black dawn.

Ballad Traditionally, a ballad is a song, transmitted orally from generation to generation, that tells a story and that eventually is written down. As such, ballads usually cannot be traced to a particular author or group of authors. Typically, ballads are dramatic, condensed, and impersonal narratives, such as “Bonny Barbara Allan”. 

ballad A literary ballad is a narrative poem that is written in deliberate imitation of the language, form, and spirit of the traditional ballad. Example: Keats’s “La Belle Dame sans Merci.” 

Ballad Stanza four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, consisting of alternating eight- and six-syllable lines. Usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme (an abcb pattern). Coleridge adopted the ballad stanza in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” All in a hot and copper sky a The bloody Sun, at noon, b Right up above the mast did stand, c No bigger than the Moon. b

Epigram Witty poem or saying A brief, pointed, and witty poem that usually makes a satiric or humorous point. Epigrams are most often written in couplets, but take no prescribed form. Epigrams were originally developed by the ancient Greeks. The word "epigram" comes from the Greek term "epi-gramma," meaning to inscribe. The Greeks placed epigrams on statues of their heroes and athletes, as well as on grave markers. Today, we know the short statements on gravestones as epitaphs.

Epigrams by oscar wilde I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy. The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on; it is never of any use to oneself. Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. Men always want to be a woman's first love; women like to be a man's last romance. To be modern is the only thing worth being nowadays.

epigrams In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.—Albert Camus Gratitude is the timid wealth of those who have nothing. —Emily Dickinson Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. —Alexander Pope I am his Highness' dog at Kew; pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you? —Alexander Pope (engraved on the collar of a puppy Pope gave to his Highness, Frederick, Prince of Wales)

Epitaph Memorial poem, example: Rosetti’s “Remember” Remember me when I am gone away, Gone far away into the silent land; When you can no more hold me by the hand, Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay. Remember me when no more day by day You tell me of our future that you plann’d: Only remember me; you understand It will be late to counsel then or pray. Yet if you should forget me for a while And afterwards remember, do not grieve: For if the darkness and corruption leave A vestige of the thoughts that once I had, Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad. - Christina Rosetti, The Prince’s Progress and Other Poems

Enjambment Running over of a sentence from one line or stanza to another. In poetry, when one line ends without a pause and continues into the next line for its meaning. This is also called a run-on line.

enjambment The transition between the first two lines of Wordsworth’s poem “My Heart Leaps Up” demonstrates enjambment: My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: Joyce Kilmer’s poem, “Trees” I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.

Refrain The word 'Refrain'  derives from the Old French word refraindre meaning to repeat. A refrain is a phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually after each stanza. A famous example of a refrain are the words  " Nothing More" and “Nevermore” which are repeated in “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. 

Found Poem An unintentional poem discovered in a nonpoetic context, such as a conversation, news story, or advertisement. Found poems serve as reminders that everyday language often contains what can be considered poetry, or that poetry is definable as any text read as a poem.

Found Poems Creating a found poem: a page, words, imagination, a thought.

Haiku  A style of lyric poetry borrowed from the Japanese that typically presents an intense emotion or vivid image of nature, which, traditionally, is designed to lead to a spiritual insight. Haiku is a fixed poetic form, consisting of seventeen syllables organized into three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Today, however, many poets vary the syllabic count in their haiku.

haiku On a withered branch A crow has settled— autumn nightfall. —Matsuo Bashō Even stones in streams of mountain water compose songs to wild cherries. —Uejima Onitsura one must bend in the floating world - snow on the bamboo —Lady Chiyo

Limerick  A light, humorous style of fixed form poetry. Its usual form consists of five lines with the rhyme scheme aabba; lines 1, 2, and 5 contain three feet, while lines 3 and 4 usually contain two feet: anapestic. Limericks range in subject matter from the silly to the obscene, and since Edward Lear popularized them in the nineteenth century, children and adults have enjoyed these comic poems.

There was a young lady of Niger Who smiled as she rode on a tiger; They returned from the ride With the lady inside, And the smile on the face of the tiger. —William Cosmo Monkhouse

Limericks by edward lear There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said, 'It is just as I feared! Two Owls and a Hen, Four Larks and a Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard!‘ There was a Young Lady of Ryde, Whose shoe-strings were seldom untied. She purchased some clogs, And some small spotted dogs, And frequently walked about Ryde. 

Ode  A relatively lengthy lyric poem that often expresses lofty emotions in a dignified style. Odes are characterized by a serious topic, such as truth, art, freedom, justice, or the meaning of life; their tone tends to be formal. There is no prescribed pattern that defines an ode; some odes repeat the same pattern in each stanza, while others introduce a new pattern in each stanza.

Ode In English poetry, there are basically two types of Odes. One is highly formal and dignified in style and is generally written for ceremonial or public occasions. This type of ode derives from the choral odes of the classical Greek poet Pindar. The other type of ode derives from those written by the Latin poet Horace, and it is much more personal and reflective. In English poetry, it is exemplified by the intimate, meditative odes of such Romantic poets as Wordsworth, Keats, and Shelley.

Ode  “Ode to Autumn” by John Keats Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,         Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;     Conspiring with him how to load and bless         With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;     To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,         And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;           To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells         With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,     And still more, later flowers for the bees,   Until they think warm days will never cease,           For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Sestina  fixed form poetry consisting of 36 lines of any length divided into 6 sestets and a 3-line concluding stanza called an envoy. The six words at the end of the first sestet’s lines must also appear at the ends of the other five sestets, in varying order. These six words must also appear in the envoy, where they often resonate important themes. An example of this highly demanding form of poetry is Elizabeth Bishop’s “Sestina.” 

Sestina pattern

Stanza 1 Stanza 2

Terza rima  An interlocking three-line rhyme scheme: aba, bcb, cdc, ded, and so on. Dante’s The Divine Comedy and Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night” are written in terza rima. 

terza rima “Acquainted With the Night” by Robert Frost aba, bcb, cdc, ded, efe, gg terza rima

Villanelle  A type of fixed form poetry consisting of nineteen lines of any length divided into 6 stanzas: five tercets and a concluding quatrain. The first and third lines of the initial tercet rhyme; these rhymes are repeated in each subsequent tercet (aba) and in the final two lines of the quatrain (abaa). Line 1 appears in its entirety as lines 6, 12, and 18, while line 3 reappears as lines 9, 15, and 19.

Villanelle The villanelle was originally used in French pastoral poetry Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is a villanelle.

villanelle “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas aba abaa villanelle

Concrete poetry, or, Picture poem  A type of open form poetry in which the poet arranges the lines of the poem so as to create a particular shape on the page. The shape of the poem embodies its subject; the poem becomes a picture of what the poem is describing. Michael McFee’s “In Medias Res” is an example of a picture poem.

Concrete Poem

George Herbert's "Easter Wings", printed in 1633 on two facing pages (one stanza per page), sideways, so that the lines would call to mind birds flying up with outstretched wings.