Essay Ally

Below is everything you ever wanted to know about the analysis/structure of poems. You will be able to analyze both poetics (structure and form) and hermeneutics (meaning).

Meter

Stressed and Unstressed Syllables:

In English poetry, each line is broken up into measured beats called feet. Most feet have two beats, which generally are associated with the syllables of words. Some feet have three beats. In order to determine the type of foot, you must first be able to determine whether the beats are stressed or unstressed. Some poetry books call these beats long and short which correspond directly to stressed and unstressed. There is a special notation for these stressed and unstressed beats, and the following examples will show you this notation.

A stressed beat may be capitalized or have slash above it like this: / . An unstressed beat may be lower case or have a half circle above it like this: u.

Examples:

WALKing aBOUT BACKPACK CHEERio POSitive

wálkĭng ăbóut báckpáck chéerĭŏ pósĭtĭve

Try selecting a few words, (your name for instance) and adding the accents where you see fit. Use both methods of notation. An example of this follows:

KATie JOHNson ceLINE RICHards

Kátiĕ Jóhnsŏn Cĕlíne Ríchărds

Feet:

Once you have determined which syllables are stressed or unstressed, it is possible to categorize the word, or words into a metric foot.

Spondee - A spondee is a foot that contains two stressed beats. //

Examples: BACKPACK, DOGGONE, CATFIGHT, BIG BOY

Iamb - An iamb is a foot that contains an unstressed beat followed by a stressed beat. u/

Examples: aBOUT, beFORE, unTIL,

Anapest - An anapest is a three-beat foot that contains two unstressed syllables and one stressed syllable. uu/

Examples: in the PAST, unaBRIDGED, interCEDE

Trochee - A trochee is a two-beat foot that contains a stressed beat followed by an unstressed beat. /u

Examples: WALKing, KITten, SLOWly

Dactyl - A dactyl is a three-beat foot that contains a stressed beat followed by two unstressed ones. /uu

Examples: HOLiday, CANada, HAPpily

Amphibrach - An amphibrach is a three-beat foot that is an unstressed beat followed by a stressed beat and then followed by another unstressed beat. u/u

Examples: aNOTHer, unCOMmon, inSTEAD of

Amphimacer - An amphimacer is a three-beat foot that contains an unstressed beat in the middle of two stressed beats. /u/

Examples: I am ME, TWENty TWO

Meter:

English poetry is broken into meter generally based on the length of one line. These meters are determined by the number of feet in a line. Below is a list of the meters and examples.

monometer - one foot

Example: I am.

dimeter - two feet

Example: I am a man.

trimeter - three feet

Example: I am a man from Spain.

tetrameter - four feet

Example: I am a man from Spain and I.

pentameter - five feet

Example: I am a man from Spain and I live life

hexameter - six feet

heptameter - seven feet

octameter - eight feet

nonameter - nine feet

decameter - ten feet

Lines need not end in punctuation to maintain these meter forms. Many poets will maintain meter but continue their lines without punctuation breaks.

Enjambment - When a poet does not end a line with punctuation, but carries on to the next line with the same phrase or sentence, this is called enjambment. It may be used to change the tone of the poem and can have profound effects on the musical nature of verse.

Not all poetry falls into strict metric forms but many poems do. Poems that do not seem to follow one consistent meter have rhythm based upon one of the stricter forms. You also must be aware that while some poetry forms consistently use the same type of foot (Iambic pentameter uses five footed lines that consist of iambs) many poems contain a mixture.

It would be helpful to remember all these terms as you learn to analyze poetry. Before trying to determine any meaning or tone of a poem, try to determine it’s metric form. Most poems will be iambic, but some will be trochaic (consist of trochees). Pay attention for spondees, anapests, and dactyls as well. If you wish to name a line that is made of four trochees, it is called “trochaic tetrameter.” Refer back to this page as you work on analyzing poems, you will need to use these terms frequently.

Rhyme

What is a rhyme in poetry?

When the word rhyme is mentioned most people think of words the sound the same with the exception of the first consonant or vowel beginning. We think of nursery rhymes and kindergarten activities that make us come up with other words to rhyme. What rhymes with hair? Air, Bear, Care, Dare. . . But in poetry the potential for rhyme greatly extends past these simple forms. There are types of rhyme where words share only similar sounds, or have similar musical qualities. Poetry has developed a system for classifying these rhymes and making sense of why poetry sounds so musical, even if it’s not by Mother Goose.

Rhyme at the end of lines:

Returning to meter for a moment, we remember that each syllable must be stressed or unstressed. Every line’s rhyme may first be classified by the last syllable and whether it takes this stress or not.

Feminine- If the end of the line ends with an unstressed beat it is considered a feminine rhyme.

Example: As I walked out one evening, (As I Walked Out One Evening, W H Auden)

Masculine- If the end of the line ends with a stressed beat it is considered a masculine rhyme. This is the more common form.

Example: Whose woods these are I think I know. (Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Robert Frost)

Every rhyme must be masculine or feminine, but rhyme at the end of lines has other classifications as well.

True Rhyme- This is the traditional style of rhyming that most people are familiar with. It can rhyme a single word or a group of words at the end of a line. The rhymes may be on lines immediately following one another, or alternate in a variety of styles. The words need not have the exact same vowels, they simply must sound the same.

Examples: Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though. (Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Robert Frost)

If all the world was apple pie,
and all the seas were ink.
If all the trees were bread and cheese,
Then what would we have to drink? (anon)

It is also possible to rhyme difficult words that appear not to have any rhymes. It is said that it is not possible to rhyme the word orange. But a poet knows this is not the case. You may take two words that coincide with the two syllables in orange and rhyme them. Some words that might rhyme with or are: for, bore, lore, core, door. Some words that might rhyme with ange are: cringe, binge, hinge, singe. Using these sets of words, we can create a true rhyme for the word orange. An example of a short poem below. There are claims that the words purple, silver, and month are also impossible to rhyme. Perhaps you can think of some rhymes?

The sun shown in the sky like an orange,
The wind creaked in the trees like a door hinge. (Sara Jones)

I ate until I turned purple,
boy was I sure full. (Sara Jones)

Slant (Off) Rhyme- Many times there are no words that adequately suit the poem that are perfect rhymes. In this case it is possible to use what is called a slant/off/near rhyme. The word should have a similar vowel sound and ending. Some near rhymes are shown and brown, fight and sat, cry and slide. The rhymes may be stretched a great deal and although the words standing alone don’t appear to rhyme, within the poem there is definite musicality and rhythm in slant rhymes. You will see examples of both true and slant rhymes within your poems.

Other rhyme types:

Within a poem there are many other forms of rhyme. Rhyme can appear anywhere within a poem and use similar consonant or vowel sounds.

Internal Rhyme - Internal rhyme is a form of rhyme that occurs anywhere in a poem besides the end of a line. It can have multiple words on the same line or different lines. They should be true rhymes.

Example: The jar was round upon the ground (The Anecdote of a Jar, Wallace Stevens)

Assonance - Frequently poets will repeat the use of certain vowel sounds within a line. The vowels need not be exactly the same, but should sound similar. They will reuse the sounds over and over again. This can occur throughout a poem, on a single line, or on several lines.

Examples: Four orange horses boarded.

Six pitbulls sit in it.

Alliteration - Alliteration is the use of words that start with the same sound (usually consonants). This is a popular tool for poets and can have a great effect on the tone of the poem.

Example: To try takes tenacity

Verse

How to classify a poem:

Poems in English are classified generally by their rhyming pattern and by their meter. In order to classify a poem, you should be familiar with the way to notate rhymes and also with the names for meter types such as monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, iambic, spondaic, trochaic, etc. . . In many cases you will not need these terms to name the actual verse type, but will need to be able to recognize them in order to name the poem.

The first step in the poem is to identify the rhyme. Check the ends of the lines for true or slant rhymes, because either one can be used for most verse types. Denote the first rhyme with A, the second with B, and so on. Here is an example.

The first four lines from Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” are as follows:

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

It is not necessary for the words to make sense, but they definitely rhyme. The rhyming pattern in this instance would be written like this:

A
B
A
B

Once you have identified the rhyme you may count the syllables, beats, or feet and identify the meter. In some instances you will also need to check the see how lines are paired up in groups or stanzas. The following terms describe different group numbers.

couplet - This is a set of two lines. They may be separated from the rest of the poem by a space, or be within a poem but rhyme directly. They will always be immediately next to one another.

quatrains - Many poems are broken into four line stanzas. These four line groups are called quatrains. They frequently have an ABAB or AABB rhyming pattern. Quatrains are not always isolated from the text in a stanza, and sometimes the term quatrain is used to refer to a group of four lines within a larger poem that have the ABAB or AABB rhyming pattern.

sestet - A sestet is a group of six lines.

octave - An octave is a group of eight lines.

Types:

Now that you have the tools to identify meter, rhyme, and other structural elements, you should be able to classify most poems into one of the following forms.

sonnet - A sonnet is a popular, old, and very strict form for poetry. The lines must always be iambic pentameter and they follow a very specific rhyming pattern. There are two main styles of sonnets.

Shakespearean sonnet- Guess who made this sonnet form famous? A Shakespearean sonnet is always 14 lines long and follows a specific pattern. It has three quatrains and then a couplet which is called the “heroic couplet.” There is generally a change in tone from the quatrains to the couplet. The rhyme pattern and an example are listed below.

A
B quatrain
A
B
—–
C
D quatrain
C
D
—–
E
F quatrain
E
F
—–
G couplet
G

Example:

Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose unear’d womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self-love, to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother’s glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime:
So thou through windows of thine age shall see
Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time.
But if thou live, remember’d not to be,
Die single, and thine image dies with thee. (Sonnet 3, Shakespeare)

Petrarchan sonnet - A Petrarchan sonnet is always 14 lines long and follows a specific pattern although many poets make variations upon this form (note three common sestet variations below). It has an octave and then a sestet, between them there is generally a turning point in the poem. This form is frequently used for romantic poetry. The rhyme pattern and an example are listed below.

A
B
B
A octave
A
B
B
A
—–
C C C
D D D
E sestet C E
C D D
D C C
E D E

Example:

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on with full career,
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew’th.
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,
That I to manhood am arrived so near,
And inward ripeness doth much less appear,
That some more timely-happy spirits indu’th.
Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,
It shall be still in strictest measure even
To that same lot, however mean or high,
Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven.
All is, if I have grace to use it so,
As ever in my great Task-master’s eye. (”On His Being Arrived to the Age of Twenty-three”, Milton)

 

villanelle - A villanelle is another form that uses iambic pentameter. In rare cases it may use iambic tetrameter. The pattern uses a series of repetition. It uses five triplets and a quatrain. Two lines will be used over and over again. They are marked here with * and #.

A *
B
A #

A
B
A *

A
B
A #

A
B
A *

A
B
A #

A
B
A *
A #

Example:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (”Do Not Go Gentle,” Dylan Thomas)

ballad - A ballad is a very old form of poetry. Originating from folk songs, ballads were often used to pass on news or stories of war or catastrophe when literacy was a rare thing. The ballads are seldom personalized or say anything about the poet. Most often ballads are made from simple quatrains and can be any length. They are frequently long and use an alternating rhyme line by line. The quatrains are often alternating tetrameter and trimeter.

A TETRAMETER
B TRIMETER
A TETRAMETER
B TRIMETER

C
D
C
D

E
F
E
F

Example:

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.The very deep did rot : O Christ !
That ever this should be !
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night ;
The water, like a witch’s oils,
Burnt green, and blue and white. (”The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Coleridge)

lyric - Lyric poetry refers to emotional, romantic, and personal poetry. It generally contains a lament or expression of emotion from the poet. This was a very popular form for romantic poets such as Keats, Wordsworth and Byron. You may have lyrics in any number of forms. A sonnet for example, can be considered a lyric poem.

haiku - A haiku is a Japanese form or poetry. The lines are divided by syllable rather than foot. No rhyme is necessary. Frequently they are written about nature. The form is a single triplet of lines where the first and last line are 5 syllables long, and the middle line is 7 syllables long. There are variations on this format and translations from Japanese haiku often use slightly different in length.

Example:

The first soft snow!
Enough to bend the leaves
Of the jonquil low. (Untitled, Basho)

apostrophe - An apostrophe (often called an ode) is a poem that is dedicated to an object or person. An apostrophe can be written to concrete or abstract images. Romantic or love poems are generally apostrophes to lovers.

Example:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. (”Shall I Compare Thee,” Shakespeare)

heroic simile - A heroic simile is a simile blown up on a grand scale. In this case something is likened so something else, but the comparison turns into a story or narrative. A simple simile might be the snow fell like a swan. A heroic simile would say the snow was like a spring day where I went fishing with my father and the …etc…

Example:

When the swordsman fell in Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai
in the gray rain,
in Cinemascope and the Tokugawa dynasty,
he fell straight as a pine, he fell
as Ajax fell in Homer
in chanted dactyls and the tree was so huge
the woodsman returned for two days
to that lucky place before he was done with the sawing
and on the third day he brought his uncle.

They stacked logs in the resinous air,
hacking the small limbs off,
tying those bundles separately.
The slabs near the root
were quartered and still they were awkwardly large;
the logs from midtree they halved:
ten bundles and four great piles of fragrant wood,
moons and quarter moons and half moons
ridged by the saw’s tooth.

The woodsman and the old man his uncle
are standing in midforest
on a floor of pine silt and spring mud.
They have stopped working
because they are tired and because
I have imagined no pack animal
or primitive wagon. They are too canny
to call in neighbors and come home
with a few logs after three days’ work.
They are waiting for me to do something
or for the overseer of the Great Lord
to come and arrest them.

How patient they are!
The old man smokes a pipe and spits.
The young man is thinking he would be rich
if he were already rich and had a mule.
Ten days of hauling
and on the seventh day they’ll probably
be caught, go home empty-handed
or worse. I don’t know
whether they’re Japanese or Mycenaean
and there’s nothing I can do. The path from here to that village
is not translated. A hero, dying,
gives off stillness to the air.
A man and a woman walk from the movies
to the house in the silence of separate fidelities.
There are limits to imagination. (”Heroic Simile,” Robert Hass)

free verse - Free verse and blank verse are often mistaken. Free verse refers to a wide variety of poetry that takes on any number of forms. Most good free verse resembles a specific structure. While it may not be iambic pentameter, trochaic tetrameter, or another obvious form, it should have moments of obvious metrical quality. Poetry need not be strictly confined to any form, but it helps if the poet is aware of these elements.

blank verse - Blank verse is an iambic pentameter form that need not rhyme or have any specific length. It is frequently used for epic poetry such as Milton’s “Paradise Lost.”

Imagery

What is imagery?:

One of the most difficult parts of poetry, is understanding imagery contained within verse. Poetry deals with two types of images or concepts. Most poems are about an abstract idea, image, or concept. Abstract notions are not tangible. They do not stimulate the senses. Most poems however, do not write in terms of these abstracts but rather, use concrete images to represent these abstractions. In order to represent a poem, you must be aware of all the senses and how they may be stimulated through images. These images can then introduce abstract concepts through their sensory stimulation.

concrete- Images that stimulate one of the senses.

examples: a blue bird, two puppies licking each other, a howling wind, the scent of roses

abstract- Abstract concepts are things that humans have an understanding of but are not things that can be sensed.

examples: Truth, Justice, Happiness, Love, Sorrow

Sensory Images (concrete):

In order to determine what type of image you are dealing with and what function it plays in the poem, it helps to be aware of the senses that poets deal with. These include the typical five senses that we all are familiar with, and several other senses that we contain, but are not aware of necessarily.

visual- This is the sense of sight. Many images can stimulate the visual sense with colors, patterns, shapes, etc…

Examples: a dog walking, a bluebird, a round and shiny apple

auditory- This sense deals with sounds. Words describing things you might hear and onomatopoeias stimulate your hearing.

Examples: a singing siren, BOOM, a crash, a crying baby

gustatory- This is the sense of taste. Foods generally stimulate this sense.

Examples: delicious apple pie, tasty potato, sour apple, sweet sugar, cinnamon, salty steak

olfactory- This is the sense of smell.

Examples: perfume, the scent of roses, a sour wind, rotting meat

tactile- The sense of touch.

Examples: A smooth surface, rough edges, soft fur

kinesthetic- This sense deals with sensations of the body. This goes beyond the sense of touch however. Feelings of nausea, a sense of gravity, or a sense of balance all stimulate your kinesthetic sense. These are sensations that you can feel, but are not describable by the five major senses.

Examples: walking on a tightrope, feeling dizzy,

synesthetic- This is a word to describe an image that stimulates two or more senses.

Example: a soft, brown, crying, baby bear

Diction

What is diction?:

An important part of being a poet, is knowing which words to choose. Poets are faced constantly with making decisions on how to express themselves. English has many synonyms or words with the same meaning, and there are also many times where words have shades of meaning but completely different emotions associated with them. It can be difficult to choose the right word for a situation and poets select their language very carefully. You must be aware then that every word has potential to have special meaning within a poem. The poet may choose the word ibis over the word bird because they think an ibis is pretty. But they may choose the word ibis because it has associate with Egyptian gods, or because it continues a sound pattern within a poem. Take time to consider every word within a poem before making judgments about the meaning of that poem.

denotation- The meaning or dictionary definition of a word.

connotation- The feelings, emotions, or meanings associated with a word. The word black denotes a specific color, but its connotation is one of fear, night, evil, sleepiness, death and an infinite number of other meanings depending on the context of the word.

neologism- Poets often make up words for a poem. They may seem to have meaning, or may simply sound good musically. A neologist makes up new words.

examples: Twas brillig and the slithy toves (”Jabberwocky,” Carroll)

portmanteau- A word that is a combination of two or more words. (Uses neologism)

examples: He chortled in his joy. (”Jabberwocky,” Carroll) Chortle is a combination of chuckle and snort.

Types of language:

Depending on what the poet intends for his poem, he will choose a diction that evokes feelings, moods, or tones about his topic. Some of the following types of language may be used in poems.

slang- Many poems contain colloquial expressions, informal grammar, and regional vernacular.

scientific- Some poems use large scientific words to convey a message.

religious- Some words have spiritual meanings or connotations.

academic- Academic language may be the language of students and professors as they try to describe events, people, or ideas with proper form.

There are many other forms of language that may appear within a poem. Consider each word carefully and decide if the language within a poem is consistent. Look for patterns in word choice and you may be able to find hidden meanings within a poem.

Tone

What is tone?:

Determining the tone of a poem is impossible without talking to the poet. Because this is not generally possible, and not what poetry is meant for, there is no definitive answer to “what is the tone of a poem?”. This is not a problem however, it allows us to come up with infinite interpretations of a poem. Verse may offer us an endless discourse on meaning, importance, and poetic function. I am providing you with a list of possible tones for poems. While many poems seem to be obvious, it is still important to consider all the possibilities. Diction, imagery, and form can all influence the tone of the poem and in some cases they may conflict. Tones also can involve tension, which deals with these conflicts of form and meaning. Though a poem may seem happy, underlying tones of conflict, fear, or anger may cause tension.

Tones: There are many more tones that can be added to this list. Try assigning multiple tones to poems based on diction, imagery, or form and see if you can create tension.

Sarcastic
Political
Serious
Cynical
Amused
Happy
Depressed
Romantic
Mystical
Spiritual
Awe
Wonder
Sinister
Creepy
Morbid
Playful

 

Examples: He smelled like a rose. She is as big as a cow. The sky was like a mirror. The snow fell like a swan.

Metaphor- A direct comparison. Metaphors can be extremely complex or subtle. The poet will not state that they are making a comparison, they will rather compare as if their statement is truth.

Examples: A heart of stone. The snow was a swan. She’s a rose.

Hyperbole- Hyperbole can be a type of simile or metaphor. Hyperbole always contains an exaggeration or impossible claim.

Examples: Her feet are like elephants. I’d travel to the ends of the earth to prove my love. I’d rope you the moon.

Personification- Personification, rather than comparing something, gives a non-human thing or concept human qualities.

Examples: Truth watches you. Justice is blind.

Symbolism- An object, person, or event that stands for something else. Symbolism can be very subtle and an object such as a rose may be symbolic of love, death, life, hope, or any number of other things. It may stand for more than one thing at the same time within a poem. This allows vast numbers of interpretations of a single poem.

Allegory-Allegory is similar to symbolism and often mistaken for it. Allegory deals with a poem having a definition symbolic reference to a specific event, action, or individual. A poem may tell the story of a wizard fighting a troll but be an allegory for World War II.