Unit 1: Poetic

Language and
Writing in
Context
Bradley Bester

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Important Elements of Poetry

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 Imagery
• Visual imagery. In this form of poetic imagery,
the poet appeals to the reader’s sense of sight by
describing something the speaker or narrator of
the poem sees. It may include colors, brightness,
shapes, sizes, and patterns.
• The only thing that will make your poetry
powerful and enticing is great imagery. This
goes along with the line you always hear “show
don’t tell.”
• Don’t just say that love hurts, give us a
metaphor.

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 To provide readers with visual imagery, poets often use
metaphor, simile, or personification in their description.
William Wordsworth’s classic 1804 poem “I Wandered
Lonely as a Cloud” is a good example:

Visual imagery I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

In this poem, inspired by a walk Wordsworth took with

his sister, the poet uses simile to compare his lonely
wandering to the aimless flight of a cloud. Additionally,
he personifies the daffodils, which dance as if a group of
revelrous humans.

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 In John Keats’ short 1820 poem “To Autumn”—the final poem
he wrote before abandoning the craft because poetry wasn’t
paying the bills—he concludes with auditory imagery:
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,

Auditory While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
imagery. Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Keats personifies fall as if it is a musician with a song to sing,

and then creates an audible soundtrack from the sounds the
surrounding wildlife is making. The gnats form a wailful choir,
the lambs bleat, the crickets sing, the red-breast whistles, and the
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swallows twitter—all sounds marking the passage of time and
 In Walt Whitman’s 1856 poem “This Compost,” he uses some
disturbing gustatory imagery:

O how can it be that the ground itself does not sicken?

How can you be alive you growths of spring?

Gustatory
How can you furnish health you blood of herbs, roots, orchards, grain?
Are they not continually putting distemper’d corpses within you?

imagery. Is not every continent work’d over and over with sour dead?

Where have you disposed of their carcasses?

Those drunkards and gluttons of so many generations?
Where have you drawn off all the foul liquid and meat?
I do not see any of it upon you to-day, or perhaps I am deceiv’d,
I will run a furrow with my plough, I will press my spade through the
sod and turn it up underneath,
I am sure I shall expose some of the foul meat.

Whitman is pondering the life cycle and how it is that the Earth
produces “herbs, roots, orchards, grain” that are enjoyable whilst
processing a compost of the many human corpses buried under soil
everywhere. Although most people have not eaten human flesh, the
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“sour dead” and “foul liquid and meat” conjure the taste of rotting meat
 For example, look at Robert Browning’s 1836 poem
“Porphyria’s Lover”:
Tactile imagery. When glided in; straight
She shut the cold out and the storm,
And kneeled and made the cheerless grate
Blaze up, and all the cottage warm

Browning uses tactile imagery of the chill of a storm, the

sensation when a door is closed to it, and the fire’s blaze
coming from a furnace grate to describe the warmth of the
cottage.

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 In this form of poetic imagery, the poet appeals to the
reader’s sense of smell by describing something the
speaker of the poem inhales. It may include pleasant
fragrances or off-putting odors. In his poem “Rain in
Olfactory Summer,” H.W. Longfellow writes:

imagery. They silently inhale

the clover-scented gale,
And the vapors that arise
From the well-watered and smoking soil

Here, Longfellow’s use of imagery in the words “clover-

scented gale” and “well-watered and smoking soil” paints
a clear picture in the reader’s mind about smells the
speaker experiences after rainfall.

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 the poet appeals to the reader’s sense of motion. It may
include the sensation of speeding along in a vehicle, a slow
sauntering, or a sudden jolt when stopping, and it may
apply to the movement of the poem’s speaker/narrator or
Kinesthetic objects around them. For example, W.B. Yeats’ 1923 poem
“Leda and the Swan” begins with kinesthetic imagery:
imagery. A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

In this retelling of the god Zeus’s rape of the girl Leda from
Greek mythology, the opening lines convey violence in the
movement of the bird’s “beating” wings while Leda’s
“staggering” provides the reader with a sense of her
disorientation at the events.

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 In this form of poetic imagery, the poet communicates
internal sensations such as fatigue, hunger, and thirst as well
as internal emotions such as fear, love, and despair. In Robert

Organic Frost’s 1916 poem “Birches,” he makes use of organic

imagery:

imagery. So was I once myself a swinger of birches.

And so I dream of going back to be.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood

In this poignant moment, Frost, who has seen bent birch trees
and imagined a boy’s playful swinging has bent them,
describes feelings of fatigue and aimlessness and a longing to
return to the purposeful play of youth.

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Activity 1

• Choose three different types of imagery to use in your poem

• Your poem should focus on one of these topics:
1. Crime rates
2. Corruption
3. Social media pressures

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Poetry – Part 2

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Rhythm
• There are other ways to make a poem rhythmic without rhyme.
Stringing words with similar sounds together in a line works very
well.

• (this is an example of assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds in

nearby words)

• “With its leaping, and deep, cool murmur”

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Sound

• Euphony refers to the musicality of language. It is beauty on a more

fundamental level than imagery, themes, or a moving story. Euphony
simply refers to the beautiful sounds of words when they are read
aloud.
• Listen for muffled or soft consonant sounds. You’ll often hear M, N,
W, R, F, H, and L.
• Listen for consonant sounds that vibrate or whisper, such as S, Sh, Th,
V, and Z.
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Density

• Density is what sets poetry apart from (normal speech patterns/ the
way fiction and nonfiction books are written)

• Density is how much is said in how little of space. The ability to use
metaphors, not conform to traditional grammar styles, and
incorporate sounds and rhythms is unique to poetry.

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Line

• In traditional poetry, you’re a prisoner to the line.

• The line owns you, “Four lines there, five there, then four again.”
• In poetry, the line is like one sentence, and since poetry doesn’t
conform to grammar rules, and no one is obliged to use a period, the
end of a line is like a period. It creates a natural pause, making a
break in the flow. This is a tool you can use to control the rhythm of
your poetry.

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Stanza

Couplet = a two line stanza

Triplet (Tercet) = a three line stanza
Quatrain = a four line stanza
Quintet = a five line stanza
Sestet (Sextet) = a six line stanza
Septet = a seven line stanza
Octave = an eight line stanza
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Form and Function in Poetry

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Form follows function

• What comes to mind when

reading the following:
Can you think of examples in
life where the form of
something is closely tied to its
function?

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Box

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Form and Function in Poetry

• The function is more inclined towards the purpose and

program of something.

• form is expressed through the fancy exteriors, mainly for

decorative purposes.

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 Structured Forms
• Narrative
• Lyric
• Sonnet

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1. Narrative poetry

• Narrative poetry is determined by content and to a degree form

• It must tell a story So; it must contain narrative elements like
1. Setting
2. Character's
3. Plot (Problem and resolution)
4. Theme
• These elements follow the structure of a story

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 Types of narrative poems (Narrative)

A. Epic Poetry
is an extended narrative poem,
recounting actions, travels,
adventures, and heroic episodes and
is written in high style.

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Epic Poems

• Protagonist is heroically larger than life

• Deeds of the hero are presented without favoritism revealing flaws as
well as virtues.
• Action, often in battle, reveals the more-than-human strength of
heroes
• Setting covers several nations, the whole world, or even the universe
• All the adventures form a whole, where each event relates to the
central theme.
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Epic Poems

• Characters (Animal, people, mythical creature)

• Setting (House, restaurant, Made up land)
• Beginning- Intro character & Setting
• Middle- Problem
• End- resolution to problem, happy ending

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 Narrative Poetry
*Ballad
B. Ballad is a type of poetry which was used in dance
songs in ancient France.
• Distinguishing features include:
1. Simple, easy-to-understand language
2. Stories about hardship, tragedies, love, and
romance
3. Recurrence of certain lines at regular intervals
4. Seldom offers a direct message about an event,
characters, or situation (the audience must
deduce the moral)

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 Narrative Poetry
*Arthurian romances
Arthurian romances derive from twelfth century
France. They are any narrative poetry that tells stories
of romance and adventure within the Arthurian
court.
King Arthur was an English ruler in the fifth and sixth
centuries, best known for fighting off the Saxon
invasions.
According to some scholars, however, Arthur never
existed but was instead a fictional character.
Historical status aside, King Arthur and his knights are
major figures in English and French folklore.

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Lyric Poetry

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Lyric Poetry

• Lyric poetry consists of poems that express the internal thoughts and
feelings of the poet
• Lyric poetry does not tell a story which portrays characters and
actions
• The lyric poet addresses the reader directly, portraying his/her own
feelings, state of mind, and perceptions
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Lyric Poetry

• Lyric poetry use first person: Me, I, We, Us, Our.

• Innermost feelings: Hate, Love, Pure joy, Depression

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Types of lyric Poetry

• 1. Ode-
• Comes from the Greek, meaning to sing or chant
• It can be generalized as a formal address to an event, a person, or a
thing not present
• Different types of odes have different structures associated with them
(Read Pg301)
• An ode poem is traditionally divided into three sections, or stanzas

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Types of lyric Poetry

• 1. Ode-
• Ode poems are written about something or someone you really love.
• Can rhyme but doesn’t need to
• Must speak directly to the person, thing or place (Oh class)
• Make comparisons using similes and metaphors
• Use fancy words to describe
• Hyperbole- Exaggeration
• Repeat lines
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Types of lyric Poetry

• Ode-
• Think about the following
• Write down 5 things you see on your topic
• Does it make any sounds?
• How does it make you feel?
• Do you have any special memories
• What would your life be like without it?
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2. Sonnet

• Originating in Italy, the sonnet comes from the Italian word sonetto,
meaning "little song" or "little sound.“
• The three basic types are Italian, Spenserian, English.
• Each of the three major types of sonnets accomplishes this in a
somewhat different way

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All Sonnets

• Have 14 lines
• typically written in iambic pentameter (a 10-syllable pattern of
stressed and unstressed syllables)
• Follow a strict rhyme scheme
• Abab Cdcd Efef gg
• (Read Pg299)
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All Sonnets

• sonnets have something called a volta (twist or turn), in which the

rhyme scheme and the subject of the poem suddenly change, often to
indicate a response to a question, a solution to a problem, or the
resolving of some sort of tension established at the beginning of the
poem.

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All Sonnets

• In a line of poetry, an ‘iamb’ is a foot or beat consisting of an

unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

• iambic pentameter (5 iambs, 10 syllables)

• That time | of year | thou mayst | in me | behold

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All Sonnets

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All Sonnets

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 All Sonnets
Spenserian Sonnet

The Spenserian sonnet is a sonnet form named for 16th-century English

poet Edmund Spenser, who introduced this structure in his 1595
collection of sonnets titled Amoretti.

The Spenserian sonnet is extremely similar to the Shakespearean sonnet.

The main difference is the rhyme scheme: whereas the Shakespearean
rhyme scheme introduces a new rhyme in each quatrain, the Spenserian
sonnet carries over the latter rhyme from the previous quatrain in a chain
rhyme: abab bcbc cdcd ee.

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Example

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Example

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Class Task

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Task
• Choose one of the mentioned poem types above

• Write the poem according to its form and function

• Discuss how your poem stays true to its form and function

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