Elements and Types of Poetry

• Poetry is a type of literature that uses the sounds, rhythms, and meanings of words to describe the world in striking imaginative ways.
• Elements of Poetry:

  1. Lines
  2. Stanzas
  3. Rhythm
  4. Meter
  5. Rhyme
  6. Rhyme Scheme
  7. Imagery
• Poetry is divided into lines — groups of words
• Lines are organised in units of meaning called stanzas
• The lines in a stanza work together to express one key idea
• A blank line, called stanza break, signals that one stanza has ended and a new stanza is beginning
• Rhythm - a beat, created by stressed and unstressed syllables in words
• Meter - a pattern of rhythm
• Stressed syllable (‘)

  Unstressed syllables (u)
• Rhyme - repetition of vowel and consonant sounds at the ends of words
• Rhyme scheme - when rhymes follow a particular pattern
• Imagery - descriptions that appeal to the five senses… helps poets convey that they see, hear, smell, taste, or touch
• Forms of Poetry:

  1. Narrative
  2. Haiku
• Narrative - tells a story in verse
• Haiku - 3-line Japanese form that describes something in nature. The first and third lines each have 5 syllables and the second line has seven.
• Haiku

  (about nature)

  1st line - 5 syllables

  2nd line - 7 syllables

  3rd line - 5 syllables