1. Poetic Forms

2. Ballad  Ballads, one of the earliest forms of literature, are narrative songs.  Traditionally passed down orally from generation to generation, they are divided into two major types : Folk Ballads which are meant to be sung and Literary Ballads which are meant to be printed and read.  Major themes found in ballads include love, especially unrequited love, revenge, courage, and death.

3.  Ballads are usually tragic in tone and emphasize the story rather than the setting or characters.  Dialogue, refrains, and repetitions are common elements in ballads.  The ballad stanza is a quatrain with the second and fourth lines rhyming.  Musical ballads may or may not follow this pattern, but most tell a story about a person, and the story is often a touching one. Ballad

4. Haiku and Tanka  The Haiku form of Japanese poetry has 3 unrhymed lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables with a total of 17 syllables. Originally the poems referred to one of the seasons of the year, but now they are written on topics.  The Tanka is similar, except has 5 lines of 5,7,5,7,and 7 syllables, with a total of 31 syllables.

5. Limerick  A Limerick is a poem(often humorous) with five lines and a sing-song rhythm.  Each Limerick has the following typical rhyme pattern: a a b b a.

6. Pantoum  A Pantoum is a rhymed poetic form with stanzas of four lines each, according to a set pattern.  The unique line pattern is 1234, 2546, 5768, 7183.  The rhyme scheme is a b a b, b c b c, c d c d, d a d a.  Begin with a basic idea and fit it into the scheme.

7. Shakespearean Sonnet  The Shakespearean sonnet is a fourteen line poem.  The format of a Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (a four line stanza of verse) and ending in a couplet (a two line stanza of verse).  The rhyme scheme is as follows: abab cdcd efef gg.  The first three quatrains of the poem set up a conflict or situation for the poem which is usually resolved or explained in the final couplet.  The sonnet is written in Iambic Pentameter which is a line of meter consisting of 5 stressed and 5 unstressed syllables.

8. Concrete Poetry  Concrete Poetry is also known as Poetic Pictogram.  Concrete poetry is poetry that is arranged in lines that form a shape or make a picture about the subject.  It is also sometimes called a shape poem.

9. Lyric Poetry  Lyric Poetry is short poetry is short poetry usually expressing on emotion.  Sonnets, elegies, odes, and songs are all examples of Lyric Poetry.  Elegy: a poem lamenting the death of a person or a situation.  Ode: Form a Lyric Poetry characterized by giving praise or showing appreciation for a person, place, thing, or idea.

10. Free Verse  Free Verse : Also called Verse Libre.  Free verse is poetry without standard meter or rhyme, but rhythmical arrangement of lines for effect.

11. Figures of Speech

12.  Figures of Speech: Use of arrangement of words for specific effects.  Denotation: The dictionary definition of a word.  Connotation: This refers to the overtones associated with a word, including emotions, memories, ideas, and imaginative responses.  Imagery: Language that appeals to the senses. An image communicates a sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch sensation.

13. Metaphor and Simile  Metaphor: An implied comparison between things basically not alike, but not using comparison words such as like or as.  Simile: A comparison between things basically not alike, and using the word like or as.

14. Personification/Symbolism  Personification : is a kind of metaphor in which human characteristics are given to non-human things(creature/idea/object).  Symbol : A symbol is an object, person, place, or action that has a meaning of its own but also stands for something beyond itself such as a quality, concept, or value.  Symbolism : means using a person, object, situation, setting, or action to stand for something different or more than what it is.  Metonymy : Using a word to substitute for something else closely associated with it(the White House for the president).

15. Alliteration/Assonance/Hyperbole  Alliteration : Repetition of beginning consonant sounds in words(big, black bear).  Assonance : The repetition of vowel sounds within words(road/toad).  Hyperbole : An overstatement or exaggeration(I died laughing).

16. Paradox/Irony  Paradox : Using words and phrases that seem contradictory, but are actually true(love and hate are intertwined).  Irony : Involves a discrepancy, whether between intention and words(verbal irony)or between expectation and reality(irony of situation).