2. Poetry Prose
Poetry may or may not
use rhyme, as ordinarily
it does not in blank and
free verse.
Prose does not make
use of rhyme at all.
Both prose and poetry can stir the
emotion as well as the intellect.
Both can convey information as well as
pleasure.
3. Poetry Prose
It expresses a strong
emotion or a lofty
thought compressed
and intense utterance.
The main purpose of
poetry is to provide
pleasure and delight.
It appeals to the
emotion and
imagination.
It is generally
concerned with the
presentation of an idea,
concept or point of view
in a more ordinary and
leisurely manner.
The purpose of prose is
to furnish information,
instruction, or
enlightenment.
It appeals to the
intellect.
4. I. POETRY
Poetry may be described as rhythmic
imaginative language expressing
invention, thought, imagination,
taste, passion, and insight of the
human soul.
Its purpose is “enthrallment.”
5. William Wordsworth describes it as
“the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings.”
6. Characteristics of Poetry
A. Rhythm
1. Meter ( Organized Rhythm )
2. Rhyme and other “Sound Devices”
B. Imagery
1. Figures of Speech
2. Symbols
C. Sense or Meaning
7. A.RHYTHM
Rhythm is the regular recurrence of
stressed and unstressed, long and
short, or high-pitched and low-
pitched syllables creating a pattern in
the lines of a poem.
This gives the poem its melodious
quality and makes it grand, solemn
and majestic; sonorous and full; slow
and mournful; rapid and light, etc.
8. 1. Meter ( Organized Rhythm )
Meter is the measured pattern or
grouping of syllables, called metric
foot, according to accent and length.
A group of metric feet forms a poetic
line or verse.
A group of poetic lines or verses is
called stanza.
9. According to the placement of
accent, there is a variety of
patterns or feet of which the four
basics are.
The Iamb ( Iambic foot )
The Anapest ( Anapestic foot )
The Trochus ( Trochaic foot )
The Dactyl ( Dactylic foot )
10. a. IAMB
The Iambic foot consists of an
unaccented syllable followed by an
accented syllable ( X / )
Ex.
x / x / x / x / x /
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
-Gray,
“Elegy in a Country Churchyard”
11. b. Anapest
The Anapestic foot consists of two
unaccented syllables followed by an
accented syllable. ( X X / )
Ex.
x x / x x /
Did you fall in the race?
x x / x x /
Did you faint in the spurt
-Robins, “The Best”
12. c. Trochus
The Trochaic foot consists of an accented
syllable followed by an unaccented syllable.
( / x )
Ex.
/ x / x / x
Up the airy mountain
/ x / x /
Down the rushy glen
-Allingham, “The Fairies”
13. d. Dactyl
The Dactylic foot consists of an
accented syllable followed by two
unaccented syllables. ( / x x )
Ex.
/ x x / x x / x x / x x / x x / x
This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks.
-Longfellow, “Evangeline”
14. According to the number of feet in a
poetic line, the principal verse
lengths are: monometer, dimeter,
trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter,
hexameter, heptameter, octameter,
and nonameter.
Scansion is the system by which a
poem is described according to its
metrical structure by identifying its
accents and verse lengths.
15. Free verse is the natural flow of
cadenced rhythms as created by the
poet
Blank verse is unrhymed verse
16. 2. Rhyme and other “sound
devices”
Rhyme is the regular recurrence of
similar sounds usually at the end of
lines or also within one line.
The pattern or sequence in which the
rhyme words occur in a stanza or
poem is called the rhyme scheme.
To find the rhyme scheme, the same
letter of the alphabet is usually
assigned to each similar sound in a
stanza.
17. B. Imagery
Imagery refers to expressions
evocative of objects of sensuous
appeal. It may be in the form of
direct description or may be
figurative, which latter involves the
use of figures of speech and
symbols.
18. C. Sense or Meaning
A poem must say something.
It must enlighten, reveal a truth,
open new vistas, give new
perceptions, enable to understand
the world around us more deeply,
and see things beyond the physical
senses.
19. How do we try to understand a
poem?
When reading a poem, it would help
much to look up the meaning of
unfamiliar words; to keep in mind
that a poem is never purely literal;
and to remember that the poet
means and feels more than what he
actually says.
20. Imagine yourself in the situation of
the poet and try to see and feel as
he does, give free rein to your
imagination and feelings, and use all
of your life experience to enlighten
you so that the poem can acquire
meaning for you.
22. Lyric Poetry
It is the “utterance of the human
heart in poetic form.” It is described
as “brief and subjective, marked by
imagination, melody and emotion,
and creating a single unified
expression
23. Popular types of lyric poetry:
1. Simple lyric
2. Song
3. Sonnet
4. Elegy
5. Ode
24. Simple lyric includes those lyrical
poems that do not properly belong
under any of the other types of
lyrics.
Song is a short lyric poem which has
a particularly melodious quality and
is intended primarily to be sung, or
can easily be set to music.
25. Sonnet is a lyric of fourteen lines with a
formal rhyme scheme or pattern.
Types:
Italian or Petrarchan, named after
Italian poet Francesco Petrarch, consists
of an octave which develops the theme,
followed by a sextet which recapitulates
the idea. The octave has a rhyme scheme
of abba abba and the sextet, cde cde or
cdcdcd, or some other combination.
26. Sonnet 5
(Francesco Petrarch)
I find no peace, and all my war is done;
I fear and hope, I burn and freeze likewise;
I fly above the wind, yet cannot rise;
And nought I have, yet all the world I seize on;
That looseth, nor locketh, holdeth me in prison,
And holds me not, yet can I’scape no wise;
Nor lets me live, nor die, at my devise.
And yet of death it giveth none occasion.
Without eyes I see, and without tongue I plain:
I wish to perish, yet I ask for health;
I love another, and yet I hate myself;
I feed in sorrow, and laugh in all my pain;
Lo, thus displeaseth me both death and life,
And my delight is causer of my grief.
27. English, Elizabethan or
Shakespearean Sonnet, named after
William Shakespeare and Queen
Elizabeth I, is divided into three
quatrains plus a couplet with a
rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg.
The idea is developed in the three
quatrains, and is summarized and
reinforced in the closing couplet.
28. Sonnet XXIX
(William Shakespeare)
When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state.
And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself, and curse my fate.
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur’d like him, like him with friends possest,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising
Haply I think on thee, and then my state
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
29. Spenserian Sonnet, named after
the English poet Edmund Spenser, is
divided into three quatrains and a
closing couplet with a rhyme scheme
of abab bcbc cdcd ee.
30. Elegy is a lamentation or an
expression of mourning for the dead.
By its very nature, the poem’s mood
is solemn and sorrowful, yet it
usually contains suggestions of hope
and faith to allay the sorrow.
Ode is the most majestic type of
lyric poetry. It is exalted in tone and
expresses lofty praise for some
person, event, object or idea. It is
elaborately designed and is formal in
structure and content.
31. Narrative Poetry
It tells a story following a chronology
of events.
Types:
1. Ballad is a short simple narrative
poem composed to be sung, and
altered as it was orally transmitted
from generation to generation until it
was written down much later.
32. 2. Metrical Tale relates real or
imaginary events in simple straight
forward language. It can choose
from a wide range of subjects,
characters, life experiences,
emotional situations, and may
project a mood that is serious or
light. It is usually concerned with
ordinary events.
33. 3. Metrical Romance is a long rambling
love story in verse revolving around the
adventures of knights and lords and their
highborn ladies during the age of chivalry.
Heavily flavored with romance, fantastic
events, supernatural occurrences, magic
and the ideals of the medieval period such
as honor, truth, courage, justice, and
reverence for woman, the story is often
rich in allegory and permits a great play of
fancy and the conflict between the forces
of good and of evil.
34. 4. Epic is a long majestic
narrative poem which tells of the
exploits of a traditional hero and the
development of a nation.
Characteristics of an epic:
-the story is broad in scope and
theme; its subject matter is often a
mixture of legend, history, myth,
religion, and tradition
35. -the action is grand and on a huge
scale, the supernatural element is
highly pronounced and the
characters are larger-than-life (gods,
demi-gods and highborn mortals)
-the source of conflict involves
elemental passions; the events
center on a prodigious struggle or
effort to achieve a great purpose or
carry out a great task against
powerful forces
36. -the plot consists of numerous
episodes and sub-plots peopled by
numerous characters
-the plot often begins in media res
and the story is completed by a
series of flashbacks
-the style is solemn and majestic in
keeping with the grandeur of the
subject matter
37. Dramatic Poetry
It has elements that closely relate it
to drama, either because it is written
in some kind of dramatic form, or
uses a dramatic technique. It may
also suggest a story, but there is
more emphasis on character rather
than on the narrative.
38. Forms of dramatic poetry:
-Dramatic Monologue presents the
speech of a single character who
addresses one or more persons who
are present and who are listening to
the speaker, but remain silent.
-Soliloquy is a passage spoken by a
speaker in a poem or by a character
in a play, except that there is no one
present to hear him.
39. -Character Sketch is a poem in
which “ the writer is concerned less
with matters of story, complete or
implied, than he is with arousing
sympathy, antagonism, or merely
interest for an individual.”
