1. • Poem: a literal and figurative space,
comprised of words, lines and stanzas, created
on a page or pages in which the poet, through
the poem’s speaker, explores the nature of
reality and expresses its metaphorical
observations (its truths) to its reader.

2. Poetry
• Meaning
– Metaphor and extended metaphor
– Simile
– Analogy
• Rhythm
• Meter

3. Poetic Devices
• Sounds of words
• Meanings of words
• Arranging the words
• Images of words
• (semiotics)

4. Scansion
• Analyzing the pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables in a line of poetry to
determine its meter.
– Stressed syllables: labeled with accent mark: /
– Unstressed syllables: labeled with a dash: —
– Metrical feet may be two or three syllables in
length, divided by slashes: |

5. Scansion: Basic Rhythms
Pattern Name Example
—/ Iamb/Iambic
/— Trochee/Trochaic
——/ Anapest/Anapestic
/—— Dactyl/Dactylic
/ / Spondee/Spondaic
—— Pyrric

6. Meter
• Measured by the number of feet in a line
– Common line lengths are
• Monometer: one foot
• Dimeter: two feet
• Trimeter: three feet
• Tetrameter: four
• Pentameter: five
• Hexameter: six
• Heptameter: seven
• Octameter: eight

7. Elements of a Poem
• Word.
• Line: corresponds to a series of metrical feet
– Usually indented to indicate continuation.
• Verse: one single line arranged in metrical pattern.
May be free verse (irregular or no pattern), blank verse
(unrhymed iambic pentameter), fixed verse (pattern:
rhyming schemes – ABA BAB CBC – and forms like
sestina, villanelle, haiku)
– Traditional verse forms determine line length (and rhyme
pattern) by convention, modern poetry uses more latitude.
Line length determined by the poet’s choice (rhyming is
considered passé).

8. Elements of a Poem
• Stanza: division of a poem by arranging lines into a unit, often
repeating same pattern or meter throughout. A unit of poetic
lines similar to a paragraph. Stanzas are separated by blank
lines.
• Stanza forms: names describing the number of lines in a
stanza
• Couplet (2), tercet (3), quatrain (4), quintet (5), sestet (6),
septet (7), octave (8)
• Some stanzas follow set rhyme schemes in addition to the
number of lines
– Ballad meter, ottava rima, rhyme royal, terza rima,
Spenserian stanza

9. Point of View
• The vantage of the speaker or “teller.” Also called
the poem’s “voice.” Sometimes referred to as the
poem’s persona.
– 1st person: the speaker is a character and speaks from
his or her perspective (uses the “I”).
– 3rd person limited: the speaker is not a character in
the poem, and speaks about the other characters
through limited perception of one other person
– 3rd person omniscient: the speaker is not part of the
poem but knows and describes with all characters are
thinking.

10. Allusion
• An allusion is a literary device that stimulates
ideas, associations, and extra information in
the reader's mind with only a word or two.
Allusion means “reference”. It relies on the
reader’s ability to understand the allusion and
on his familiarity with all of the meanings
hidden behind the words.