Forms of poetry - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Forms of poetrySlide2

A type of poetry that uses the first letter of each line to spell out the subject/message of the poem.

The

first letter of each line will line up vertically to spell the subject of the poem.

AcrosticSlide3

E

lizabeth it is in vain you say
"

Love not" — thou sayest

it in so sweet a way:


In vain those words from thee or L.E.L.
Zantippe's talents had enforced so well:
Ah! if that language from thy heart arise,
Breath it less gently forth — and veil thine eyes.
Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried
To cure his love — was cured of all beside —
His follie — pride — and passion — for he died.-”The Acrostic,” Edgar Allan Poe (1829)

AcrosticSlide4

Traditional Japanese poetry

Often an emotional message involving nature

Only three lines with the syllables limited to five, seven, five, in each of the corresponding lines

Whitecaps

on the bay:A broken signboard bangingIn the April wind.- “Haiku: This Other World,” Richard Wright (1998)haikuSlide5

Tells a story in the form of a song

Focuses on action and dialogue, not characters

Usually ends in tragedyUsually is romantic

BalladSlide6

The wild duck and the drake

From the tall and the tufted reeds

Of the drear Hart Lake.

And he saw how the reeds grew darkAt the coming of night-tide,And dreamed of the long dim hairOf Bridget his bride.He heard while he sang and dreamedA piper piping away,And never was piping so sad,And never was piping so gay.-Excerpt from “The Host of the Air,” William Butler Yeats (1899)balladSlide7

Formal verse very important to European poetic traditions

Sonnets have 14 lines with a set number of syllables

Always has a rhyme scheme

SonnetSlide8

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:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to

thee

“Sonnet 18,” William Shakespeare (1609)

SonnetSlide9

Originated as Greek poetry

Is used to honor someone after their death

Different from a eulogy because it is written in verse, whereas a eulogy is written in proseHas three stages:

1: Lament: Speaker expresses grief

2: Speaker praises the accomplishments of the deceased subject3: Closure and acceptance elegySlide10

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

The ship has

weather’d

every rack, the prize we sought is won,

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;But O heart! heart! Heart!the bleeding drops of red,Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;Here Captain! dear father!

The arm beneath your head!

It is some dream that on the deck,

 You’ve fallen cold and dead.

elegy

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,

The ship is

anchor’d

safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,

From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;

Exult

O shores, and ring O bells!

But

I with mournful tread,

Walk

the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen

cold and

dead

-”O Captain! My Captain!,” Walt WhitmanSlide11

Long, narrative poem in elevated style

Characters are in high positions (Royalty, nobility)

Includes adventuresAlways has a central heroic figure, called the epic hero

EpicSlide12

Beowulf got ready,

donned his war-gear, indifferent to death;

his mighty, hand-forged, fine-webbed mail

would soon meet with the menace underwater.

It would keep the bone-cage of his body safe:. . .[His helmet] was of beaten gold,princely headgear hooped and haspedby a weapon-smith who had worked wonders. . . .      -”Beowulf,” lines 1442-1552EpicSlide13

Has no limits on the length of lines or number of syllables (meter)

May or may not have rhyme scheme

The poet uses repetition, alliteration, and other poetic devices to keep the poem in verse

Free verseSlide14

After the Sea-Ship—after the whistling winds;

After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars and ropes,

Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening, lifting up their necks,

Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship:

Waves of the ocean, bubbling and gurgling, blithely prying,Waves, undulating waves—liquid, uneven, emulous waves, Toward that whirling current, laughing and buoyant, with curves, Where the great Vessel, sailing and tacking, displaced the surface; Larger and smaller waves, in the spread of the ocean, yearnfully flowing; The wake of the Sea-Ship, after she passes—flashing and frolicsome, under the sun,A motley procession, with many a fleck of foam, and many fragments,Following the stately and rapid Ship—in the wake following.

“After the Sea-Ship,” Walt Whitman (1900)

Free verseSlide15

Writing that is in its ordinary form, or without any metrical structure

Has full grammatical sentences

Reflects ordinary, everyday speech

ProseSlide16

If lilies are lily white if they exhaust noise and distance and even dust, if they dusty will dirt a surface that has no extreme grace, if they do this and it is not necessary it is not at all necessary if they do this they need a catalogue

.

-”A Red Stamp,” Gertrude Stein (1914)

Prose