Identifying Features of Poetry.

What’s I Need to Know?

Literature is divided into three general classifications: prose, poetry, and

drama. Poetry as a genre of literature is considered to be the shortest in
number of words involved but the most complex in terms of interpretation. As
with any genre of literature, poetry is identifiable through its distinguishing
elements. These elements in turn contribute to the creation of a unique
structure of language that lends poetry its unique character.

This module is made for you to understand some of the elements of poetry and
it provides you with a world view of subjects, topics, and content that adds to
your knowledge.

In this module, you are expected to:

Learning Outcomes
After this module, you should be able to:

Identify the features of Poetry

1
 What’s I Know?

Directions: Choose the letter of the best answer, and write these on a separate sheet of paper.

1. The main identifiable structure of poetry.

a. the line c. the language
b. the persona d. the metaphor

2. This refers to the musical quality of a poem.

a. form c. rapport
b. mood d. rhythm

3. The one speaking in a poem.

a. persona c. poet
b. protagonist d. prologue

4. The basic structural make-up of the poem.

a. meter c. rapport
b. mood d. rhythm

5. The central idea of a poem.

a. sequence c. tenet
b. storyline d. them

2
 What’s New?

Directions: On a separate sheet of paper, copy the following and then place a check
mark beside the line that is an example of iambic pentameter.

1. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

2. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.
3. I wandered, lonely as a cloud.
4. But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
5. Fair is foul and foul is fair.

What is It?

Some of the elements of poetry have been discussed in the previous

module. In this one, the elements have been grouped into three for better synthesis of
information.

The three elements of poetry.

1. Voice. Who is speaking in the poem? Most would automatically reply,

“The poet.” However, this is not always true as the one speaking in the
poem (also known as the persona/speaker) may be an object or a person
other than the writer. This can be identified through clues that describe
the speaker, such as age, attitude or experience. Tone refers to the poet’s
“implied attitude toward its subject,” and this often determined by the
reader’s or audience’s understanding of the way the poet’s use of other
related elements such as rhyme, meter and imagery.

2. Diction. In poetry, diction or the choice of words include the selection of

appropriate figurative language or descriptive vocabulary to heighten a
sensory experience of the theme (the main idea or topic) of the poem. A
 poet chooses a word to achieve a certain sensory, emotional, or
intellectual effect. For example, selecting “wandered,” may mean
differently compared to say, “walked around,” “shuffled,” “drifted,”
“floated,” etc., for each of these listed words can pertain to a different
attitude, image, or relevance to the reader.

3. Syntax. A poem consists of stanzas and each contains lines –these

distinguish it from the sentences, paragraphs and chapters of fiction.
Syntax is simply the order or arrangement of words. In poetry, syntax
influences the structure of a poem. Meter is the pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables that creates the rhythm of some poetry. The most
common examples of meter include:

trochee: stressed syllable followed by unstressed syllable, as in “custom”

iamb: unstressed syllable followed by stressed syllable, as in “describe”
spondee: equal stress for both syllables, as in “cupcake”
dactyl: stressed syllable, followed by two unstressed syllables, as in “bicycle”
anapest: two unstressed syllables, followed by a stressed syllable, as in “understand”
The repetition of metrical feet in a line of poetry creates poetic meter, like beats in music:
one foot – monometer two feet – dimeter three feet – trimeter four feet – tetrameter five
feet – pentameter six feet – hexameter seven feet – heptameter eight feet – octameter
Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is a requirement in
formal verse. Poetry can be classified into three types, based on whether it includes meter
and rhyme. (1) Formal verse has both a strict meter and rhyme scheme. (2) Blank verse
has a strict meter, but does not have a rhyme scheme. (3) Free verse has neither any
strict meter or rhyme scheme. Rhyme schemes are the specific patterns a poem follows at
the end of each line. The following are some of the most common rhyme schemes:

Alternating rhyme is found in four-line stanzas and includes the ABAB pattern as in
this excerpt from Robert Frost’s Neither Far Out nor In Deep:

The people along the sand (A) All turn and look one way. (B)
They turn their back on the land. (A) They look at the sea all day. (B)
Coupled rhyme is a two-line stanza following the simple format AA, BB, CC as in Dr.
Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham:
I would not like them here or there. (A) I would not like them anywhere. (A)
I do not like green eggs and ham. (B) I do not like them, Sam-I-Am. (B)
Triplet rhyme is a three-line rhyming stanza as in Robert Herrick’s
Upon Julia’s Clothes:
When as in silks my Julia goes, (A)
Then, then (methinks) how sweetly flows (A) That liquefaction of her clothes. (A)
Monorhyme scheme only has one ending rhyme throughout the entire poem. Night
Storm by Marie Summers is an example:
It came in a winter’s night,
a fierce cold with quite a bite. Frosted wind with all its might sent ice and snow an invite
to layer earth in pure white
and glisten with morning light.

What’s More?
Activity 2: POEM ANALYSIS

Directions: Read the following poem, published in 1591, from Philip Sidney and answer
the questions that follow on a separate sheet of paper.

Astrophil and Stella, Sonnet I

Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,

That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,—
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,—
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe;
Studying inventions fine her wits to entertain,
Oft turning others’ leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburn’d brain.
But words came halting forth, wanting invention's stay;
Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows;
And others’ feet still seem’d but strangers in my way.
Thus great with child to speak and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite,
“Fool,” said my Muse to me, “look in thy heart, and write.” (Source: mural.uv.es/ihel/literature/)

1. What type of lyric poetry is the featured poem?

a. elegy c. sonnet
b. soliloquy d. tercet

2. “I sought fit words to paint” (line 5) is an example of which figure of speech?

a. metaphor c. meronymy
b. metathesis d. metonymy

3. The meter of the featured poem is ?

a. trochee c. iamb
b. spondee d. dactyl

4. The metrical feet of the featured poem is ?

a. tetrameter c. hexameter
b. pentameter d. heptameter

5. The theme of the poem is ?

a. death and grieving
b. poetic offering of love
c. remembering the past
d. social issues and concerns
 What I Can Do?

1. Directions: Blackout poetry or block poem/erasure poem is when a page of an

article from a newspaper — is completely blacked out (colored over with permanent
marker so that it is no longer visible) except for a select few words. When only
these words are visible, a poem is created from the existing text. Examine the
example below, Misfortune by Judith Kroon, and try out creating your own
block/erasure poem by using an old newspaper page.

Source: writersblockmagazine.com
 Congratulations for accomplishing Module 1. I expect that
you learned a lot from the discussion and activities. You’re
almost done. Like what I said, YOU CAN DO IT! Good job!

Assessment

Directions: Read the questions and choose the letter of the best answer. Use a separate sheet of paper.

1. Poetry crafts language to create lines that elevate _ ?

a. scientific facts c. mathematical equations
b. emotions or memories d. estimates and percentages

2. The structural difference of poetry from prose

a. use of narration c. presence of imagery
b. figures of speech d. lines instead of sentences

3. Defined as the poet’s attitude toward the subject of his or her own poem.
a. theme c. tone
b. thesis d. tome
4. Identified as the “one speaking in the poem.”
a. persona c. protagonist
b. prologue d. proponent

The order or arrangement of words in a poem.

a. style b. syntax
c. simile d. semantics

5. In terms of meter, the word garden is an example of?

a. anapest c. iamb
b. dactyl d. trochee

6. In terms of meter, the word contradict is an example of?

a. anapest c. iamb
b. dactyl d. trochee

7. In terms of meter, the word destroy is an example of?

a. anapest c. iamb
b. dactyl d. trochee

8. The poems of Shakespeare are classified as?

a. blank verse c. formal verse
b. blind verse d. free verse

9. A type of rhyme that only has one ending throughout the entire poem.
a. alternating c. coupled
b. monorhyme d. triple
Answer Key

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Assessm What's What I
ent More Know
References:

Source: “Astrophil and Stella, Sonnet I, by Philip Sydney,”

Universitat de Valencia, 2012 accessed December 13, 2020,
http://mural.uv.es/ihel/literature/renai/astrophil1.html

Source: “Common Rhyme Scheme Examples in Poetry,”

Anonymous, accessed December 13, 2020,
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/common-rhyme-scheme-
examples-in- poetry.html

Source: “Crossroads,” Louise Glück, 2009

accessed December 13, 2020,
https://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/see-and-hear-
poetry/a-g/louise-gluck/

Source: “Elements: Poetry,” Anonymous,

accessed December 13, 2020,
https://org.coloradomesa.edu/~blaga/Theory/poet
ry_elements.

Source: “Meter,” Anonymous,

accessed December 13, 2020,
https://www.litcharts.com/literary-
devices-and-terms/meter

Source: “Meter,” Anonymous,

accessed December 13, 2020,
https://literarydevices.net/meter/

Source: “Rhyme,” Anonymous,

accessed December 13, 2020,
https://www.litcharts.com/literary-
devices-and-terms/rhyme

Source: “Sonnet 94: They that have power to hurt and will do none,”