POETRY!



__To Wax Poetic__

Untitled haiku:

Joy is the best thing to have with a ham sandwich. I love ham sammich.

 by Tyler Kramer and Luke Wilcox, 2011

__Elements of Poetry in Perrine Anthology: pp 645-1023__

Chapter 1: What is Poetry, p647 -- Questions for Understanding and Evaluating Poetry - p655 Chapter 2: Reading the Poem, p668 Chapter 3: Denotation and Connotation, p686 -- Connotation is very important in poetry, for it is one of the means by which the poet can concentrate or enrich poetry--say more in fewer words. Chapter 4: Imagery, p700 -- Poetry creates feeling and a sensory experience. Imagery is a critical aspect of poetry. Chapter 5: Figurative Language 1: Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Apostrophe, Metonymy, p714 Chapter 6: Figurative Language 2: Symbol, Allegory, p734 Chapter 7: Figurative Language 3: Paradox, Overstatement, Understatement, Irony, p756 Chapter 8: Allusion, p779 Chapter 9: Meaning and Idea, p791 Chapter 10: Tone, p804 Chapter 11: Musical Devices, p823 Chapter 12: Rhythm and Meter, p838
 * 1) Read a poem more than once.
 * 2) Keep a dictionary by you and use it.
 * 3) Read so as to hear the sounds of the words in your mind.
 * 4) Always pay careful attention to what the poem is saying. Consider sounds and how they aide the total meaning of a poem. Paraphrase the poem.
 * 5) Practice reading poems aloud. Slow down. Read it slower than your normal rate of reading. The line is a rhythmical unit, and its end should be observed whether there is punctuation or not.

From Perrine Anthology's Glossary of Terms, pp1659-1671

Alliteration - Repetition at close intervals of initial consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words; //m//ap-//m//oon, //k//ill-//c//ode, //pr//each, ap//p//rove

Allusion - A reference, explicit or implicit, to something in previous literature or history.

Anapest - A metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable, example: un-der-**stand**

Anapestic meter - A meter in which the majority of the feet are anapests. (See triple meter.)

Anaphora - Repetition of an opening word or phrase in a series of lines

Apostrophe - A figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply

Approximate rhyme (also known as imperfect rhyme, near rhyme, slant rhyme, or oblique rhyme) - A term used for words in a rhyming pattern that have some kind of sound correspondence but are not perfect rhymes. Approximate rhymes occur occasionally in patterns where most of the rhymes are perfect (for example //push-rush//), and sometimes are used systematically in place of perfect rhyme.

Assonance - The repetition at close intervals of the vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words; example: the short //a// sound in h//a//t-r//a//n-//a//mber, the long //a// sound in v//ei//n-m//a//de

Aubade - A poem about dawn; a morning love song; or a poem about the parting of the lovers at dawn

Ballad - A fairly short narrative poem written in a song-like stanza form

Blank verse - Unrhymed iambic pentameter -- Used in Shakespearean plays most often because it of the forms it most closely resembles human speech patterns.

Cacophony - A harsh, discordant, unpleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds; The opposite of euphony

Caesura - A speech pause occurring within the line; see also grammatical pause

Catharsis - A term used by Aristotle to describe some sort of emotional release experienced by the audience at the end of a successful tragedy

Connotation - What a word suggests beyond its basic dictionary definition; a word's overtones of meaning -- connotation is the dictionary definition AND all of the words, associations, and feelings attached to it

Consonance - The repetition at close intervals of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words; example, the hard //c// sound in boo//k//-pla//qu//e-th//ic//ker

Continuous form - Form of a poem in which the lines follow each other without formal grouping, the only breaks being dictated by units of meaning

Couplet - Two successive lines, usually in the same meter, linked by rhyme; example from __Romeo and Juliet__: "Good night! Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow / That I shall say good night till it be morrow." Shakespeare often used couplets at the end of scenes to signal the ending. Couplets are very common in poetry. Often whole poems are written in couplet form, followed by two more lines with a different rhyme, and so on.

Dactyl - A metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables; example: **mer**-ri-ly

Dactylic meter - A meter in which a majority of the feet are dactyls (see triple meter)

Denotation - The basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word

Didactic writing - Poetry, fiction, or drama having as a primary purpose to teach or preach

Dimeter - A metrical line containing two feet

Double rhyme - A rhyme in which the repeated vowel is in the second last syllable of the words involved; example: politely-rightly-sprightly; Double rhyme is one form of feminine rhyme

End rhyme - Rhymes that occur at the ends of the lines

End-stopped line - A line that ends with a natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation

Sonnet - A fixed form of fourteen lines, normally iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme conforming to or approximating one of two main types--the English or the Italian

English sonnet, also known as a Shakespearean sonnet - A sonnet rhyming // ababcdcdefefgg. // Its content or structure ideally parallels the rhyme scheme, falling into three coordinate quatrains and a concluding couplet

Italian sonnet, also known as a Petrachan sonnet - A sonnet consisting of an octave and a sestet with the principle break coming at the end of the eighth line. The octave rhyming abbaabba and of a sestet using any arrangement of two or three additional rhymes, such as cdcdcd or cdecde.

Euphony - A smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds; The opposite of cacophony

Expected rhythm - The rhythmic expectation set up by the basic meter of a poem

Extended figure, also known as a sustained figure - A figure of speech (usually metaphor, simile, personification, or apostrophe) sustained or developed through a considerable number of lines or through a whole poem

Extrametrical syllables - In metrical verse, extra unaccented syllable added at the beginnings or endings of lines; these may be either a feature of the metrical form of a poem or occur as exceptions to the form. In iambic lines, they occur at the end of the line; in trochaic, at the beginning

Feminine rhyme - A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel is in either the second or third last syllable of the words involved; example: c//eil//ing-ap//peal-//ing; h//ur//rying-sc//ur//rying

Figurative language - Language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally

Figure of speech - Broadly, any way of saying something other than the ordinary way; more narrowly a way of saying one thing and meaning another

Fixed form - A form of poem in which the length and pattern are prescribed by previous usage or tradition, such as sonnet, villanelle, and so on

Folk ballad - A narrative poem designed to be sung, composed by an anonymous author, and transmitted orally for years or generations before being written down. It has usually undergone modification through the process of oral transmission.

Foot - The basic unit used in the scansion or measurement of verse. A foot usually contains one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables. The spondaic foot is a modification of this principle.

Form - The external pattern or shape of a poem, describable without reference to its content, as continuous form, stanzaic form, fixed form (and their varieties), free verse, and syllabic verse. See structure.

Free verse - Nonmetrical poetry in which the basic rhythmic unit is the line, and in which pauses, line breaks, and formal patterns develop organically from the requirements of the individual poem rather than from established poetic forms.

Grammatical pause, also known as a caesura - A pause introduced into the reading of a line by a mark of punctuation

Heard rhythm - The actual rhythm of a metrical poem as we hear it when it is read naturally. The heard rhythm mostly conforms to but sometimes departs from or modifies the expected rhythm.

Hexameter - A metrical line containing six feet

Hyperbole, also known as an overstatement - A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth; a hyperbole is an extended metaphor, or overstatement

Iamb - A metrical foot consisting of one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable; example: re//hearse//

Iambic meter - A meter in which the majority of the feet are iambs. Iambic meter is the most common English meter. Shakespeare wrote mostly in iambic pentameter, meaning five iambs per line of meter.

Imagery - The representation through language of sense experience.

Internal rhyme - A rhyme in which one or both of the rhyme-words occurs within a line, as opposed to at the end of a line

Italian sonnet, also known as a Petrachan sonnet - A sonnet consisting of an octave and a sestet with the principle break coming at the end of the eighth line. The octave rhyming abbaabba and of a sestet using any arrangement of two or three additional rhymes, such as cdcdcd or cdecde.

Masculine rhyme, also known as single rhyme - A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel sound is in the final syllable of the words involved; example: dance-pants, scald-recalled

Metaphor - A type of figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. It may take one of four forms:
 * 1) Direct metaphor in which the literal term is named and the figurative term are both named
 * 2) Implied metaphor in which the literal term is named and the figurative term is not stated, but is implied
 * 3) Implied metaphor in which the literal term is implied and the figurative term is implied
 * 4) Implied metaphor in which both the literal term and the figurative terms are implied

Meter - The regular patterns of accent that underlie metrical verse; the measurable repetition of accented and unaccented syllables in poetry

Metonymy - A figure of speech in which some significant aspect or detail of an experience is used to represent the whole experience. In the Perrine anthology, the term metonymy is used for what are sometimes distinguished as two separate figures: synecdoche (the use of the part for the whole) and metonymy (the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant).

Metrical variations - Departures from the basic metrical patterns. See substitution and extrametrical syllables.

Monometer - A metrical line containing one foot.

Octave - 1. an eight line stanza; 2. the first eight lines of a sonnet, especially a structured one in the manner of an Italian sonnet

Onomatopoeia - The use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound; example: boom, click, pop, bang

Onomatopoetic language - Language employing onomatopoeia

Overstatement, or hyperbole - A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth

Oxymoron - A compact verbal paradox in which two successive words seemingly contradict one another

Paradox - A statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements

Paradoxical situation - A situation containing apparently but not actually incompatible elements. The celebration of a fifth birthday anniversary by a twenty-year old man is paradoxical but explainable if the man was born on February 29. The Christian doctrine that Christ was born of a virgin and is both God and man are, for a Christian believer, paradoxes (that is, apparently impossible but true)

Paradoxical statement, or verbal paradox - A figure of speech in which an apparently self-contradictory statement is nevertheless found to be true

Paraphrase - A restatement of the content of a poem designed to make its prose meaning as clear as possible

Pentameter - A metrical line containing five feet

Personification - A figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept

Petrachan sonnet - see Italian sonnet

Phonetic intensive - A word whose sound, by an obscure process, to some degree suggests its meaning. As differentiated from onomatopoetic words, the meanings of phonetic intensives do not refer explicitly to sounds.

Poeticizing - Writing that uses immoderately heightened or distended language to sway the reader's feelings. A written form, not a poetic form.

Prose meaning - The part of a poem's total meaning that can be separated out and expressed through paraphrase

Prose poem - Usually a short composition having the intentions of poetry but written in prose rather than verse; A prose poem is not an actual poem.

Quatrain - 1. A four-line stanza; 2. A four-line division of a sonnet marked off by its rhyme scheme

Refrain - A repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines, normally at some fixed position in a poem written in stanzaic form

Rhetorical pause, also known as a caesura - A natural pause, unmarked by punctuation, introduced into the reading of a line by its phrasing or syntax

Rhetorical poetry - Poetry using artificially eloquent language, that is, language too high-flown for its occasion and unfaithful to the full complexity of human experience

Rhetorical stress - In natural speech, as in prose and poetic writing, the stressing of words or syllables so as to emphasize meaning and sentence structure

Rhythm - Any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound

Rhyme - The repetition of the accented vowel sound and all succeeding sounds in important or importantly positioned words; example: //old//-c//old//, v//ane//-r//eign//, c//ourt//-rep//ort//, //order//-rec//order//; This definition applies to perfect rhyme and assumes that the accented sounds involved are preceded by differing consonant sounds.

Rhyme scheme - Any fixed pattern of rhymes characterizing a whole poem or its stanzas

Run-on line - A line which has no natural speech pause at its end, allowing the sense to flow uninterruptedly into the succeeding line

Scansion - The process of measuring verse, that is, of marking accented and unaccented syllables, dividing the lines into feet, identifying the metrical pattern, and noting significant variations from that pattern

Sentimentality - Unmerited or contrived tender feeling; that quality in a work that elicits or seeks to elicit tears through an oversimplification or falsification of reality

Sentimental poetry - Poetry that attempts to manipulate the reader's emotions in order to achieve a greater emotional response than the poem itself really warrants

Simile - A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. The comparison is made explicit by the use of some such word or phrase as //like, as, than, similar to, resembles// or //seems.//

Single rhyme - see masculine rhyme

Sonnet - A fixed form of fourteen lines, normally iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme conforming to or approximating one of two main types--the English or the Italian

English sonnet, also known as a Shakespearean sonnet - A sonnet rhyming //ababcdcdefefgg.// Its content or structure ideally parallels the rhyme scheme, falling into three coordinate quatrains and a concluding couplet

Italian sonnet, also known as a Petrachan sonnet - A sonnet consisting of an octave and a sestet with the principle break coming at the end of the eighth line. The octave rhyming abbaabba and of a sestet using any arrangement of two or three additional rhymes, such as cdcdcd or cdecde.

Spondee - A metrical foot consisting of two syllables equally or almost equally stressed; example: true-blue

Stanza - A group of lines whose metrical pattern (and usually its rhyme scheme as well) is repeated throughout a poem

Stanzaic form - The form taken by a poem when it is written in a series of units having the same number of lines and usually other characteristics in common, such as metrical pattern or rhyme scheme

Stress - F orce of utterance, producing loudness -- which syllables within a word get the emphasis -- which SYLlables get the EMphaSIS In the Perrine anthology, "stress" is the same as "accent." Accent and stress are generally interchangeable. When distinctions are made, they are as such, with stress being is the most important:
 * Stress is force of utterance, producing loudness -- which syllables within a word get the emphasis -- which SYLlables get the EMphaSIS
 * Accent is the relative prominence given a syllable in relation to its neighbors, and is said to result from one or more of four causes: stress, duration, pitch and juncture, the manner of transition between successive sounds.

Substitution - In metrical verse, the replacement of the expected metrical foot by a different one, for example, a trochee occurring in an iambic line

Sustained figure - see extended figure

Syllabic verse - Verse measured by the number of syllables rather than the number of feet per line

Synecdoche - see Metonymy

Synesthesia - Presentation of one sense experience in terms usually associated with another sensation

Tercet - A three-line stanza exhibited in terza rima and villanelle as well as in other poetic forms

Terza rima - An interlocking rhyme scheme with the pattern //aba bcb cdc//, etc

Tetrameter - A metrical line containing four feet

Tone - The speaker's attitude toward the subject or the audience; the emotional coloring, or emotional meaning, of a poem or a work

Total meaning - The total experience communicated by a poem. It includes all those dimensions of experience by which a poem is communicated---sensuous, emotional, imaginative, and intellectual--and it can be communicated in no other words than those of the poem itself.

Trimeter - A metrical line containing three feet

Triple meter - A meter in which the majority of the feet contain three syllables. Anapestic and dactylic are both triple meters.

Trochaic meter - A meter in which the majority of feet are trochees

Trochee - A metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by one unaccented syllable; example: //bar//ter

Truncation - In metric verse, the omission of an unaccented syllable at either end of a line

Understatement - A figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants

Verse - Metrical language; the opposite of prose

Villanelle - A nineteen-line fixed form consisting of five tercets rhymed //aba// and a concluding quatrain rhymed //abaa//, with lines 1 and 3 of the first tercet serving as refrains in an alternating pattern through line 15 and then repeated as lines 18 and 19.

__Ms. Lee's haikus & other fun with words poems:__

sleep? to dream no more? hamlet. indecisive schmuck. deal. and kiss the girl.

hey little turtle, in your hardshell home, come play with us. we won't bite.

night-time's here again. thoughts dance and swirl for this girl. can't sleep. enter sheep.

glory upon glory. fall upon fall. night's dark silence envelopes. gifiting solace to all.

i am the mess-up fix all. i am the glue in your life. i am your to the rescue. i am silently keeping your secrets. duct tape. i am.