LANGUAGE OF POETRY

I. DEFINITION
Wikipedia:
Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language such as
phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of,
the prosaic ostensible meaning.
II. NATURE OF POETRY
Poetry cannot be neatly categorized. Poets can choose a range of structures and techniques;
they can manipulate language; and they, at times, seem almost to invent a special language in
which to express their ideas and their individual.
Poetry is a very disciplined genre because of the restrictions that poetic form places on poets.
Because thoughts are often compressed into a short space, it can be difficult for readers to
understand the message conveyed by a particular poem. Equally, because poets are creating
something unique, the language of poetry can deviate form generally observed rules.
The poetic license allows poets to experiment:
- Parts of words may be omitted
- Word order can be altered
- Archaisms and dialect can be used
- The word classes of words can be changed
- Lexical and syntactical patterns can be used to reinforce the meaning.
III. FUNCTIONS
- To entertain, arouse emotions and provokes thought
- To describe, evaluate or inform
- To come to conclusions about the poet’s intentions by considering the linguistic and stylistic
features of a poem.
- To give the reader clues to the meaning, and often there will be an underlying message or
theme which is revealed only close reading by the content, form, and style.
IV. FEATURES
Each poem is distinctive, so it is important to identify what the poet is trying to convey to the
reader and the linguistic and stylistic techniques used to do this. It is not possible to be
prescriptive about the kinds of features to comment on, but certain devices and forms are
worth looking out for.
- Manner:
The manner can be formal or informal, depending upon the relationship that the poet wants to
create with the reader.
The language of traditional poetry tends to be concentrated and heightened, but there are
many examples of poems that aim to mirror the language of speech, creating a very different
tone.
- Form and structure:
The form and structure tell the reader something about the poet’s intentions.
V. LANGUAGE OF STUDY
Poetic language refers to a more artistic form of ordinary language. While the goal of using
ordinary language is simply to communicate a message, the goal of using poetic language is
to convey a deeper meaning, feeling, or image to one's audience. It purposefully includes
imagery and figurative language to create this effect.
In poetry, the sound and meaning of words are combined to express feelings, thoughts, and
ideas.
- Poetry elements:
- Rhythm and meter

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 - Sound
- Imagery
- Form
- Theme
- Mood
Figurative language is a way of speaking or writing which is in a non-literal sense and is
designed to have more of an impact on the subject it is referring to. It is used to add a more
vivid or imaginative description of something, someone, or a situation.
There are different types of figurative language.
- Simile
A simile is a type of figurative language which is used to compare one thing against another.
Similes compare the likeness of two things and often feature the words ‘like’ or ‘as’. An
example of this would be ‘her smile was as bright as the sun in the sky.’
- “Yellow as Honey, red as wine”
Daffodils – W. W. Worth
- “Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail”
Kubla Khan – S. T. Coleridge
- “O my Luve is like a red, red rose”
“O my Luve is like the melody”
“A Red, Red Rose”
- Metaphor
A metaphor is a phrase describing something as something it is not in reality. It is used to
compare two things symbolically. A metaphor literally describes something as something it is
not.
“And miles to go before I sleep” is an extended metaphor for the journey of life where sleep
is for death.
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening – Robert Frost
‘A tattered coat upon a stick, unless”
Sailing To Byzantium – W. B. Yeats
“ The night is a big black cat
The moon is her topaz eye,” – G. Orr Clark
- Metonymy
Metonymy is a figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something
else with which it is closely associated.
“As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling.”
‘Out, Out’by Robert Frost
- Personification
Personification is a type of figurative language. It is used to give an inanimate object or item
a sense of being alive. The speaker would talk to the object as if it could understand and be
intelligent.
“He gives his harness bells a shake’.
To ask if there is some mistake”
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening – Robert Frost
“Mister Sun Wakes up at dawn,
Puts his golden slippers on,
Climbs the summer Sky at noon,
Trading places With the moon.”- “Mister Sun” by J. Patrick Lewis
- Symbolism

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 Symbolism is another form of figurative language which is used to express an abstract
idea using an item or words.
- Robert has used “rose” as a symbol of love. - “A Red, Red Rose”(He gave her a red
rose to show how much he loved her.)
- Symbolism in 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'
Woods - we can treat woods as a symbol of mystery, danger but as the lyrical eye says
it's also 'lovely'.

- Alliteration
Alliteration is a type of figurative speech in which the repetition of letters or sounds used
within one sentence
“The horses hooves hobbled along the hillside.”
Rudolph - The red-nosed reindeer ran round the road.
“O my Luve is like a red, red rose”.
-“A Red, Red Rose”
- Imagery
Imagery means to use figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a
way that it appeals to our physical senses
‘In one another’s arms, birds in the trees’,
‘O sages standing in God’s holy fire’ and
‘Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing’,
Tartary- Walter De La Mare
Robert has used visual imagery in the poem such as, “O my Luve is like a red, red rose”,”
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun” and “While the sands o’ life shall run”.
- Hyperbole
Hyperbole, derived from a Greek word meaning “over-casting,” is a figure of speech that
involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis.
“The evening lamp would shine, yellow as honey red as wine.”
Daffodils – W. W. Worth
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood /Clean from my hand?” - In Act 2, Scene 2
of William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.
“Till a’ the seas gang dry.”
“And the rocks melt wi’ the sun.”- “A Red, Red Rose”

- Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of a vowel sound or diphthong in non-rhyming words. To qualify
as assonance, the words must be close enough for the repetition of the sound to be noticeable.
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such as the sound of /i/ in “I will
love thee still, my dear”.
- “A Red, Red Rose”
“ Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep”
– William Shakespeare
“ Slow the low gradual moan came in the snowing”
– John Masefield
VI. KINDS

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  BALLADS: It is a narrative poem that has a musical rhythm and can be sung.
A ballad is usually organized into quatrains or cinquains, has a simple rhythm structure, and
tells the tales of ordinary people.
 SONNET: It is a lyric poem consisting of 14 lines and in the English version,
is usually written in iambic pentameter. There are two basic kinds of sonnets: the Italian (or
Petrarchan) sonnet and the Shakespearean ( or Elizabethan/English) sonnet. The
Italian/Petrarchan sonnet is named after Petrarch, an Italian Renaissance poet. The
Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). The
Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (four lines each) and a concluding couplet
(two lines). The Petranchan sonnet tends to divide the thought into two parts (argument and
conclusion); the Shakespearean, into four ( the final couplet is the summary).
 ODES: It is usually a lyric poem of moderate length, with a serious subject, an
elevated style, and an elaborate stanza pattern.
 BLANK VERSE: It often use for long narrative poems or lyrics poems in
which poet is thinking in a discursive way.
 FREE VERSE: It is often chosen by modern poets to confront disorganized
world because it acknowledges the untidiness of life and the mind.
Free verse is lyric poetry that doesn’t follow a particular rhyme pattern or meter but
varies in its rhythm according to the mood the poet wants to create.
Free verse poetry has:
-No set rhythm that is very obvious.
-No set rhyme scheme.
-Lines of irregular length.
Other types of poems include:
Haiku: It has an unrhymed verse form having three lines (a tercet) and usually 5,7,5
syllables, respectively. It’s usually considered a lyric poem.
Limerick: It has a very structured poem, usually humorous and composed of five lines
(a cinquain), in an aabba rhyming pattern; beat must be anapestic (weak, weak, strong) with
3 feet in lines 1, 2, & 5 and 2 feet in lines 3 & 4. It’s usually a narrative poem based upon a
short and often ribald anecdote.
VII. TYPES OF POETIC INTENTION
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: usually focuses on the external features of a
character, but inevitably it also tells the reader something about the inner person too .
 RHETRORICAL DEVICE: used to enhance the things that the poet sees in
his face:
+ listing forces the reader to follow the sequences of observations.
+ repetition of the S and C clause elements gives a balanced and logical atmosphere to
the self-examination.
VIII. WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN THE LANGUAGE OF POETRY
A. REGISTER
 Mode: written

 Manner:
 The manner can be formal or informal, depending upon the relationship that the poet
wants to create with the reader.
 The language of traditional poetry tends to be concentrated and heightened, but there
are many examples of poems that aim to mirror the language of speech, creating a
very different tone.

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  The laguage of a poem may provide concrete detail of a particular place, but beyond
this the setting will often be symbolic, telling the reader something about the poet's
mood, about a character's state of mind, or about the place itself.
 Field:
 Subject matter
 Linked to audience, purpose and context
Ex: in the poem William Shakespeare’s sonnet 18
o Subject matter: the love between the man and the natural world
o Linked to the audience: the young man

B. POETIC FORM AND STRUCTURE

 Form and structure
The form and structure tell the reader something about the poet's intentions. STANZA
LENGTH and LINE LENGTH, for instance, are chosen to best convey a poem's message.
By choosing a particular format, poets can reinforce their messages through the structure. It
is, therefore, useful to be able to identify some of the main poetic structures.
● Ballads
The structure is usually straightforward: the story is told in rhyming QUATRAINS (four-
lined stanzas); the language is simple; the poets draw on stock phrases; and ballads are often
written in dialect. Repetition is used to make the poems memorable - this is typical of poems
written in the oral tradition.
● Sonnets
SONNETS are fourteen-line poems which have a very structured thyme scheme and
rhythm (usually iambic pentameter). Because the form is so disciplined, poets are forced to
craft their ideas. Often the subject matter deals with love, with the problems of life or with
questions of disorder - poets then use the patterned structure to create an ordered response to
complex issues. There are two main kinds of sonnet: the Petrarchan (Italian) and the
Shakespearean (English)
The PETRARCHAN SONNET divides the fourteen lines into an octave ( eight lines)
and a sestet (six lines), using the rhyme scheme abbaabba cdecde or abbaabba cdcdcd.
The SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET divides the lines into three quatrains and a
couplet, using the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg.
Blank verse
Blank verse is a very disciplined form in which each line has ten syllables with five stresses
(an iambic pattern). Its rhythms are closer to speech than other poetic forms, but it is
recognisably more stylised than speech or prose. Although it appears to be less formally
contrived than a poem that rhymes, the regularity of the verse implies a search for order. The
sentence structure is often complex and the imagery is fully developed.
Ex: We love the things we love for what they are.
Robert Frost (1874–1963), extract from ‘Hyla Brook’
Free verse
Free verse is often chosen by modern poets to confront a disorganised world because it
acknowledges the untidiness of life and the mind. It is written in irregular lines and has no
regular metre (the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables). Rhyme is used infrequently,
but repetition of words or phrases is often significant in providing an internal pattern.
Metre
Poetic METRE is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. It is one
way in which a poet can order language to make it more meaningful. By analysing the metre,

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a reader can appreciate how the poet is using stress patterns to convey meaning. Variations in
the pattern may mark changes in the mood or the poet's attitude.
● There are five basic patterns of stress.
IAMBIC: one unstressed syllable is followed by one stressed syllable
TROCHAIC: one stressed syllable is followed by one unstressed syllable
DACTYLIC: one stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables
ANAPAESTIC: two unstressed syllables are followed by one stressed syllable
SPONDEE: two stressed syllables (heartbreak, wine glass).
Having identified the stress pattern, each line of poetry can then be divided into metrical
FEET (groups of syllables forming metrical units). Each foot consists of a stressed syllable
and any unstressed syllables that accompany it. The foot will, therefore, be iambic, trochaic,
and so on.
Pause
Types of Caesura
Caesural breaks, or caesura, are of two types in poetry:
● Feminine Caesura
A feminine caesural pause occurs after a non-stressed and short syllable in a poetic line. This
is softer and less abrupt than the masculine version. For
instance:
"I hear lake water lapping || with low sounds by the shore..."
(The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats)
It has two subdivisions:
- Epic Caesura
- Lyric Caesura Masculine Caesura
Masculine pause occurs after a long or accented syllable in a line. It creates a
staccato effect in the poem, such as:
“of reeds and stalk-crickets, II fiddling the dark air,
lacing his boots with vines, II steering glazed beetles”
(The Bounty by Derek Walcott)
Rhythm
The repetition of similar sounds. In poetry, the most common kind of shume is the end of
rhyme, which occurs at the end of two or more lines. It is usually identified with lower case
letters, and a new letter is used to identify each new end sound. Take a look at the rhyme
scheme for the following poem:
I saw a fairy in the wood,
He was dressed all in green.
He drew his sword while I just stood,
And realized I'd been seen.
The rhyme scheme of the poem is abab.
Internal rhyme occurs in the middle of a line, as in these lines from Coleridge, "In mist or
cloud, on mast or shroud" or "Whiles all the night through fog-smoke white" ("The Ancient
Mariner"). Remember that most modern poems do not have rhyme.
Layout
Variations in layout are significant in terms of the poets intentions.
Types of poetic intention:
To characterise
To experiment with language and structure
To evoke atmosphere
To set the scene

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 Stanzas
A stanza is a set of lines in a poem grouped together and set apart from other stanzas in the
poem either by a double space or by different indentation. Poems may contain any number of
stanzas, depending on the author’s wishes and the structure in which the poet is writing.
Types of Stanzas
While there are many dozens of obscure forms, here are a few common stanza examples:
● Closed Couplet: A stanza of 2 lines, usually rhyming
● Tercet: A stanza of 3 lines. When a poem has tercets that have a rhyme scheme of
ABA, then BCB, then CDC and so forth, this is known as terza rima. One famous
example is Dante’s Divine Comedy.
● Quatrain: A stanza of 4 lines, usually with rhyme schemes of AAAA, AABB,
ABBA, or ABAB
● Cinquain: A stanza of 5 lines
● Sestain or Sestet: A stanza of 6 lines (when discussing Italian sonnets the
appropriate term is sestet; the Italian sonnet form starts with an octave and is
concluded by a sestet)
● Octave: A stanza of 8 lines in iambic pentameter or hendecasyllables, usually with
the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA
Groups of stanzas in fixed verse forms:
● Sonnet: A poem with 14 lines; English sonnets have 3 quatrains with the rhyme
scheme ABAB and a closed couplet at the end, while Italian sonnets (also known
as Petrarchan sonnets) are made up of an octave and a sestet.
● Sestina: A poem with 6 stanzas of 6 lines each, ending with a final 7th stanza of 3
lines. While there is no rhyme scheme, the unity in a sestina comes from the fact
that the final words at the end of the first 6 lines of the poem continue to end the
lines in the rest of the poem in a fixed pattern.
● Villanelle: A poem with 19 lines, consisting of 5 tercets and a final quatrain. Lines
are repeated throughout the poem in a fixed pattern.

C. LEXIS
 Word
-It depends upon the context and the content.

 Subject
-It determines the relationship created between reader and poet.

 Standard
-Formal or informal
-Familiar or polite
-Personal or impersonal

 Kinds of nouns
-Abstract nouns
-Concrete nouns

 Standard
-Depending on the subject matter

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  Participants
-The poet
-The reader

 Modifiers
-It can be used to describe places or people in detail.
-To arouse the reader’s emotions or to evaluate and judge.
-The kind of actions or processes the verbs describe and the form they take can also
tell the reader something about the message the poet wishes to convey.

 Collocation
-It can be disrupted as poets experiment.
-It throws new light on familiar things and forcing readers to reconsider things
previously taken for granted.

D. GRAMMAR

 Mood

- Changing in mood or tense shows that the poet is highlighting some-thing significant.

 Structure

- Grammar is formal

- It is sometimes complicated, conforms to the restrictions of traditional poetic forms.

Sentence structure is often complex and the omission of clause elements can make the poem
difficult to understand.

- Be straightforward, but some sentences are minor because they are made up of noun phrases
standing alone.

 Ellipsis

Making the imagery and message stand out more clearly.

E. STYLE

 Sentence organization

- Rearrange clause elements to draw attention to important information.

 Images:

- Literal and figurative

- Visual, aural and tactile

 Literary devices

- Figurative language

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- Images

- Metaphors and simile: making the abstract concrete by referring to one thing either directly
or indirectly

- Symbols: widen the range of their references

 Rhetorical devices:

- Antithesis: establish a theme, change the tone, or move a poem in a new direction.

- Listing: be expansive or reductive, present an inspiring range of possibilities, or a

claustrophobic sense of entrapment.

- Repetition and patterning: the tightly structured nature of the poetic form

 Sound patterning: be fundamental to poetry. Different tones through the

kinds of sound :

- Solf sounds creates a sensuous, poignant, or reflective mood.

- Harsh sounds create a bitter, angry, or authoritative tone.

- There is no end rhyme, internal rhyme is used.

- Assonance and rhyme are key poetic devices that can be used to underpin the meaning.

- Aural quality of words

REFERENCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_poets

http://literarydevice.net/end-stopped-line/

http://literarydevice.net/caesura/

http://learn.lexiconic.net/2.2poetryforms.html