Poetry is a form of creative writing that uses language and stylistic devices like rhythm and metaphor to convey meaning. It has been around for thousands of years, originating as an oral tradition used to record history and stories. There are many elements that make up a poem, including theme, tone, mood, and various types like haiku, free verse, sonnets, and epics. Some common types are defined as having certain structures, themes, or purposes.
Poetry is a form of creative writing that uses language and stylistic devices like rhythm and metaphor to convey meaning. It has been around for thousands of years, originating as an oral tradition used to record history and stories. There are many elements that make up a poem, including theme, tone, mood, and various types like haiku, free verse, sonnets, and epics. Some common types are defined as having certain structures, themes, or purposes.
Poetry is a form of creative writing that uses language and stylistic devices like rhythm and metaphor to convey meaning. It has been around for thousands of years, originating as an oral tradition used to record history and stories. There are many elements that make up a poem, including theme, tone, mood, and various types like haiku, free verse, sonnets, and epics. Some common types are defined as having certain structures, themes, or purposes.
Poetry is a form of creative writing that uses language and stylistic devices like rhythm and metaphor to convey meaning. It has been around for thousands of years, originating as an oral tradition used to record history and stories. There are many elements that make up a poem, including theme, tone, mood, and various types like haiku, free verse, sonnets, and epics. Some common types are defined as having certain structures, themes, or purposes.
Poetry comes from the Latin word poeta employed as a means of recording oral which means “a poet,” and which can history, storytelling (epic poetry), be further derived from the Greek word genealogy, law and other forms of poetes which means “maker.” Poetry expression or knowledge that modern uses a form of language that evokes societies might expect to be handled in meaning and expresses various prose (Poetry org., n.d.). The Epic of thoughts in a usually rhythmical and/or Gilgamesh often is cited as one of the metrical (verses) way to create an earliest works of epic poetry, dating aesthetic effect. Its ideas are contained back to the 18th century B.C. Consisting in lines that may or may not be of Sumerian poems, it’s a text that was grammatical sentences, can be very discovered through many different long or short as one letter or one word, Babylonian tablet versions during and arranged in stanzas. The shape of archaeological excavations. Other poems can also vary depending on line examples of early epic poems might length and the intention of the poet. include the M ahabarata and the Ramayana, the latter of which has HISTORY OF POETRY become an important narrative in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology Poetry has been going on for thousands throughout regions of Asia. (Golden, of years already. Poetry as an art form predates literacy. In preliterate 2015).
THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY A piece of poetry is composed of sub-units, and each unit conveys a thought successfully.
The theme of the poem talks about a central idea or whatever the poem is about. It is the thought behind what the poet wants to convey. The poet may describe a person, a place, a thing, a thought, or even a story.
The tone of the poem is the “voice” or the specific feelings conveyed in the poem. A poem’s tone may be sad, jolly, or angry.
However, considering the bigger perspective, the poem’s mood is the overall feeling of the poem which can be created by the tone or the language choices of the poem.
If the mood of the poem is sad, there may be words about sickness or death or punctuation that slows the reader down. If the overall mood is one of excitement, the poet’s choice of words and punctuation may reveal this through the use of words like enthusiastic or jubilant and the punctuation--exclamation point.
TYPES OF POETRY There are a lot of types of poetry, this will only includes seven (7) of the most common types of poetry;
1. Haiku - Traditionally, h aiku poems are three-line stanzas with a 5/7/5 syllable count. This form of poetry also focuses on the beauty and simplicity found in nature. As its popularity grew, the 5/7/5 formula has often been broken. However, the focus remains the same - simple moments in life.
Example: night train whistles stars over a nation under mad temporal czars
round lumps of cells grow up to love porridge later become The Supremes
lady I lost my subway token we must part it's faster by air --"5 & 7 & 5" by Anselm Hollo
2. F ree Verse Poems - are the least defined. In fact, they're deliberately irregular, taking on an improvisational bent. There's no formula, no pattern. Rather, the writer and reader must work together to set the speed, intonation, and emotional pull.
Example: I buried my father in my heart. Now he grows in me, my strange son, My little root who won't drink milk, Little pale foot sunk in unheard-of night, Little clock spring newly wet In the fire, little grape, parent to the future Wine, a son the fruit of his own son, Little father I ransom with my life. --"Little Father" by Li-Young Lee
3. Cinquains - a five-line poem inspired by the Japanese haiku. There are many different variations of cinquain including American cinquains, didactic cinquains, reverse cinquains, butterfly cinquains and crown cinquains.
Example: Helen, thy beauty is to me Like those Nicean barks of yore, That gently, o'er a perfumed sea, The weary, way-worn wanderer bore To his own native shore. -- "To Helen" by Edgar Allan Poe
4. E pic Poems - An e pic is a long and narrative poem that normally tells a story about a hero or an adventure. Epics can be presented as oral or written stories. "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" are probably the most renowned epic poems.
Example: By the shore of Gitchie Gumee, By the shining Big-Sea-Water, At the doorway of his wigwam, In the pleasant Summer morning, Hiawatha stood and waited. -- "The Song of Hiawatha" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
5. B allad Poems - B allad poems also tell a story, like epic poems do. However, ballad poetry is often based on a legend or a folk tale. These poems may take the form of songs, or they may contain a moral or a lesson.
Example: Oh the ocean waves may roll, And the stormy winds may blow, While we poor sailors go skipping aloft And the land lubbers lay down below, below, below And the land lubbers lay down below. -- “The Mermaid," written by an unknown author
6. A crostic Poems - also known as name poems, spell out names or words with the first letter in each line. While the author is doing this, they're describing someone or something they deem important.
Example: Alexis seems quite shy and somewhat frail, Leaning, like a tree averse to light, Evasively away from her delight. X-rays, though, reveal a sylvan sprite, Intense as a bright bird behind her veil, Singing to the moon throughout the night. -- “Alexis" by Nicholas Gordon
7. Sonnets - Although William Shakespeare sensationalized sonnets, the word, "sonetto" is actually Italian for "a little sound or song." This form has grabbed poets by the heart for centuries. It began as a 14-line poem written in iambic pentameter. Although flourishes have been made over time, the general principle remains the same.
Example: Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand'ring bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me prov'd, I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd. -- "Sonnet 116," from William Shakespeare
References:
Alcaraz, M. & Yap, A. (2016). Features of Prose and Poetry. English for the 21st Century Learners 9. Makati City, Philippines: Diwa Learning Systems Inc., p. 81.
Gonzales, et al. (2017). Elements of Poetry. Essential English 10. Sampaloc, Manila: Rex Book Store, Inc., pp. 50-51.
Golden, A. (2015). A Brief History of Poetry. Retrieved from https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/a-brief-history-of-poetry, Accessed last November 27, 2020.
Your Dictionary. (n.d.). 7 Common Types of Poetry. Retrieved from https://examples.yourdictionary.com/types-of-poetry-examples.html, Accessed last November 27, 2020.