UNDERSTANDING VERSE (POETRY)
Because of the varied nature of poetry and the literary features used within a poem, it is important to focus on two main
things:
 Content – WHAT is being said?
 Style – HOW is it being said?
Remember: there is very little value in simply identifying the features unless you explain the effects they create within the
text and on the reader.
Classes of poetry
 lyric – generally spoken by a single voice expressing ideas and emotions
 narrative – includes a narrator and a story; epic poetry was narrative; lacking “emotion”
 dramatic – a clearly invented speaker voices the poet’s ideas and sentiments; Shakespeare wrote dramatic poetry
CONVENTIONS OF MEANING IN POETRY
 speaker/voice – frames the words
Tone, mood, and atmosphere
The overall effect that a poem creates in the mind of the reader is very closely linked to the mood and tone that it evokes.
 tone – created by the “voice” of a poem; author’s (or speaker’s) attitude towards subject and/or audience
 mood – although closely linked to tone, mood refers to the atmosphere that the poem creates
Very often tone and mood are closely linked and a certain tone produces a certain mood. For example, if a poet uses a lively,
humorous tone it is far more likely to produce a light atmosphere than a melancholy one.
Diction
The choice of words has an essential effect on how tone is created.
 literal/denotative meaning
 connotation – meanings the word has acquired or been assigned by the poet
 formal or informal register
 archaism – older word not used today
 neologism – invented or made up word
 concrete or abstract nouns
Imagery
Imagery adds layers of meaning to a poem beyond the literal sense of the words on the page. Images can be created in
various ways and language used in this way is sometime called “figurative language.”
 literal image (imagery) – the image is created through descriptions
 non-literal image (figurative language) – the image is created through comparisons; how to represent one thing by
means of another
o simile
o metaphor
o personification
o analogy – comparison
o symbolism – the symbolic image (color white) as representative of something else (peace)
o conceit – a type of metaphor where the poet takes very different things and combines them in a startling
way
o hyperbole
o understatement
o
o
metonymy – close association of one word to another so that one may stand in for the other
synecdoche – part represents whole
 kenning – word or phrase, used by Old English poets, that were made up to identify a particular object or thing
without naming it directly
noun
ocean
ship
a lord
the sun
kenning
swan’s road; foaming field; realm of monsters
sea goer; sea wood
dispenser of rings; treasure giver
candle of the world
Aural Imagery
 alliteration – “Full fathom five thy father lies, / Of his bones are coral made.” (repetition of the “f” sound creates a
sense of solemnity and gives incantatory feel to the line)
 assonance – “Summer grows old, cold-blooded mother” (creates impression of lethargy and lack of life as summer
passes and winter approaches)
 onomatopoeia – “The ice was all around; / It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,” (suggest sounds of
icebergs)
Again, remember: there is very little value in simply identifying the features unless you explain the effects they create
within the text and on the reader.
Form and structure
The way that the language of the poem is laid out will have been carefully chosen by the poet to enhance or reflect the
meaning of the poem. Form can refer to the way that the poem is written on the page, or the way that the lines are
organized or grouped.
 fixed form:
o stichic poetry – lines follow on from each other continuously without breaks
o strophic poetry – the lines are arranged in groups, which are sometimes incorrectly called "verses" (correct
term is stanza); sonnet, ballad, ode, etc.
 free verse/open form – no constraints of form, structure, rhyme, rhythm; the flexibility of this form allows poets to
use language in whatever ways seem appropriate to their purpose, and to create the effects they desire in the work
Open form poetry is sometimes regarded as formless because it is unlike the strict forms. They still rely on an intense use of
language to establish rhythms and relations between meaning and form. Open form poems use the arrangement of words
and phrases on the printed page, pauses, line lengths, and other means to create unique forms that express their particular
meaning and tone.
 prose poem – printed as prose and represents most clear antithesis of fixed form
 found poem – an unintentional poem discovered in a nonpoetic context, such as a conversation, news story, or an
advertisement; playful reminders that the words in poems are very often the language we use every day
Classifying patterns allows us to talk about the effects of established rhythm and rhyme and recognize how significant
variations from them affect the pace and meaning of the lines. An awareness of form also allows us to anticipate how a
poem is likely to proceed.
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stanza – group of lines, set off by a space; usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme
rhyme scheme – pattern of end rhymes
tercet – three-line stanza
triplet – three line stanza where all lines rhyme
terzarima – interlocking three-line rhyme scheme: aba, bcb, cdc, etc.
quatrain – four-line stanza; the most common stanzaic form in English language
Other poetic techniques
 enjambment (aka run-on line) – verse runs from one line to another due to grammatical structure; often, punctuation
elsewhere in the line reinforces the need to run on at the end of the line
 end stop – grammatical break coincides with end of line
 caesura – a break or pause in a line of verse; very important in influencing the rhythm of the poem
 rhetorical devices which influence structure: anaphora, chiasmus, antithesis, apostrophe, zeugma, etc.
 syntax
 spacing, indentations, punctuation
CONVENTIONS OF SOUND IN POETRY
Rhyme
Rhyme affects the sound and overall effectiveness of a poem. A rhyme scheme can unify a poem, give it an incantatory
quality, or add emphasis to particular elements of vocabulary.
 complete rhyme – exact rhyme at the end of a line
 eye rhyme (sight rhyme, half rhyme, slant rhyme, para-rhyme, approximate rhyme) – “love” and “move”
 internal rhyme – rhymes within the line of poetry
Rhyme can:
 make a poem sound musical and pleasing to the ear
 create a jarring, discordant effect
 add emphasis to certain words and give particular words an added prominence
 act as a unifying influence on the poem, drawing it together through the rhyme patterns
 give the poem a rhythmic, incantatory, or ritualistic feel
 influence the rhythm of the verse
 provide a sense of finality – the couplet, for example, is often used to give a sense of “ending”
 exert a subconscious effect on the reader, drawing together certain words or images, affecting the sound, or adding
emphasis in some way
Rhythm
Rhythm can help create mood and influence tone; it can give a poem its feeling of movement and life. The rhythm of poetry
can be influenced by factors such as word order, length of phrases, or the choice of punctuation marks, line and stanza
breaks, and the use of repetition.
“Rhythm might be described as, to the world of sound, what light is to the world of sight. It shapes and gives new meaning.”
– Edith Sitwell
 stress (or accent) – places more emphasis on one syllable than on another (“You put the wrong emphasis on the
wrong syllable.”)
 syllable stress – natural rhythm of word
 emphatic stress – shifted stress on a word to emphasize a particular meaning or reinforce a point
Meter
This is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. Variations in the pattern could mark changes in
mood or tone, or signify a change of direction in the movement of the poem. The four basic kinds of rhythmic patterns are:
 quantitative – rhythm established by patterns of long and short syllables; classical meter
 accentual – the occurrence of a syllable marked by stress or accent determines the basic unit regardless of the
number of unstressed or unaccented syllables surrounding the stressed syllable
 syllabic – the number of syllables in a line is fixed, although the accent varies
 accentual-syllabic – both the number of syllables and the number of accents are fixed or nearly fixed; when the term
meter is used in English, it often refers to accentual-syllabic rhythm
 foot – a group of syllables within a line of poetry
o monometer – one foot
o dimeter – two feet
o trimester – three feet
o tetrameter – four feet
o
o
o
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pentameter – five feet
hexameter – six feet
heptameter – seven feet
octameter – eight feet
 scansion – the process of identifying the meter

o stressed syllable:
o unstressed syllable: ˘
o feet divider: │
o caesura: ║
The five basic patterns of stress:
o iambic – one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (iamb); example: again
o trochaic – one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed (trochee); example: baby
o dactylic – one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed (dactyl); example: horrible
o anapestic – two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable (anapest); example: go along
o spondaic – two stressed syllables (spondee); example: black night
o rising meter – moves from unstressed to stressed syllables
o falling meter – moves from stressed to unstressed syllables
 blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter
 masculine ending – line ending with a stressed syllable
 feminine ending – lines ends with an extra unstressed syllable
Scanning a poem
These suggestions should help you in talking about a poem’s meter.
1. After reading the poem through, read it aloud and mark the stressed syllables in each line. Then mark the
unstressed syllables.
2. From your markings, identify what kind of foot is dominant (iambic, trochaic, dactylic, or anapestic) and divide the
lines into feet, keeping in mind that the vertical line marking a foot may come in the middle of a word as well as at
the beginning or ending.
3. Determine the number of feet in each line. Remember that there may be variations; some lines may be shorter or
longer than the predominant meter. What is important is the overall pattern. Do not assume that variations
represent the poet’s inability to fulfill the overall pattern and phrases or disrupt your expectation for some other
purpose.
4. Listen for pauses within lines and mark the caesuras; many times there will be no punctuation to indicate them.
5. Recognize that scansion does not always yield a definitive measurement of a line. Even experienced readers may
differ over the scansion of a given line. What is important is not a precise description of the line but an awareness of
how a poem’s rhythms contribute to its effects.
Image from Purdue OWL