Poetic Forms
Poetry
A literary expression in which language is used
in a concentrated blend of sound and imagery to
create an emotional response; essentially
Poetry cont…
Poetic Forms
Narrative Verse
Lyric Verse
The Ballad
Limerick
Haiku
Narrative Verse
Early poems that
were usually read
aloud.
They are composed
in a way that tells a
story.
“Paul Revere’s Ride”
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Track #23
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;
Hardly a man is now alive
He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town tonight,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal
light,--One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and
farm,--A cry of defiance and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
For borne on the night-wind of the past,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
Lyric Verse
Expresses feelings like love,
sadness, joy, and grief.
Usually shorter and easier to
follow than narrative verse.
Most songs on the radio are
A Red, Red Rose
by Robert Burns
O, my luve is like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June,
O, my luve is like the melodie,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune
Track #24
The Ballad
The Ballad is a form of narrative verse that was especially popular during the Middle Ages.
Usually shorter than narrative verse.
Ballads usually tell a story and reach an exciting climax.
The Limerick
Short, five lined
poems, that are silly
and simple.
Usually about finding
humor in accidents or
other unfortunate
events.
Often takes an
I’d rather have fingers than toes;
I’d rather have ears than a nose;
And as for my hair,
I’m glad it’s still there;
I’ll be awfully sad when it goes.
--Gelett Burgess
Track #11
The Sonnet
Made famous by
William Shakespeare.
Follows careful rules
about length and line.
Divided into 4 parts—
The Sonnet cont…
1
stand 3
rdlines of quatrains rhyme and 2
ndand
fourth lines rhyme.
See Example:
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s
day
?
Thou art more lovely and more
temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of
May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a
date;
…”
Understanding The Sonnet
Sonnets are broken down by how many
beats are in a line and whether or not
these beats are stressed or unstressed.
A stressed or unstressed beat refers to
Stressed and Unstressed Beats
Where are the stressed beats in this
sentence?
The
man
walked
the
dog
down
the
street
.
The words that are bolded and underlined
The sonnet cont…
The sonnet ends with a couplet or two
lines that end with rhyming words.
See example:
“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can
see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to
thee
.”
The Haiku
Poetic form that
originated from
Japan.
Traditional haiku has
three lines.
All together the poem
is 17 syllables.
Usually describes a
Haiku cont…
“Summer Grasses
All that remains
Of warriors dreams.”
The Tanka
Tanka is a Japanese poetic form.
Like the Haiku it strives to evoke strong
Tanka cont…
The Tanka is longer than the Haiku.
It has five unrhymed lines.
It also has a total of 31 syllables
Lines 1 and 3 have five syllables each
Ono Komachi (Tanka Example)
Should the world of love
End in darkness
Without our glimpsing
That cloud gap
Tanka
