1. AP Literature and Composition
Patterns in Poetry
AP Literature and Composition

2. Patterns in Poetry
In our analysis of poetry, we examine both the structure and form of the poetry
Structure - The internal ordering of elements within a poems; the arrangement of ideas, images, thoughts, sentences

3. Patterns in Poetry
Form - the poet imposes some external pattern or arrangement
May give the poem not only its internal order of elements, but its external shape (its “form”)
Appeals to the human instinct for design and order, as well as our love of beauty

4. 3 Types of Poetic Forms Continuous, Stanzaic, and Fixed
Continuous Form – pattern is minimal; lines follow each other without formal grouping. Similar to paragraphs in prose
At times, is without regular meter or rhyme; may have irregular length of line

5. 3 Types of Poetic Forms
Stanzaic Form – poetry is organized into a series of stanzas. Stanzas are repeated units that have the same number of lines, usually a metrical pattern, and often the same rhyme scheme
Traditional stanza patterns include terza rima, ballad meter, rhyme royal, Spenserian stanza

6. 3 Types of Poetic Forms
Fixed Form – a traditional pattern that applies to a whole poem. These include the sonnet, rondels, villanelles, sestinas, ballades, among others
Sonnets and villanelles are the most common fixed form poems
Sonnets = 14 lines w/ fixed rhyme scheme

7. Sonnet Forms
Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet (named for Italian poet Petrarch)
14 lines are divided between 8 lines, an octave, using two rhymes arranged abbaabba, and 6 lines, a sestet, using any arrangement of either two or three rhymes – cdcdcd, or cdecde are common patterns for the sestet

8. Sonnet Forms
English or Shakespearean sonnet (invented by English poet Surrey, but made famous by Shakespeare)
Consists of 3 quatrains (4 line stanzas) and a concluding couplet (2 line stanza) rhyming abab, cdcd, efef, gg
The stanzas are marked by both the rhymes and development of thought

9. Examples of Sonnets Petrarchan “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer”
(John Keats)
Shakespearean
“The World is Too Much With Us”
(William Wordsworth)

10. Villanelle Form
Villanelle form requires two rhyme sounds, 19 lines are divided into five 3 line stanzas, or tercets, and a 4 line concluding quatrain
The first and third lines of the first stanza serve as refrain lines entwined with the rhyme pattern
The first line repeated at the ends of the 2nd and 4th stanzas, and the third line repeated at the end of the 3rd and 5th stanzas

11. Examples of Villanelles
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
(Dylan Thomas)
“One Art” (Elizabeth Bishop)
“The Right Thing” (Theodore Roethke)
Which of our assigned poems was a villanelle?

12. Poetry Analysis – Other Patterns
Rhetorical Patterns: Look for statements that follow the same format.
Rhyme: Consider the significance of the end words joined by sound; in a poem with no rhymes, consider the importance of the end words.

13. Poetry Analysis - Patterns
Patterns of Sound: Alliteration and assonance create sound effects and often cluster significant words.
Visual Patterns: How does the poem look on the page?
Rhythm and Meter: Consider how rhythm and meter influence our perception of the speaker and his/her language