Over the 2019-2020 winter break, I studied hard to pass a test that would give me an endorsement for teaching English and Humanities in middle school. One thing I had to study a lot of that I previously knew almost nothing about was poetry. Since we have rarely talked about poetry here on Go Teen Writers, and since I know that many of you enjoy writing poetry, I decided to take my newfound knowledge and write a series of blog posts on this topic. You should know, however, that previously, I have not been all that fond of poetry. That said, I am learning to appreciate a deeper understanding of other types of writing because it is important to me to challenge my students to develop such an appreciation as well. So, if poetry is not your favorite, I challenge you to stretch yourself and give it a try with me. And if you are a poetry expert, have mercy. I’m still learning.
What is poetry?
Poetry is a specific type of literature that is written to transfer meaning through symbolism and imagery and to elicit emotion in a reader. This can be done through rhythmic and aesthetic word choice, often with the goal of creating a specific structure and/or rhyme scheme. Poetry is supposed to sound cool. Some poems might also arrange words to create a visual impression. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be discussing a variety of types of poetry. Today, let’s take a look at poetic form and prosody (which was a new word for me). In other words, how poetry looks and sounds.
Poetic Form
Most novels have a three-act structure. Well, poetry has structure too. Poetic form refers to the structure of a poem—how the poem is put together and what set of rules, if any, the poem follows. This could be the number of lines, number of syllables per line, number of stanzas, length of stanzas, or pattern of rhyme scheme. Authors get to manipulate all of these elements in order to create the effect they are seeking to convey in their poem.
Lines and Stanzas
Poetry is made up of lines, which can also be put into groupings called stanzas. Certain types of poems have rules about the number of stanzas and the numbers of lines in each. A sonnet, for example, is made up of fourteen lines that are divided into four stanzas. The first three stanzas have four lines each (called quatrains), and the final stanza has two lines (called a couplet). A limerick, for another example, has five lines and one stanza.
Visual Format
The concept of lines and stanzas can add meaning to poetry. Where lines end and begin can create a visual effect. Some poems are also written with illustrations and the lines and stanzas wrap into the visual to add effect. Shel Silverstein uses formatting and his own illustrations to give his poetry greater effect. Who has not glanced at the poem Garbage and not smiled just a little? Check out these two poems from my mom’s book, Lollipop Poetry. Creative, aren’t they?
Prosody
Who here as ever heard a comedian use a deadpan voice? Or how about Ben Stein saying, “Anyone? Anyone?” in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? Such monotone is the absence of prosody. Poetry (most often) demands prosody, which is the use of sound techniques to bring intonation, vocal stress, pitch, volume, tempo, and rhythm to the poem. Today, we’re going to look at rhythm and meter, two tools that enable poets to add prosody to their work. Next week we’ll look at poetry acoustics, which are patterns of sound in the words themselves.
Rhythm & Meter
Rhythm is the beat of a poem. It is how the author means for the poem to sound. Poets arrange the words of a line into a specific pattern or meter to accomplish the rhythm they desire. Iambic pentameter (penta = five) is poetic verse in which each line is made up of five iambs, which are metrical “feet” that can be arranged into two or three syllables. Which syllables are stressed and which are unstressed changes the sound of the poem. Rising rhythm starts low and unstressed and moves up to stressed. Falling rhythm starts high as stressed and moves down to unstressed.
Below is a sampling of syllable rhythm arrangements. To help you know how to read the words, take note of the marks over the words. A letter “U” depicts an unstressed syllable and a slash “/” depicts a stressed syllable.
An iamb consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. It is the is the most famous kind of rhythm in English poetry. Take these two lines of rising rhythm from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 for an example. An iamb is marked like this: U /
The following example of falling rhythm from Shakespeare’s Macbeth depicts a trochee rhythmic arrangement. Trochaic tetrameter consists of four feet of trochees, which are made up of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable and is marked like this: / U
An anapest contains three syllables—the first two are short and unstressed and the third is long and stressed. See the following line from The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron. An anapest is marked like this:
U U /
A dactyl is made up of one long or stressed syllable followed by two short or unstressed syllables. It’s almost like a waltz. See the following line from The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson. A dactyl is marked like this: / U U
If you want to learn more, I enjoyed this video from Oregon State University on the topic of meter in poetry.
Poetry Challenge
Today’s poetry challenge is for you to choose at least one of the metrical patterns above and write a one stanza of a poem. At least four lines. Whether or not you rhyme is up to you. We’ll talk about rhyming next week. The poem can be about anything you want. Post your poetry in the comments and tell us whether you used iamb, trochee, anapest, or a dactyl rhythmic arrangement. Have fun!
Love the post Jill! So much good information for writers and teachers! Just curious- was the test you had to take the Praxis? I’m trying to become a middle school English teacher and I had to take that one too. Congratulations on all your hard work for your teaching (and writing!) career!
Thank you! Here in Washington State, I had to take the West-E for Mid-level Humanities. All my best to you in your studies. It’s a lot of work, but so far it’s been totally worth it!
I really love poetry, but I’m not that good at writing it, so this post is greatly appreciated! Thank you, Jill 🙂
My stanza (I used the dactyl):
Waiting inside as if in a cocoon,
I tremble and sway in the light of the moon.
The fairy-silk ’round me is only a dream;
I’m trying to make things not as bad
As they seem.
Not that good, but at least I got some writing done today! Thanks again =D
It is good, Ava Roxanne! I love the emotion behind it.
Oh, thank you Adi! That’s really kind of you =)
Ooh! You did really good! Your character sounds anxious. Nice job making me feel the emotion. I’m glad the post was helpful.
Thank you! And all of the posts always are 🙂
Ooh, I like that!
Thanks!
Here’s mine. I love writing poetry, I’ve had to do it before for school and I hope that this does the trochee meter justice!
Title: “For You”
when the fall/of leaves and/
the flower/ wilts to dirt
/still hold your/thin, cold hand
if you say/no, I’ll leave/
if it makes/you so happy
What do you think?
Ah! That made me sad. Nice job with word choice and imagery! You guys are good at this!
Great job Adi! Very poignant.
Thank you!
I love poetry! Thanks for writing this! Here is my attempt at a stanza with a trochee rhythmic arrangement:
Flour stains my wrinkled apron
Yeast aromas fill the kitchen air now
Chocolate drips from fingertips and
Turns my batter to a coffee brown
(It’s hard to know which syllable is stressed since it can sometimes depend on the reader! Any tips?)
radiantwords.wixsite.com/blog
Whoops, realized a few of my lines have five”feet of trochees”! (Is that the right way to say that?)
I agree that it definitely depends on the reader which syllables are stressed!
Okay, this poem made me hungry. I’m going to see if I can sweet talk my daughter into making me cookies. I think you did a great job with your word choice and descriptive words. It totally made me hungry! Trochaic tetrameter consists of four iams, but I don’t think that means all trochees must be used in fours. You could Google it and see. You could also read it out loud and see how the rhythm sounds to your ears. *shrugs*
Thank you!
Perfect timing for this as I have been writing some poetry these last couple days! I wrote this last night and am wondering what rhyme scheme it is (this kind of thing is hard for me to figure out). I really like it so far and am proud of the rhyming, since I have difficulty with that:
The mind is full of windmills
So that old song claims
But my mind is a labyrinth
That ancient Cretan maze
Inside its walls a thousand paths
That lead one to another
And in its centerpiece it holds
A monster like no other
I love the mythology references! And the ending line is very intriguing. Good job!
Intriguing piece! I like how it makes you think. Not every poem is going to adhere to the four rhyme schemes I listed above. Over the next month, we’re going to talk about a lot of different types of poems. So don’t stress if you’ve created something that isn’t fitting perfectly into one of the above examples. More to come!
I went with the Iamb. These are really four line stanzas, but I broke them up with two extra indent’s to stress the military theme. Here’s what I came up with.
Leaving Winter
Yes, the winter winds know how to resurrect the dead
and restore October’s fallen from the days when they were red.
Shocking blasts of pre-storm drafts
march them all around
although it’s quite unnatural to see them on the ground.
In battalions and divisions they all advance, un-dead,
with a military crispness that can be heard as they tread.
They wheel and face
and then they race in their mad rush to war,
with unison displaying their devotion to their corps.
Assaults and skirmishes abound across the nation’s grounds
As they maneuver in formations and their battle roar resounds.
Then General Winter comes along and blows them all away.
The undead warriors, it seems,
were just old leaves at play.
That’s a really great poem, Jack!
Thanks, I noticed we both wrote about the fall. Now that I have, I kind of want to write a poem for each season. It’s funny that we both used this as a metaphor, mine was military, I took yours to be about age? Maybe lost romance?
Don’t ask me why I capitalized iamb, I just don’t know.
Wow Jack! Great job!
The funny thing is, I also wrote a poem taking place in autumn, but my metaphor was jewels. Popular season for poetry, eh? 😉 xD
Oh yes Jack, that is amazing! Love the strong imagery
Wow, Jack! What a powerful poem. Well done, you. I’m loving reading all these poems. You writers are so creative!
I liked the one you wrote today too. When you come out of your cocoon, I hope this pandemic is over. If it isn’t, well, you will still be able to fly.
Oh… You just made me melt. Thank you so much; we all need encouragement right now, and I am no exception. I hope you know that this really made my day 🙂
Wow, I love the community around this site.
Jack! What a sweet thing to say! (I’m melting too! lol) You guys are amazing. <3
This post is amazing! I love to read poetry and especially write it! Lately, I have had a lot of time on my hands because of quarantine, so I decided to write a poem with my sister. I normally don’t write poems like this, but I thought it would be fun to write something silly XD. It’s called the Candy Shop, and goes as follows,
One day I was walking;
With my friend endlessly talking.
When we spotted a candy shop;
I begged my friend to quickly stop.
We went inside,
and saw a slide!
We climbed the ladder;
When we slid down we were a whole lot fatter.
When I went home;
My stomach was a big, round dome.
When I tried to go through the door;
I could not fit anymore.