Poetry What is poetry?

Poetry

What is poetry?

Poetry is using words in a way that helps us see, feel, and hear them

Poetry bounces off your tongue, tickles your ears, and makes you thinkPoetry usually has a rhythm or flowThere are many types of poetry and many types of poetic devices, or tools, that poets useThere are not as many rules in poetry as there are in regular writings.

Read the following, and look for elements that make it different from regular writing you are use to seeing. Look for the tone of the poem (how the author uses words to express feeling), and for any unique tools or devices used.

The Rainbow

~Christina Rossetti

 Boats sail on the rivers,And ships sail on the seas;But clouds that sail across the skyAre prettier than these.There are bridges on the rivers,As pretty as you please;But the bow that bridges heaven,And overtops the trees,And builds a road from earth to sky,Is prettier far than these.

Poems can be long and short, happy or sad…

“Without saying the word of good-by"

Why I have today, although I shed tears for good-byAlthough I wave my hand again and again

Some poetry rhymes..but not always

Poetry has a rhythm usually

Poets use words to convey the tone of their writing (happy, sad, silly, excited). Poetry sometimes uses punctuation and correct grammar, but a lot of times it does not

Snow

a crystal touch on a baby’s face

four feet of white across a frozen landpurple moon shadows under pinesdiamonds on tree limbs in the morning sunweapons for school boyswalls in the school yardmy tracks across a field and those of a hare

a hundred telephone poles along my way to school

After deep winter’s darkness

spring lakeand summer fieldacres of richesthe black earthdustdustand yellow harvestcombinestiny harvest miceThe table full:potatoes, pumpkin, corn, beans , cabbage, strawberries, saskatoons, blue berries,raspberries, choke cherries, pincherries, cranberries, carrots, turnips six inches across, bitter horseradish, beets.Time for the fall supperNovember snow

Poetry also uses many poetic devices, or figurative language.

These include similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, alliteration, repetition, and personification, and lots of imagery!

Many types of poetry, some with special rules: Here are just a few:

Haiku-a Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables.

Ex: Ah, summer grasses! All that remains Of the warriors dreams.

Lyric Poetry

consists of a poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet. Lyric poetry does not tell a story which portrays characters and actions.

Ballad Poems are poems that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend .A ballad is often about love and often sung. A ballad is a story in poetic form.Free verse is a form of poetry which uses fewer rules and limitations using either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set fixed pattern.

Famous poets:

Walt Whitman

Emily DickinsonEdgar Allen PoeShel SilversteinRobert FrostShakespeareAnd many, many, more!