Poetry Definition

• Poetry is a condensed and imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response.
• Poetry has been known to employ meter and rhyme, but this is by no means necessary. Poetry is an ancient form that has gone through numerous and drastic reinvention over time. The very nature of poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly impossible to define.

Tips for Close Reading Poems

1. Read the poem aloud several times, following the punctuation for phrasing, listening to the rhythms, and paying attention to the emotional effect.
2. Respond thoughtfully to key words and references. Many words have both denotative and connotative meanings.
3. Write a paraphrase of any lines that need clarification or simplification.
4. Using your own response to the poem, write a statement clarifying the central meaning.�

Key Terms

End Rhyme – the most common form—the rhyme is at the end of the line of verse�Personification – figure of speech where the poet describes an abstraction, a thing, or a non-human form as if it were a person.�Refrain – regularly recurring phrase or verse especially at the end of each stanza or division of a poem or song �Stanza – a division of a poem consisting of a series of lines arranged together in a usually recurring pattern of meter and rhyme

Key Terms

Blank Verse – a type of poetry having a regular meter, but no rhyme.� Exp: Something there is that doesn’t love a wall. � That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, � And spills the upper boulders in the sun; � And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. ���

Key Terms

Feet – a unit of two or three syllables that contains one �strong stress.���Meter – The regular pattern of rhythm; the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse.��Rhythm – the natural rise and fall of language. In music it refers to the regular beat of a song.���

Key Terms

Iambic Pentameter – one of the most popular forms of� meter in the English language; an unstressed then �stressed unit of meter (υ / ) repeated five times in a line� of verse.��Free Verse – Poetry that doesn’t have a fixed line �length, stanza form, rhyme scheme, or meter. Free �verse may make use of rhyme and rhythm, as well as �alliteration, figurative language, and onomatopoeia.���

Key Terms

Free Verse – Poetry that doesn’t have a fixed line length, stanza form, rhyme scheme, or meter. Free verse may make use of rhyme and rhythm, as well as alliteration, figurative language, and onomatopoeia.��Imagery – Words or phrases that use description to appeal to the reader’s sense of sight, sound, taste, smell, or touch��Onomatopoeia – refers to words whose sound imitates or reinforces its meaning; it also refers to lines or passages in which sound helps to convey meanings. ��Tone – The attitude a writer takes toward the subject or the reader of a work of literature.

Key Terms

Metaphor- A comparison made between two things which are basically dissimilar, with the intent of giving added meaning to one of them.��Personification- A figure of speech in which something nonhuman is given human characteristics or feelings.��Simile- A direct comparison made between two unlike things, using a word of comparison such as like, as than, such as, or resembles.��Symbol- Something in a literary work which maintains its own meaning while at the same time standing for something broader than itself.