Poetry Basics
Lines
Rhyme
Meter (stresses / rhythm, number of syllables)
Voice (v narrator)
Example of meter
Dactyl
One fish,
Two fish,
Red fish,
Blue fish.
5 Types of Poetry (Rhyme’s Reason, Hollander)
Accentual Poetry
Accentual-syllabic
Pure syllabic
Free verse
Quantitative verse
Poetry type 1: Accentual Verse
Controls the number of stresses per line only.
Typical of children’s poetry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accentual_verse
https://www.instapaper.com/read/682737667
Professional Example
Cycling Through Scars
Skipping beats over pedaling feet,
I could barely hear myself think.
The perspiration drove determination,
And my muscles began to ache.
I shut my eyes, forgetful of lies
To conceive of the mind's desire.
My legs slowed as my temper was stowed
Within my unfortunate scars.
Cycling Through Scars
Skipping beats over pedaling feet,
4
I could barely hear myself think.
3
The perspiration drove determination, 4
And my muscles began to ache.
3
I shut my eyes, forgetful of lies
4
To conceive of the mind's desire. 3
My legs slowed as my temper was stowed 4
Within my unfortunate scars.
Maxine Mouly
3
Poetry type 2: Accentual – Syllabic verse: control of number stresses
and syllables.
Dominant form of European and American poetry.
Example: “There Will Come Soft Rains”
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools, singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,
Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
11 or 9 syllables per line
Couplets: Pairs of rhymed lines (ex. AA BB, etc.)
Poetry type 3: Syllabic
The best-known Japanese haiku[16] is Bashō's "old pond":
古池や蛙飛び込む水の音
ふるいけやかわずとびこむみずのおと (transliterated into 17
hiragana)
furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto (transliterated into
rōmaji)
This separates into on as:
fu-ru-i-ke ya (5)
ka-wa-zu to-bi-ko-mu (7)
mi-zu-no-o-to (5)
Translated:[17]
old pond . . .
a frog leaps in
water's sound
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku#Examples
Poetry type 4: – Free Verse
No rhyme, but other literary or rhetorical devices are used to create unity
and structure.
Slam, Dunk, & Hook
By Yusef Komunyakaa
Fast breaks. Lay ups. With Mercury's
Insignia on our sneakers,
We outmaneuvered to footwork
Of bad angels. Nothing but a hot
Swish of strings like silk
Ten feet out. In the roundhouse
Labyrinth our bodies
Created, we could almost
Last forever, poised in midair
Like storybook sea monsters.
A high note hung there
A long second. Off
The rim. We'd corkscrew
Up & dunk balls that exploded
The skullcap of hope & good
Intention. Lanky, all hands
& feet...sprung rhythm.
We were metaphysical when girls
Cheered on the sidelines.
Tangled up in a falling,
Muscles were a bright motor
Double-flashing to the metal hoop
Nailed to our oak.
When Sonny Boy's mama died
He played nonstop all day, so hard
Our backboard splintered.
Glistening with sweat,
We rolled the ball off
Our fingertips. Trouble
Was there slapping a blackjack
Against an open palm.
Dribble, drive to the inside,
& glide like a sparrow hawk.
Lay ups. Fast breaks.
We had moves we didn't know
We had. Our bodies spun
On swivels of bone & faith,
Through a lyric slipknot
Of joy, & we knew we were
Beautiful & dangerous.
Yusef Komunyakaa, "Slam, Dunk, & Hook" from Pleasure Dome: New
and Collected Poems. Copyright © 2001 by Yusef Komunyakaa.
Reprinted with the permission of Wesleyan University Press.
Source: Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems (Wesleyan
University Press, 2001)
Poem type 5: Quantitative Verse
Quantitative verse, in prosody, a metrical system based on the duration
of the syllables that make up the feet, without regard for accents or
stresses. Quantitative verse is made up of long and short syllables, the
duration of which is determined by the amount of time needed for
pronunciation. This system has only rarely been used successfully in
English poetry because of the strongly accentual nature of the English
language. It was used mainly by classical Greek and Roman poets.
(Encyclopedia Brittanica)
Some classical languages, in contrast, used a different scheme known as
quantitative metre, where patterns were based on syllable weight rather
than stress. In the dactylic hexameters of Classical Latin and Classical
Greek, for example, each of the six feet making up the line was either a
dactyl (long-short-short) or a spondee (long-long): a "long syllable" was
literally one that took longer to pronounce than a short syllable:
specifically, a syllable consisting of a long vowel or diphthong or
followed by two consonants. The stress pattern of the words made no
difference to the metre. A number of other ancient languages also used
quantitative metre, such as Sanskrit and Classical Arabic (but not
Biblical Hebrew).
The most important Classical metre is the dactylic hexameter, the metre
of Homer and Virgil. This form uses verses of six feet. The word dactyl
comes from the Greek word daktylos meaning finger, since there is one
long part followed by two short stretches.[2] The first four feet are
dactyls (daa-duh-duh), but can be spondees (daa-daa). The fifth foot is
almost always a dactyl. The sixth foot is either a spondee or a trochee
(daa-duh). The initial syllable of either foot is called the ictus, the basic
"beat" of the verse. There is usually a caesura after the ictus of the third
foot. The opening line of the Æneid is a typical line of dactylic
hexameter:
Armă vĭ | rumquĕ că | nō, Troi | ae quī | prīmŭs ăb | ōrīs
("I sing of arms and the man, who first from the shores of Troy...")
(Wikipedia, Meter)
Tao of Pooh objective 1:
Explain how A. A. Milne chose poetry for “Winnie the Pooh”.
Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie
Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.
A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.
Ask me a riddle and I reply:
COTTLESTON, COTTLESTON, COTTLESTON PIE.
Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.
A fish can't whistle and neither can I
Ask me a riddle and I reply:
COTTLESTON, COTTLESTON, COTTLESTON PIE.
Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.
Why does a chicken, I don't know why.
Ask me a riddle and I reply:
COTTLESTON, COTTLESTON, COTTLESTON PIE.