1. Poetry and Poetic Terms “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” - Fredrick Douglass Samples and Examples with a Focus on Prominent Black Writers and an Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance.

2. Major Types of Poetry: Ballads: – Ballads are narrative “songs” that have four line stanzas (quatrains) with the rhyme scheme ABCB, where lines 2 and 4 rhyme. They often recount a tragedy, heroic exploits, or comedic tales with an emphasis on a central dramatic event. – Example: “The Ballad of the Landlord” by Langston Hughes – “Annabelle Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe

3. Rhyme Schemes are represented by letters. Each letter in the Rhyme Scheme represents one line in the poem or story. Repeated letters indicate Rhymes. The Box shows an ABABCC Rhyme Scheme. This indicates that there are three rhymes in the Stanza. The Rhyme denoted by the letter A falls on the 1 st and 3 rd lines and the letter B falls on the 2 nd and 4 th lines. The Rhyme represented by C are the 5 th and 6 th lines. (Different letters occur when there is no corresponding rhyme for it. The letters continue in order until there’s a rhyme)

4. Free Verse Poetry – A free verse poem means that it does not follow any rigid rules of rhyme, pattern or meter. However, a great free verse poem will have some type of rhythm. It will also use poetic devices, such as metaphors, similes, personification, onomatopoeia, etc. – Ex. “Harlem” By Langston Hughes

5. Found Poetry/Blackout Poetry – A prose text or texts reshaped by a poet into quasi-metrical lines. Fragments of found poetry may appear within an original poem as well.

6. Elegy – An elegy is a sad, solemn poem written when someone dies, to lament for the person who died. A traditional elegy has three basic parts: an expression of grief, praise for the recently deceased, and then comfort and support. – Example: “Elegy” (dedicated to Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglass) by Maya Angelou

7. Important Poetic Terms: – Symbolism: An object or action that stands for something more than its literal meaning. Examples: Liberty, gardens, flowers, darkness, light, etc. – Repetition: Repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clear and to add emphasis. Example: “Still I Rise” – Imagery: The use of figurative language to create visual representations of actions, objects, and ideas in our mind that appeal to the physical senses (touch, smell, sound, sight, taste).

8. Poetic Terms Continued… – Tone: the way the author’s attitude towards his/her audience and about the events, settings, and characters in their poem. – Mood: the way the reader is made to feel when reading a story. Mood may be conveyed through setting, plot, tone, and theme. – Theme: the central message of the poem. – Rhetorical Question: Asked just for effect or to place emphasis on a point when no real answer is expected. Ex. “Does my sassiness upset you?”