Types of Poetry

Narrative: poem that tell a story

Example:
Always in Luck

by: John Godfrey Saxe

part 1

In Cairo once there dwelt a worthy man,
Toilsome and frugal, but extremely poor;
"Howe'er," he grumbled, "I may toil and plan,
The wolf is ever howling at my door,
While arrant rascals thrive and prosper; hence
I much misdoubt the ways of Providence.

Ballads: poem about love, death.

Example:

Ballad of the black slave

This is the ballad of the black slave, 
Who has been beaten and disgraced, 
Who has been called the n-word and negro, 
Who has received no pay.
This is the ballad of the black slave, 
Who prays for freedom every night, 
Who is going to rebel, 
For what he thinks is right. 
Now this is the ballad of the freed slave, 
Who has seen much bloodshed, 
Who has fought for equal rights, 
And who has won his freedom. 

Epic: a poem that tell about a hero or a myth.

Example:

part of Beowulf (Episode 01)

Now Beowulf bode in the burg of the Scyldings, 
leader beloved, and long he ruled 
in fame with all folk, since his father had gone 
away from the world, till awoke an heir, 
haughty Healfdene, who held through life, 
sage and sturdy, the Scyldings glad. 
Then, one after one, there woke to him, 
to the chieftain of clansmen, children four: 
Heorogar, then Hrothgar, then Halga brave; 
and I heard that -- was -- 's queen, 
the Heathoscylfing's helpmate dear. 

Lyric: poem that show emotions and feelings.

Example:
Someday

Verse 1: 
My life has been a story so sad, 
I never knew what it is I had
Until came the time for you to leave.
O what will happen to the dreams we weaved? 

Refrain: 
I guess it's time to say goodbye.
And, oh, how I wish I knew why.
Life is indeed a cruel adventure, 
But I tell you, this I know for sure...

Chorus: 
That one day our paths will cross again, 
That we will meet in the very end.
I'll miss you, oh that I know.
But it's time for me to let you go.

Verse 2: 
Without you, the days have all been empty, 
And how I wish that I be set free
From all the pain, all the misery.
So I could see tomorrow clearly.

[Repeat Refrain to Chorus] 

Sonnets: a 14 lines poem that follow an order of rhythm.

Example:

Sonnet-A New Year's Sonnet

Wake up; Wake up, for a New Year is born! 
Spring-time has come and the Oak has acorn; 
Wake up; Wake up, for the sweet songs of Birds; 
They twitter and chatter, flying in hordes.

Wake up; Wake up, for the meadow is green; 
The landscape is so bright, lively, serene; 
Wake up; Wake up, for the tall grass in dance, 
To the tune of the Wind, marching perchance.

Wake up; Wake up, for the gorgeous flowers, 
Have blossom'd after the Spring-time showers; 
Wake up; Wake up, for the Sun has come out; 
’Tis warm day indeed for running about.
Wake up; Wake up, for the weather is fine; 
’Tis time you made peace with neighbours with wine 

Odes: poem that thank a person, a thing, or an idea.

Example:

Ode to my locker

The magic box
that holds my books 
waiting for me 
in a steady look
not a single book i took 
just waiting until the bell rings
wishing just to take one thing
and its wish came true
i got everything 
even my toyfish
now mission accomplished 

Free verse: poem that don’t need to follow anything.

Example:

Dream On

Dream on with your life, 
Keep dreaming because you’ll, 
Never get this back, 
Dream on till you can’t dream no more, 
Because when your done dreaming
I won’t be there no more, 
I will be long gone, 
Not thinking of you, 
So dream on till there are no memories left, , 
I don’t want to be caged, 
My heart tells me it wants to be free, 
Not locked up in one spot, 
Dream on with your life, 
Go find someone new, 
Don’t bother with me anymore, 
Because I’m long gone by now, 
So Dream On. 

Lines

Definition: A combination of words. A sentence in the poem.

Example: Gradually kids who talked about Narnia kept getting balmier and balmier

Significant: we can arrange the lines to shape like something which can deliver a general message to the audience.

Symbol

Definition: things that represent something else.
Example:

Like doves represent peace.

Skulls represent death.

Significant: Help to author put more depth meaning in the poem. Make the audience think more about the poem to discover the truth meaning.

Onomatopoeia

Definition: words that represent sound

Example: Bang!

Grrr..!

Tic Toc Tic Toc

Significant: Help the audience recognize the sound immediately.

Assonance

Definition: Repetition of vowel

Example:   Row row row your boat

Significant: Assonance creates rhythms which make the poem more interesting. 

Alliteration

Definition: Repetition of the first syllables.

Example: Alice’s aunt ate apples and acorns around August

Significant: Make a poem more fun to read. It sound cool and every single word sound alike each other.

Meter

Definition: poems are having similar beat for each stanza.

Example: That time of year thou mayst in me behold

Significant: create rhythms for a whole poem. Make it like a song which is interesting.

Elegy

Definition: Poems create to remember about someone’s dead.

Example: O Captain! My Captain! 

O CAPTAIN! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Significant: Show our kindness to the dead one.

Couplet

Definition: Two lines that rhyme and have same meter.  

Example:

True wit is nature to advantage dress'd;

What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd.

Significant: This help to get the idea across quickly.

Rhyme

Definition: words that have similar sound. Used in rap and poem.

Example: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

Significant: Sound cool. Catch attention from the audience. 

Rhythm

Definition: The rise and fall sound of the word in the poem.

Example: Fat black bucks in a wine-barrel room

Barrel-house kings, with feet unstable,

Sagged and reeled and pounded on the table,

Pounded on the table,

Beat an empty barrel with the handle of a broom,

Hard as they were able

Boom, boom, BOOM,

With a silk umbrella and the handle of a broom,

Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM.

Significant: attracting when you read the poem out loud. 

Personification

Definition: to put human characteristic to a non-human things.

Example: The pig is TALKING.

Significant: Make connection to the audience. Can create humor. 

Speaker

Definition: person that read the poem.

Significant: Poems are not just words. There are rhythms, tone, and rhyme so it’s good to be a good speaker. Good speaker would be able to show the all the things that the author put in the poems. 

Tone

Definition: The high and low of amplitude of the poem while reading it out loud.

Example: The Pasture

I'm going out to clean the pasture spring; 

I'll only stop to rake the leaves away 

(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):

I sha'n't be gone long. -- You come too. 

Significant: The tone can transfer emotion to the audience.

Interpretation

Definition: to explain and analyze the poem.

Example: My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;  My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; = Abraham was dead. He was so close to his citizen that they called him father.

Significant: it’s important to understand the full meaning of the poem. A meaning of one poem can be two or three.

Simile

Definition:  compare to unlike things together.

Example: The pig looks just like a dog.

Significant: Way to describe the poem to the audience. Can create humor.

 

Extended Metaphor

Definition: A metaphor go throughout the poem.

Example:

He is the pointing gun, we are the bullets of his desire.

All the world's a stage and men and women merely players.

Let me count my loves of thee, my rose garden, my heart, my fixed mark, my beginning and my end.

Significant: Make a poem more interesting but also can confuse the audience.  

Metaphor

Definition: To compare things

Example: Federer was a wall, bouncing every tennis ball back over the net.

Significant: Make the audience focus to find the connection between things. 

Stanza

Definition: A paragraph of a poem.

Example:

Roses are red,

Violet are blue,

Sugar is sweet,

And so do you.

Significant: Easy to divide the poem. Easy to scan and analyze. 

Imagery

Definition: The use of descriptive language to show the five senses to the audience.
Example:   

The winter evening settles down

With smell of steaks in passageways.

Six o'clock.

The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

And now a gusty shower wraps

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet

And newspapers from vacant lots;

The showers beat

On broken blinds and chimney-pots,

And at the corner of the street

A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.

And then the lighting of the lamps.

Significant: By showing a picture, the poem will be more realistic and the audience will more likely to remember it.