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Poetry

Poem: A poem is a written work that uses poetic devices like rhyme, rhythm, figurative language, and/or sound devices. Poems express ideas in an artistic way. They may tell stories, but in a different way than regular writing, or prose. They may just express thoughts and feelings. Poems can be free verse, or they can follow specific structures and patterns.

Some common elements of poetry:

Lines: single rows of words. Some types of poems have specific numbers of lines and/or specific numbers of words or syllables in each line.

Stanzas: groups of lines. Stanzas are separated from each other by spaces. Each stanza usually has the same number of lines.

Rhyme: using words that end in the same vowel or vowel-consonant sound. Some poems have rhyme schemes, or specific patterns of rhyming words at the ends of lines. Rhyming words can give a musical quality to poems.

Rhythm: the sound and/or feel created by a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Rhythm also gives poems a musical quality.

Meter: the specific beat, or rhythmic pattern, used in a poem. Some poems use specific numbers and patterns of unstressed and stressed syllables in each line.

The poet is not necessarily the speaker.

Poets may be expressing their own thoughts, but they may be expressing the thoughts of a character, even when using the pronoun "I."

Types of Poetry:

Ballad: A long poem that uses simple language. Often, a word or a phrase is repeated in each stanza.

Example: "The Ballad of the Reading Gaol" by Oscar Wilde
Epic: A long poem about a hero and his or her heroics, often a long journey.

Example: "The Odyssey" by Homer
Free Verse: A poem that does not use a fixed rhyme scheme (or rhymes at all) and is not written using a specific meter.

Example: "Keeping Things Whole" by Mark Strand
Lyrical Poem: A poem that uses a rhyme scheme and is usually written in a meter. Most lyrical poems are written to share the author's thoughts or feelings.

Example: "I am Nobody! Who are you?" by Emily Dickinson
Sonnet: A lyrical poem that has a fixed meter (usually with 10 syllables per line), number of lines (usually 14), and a rhyme scheme.

Example: the Shakespearean sonnet, "Sonnet Number 18"

❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋

Go to the next page to practice working with poems.

Poetry