POETRY

POETRY

By James Marlow

BLANK VERSE

​DOES NOT HAVE TO RHYME

Poetry that does not rhyme but follows a regular meter, most commonly iambic pentameter. 

FREE VERSE

​NO RULES!

Poetry that doesn't follow regular meter, rhyme schemes, or a consistent rhythmic pattern, breaking from traditional structures to mimic natural speech

RHYME

​WHAT IS RHYME?

Rhyme is characterized by repeating identical or similar sounds at the end of words.

Rhyme within the same line or in the middle of two different lines

​INTERNAL RHYME

Pairs of rhyming words typically occur at the end of lines

​END RHYME

TYPES OF RHYME

In a single line:

I drove myself to the lake and dove into the water.

​INTERNAL RHYME

The ladies men admire, I’ve heard,
Would shudder at a wicked word.

​END RHYME

RHYME EXAMPLES

METER

​WHAT IS METER?

The rhythmic structure of a line in a poem.
The rhythm is created by a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

U / U / U / U / U /
Shall I com-PARE thee TO a SUM mer's DAY

In this example of a line of poetry we have a total of 10 syllables. 10 syllables in the pattern of U and / make up the meter.

This particular type of meter is called iambic pentameter.

​EXAMPLE OF METER

Every syllable in a line is either stressed or unstressed. The symbols below mark which syllable in a line is stressed or unstressed.

U = Unstressed
/ = Stressed

SYLLABLES

METER

iamb = U/ EXAM PLE - be-LOW
trochee = /U EXAMPLE - GAR-den
anapest = UU/ EXAMPLE - un-der-STAND
dactyl = /UU EXAMPLE - PO-e-try

​Metrical Feet Types (pattern types)

TYPES OF METRICAL FEET

TYPES OF METER

​We will focus on iambic pentameter

An iamb is a basic rhythm unit in poetry (a "metrical foot") made of two syllables: the first is unstressed (soft), and the second is stressed (strong), creating a "da-DUM"

Pentameter is a line of poetry with five metrical feet, which are units of rhythm consisting of a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables

BALLAD

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A ballad is a type of poem that tells a story and was traditionally set to music.
English language ballads are typically composed of four-line stanzas that follow an ABCB rhyme scheme.
Many ballads have a refrain (a line or stanza that repeats throughout the poem)

In Scarlet town, where I was born,
There was a fair maid dwellin’,
Made every youth cry Well-a-way!
Her name was Barbara Allen.

STANZA EXAMPLE

BALLAD

a
b
c
b

ELEGY

​What is an elegy?

A form of poetry in which the poet or speaker expresses grief, sadness, or loss.
An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, especially one mourning the loss of someone who died. Elegies are defined by their subject matter, and don't have to follow any specific form in terms of meter, rhyme, or structure.

ELEGY EXAMPLE

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heav'n did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,
He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.

A sonnet is a type of fourteen-line poem

Traditionally, the fourteen lines of a sonnet consist of an octave (or two quatrains making up a stanza of 8 lines) and a sestet (a stanza of six lines).

​Subheader text

SONNET

abab
cdcd
efef
gg

Rhyme Scheme

Iambic Pentameter

​METER

SONNET

Sonnet Types

English
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? A
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: B
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, A
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; B

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, C
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; D
And every fair from fair sometime declines, C
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd; D

But thy eternal summer shall not fade, E
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; F
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, E
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: F

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, G
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. G

Petrarchan​
Ye who in rhymes dispersed the echoes hear A
Of those sad sighs with which my heart I fed B
When early youth my mazy wanderings led, B
Fondly different from what I now appear, A

Fluttering 'twixt frantic hope and frantic fear, A
from those by whom my various style is read, B
I hope, if e'er their hearts for love have bled , B
Not only pardon, but perhaps a tear. A

But now I clearly see that of mankind C
Long time I was the tale: whence bitter thought D
And self-reproach with frequent blushes teem; E
While of my frenzy, shame the fruit I find, C
And sad repentance, and the proof, dear-bought, D
That the world's joy is but a flitting dream. D