HOW TO UNDERSTAND A POEM
Read the poem twice, the second time aloud.
1. Who is the speaker? Is the poet speaking for him or herself or speaking in the role of another person or possibly an animal or thing?
2. What does the language of the poem reveal about the speaker? Is it formal, informal, colloquial? Why?
3. Determine the primary audience. Who is the speaker addressing?
4. What is the tone (mood)? Does the tone remain constant or does it change? How does that change in tone contribute to the overall meaning?
5. What is the subject? How does the speaker feel about it? Write down the words the poet uses to express these feelings.
6. Briefly paraphrase the poem (rewrite in your own words).
7. What is the time setting - hour of day, season, present, past, or future era?
8. What is the place setting-outdoors or indoors, rural or urban, state, nation?
9. What images are created by the poem (what do you "see")? Write down the words that help create the images.
10. Are there words that evoke sensations: sound, touch, smell, taste, hunger, thirst, etc.? Write down those words.
11. What words or allusions are new or puzzling to you? Write down words you don't understand. Define or explain these words as they are used in the poem. Consider the effects.
12. What is the poet's purpose? What feeling or insight is he or she expressing?
13. What words are used in surprising and imaginative ways? What are their connotations (abstract meanings)?
14. Is there any unusual order of words in a sentence? What would be the usual order?
15. What figurative language is used? What things are being compared, personified, or symbolized? What is the effect of each figure of speech? Note any metaphors or similes.
16. What is the sound pattern of the poem? Does the poet use devices such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance and parallelism. How are these devices used in the creation of meaning?
17. What is; the structure of the poem? How many lines are in a stanza? What is the rhyme scheme, if any? Is there a refrain? How does the structure add to the meaning?
18. What is the shape of the poem on the page? Has the poet chosen an unusual shape? If so, why?
19. Is the poetry lyric, narrative, dramatic, or a combination? How do you know?
20. Read the poem again aloud carefully and with expression.
21. What does your experience with the poem mean to you? How do you feel about it? What did you learn from it?
~~~~Types of poetry~~~~Blank verse
Free verse
Narrative
Elegy
Limerick
Sonnet
Ballad
Concrete
Ode
Lyric
Blank verse is a form of verse, which is written in iambic pentameter and is not rhymed.
Free verse is a poem that does not have any fixed meter, rhyme, or line length. The rhythm may vary from line to line or within a line. The verse is called "free" because the poet is free to change the patterns or to use no pattern at all. Much twentieth-century poetry is written in free verse.
Narrative poetry that tells a story and organises its action according to a sequence of time. The story may be true or it may be imagined.
Elegy is a formal poem, often written as a lament for a departed friend of respected person. The poet usually sets forth his or her ideas about death or some other serious subject.
Limerick is a humorous, five-line poem, usually in anapaestic rhythm: the first, second, and fifth lines have three feet and rhyme with each other; the third and fourth lines have two feet and rhyme with each other. Limericks usually tell of the actions of a person.
Sonnet : a lyric poem of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter following one of several possible rhyme schemes. The two main types of sonnet are the Italian and the English.
Ballad: a narrative poem, usually containing much repetition and often a repeated refrain. Ballads were originally folk songs that passed on from age to age. Ballads often tell of a single dramatic episode such as the sinking of a ship or a fight over a beautiful woman.
Concrete: poetry that conveys meaning through its visual shape on the page. Concrete poem have been written in the shapes of wing, trees, falling rain and even the motion of a person swimming laps in a pool.
Ode: a poem on an exalted theme, expressed in dignified, sincere language, serious in tone, and usually in praise of something of somebody.
Lyric: a short poem expressing the internal and emotional thoughts of a single speaker. Lyrics are usually an expression of the poet's feelings about a person, an object, an event or an idea.
~~~~Comprehending Poetry~~~~Purpose
The poet wishes to express a theme, which will help him/her understand life.
The poet wishes to immortalise an instant in time.
The poet wishes to describe a scene.
The poet wishes to tell a story.
The poet wishes to experiment with specific, accepted poetic form.
~~~How to understand a poem~~~
read the poem 2-3 times and understand its purpose;
recognize its dominant image -- what "mental picture" do you get in your mind?
what " building blocks" is the author using? Figures of speech, rhyme or rhythm.
establish the theme -- what is the author trying to tell the reader.
ThemePoems, like words of fiction and drama, have themes. Because poem usually are much briefer than other forms of writing, the theme sometimes appears throughout the poem. At other times, the poet does not introduce the theme until late in the poem, often as a contrast to or an expansion upon ideas already resented.
Do not confuse the theme of the poem with subject of the poem. The theme is the main idea of the poem, not merely the topic tha6t the poet addresses.
Point of View
Poetry can be written from different points of view. The first-person point of view often is used in lyric poems in which the poet explores an original idea. The "I" of the first-person point of view makes the poem more personal. The third-person point of view puts a distance between the poet and the subject of the poem. It seems to be a more intellectual and less emotional way to approach a subject. Figures Of Speech and Sound Devices
Figures of speech are words or phrases that creates a vivid image by contrasting unlike things. Figures of speech have meanings other than its ordinary meaning.
Figures of speech
Simile: a direct comparison between two unlike things that are connected by like, as, or resembles or the verb appears or seems. The purpose of a simile is to give the reader a vivid new way of looking at one of the things.
Metaphor: an imaginative implied comparison between two unlike things. A metaphor is a comparison that suggests one thing is another. The purpose of a metaphor is to give the reader an unusual way of looking at one of the things.
Personfication: a figure of speech in which an animal, an object, or an idea is given human qualities. Poets often use personefication to describe abstract ideas such freedom, truth, and beauty.
Sound Devices Alliteration: the close repetition of the same first sounds in words, usually consonant sounds, at the beginnings of words, it can also occur within words.
Assonance: the repetition of similar vowel sounds within words to emphasize certain sounds and add a musical quality.
Onomatopoiea: the use of words whose sounds imitate, echo, or suggest their meanings. Poets use onomatopoiea to add humour, to reinforce the meaning of a line, or to create an image.
How to analyze poetry
This article attempts to provide a simple way of approaching and analysing poetry. The process discussed has proven to be usefull to many students at school and university level.
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe ********************************ley
I met a Traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
Half-sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
of the colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Understanding and interpreting poetry often seems very difficult. There are so many rules and ways of interpretation that it seems that only a few can really deal with poetry. This is a popular misconception among many students at college and university. In fact, understanding and being able to analyse poetic works is amazingly easy if a few basic concepts are understood.
The poem that we will use as an example in this article is the famous Ozymandias by ********************************ly. This poem is often prescribed at undergraduate and graduate level.
Firstly, the "formula" for understand a poem revolves around the following three basic ideas:
1.What is the Poem about?
2.Why was it written?
3.How has language been used in the poem to express the main intention/s of the poem?
Firstly, read through the poem in its entirety. Do not worry if you do not understand some words or lines. The object here is to get to the gist of the poem. In other words, to form some general idea of what the poem is about. This is called finding the main theme or themes of the poem. If we read through Ozymandias we can clearly see that the poem is about a statue found by a traveller in the desert. Secondly we see the this statue has certain characteristics. It is in a state of ruin. The face of the statue which is still clearly visible does not have a pleasant expression. The Words used , like " wrinkled lip" convey a rather unpleasant countenance. But remember, at this stage we are only looking for the general idea of what the poem is about. As we read on we see that the statue represents a cruel ruler or King who subjugated his people. The King is arrogant and tells those who " look on his works" to be afraid of his power. But where is this powerful and cruel king now? All that remains of him and his works are a few broken pieces of sculpture. Obviously, the king's threatening words are meaningless and without power. We are immediately struck by the irony in this poem. It is ironic that this cruel and arrogant king has now become nothing more than a fragment of stone lost in the desert.
Now that we have an idea of what the poem is about we can begin to deal with the second question: Why was the poem written? This might sound strange, but all literature should have a purpose, even if that purpose is only a beautiful piece of writing. What purpose or message could this poem have for the reader. The poem is about a cruel tyrant who, ironically, is now nothing more than lifeless rock. The poet could be trying to suggest the emptiness of tyrannical power; or how those who think that they are powerful are soon brought to their knees by the process of time. Another possibility is that the poem was written to express the uselessness of temporal and earthly power which will be destroyed in time. These are a few suggestions but always remember that literature is not a definite science. You are allowed to have your own interpretations as long as these interpretations can be supported from the text.
Thirdly, once we have established what the poem is about and have some idea of its purpose, we can then study the poem and look at how the language is used to achieve its meaning.
For example, in the first half of the poem, the poet uses words to create a clear and precise image of the tyrant king: words like" frown", "sneer", " cold command", all produce an image of the old king as a cruel and unfeeling tyrant. These words are called images as they produce a "picture" of the king.
In the second half of the poem the poet uses words to contrast the arrogant speech of the king with the actual reality of his shattered face and lost kingdom. The king shouts out that people should fear him as he has a great and powerful kingdom. But the poet uses language to express the opposite: "Nothing beside remains...." There is only the desert which emphasizes that the arrogance of the king is unfounded and that time has destroyed his kingdom and his power.
The above is a very basic introduction to the poem. But the method suggested can be applied to any poem or even a prose work and hopefully will encourage those who have had difficulty with poetry in the past.
Modernism in Literature: Poetry
Most serious poetry today is still Modernist. The movement is not easily summarize, but the key elements are experimentation, anti-realism, individualism and a stress on the cerebral rather than emotive aspects.
Discussion
Modernist writing is challenging, which makes it suitable for academic study. Many poets come from university, moreover, and set sail by Modernism's charts, so that its assumptions need to be understood to appreciate their work. And since Postmodernism still seems brash and arbitrary, writing in some form of Modernism is probably the best way of getting your work into the better literary magazines. How much should you know of its methods and assumptions?
You need to read widely: poetry, criticism and literary theory. Modernism was a complex and diverse movement. From Symbolism it took allusiveness in style and an interest in rarefied mental states. From Realism it borrowed an urban setting, and a willingness to break taboos. And from Romanticism came an artist-centred view, and retreat into irrationalism and hallucinations.
Hence many problems. No one wants to denigrate the best that has been written this last hundred years, but the forward-looking poet should be aware of its limitations. Novelty for novelty's sake ends in boredom and indifference, in movements prey to fashion and media hype. Modernism's ruthless self-promotion has also created intellectual castes that carefully guard their status. Often the work is excessively cerebral, an art-for-art's sake movement that has become faddish and analytical. The foundations tend to be self-authenticating: Freudian psychiatry, verbal cleverness, individualism run riot, anti-realism, overemphasis on the irrational. These concepts may not be wholly fraudulent, but as articles of faith they have not won general assent. Modernist work will give you accredited status, but possibly neither an avant-garde reputation nor wide popularity.
Suggestions
1. Modernist work is often the most accessible of today's poetry, thanks to education, public libraries and a vast critical industry. Start therefore with Yeats, Frost, Pound, Eliot, Stevens, Williams, etc., and follow your interests — back into traditional poetry or forward into Postmodernist styles.
2. Model your first efforts on the better poems of Modernism. You will learn much about the poet's craft, and produce work that is still acceptable to the better poetry magazines.
3. Read the biographies of Modernist artists to understand how and why they made their innovations. Then read aesthetics and nineteenth-century continental philosophy to get a broader view of the matter.
Contemporary American Literature
For Postmodernists the world exists only through our understanding of it, and the prime medium of that understanding is everyday language. There is no further or ultimate reality that words point to, and we deceive ourselves by seeking deep spiritual meanings in art. Artists make intriguing creations by juxtaposing contemporary images and concepts, but these have no deeper significance. Contemporary American literature is much too various be called a movement, but can be broadly characterized as iconoclastic, groundless, formless and populist.
Elaboration
Postmodernism began in the sixties with Pop-Art, the Beat generation, the magic realism of Latin American novelists, and the Poststructuralist theories of Barthes, Lacan and Derrida. The angst of Existentialism, the brooding power of abstract expressionism, the worthy objectives of societies building on liberties hard won by Allied victory in 1945 gradually gave way to affluence. Wider travel, television reporting and photojournalism also showed the realities behind government rhetoric, and these realities came to undermine confidence in authority and public language. Underprivileged groups were championed by the young, disaffection spread, and a counterculture was appropriated by commerce. With the fall of class barriers the fine arts were attacked as elitist, as promoting political repression and social injustice by their exclusive autonomy. The professions became more specialized, creating guilds of experts where entry was by approved study rather than wealth or family connections. The arts created hypothetical worlds of their own, protected by abstruse theory.
As poetry became more iconoclastic and experimental, there were appeals to the irrational nature of man supposed by Freudian psychiatry. Devalued by an increasingly technological world, writers made themselves the spiritual guardians of language itself, championing the creative, and indeed arbitrary, nature over its powers to represent, analyse and discover. The appropriation took many forms. Foucault denounced the political repression inherent in public language. Geoffrey Hill wrote of words themselves as complicit with the holocaust. Beckett renounced the world and employed language pared down to its skeletal minimum. Larkin wrote a poetry that expressed the lowered expectations of the law-abiding citizen. Sontag argued for sensory renewal, which coincided with sex made increasingly an individual matter and possibly a consumer commodity.
Suggestions
1. Does the above make sense? If not, take out library books or subscribe to avant-garde magazines.
2. Study Postmodernism in general, and its application to poetry: That good poems negate themselves, obtaining an authority by excluding the outside. That they strive for autonomy, but are dislocated by shifted genre boundaries. That a poem is a sum total of tensions between mimesis and construction. That truth in poetry is not truth to the meaning of words — as it is in philosophy — but an artifact of literary devices or tropes. That they talk about themselves not to evade talking about the world but to enable that world. Be sure you understand the theory behind these statements, where it comes from, and why.
3. Commit yourself to a movement that champions the work you produce and/or admire.
4. Start submitting to small magazines. Attend events. Create your own circle.
Glossary of Poetry Terms
accent
The prominence or emphasis given to a syllable or word. In the word poetry, the accent (or stress) falls on the first syllable.
alexandrine
A line of poetry that has 12 syllables. The name probably comes from a medieval romance about Alexander the Great that was written in 12-syllable lines.
alliteration
The repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words: “What would the world be, once bereft/Of wet and wildness?” (Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Inversnaid”)
anapest
A metrical foot of three syllables, two short (or unstressed) followed by one long (or stressed), as in seventeen and to the moon. The anapest is the reverse of the dactyl.
antithesis
A figure of speech in which words and phrases with opposite meanings are balanced against each other. An example of antithesis is “To err is human, to forgive, divine.” (Alexander Pope)
apostrophe
Words that are spoken to a person who is absent or imaginary, or to an object or abstract idea. The poem God's World by Edna St. Vincent Millay begins with an apostrophe: “O World, I cannot hold thee close enough!/Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!/Thy mists that roll and rise!”
assonance
The repetition or a pattern of similar sounds, especially vowel sounds: “Thou still unravished bride of quietness,/Thou foster child of silence and slow time” (“Ode to a Grecian Urn,” John Keats).
ballad
A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is an example of a ballad.
ballade
A type of poem, usually with three stanzas of seven, eight, or ten lines and a shorter final stanza (or envoy) of four or five lines. All stanzas end with the same one-line refrain.
blank verse
Poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in blank verse.
caesura
A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line. There is a caesura right after the question mark in the first line of this sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
canzone
A medieval Italian lyric poem, with five or six stanzas and a shorter concluding stanza (or envoy). The poets Petrarch and Dante Alighieri were masters of the canzone.
carpe diem
A Latin expression that means “seize the day.” Carpe diem poems urge the reader (or the person to whom they are addressed) to live for today and enjoy the pleasures of the moment. A famous carpe diem poem by Robert Herrick begins “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may…”
chanson de geste
An epic poem of the 11th to the 14th century, written in Old French, which details the exploits of a historical or legendary figure, especially Charlemagne.
classicism
The principles and ideals of beauty that are characteristic of Greek and Roman art, architecture, and literature. Examples of classicism in poetry can be found in the works of John Dryden and Alexander Pope, which are characterized by their formality, simplicity, and emotional restraint.
conceit
A fanciful poetic image or metaphor that likens one thing to something else that is seemingly very different. An example of a conceit can be found in Shakespeare's sonnet “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?” and in Emily Dickinson's poem “There is no frigate like a book.”
consonance
The repetition of similar consonant sounds, especially at the ends of words, as in lost and past or confess and dismiss.
couplet
In a poem, a pair of lines that are the same length and usually rhyme and form a complete thought. Shakespearean sonnets usually end in a couplet.
dactyl
A metrical foot of three syllables, one long (or stressed) followed by two short (or unstressed), as in happily. The dactyl is the reverse of the anapest.
elegy
A poem that laments the death of a person, or one that is simply sad and thoughtful. An example of this type of poem is Thomas Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.”
enjambment
The continuation of a complete idea (a sentence or clause) from one line or couplet of a poem to the next line or couplet without a pause. An example of enjambment can be found in the first line of Joyce Kilmer's poem Trees: “I think that I shall never see/A poem as lovely as a tree.” Enjambment comes from the French word for “to straddle.”
envoy
The shorter final stanza of a poem, as in a ballade.
epic
A long, serious poem that tells the story of a heroic figure. Two of the most famous epic poems are the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer, which tell about the Trojan War and the adventures of Odysseus on his voyage home after the war.
epigram
A very short, witty poem: “Sir, I admit your general rule,/That every poet is a fool,/But you yourself may serve to show it,/That every fool is not a poet.” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
epithalamium (or epithalamion)
A poem in honor of a bride and bridegroom.
feminine rhyme
A rhyme that occurs in a final unstressed syllable: pleasure/leisure, longing/yearning.
figure of speech
A verbal expression in which words or sounds are arranged in a particular way to achieve a particular effect. Figures of speech are organized into different categories, such as alliteration, assonance, metaphor, metonymy, onomatopoeia, simile, and synecdoche.
foot
Two or more syllables that together make up the smallest unit of rhythm in a poem. For example, an iamb is a foot that has two syllables, one unstressed followed by one stressed. An anapest has three syllables, two unstressed followed by one stressed.
free verse (also vers libre)
Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set meter.
haiku
A Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Haiku often reflect on some aspect of
nature.
heptameter
A line of poetry that has seven metrical feet.
heroic couplet
A stanza composed of two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter.
hexameter
A line of poetry that has six metrical feet.
hyperbole
A figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis. Many everyday expressions are examples of hyperbole: tons of money, waiting for ages, a flood of tears, etc. Hyperbole is the opposite of litotes.
iamb
A metrical foot of two syllables, one short (or unstressed) and one long (or stressed). There are four iambs in the line “Come live/ with me/ and be/ my love,” from a poem by Christopher Marlowe. (The stressed syllables are in bold.) The iamb is the reverse of the trochee.
iambic pentameter
A type of meter in poetry, in which there are five iambs to a line. (The prefix penta- means “five,” as in pentagon, a geometrical figure with five sides. Meter refers to rhythmic units. In a line of iambic pentameter, there are five rhythmic units that are iambs.) Shakespeare's plays were written mostly in iambic pentameter, which is the most common type of meter in English poetry. An example of an iambic pentameter line from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is “But soft!/ What light/ through yon/der win/dow breaks?” Another, from Richard III, is “A horse!/ A horse!/ My king/dom for/ a horse!” (The stressed syllables are in bold.)
idyll, or idyl
Either a short poem depicting a peaceful, idealized country scene, or a long poem that tells a story about heroic deeds or extraordinary events set in the distant past. Idylls of the King, by Alfred Lord Tennyson, is about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
lay
A long narrative poem, especially one that was sung by medieval minstrels called trouv貥s. The Lais of Marie de France are lays.
limerick
A light, humorous poem of five usually anapestic lines with the rhyme scheme of aabba.
litotes
A figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite. Some examples of litotes: no small victory, not a bad idea, not unhappy. Litotes is the opposite of hyperbole.
lyric
A poem, such as a sonnet or an ode, that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet. A lyric poem may resemble a song in form or style.
masculine rhyme
A rhyme that occurs in a final stressed syllable: cat/hat, desire/fire, observe/deserve.
metaphor
A figure of speech in which two things are compared, usually by saying one thing is another, or by substituting a more descriptive word for the more common or usual word that would be expected. Some examples of metaphors: the world's a stage, he was a lion in battle, drowning in debt, and a sea of troubles.
meter
The arrangement of a line of poetry by the number of syllables and the rhythm of accented (or stressed) syllables.
metonymy
A figure of speech in which one word is substituted for another with which it is closely associated. For example, in the expression The pen is mightier than the sword, the word pen is used for “the written word,” and sword is used for “military power.”
narrative
Telling a story. Ballads, epics, and lays are different kinds of narrative poems.
ode
A lyric poem that is serious and thoughtful in tone and has a very precise, formal structure. John Keats's “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is a famous example of this type of poem.
onomatopoeia
A figure of speech in which words are used to imitate sounds. Examples of onomatopoeic words are buzz, hiss, zing, clippety-clop, and tick-tock. Keats's “Ode to a Nightingale” not only uses onomatopoeia, but calls our attention to it: “Forlorn! The very word is like a bell/To toll me back from thee to my sole self!” Another example of onomatopoeia is found in this line from Tennyson's Come Down, O Maid: “The moan of doves in immemorial elms,/And murmuring of innumerable bees.” The repeated “m/n” sounds reinforce the idea of “murmuring” by imitating the hum of insects on a warm summer day.
ottava rima
A type of poetry consisting of 10- or 11-syllable lines arranged in 8-line “octaves” with the rhyme scheme abababcc.
pastoral
A poem that depicts rural life in a peaceful, idealized way.
pentameter
A line of poetry that has five metrical feet.
personification
A figure of speech in which things or abstract ideas are given human attributes: dead leaves dance in the wind, blind justice.
poetry
A type of literature that is written in meter.
quatrain
A stanza or poem of four lines.
refrain
A line or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually after every stanza.
rhyme
The occurrence of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words. When the rhyme occurs in a final stressed syllable, it is said to be masculine: cat/hat, desire/fire, observe/deserve. When the rhyme occurs in a final unstressed syllable, it is said to be feminine: longing/yearning. The pattern of rhyme in a stanza or poem is shown usually by using a different letter for each final sound. In a poem with an aabba rhyme scheme, the first, second, and fifth lines end in one sound, and the third and fourth lines end in another.
rhyme royal
A type of poetry consisting of stanzas of seven lines in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme ababbcc. Rhyme royal was an innovation introduced by Geoffrey Chaucer.
romanticism
The principles and ideals of the Romantic movement in literature and the arts during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Romanticism, which was a reaction to the classicism of the early 18th century, favored feeling over reason and placed great emphasis on the subjective, or personal, experience of the individual. Nature was also a major theme. The great English Romantic poets include Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, ********************************ley, and Keats.
scansion
The analysis of a poem's meter. This is usually done by marking the stressed and unstressed syllables in each line and then, based on the pattern of the stresses, dividing the line into feet.
senryu
A short Japanese poem that is similar to a haiku in structure but treats human beings rather than nature, often in a humorous or satiric way.
simile
A figure of speech in which two things are compared using the word “like” or “as.” An example of a simile using like occurs in Langston Hughes's poem “Harlem”: “What happens to a dream deferred?/ Does it dry up/ like a raisin in the sun?”
sonnet
A lyric poem that is 14 lines long. Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are divided into two quatrains and a six-line “sestet,” with the rhyme scheme abba abba cdecde (or cdcdcd). English (or Shakespearean) sonnets are composed of three quatrains and a final couplet, with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. English sonnets are written generally in iambic pentameter.
spondee
A metrical foot of two syllables, both of which are long (or stressed).
stanza
Two or more lines of poetry that together form one of the divisions of a poem. The stanzas of a poem are usually of the same length and follow the same pattern of meter and rhyme.
stress
The prominence or emphasis given to particular syllables. Stressed syllables usually stand out because they have long, rather than short, vowels, or because they have a different pitch or are louder than other syllables.
synecdoche
A figure of speech in which a part is used to designate the whole or the whole is used to designate a part. For example, the phrase “all hands on deck” means “all men on deck,” not just their hands. The reverse situation, in which the whole is used for a part, occurs in the sentence “The U.S. beat Russia in the final game,” where the U.S. and Russia stand for “the U.S. team” and “the Russian team,” respectively.
tanka
A Japanese poem of five lines, the first and third composed of five syllables and the rest of seven.
terza rima
A type of poetry consisting of 10- or 11-syllable lines arranged in three-line “tercets” with the rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc, etc. The poet Dante is credited with inventing terza rima, which he used in his Divine Comedy. Terza rima was borrowed into English by Chaucer, and it has been used by many English poets, including Milton, ********************************ley, and Auden.
tetrameter
A line of poetry that has four metrical feet.
trochee
A metrical foot of two syllables, one long (or stressed) and one short (or unstressed). An easy way to remember the trochee is to memorize the first line of a lighthearted poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which demonstrates the use of various kinds of metrical feet: “Trochee/ trips from/ long to/ short.” (The stressed syllables are in bold.) The trochee is the reverse of the iamb.
trope
A figure of speech, such as metaphor or metonymy, in which words are not used in their literal (or actual) sense but in a figurative (or imaginative) sense.
verse
A single metrical line of poetry, or poetry in general (as opposed to prose).
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