Poetry

Punctuation in Poetry

Caesura: a pause or stop in the middle of a poetic line. Brings emphasis to a specific moment, idea or word.

Endstop: pause or stop at the end of a poetic line.

Enjambment: a line that runs over form one line to another (lack of punctuation).

Stanza: “paragraphs” in a poem, a group of lines. By using stanzas we can organize our ideas and put emphasis on certain lines. Ex) Want the reader to focus on the transition of a subject or tone, break the poem in between the lines where the transition happens.

White Space: extra blank space between stanzas. Just because writers leave it blank doesn’t mean nothing happens. We can use it to be vague or imply something.

Prosody: is the pattern of rhythm and sound in poetry.

Alliteration: repetition of a consonant sound in a line of prose or verse.

Euphony: Consists of smooth, flowing and easily spoken sounds.

Cacophony: words that sound choppy, vigorous and noisy.

Onomatopoeia: when the sound of the word or phrase imitates or suggest a situation or action.

Vowels: push the poem forward and create a flow of speech.

Plosives: “stop sounds” are jarring, abrupt and hard (p, b, k, g, t, d)

Continuant Sounds: soft consonants are smooth and flowing (n, ng, l, r, th, f, v, s, z, sh, zh, m)

Types of Poems

Blank verse: verse writing with iambic pentameter (10 syllables with unstressed and stressed pattern).

Sonnet: short rhyming poem with 14 lines, uses an iambic meter in each line and use line-ending rhymes.

Limerick: a five-line poem with a distinctive rhythm. The first, second and fifth lines, the longer lines, rhyme. The third and fourth shorter lines rhyme. (A-A-B-B-A). Syllables follow the pattern of first, second and fifth lines with 7-10 syllables and third and fourth lines have 5-7 syllables.

Haiku: known for being a short poem structure of Asian origin about two different but related images interacting. First and third lines have 5 syllables and the second line has 7 syllables.

Narrative: A narrative poem tells the story of an event in the form of a poem. There is a strong sense of narration, characters, and plot

Epic: a lengthy narrative poem in grand language celebrating the adventures and accomplishments of a legendary or conventional hero

Couplet: two lines of verse which rhyme and form a unit alone or as part of a poem

Pantoum: a quatrain (4 line stanza). Lines 2 and 4 of one stanza become lines 1 and 3 of the next one. Continues throughout the poem.

Free Verse Poem - does not rhyme or have a pattern in sounds. Therefore we need to rely on other literary features to generate meaning.