Unit 3: Introduction to Poetry

Poetry uses imaginative and musical language to communicate experiences, thoughts, or emotions.

The speaker of a poem is the character who speaks in, or narrates, the poem—the voice assumed by the writer.

Tone is the emotional attitude toward the reader or toward the subject implied by a poem.

The setting of a literary work is the time and place in which it occurs, together with all the details used to create a sense of a particular time and place.

Poets often create setting by using sensory details, or words and phrases that describe how things look, sound, smell, taste, or feel.

In poetry, context refers to the conditions in which the poem occurs.

Figurative language is writing or speech that is meant to be understood imaginatively instead of literally.

A metaphor is a comparison in which one thing is written about as if it were another.

A simile is a comparison that uses like or as.

Personification is a figure of speech in which an animal, a thing, a force of nature, or an idea is described as if it were human or is given human qualities.

Poetry uses descriptive language, or imagery, to create a vivid picture in the mind of the reader and to appeal to the senses—primarily sight but also sound, touch, taste, and smell.

The pattern of beats, or stresses, in a line of poetry is called rhythm.

A regular rhythmic pattern is called a meter.

Some forms of poetry use the repetition of sounds at the ends of words to create rhyme, as in day and away.

Determine the structure of the poem and how it is organized.
How are the lines arranged? Do any words rhyme? How many lines are there in each stanza?

Whereas stories and essays are divided into paragraphs, poems can be divided into stanzas, or groups of lines.

Two lines are a couplet, three a tercet or triplet, four a quatrain, five a quintet or quintain, six a sestet, seven a septet, and eight an octave.

Two lines are a couplet, three a tercet or triplet, four a quatrain, five a quintet or quintain, six a sestet, seven a septet, and eight an octave.

Two lines are a couplet, three a tercet or triplet, four a quatrain, five a quintet or quintain, six a sestet, seven a septet, and eight an octave.

Two lines are a couplet, three a tercet or triplet, four a quatrain, five a quintet or quintain, six a sestet, seven a septet, and eight an octave.

Two lines are a couplet, three a tercet or triplet, four a quatrain, five a quintet or quintain, six a sestet, seven a septet, and eight an octave.

Two lines are a couplet, three a tercet or triplet, four a quatrain, five a quintet or quintain, six a sestet, seven a septet, and eight an octave.

Two lines are a couplet, three a tercet or triplet, four a quatrain, five a quintet or quintain, six a sestet, seven a septet, and eight an octave.

Two lines are a couplet, three a tercet or triplet, four a quatrain, five a quintet or quintain, six a sestet, seven a septet, and eight an octave.