Poetry

Imagery is often hidden in figurative language

Cliches

Similes

Images associated with certain ideas

Examples:

"She had black hair covering her eyes, black fingernail polish chipping away on her nails, and a Nightmare Before Christmas sticker on her binder."

A comparison using the words "like" or "as"

Examples:

"I slept like a rock last night."

"He ran as though a hoard of zombies were at his heels."

"Her movements were ninja-like"

Metaphors

Allusions

A comparison without using the words "like" or "as"

Examples:

"Juliet is the sun."

"The music was so loud it could wake the dead."

A reference to something the audience would know outside of the poem.

Example:

If someone were to write a poem about popularity in high school and include the line "Stop trying to make fetch happen," people who had seen Mean Girls would understand the reference and get the meaning.

Concrete and abstract details are what make a poem interesting.

Concrete Details

Details that are actually present for the speaker of the poem. Not something they are comparing a detail to.

Abstract Details

Details that are not actually present for the speaker of the poem. They are comparing a concrete detail to this detail.

Traditional Structure

• Uses stanzas
• Like a paragraph for a poem. Grouped lines of poetry that are about the same topic.
• Most lines end at the end of a sentence or clause unless the poet needs to continue the line for the sake of the rhythm and rhyme of the poem.
• Often follow a predictable rhyme scheme

Non-Traditional Structure

• Stanzas do not necessarily have to follow a particular set of rules.
• Use of enjambment
• When a sentence begins and ends on two different lines or within two different stanzas.
• Poem may not have a rhyme scheme or may rhyme in an unpredictable way.

Free Verse

• Sometimes called blank verse.
• Follows no specific structure or rhyme scheme
• No need to follow strict grammar or spelling rules so long as the meaning gets across.

Found

• A poem made up of lines from other literary works, advertisements, instruction manuals, really anything.

• Can be typed like a standard poem or presented as an art piece like the example on this page.

Sonnet

• One of the most famous types of poems. These are the ones that Shakespeare wrote.
• Follow very strict rhythm, structure, and rhyming rules.
• Rhythm: Ten syllables per line with one unstressed and one stressed. (It's like a heartbeat)
• Structure: Three stanzas with four lines and a rhyming couplet at the end (a stanza with two lines where both lines rhyme at the end.
• Rhyme: Rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
• They're not nearly as difficult to write as some people think.

Ode

• An over-the-top poem describing someone or something
• Most love poems are odes, but not all odes are love poems.
• Sometimes an ode is written in direct address to the person or thing the poem is being written about.
• The first line may say something like "To my favorite season of the year" or "Dedicated to my best friend"

Elegy

• An elegy is written to something that has been lost, whether by death, a broken relationship, time, or absentmindedness.
• An elegy is similar to an ode, in that it is usually over-the-top and can include direct address, but it also usually has a reflection on the person or thing's lasting impact, and what the world will be like now that they're gone.
• Many break-up songs could be considered elegies.
• One of the most famous elegies is Walt Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSAymj4hp7Y

Concrete Poem

• Mimics the shape or movement of the subject.
• Many are in the shape of physical objects, but that is not always the case. A concrete poem could also mimic the movements it takes to perform an action.
• This poem is a concrete poem:

"A Step" by Robert Creely

Things come and go

Then

Let them.

• What about that poem is mimicking the shape or movement it is discussing?