POETRY ASSUMPTIONS Readers of poetry often bring with them many related assumptions

That a poem is to be read for its "message," That this message is "hidden" in the poem, The message is
to be found by treating the words as symbols which naturally do not mean what they say but stand for
something else, You have to decipher every single word to appreciate and enjoy the poem.

There are no easy ways to dispel or get rid of these biases. Poetry is difficult because very often its
language is indirect. But so is experience - those things we think, feel, and do. The lazy reader wants to
be told things and usually avoids poetry because it demands commitment and energy. Moreover, much
of what poetry has to offer is not in the form of hidden meanings. Many poets like to "play" with the
sound of language or offer an emotional insight by describing what they see in highly descriptive
language. In fact, there can many different ways to enjoy poetry; this reflects the many different styles
and objectives of poets themselves. Finally, if you are the type to give up when something is unclear,
just relax! Like was just said, there can be many different approaches to examining poetry; often these
approaches (like looking for certain poetic devices or examining the meaning of a specific phrase) do not
require a complete and exhaustive analysis of a poem. So, enjoy what you do understand!

FIRST APPROACHES In Understanding a Poem.

• Read the poem (many students neglect this step).

• Identify the speaker ( the narrator of the poem) and the situation. Feel free to read it more than
once!

• Read the sentences literally.

• Use your prose reading skills to clarify what the poem is about.

• Read each line separately, noting unusual words and associations.

• Look up words you are unsure of and struggle with word associations that may not seem logical
to you

• Note any changes in the form of the poem that might signal a shift in point of view.

• Study the structure of the poem, including its rhyme and rhythm (if any).

• Re-read the poem slowly, thinking about what message and emotion the poem communicates
to you.

Now write or print the following notes in your book ⬇️

Elements of Poetry.

1. STRUCTURE
An important method of analyzing a poem is to look at the stanza structure or style of a poem.
Generally speaking, structure has to do with the overall organization of lines and/or the conventional
patterns of sound. Again, many modern poems may not have any identifiable structure (i.e. they are free
verse), so don't panic if you can't find it! But what are stanzas.

STANZAS: Stanzas are a series of lines grouped together and separated by an empty line from other
stanzas. They are the equivalent of a paragraph in an essay. One way to identify a stanza is to count the
number of lines. Thus:

• couplet (2 lines)

• tercet (3 lines)

• quatrain (4 lines)

• cinquain (5 lines)

• sestet (6 lines) (sometimes it's called a sexain)

• septet (7 lines)

• octave (8 lines)

Sample Poem ( The extract from the poem, Childhood by Rainer Marie Rilke has 2 stanzas and 8 lines)

It would be good to give much thought, before

you try to find words for something so lost,

for those long childhood afternoons you knew

that vanished so completely -and why?

We're still reminded-: sometimes by a rain,

but we can no longer say what it means;

life was never again so filled with meeting,

with reunion and with passing on...

2. Form
 A poem may or may not have a specific number of lines, rhyme scheme and/or metrical pattern, but it
can still be labeled according to its form or style. Here are the three most common types of poems
according to form:

1. Lyric Poetry: It is any poem with one speaker (not necessarily the poet) who expresses strong
thoughts and feelings. Most poems, especially modern ones, are lyric poems.

2. Narrative Poem: It is a poem that tells a story; its structure resembles the plot line of a story [i.e. the
introduction of conflict and characters, rising action, climax and the denouement].

3. Descriptive Poem: It is a poem that describes the world that surrounds the speaker. It uses elaborate
imagery and adjectives. While emotional, it is more "outward-focused" than lyric poetry, which is more
personal and introspective.

Here are some more types of poems that are subtypes of the three styles above:

Ode: It is usually a lyric poem of moderate length, with a serious subject, an elevated style, and an
elaborate stanza pattern.

Elegy: It is a lyric poem that mourns the dead. [It's not to be confused with a eulogy.]It usually begins
by reminiscing about the dead person, then laments the reason for the death, and then resolves the
grief.

Ballad: It is a narrative poem that has a musical rhythm and can be sung. A ballad is usually organized
into quatrains or cinquains, has a simple rhythm structure, and tells the tales of ordinary people.

Epic: It is a long narrative poem telling the deeds of a legendary or historical hero.

Limerick: structured humorous poem containing 5 lines

Sonnet : a poem of 14 lines. The author of Romeo on Juliet, William Shakespeare wrote many sonnets.

Haiku: A Japanese poem of seventeen lines which normally focuses on topics about the natural world.

3. RHYME

Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds.

In poetry, the most common kind of rhyme is the end rhyme, which occurs at the end of two or more
lines.

Note the following end rhymes

And realized I'd been seen

Another is internal rhyme which occurs in the middle of a line, as in these lines from the poem
Coleridge, "In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud" or "Whiles all the night through fog-smoke white"

4. Meter and Rhythm

Rhythm is the strong regular repeated sound pattern in a poem

Meter is the regularity in rhythm; this rhythm (or sound pattern) is usually identified by several things
such as the loud or weak syllables used in a poem, or whether the poem is blank verse ( a poem that
has rhythm but no rhyme) or free verse ( a poem that has neither rhythm nor rhyme)

5. Word Sounds/ Sounds of Language

This refers to the emphasis on sounds and words such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance,
repetition etc.

1. Onomatopoeia is defined as a word, which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It creates a
sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting.
Examples: The buzzing bee flew away. OR The sack fell into the river with a splash.

2. Assonance. Assonance takes place when two or more words close to one another repeat the
same vowel sound whether a short vowel or long vowel sound but starts with different consonant
sounds. Examples: Go slow over the road. ( repetition of the long o sound) OR The rain in Spain stays
mainly on the plain. (repetition of the long a sound)

3. Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of each or most of the
words in a sentence. Examples: Come and clean your closet. OR The big bad bear attacked all the little
bunnies in the forest.

4. Repetition. Sounds, words, or phrases that are repeated to add emphasis or to create
rhythm .Examples: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. OR Oh, woeful, oh woeful, woeful, woeful day!
6. Meaning

As said earlier that poetry is not always about hidden or indirect meanings (sometimes called meaning
play). Nevertheless, if often is a major part of poetry, so here some of the important things to
remember:

Images ( words that evoke or five senses) suggest meanings beyond the mere identity of the specific
object.

For e.g.

 White may represent purity and peace in a poem

 Red may represent danger or love in a poem

Pay attention also to DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION Word meanings are not only restricted to
dictionary meanings. The full meaning of a word includes both the dictionary definition and the special
meanings and associations a word takes in a given phrase or expression. For example, a tiger is a
carnivorous animal of the cat family. This is the literal or denotative meaning. But we have certain
associations with the word: sinuous movement, jungle violence, and aggression. These are the
suggestive, figurative or connotative meanings.

In Review...

The denotative meaning of a word is the literal or dictionary meaning

The connotative meaning of a word is the figurative meaning, word association or implied meaning.

Examples of connotative devices are:

• Simile ( this was already taught in class)

• Metaphor ( this was already taught in class)

• Personification ( giving human qualities or attributes to animals and things. For e.g. (The sun
smiled at me)

Acknowledge source of main notations : https://learn.lexiconic.net/elementsofpoetry.htm

Other elements of a poems include:

Mood: the reader's feelings or the feeling you get when you read a poem ( happy, sad, confused etc)

Tone: the poet's feelings towards the subject of the poem ( the person or thing he or she is writing
about) For e.g. The poet may have a serious, humorous, nostalgic, sarcastic tone.

Remember though that how you feel when you read a poem may be different from how the poet feels.
So the poet may have a serious tone, but based on the words he or she uses you may find it humorous.
Poems written by Jamaican poet Louise Bennet may evoke such feelings; although she may speak about
serious things in her poems, you may find what she says humorous.

Symbolism: when something represents or stands for something else. For example the colour redcan
symbolize love or danger in a poem.