ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

CLOSE READING
When you are asked to analyze and give critical interpretation of a literary text, what you
must do is a close reading.
Close reading is deep analysis of how a literary text works; it is both a reading process and
something you include in a literary analysis paper, though in a refined form.
Fiction writers and poets build texts out of many central components, including subject
(what is the text all about) form (how the text is put together), and specific word choices (are
there words that stand out?). Literary analysis involves examining these components, which
allows us to find in small parts of the text clues to help us understand the whole.
For example, if an author writes a novel in the form of a personal journal about a
character’s daily life, what do you learn about that character? What is the effect of the word/ words
that the author used to you?
As a reader, it’s like you are to put each authors’ word choice under a microscope to
deeply examine and thus, understand what he is trying to let you know.
Aside from the central components, which are the subject, form, and word choices (as
mentioned above), other ways to analyze a literary text include knowing it’s geographic,
linguistic, and ethnic forms.

Text – is any object that can be read.

Context – it is the background information or circumstances you provide to inform why something
is taking place.

THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY

1. Structure and Form

Poetry comes in a variety of forms and in each form follows a specific structure. For example,
the sonnet form containing a set structure is different from odes. A free verse poem does not have
the metrical regularity, which can be found in a blank verse poem.
The structural elements found in poetry are:
 Stanza: is a group of lines set off from others by a blank line or indentation.
 Verse: are stanzas with no set number of lines that make up units based on sense.
 Canto: is a stanza pattern found in medieval and modern long poetry.
Some of the important poetry forms include:
 Sonnet: is a fourteen-line poem with a set rhyme scheme, often divided into quatrains,
octaves, and sestets.
 Ode: is a formal lyric poem written in celebration or dedication of something with specific
intent.
 Lyric: is a personal piece of poetry that tends to be shorter, melodic, and contemplative.
 Elegy: is a mournful poem, especially a lament for the dead.
 Villanelle: is a nineteen-line poem comprising five triplets with a closing quatrain.
 Limerick: is a humorous piece of poetry that consists of five lines with the same rhythm.
 Haiku: is a form of unrhymed Japanese poetry containing three sections with a total of 17
syllables arranged in a 5-7-5 pattern.

2. Meter
Meter is the definitive pattern found in verse. Some of the important metrical feet in English
poetry include:
 Iamb: consists of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in des-pair,
ex-clude, re-peat, etc.

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  Trochee: is a metrical foot containing one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed
syllable, as in sis-ter, flow-er, splin-ter, etc.
 Dactyl: comprised one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, as in si-mi-
lar.
 Anapest: consists of three syllables, where the first two are unstressed and the last one is
stressed, as in com-pre-hend.
 Spondee: contains two stressed syllables, like “drum beat”.
 Pyrrhic: is the opposite of spondee and contains two unstressed syllables.
Poets utilize these metrical feet to create a pattern, which is called a metrical pattern or
metrical scheme. Some of the important metrical patterns include:
 Iambic pentameter: occurs when the lines of a poem contain five iambs
each. Shakespeare’s sonnets are written in this meter.
 Iambic tetrameter: is another important metrical pattern. It occurs when the lines have four
iambs each, as in Robert Frost‘s poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’.
 Trochaic tetrameter: is the recurring pattern of four trochees per line. In ‘The Song of
Hiawatha,’ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow uses this meter.
 Trochaic octameter: occurs when verse lines contain eight trochees each. Edgar Allan
Poe’s best-known poem ‘The Raven’ is written in this meter.

3. Rhyme and Rhyme Scheme

Rhyme is the repetitive pattern of sounds found in poetry. They are used to reinforce a pattern
or rhyme scheme. In specific poetry forms such as ballads, sonnets, and couplets, the rhyme
scheme is an important element. The common types of rhymes used in poetry are:
 End Rhyme: is a common type of rhyme in poetry that occurs when the last word of two or
more lines rhyme.
 Imperfect Rhyme: is a type of rhyme that occurs in words that do not have an identical
sound.
 Internal Rhyme: occurs in the middle of lines in poetry.
 Masculine Rhyme: is the rhyming between stressed syllables at the end of verse lines.
 Feminine Rhyme: is the rhyming between unstressed syllables at the end of verse lines.

Rhyne Scheme – the ordered pattern of rhymes at he ends of the lines of a poem or verse. It
is a poet’s deliberate pattern of lines that rhymes with other lines in a poem or stanza. The
rhyme scheme or pattern can be identified by giving end words that rhyme with each other the
same letter.
Types of Rhyme Schemes
a. ABAB or Alternate rhyme – rhymes ievery other line.
b. ABBA or Enclosed rhyme – puts one rhyming pair in the middle of another rhyming pair.
c. AABB or Coupled rhyme – rhymes each pair of lines.

Free Verse – a kind of poetry that does not follow a set pattern for meter or rhyme scheme.

4. Sound and Rhythm

Sound and rhythm are other important elements of poetry. The sound of a poetic text means
how a line or what sounds some specific words evoke in readers’ minds. Rhythm is a set pattern
that is formed by these sounds. In poetry, rhythm refers to the metrical rhythm that involves the
arrangement of syllables into repeating patterns called feet. For example, the following lines from
William Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 116’ contain an iambic rhythm with a few variations:
Let me/ not to/ the mar/-riage of/ true minds
Ad-mit/ im-pe/-di-ments./ Love is/ not love
Which al/-ters when/ it al/-te-ra/-tion finds,
Or bends/ with the/ re-mo/-ver to/ re-move:

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5. Subject
The subject or content of poetry differs across a variety of forms. A subject is what the poem is
about. For instance, the subjects of sonnets include love and admiration for one’s beloved,
heartache and separation. Whereas divine sonnets include the subjects of devotions to God,
enlightenment, and salvation. Elegies are written in memory of someone who is no more.
Therefore, the subject of these poems is a dead person.

6. Speaker
Speaker is one who narrates the poem. In poetry, we tend to think that the poet is the speaker
himself. However, it is not always the case. Sometimes, poets assume an imaginative character
and write the poem from their perspective. Generally, the poem is told from the perspective of a
first-person speaker or a third-person speaker. Poets also use the second-person point of view in
order to communicate directly with readers. Understanding the speaker helps us to know the
poem’s tone and mood.

7. Figurative Language and Poetic Devices

Poetry uses figurative language and different poetic devices to suggest different interpretations
of words or to evoke other ideas that are not literally connected with the words. The sound devices
such as alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia are used to create musical
effects. Elements of poetic diction such as irony, symbolism, and juxtaposition leave a poem open
to several interpretations. In the same way, poetic devices such as metaphor and simile are used
to build a relationship between different images previously not perceived.
Some important poetic devices in poetry include:
 Simile: is a comparison between two unlike things using the words “like” or “as”.
 Metaphor: is an implicit comparison between different images or ideas without the use of
“like” or “as”.
 Repetition: is a poetic technique that refers to the reuse of words, phrases, and images
several times in a poem.
 Enjambment: occurs when a line is cut off before its natural point.
 Irony: occurs when an outcome is different than what is expected.
 Personification: is a poetic device that refers to the projection of human characteristics into
inanimate objects.
 Onomatopoeia: occurs when a word imitates a natural sound.
 Hyperbole: occurs when one statement is elevated for a certain poetic effect.

8. Theme
The theme is a recurring idea or a pervading thought in a work of literature. Poetry themes
include some common ideas such as love, nature, beauty, and as complex as death, spirituality,
and immortality. An understanding of the theme helps readers to identify the core message of the
poem or the poet’s purpose for writing the poem. For example, the following lines of Robert
Burns’ ‘A Red, Red Rose’ exemplify the theme as well as the underlying message of the entire
poem:
O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
This piece is written in admiration of the speaker’s beloved. Therefore, the main themes of the
poem are beauty, love, and admiration.
Explore some of the important themes in poetry.

9. Tone and Mood

Diction is another significant aspect of poetry. It refers to the language, sound, and form used
in a particular piece of poetry. The tone or attitude of a poem’s speaker and the mood of the entire

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text is part of poetic diction. To understand the speaker’s attitude or tone to the subject, readers
have to look for the poet’s choice of words, figurative language, and sound devices. The mood is
related to the impression of the text upon readers. Explore these lines from Keats’ ‘Ode to a
Nightingale’:
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
‘Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated case.
In these lines, the speaker describes the nightingale’s song in an elevated language. He is awe-
struck after listening to its intoxicating song. Thus, the tone is emotive, pleasant, and elated. The
mood of the poem is happy and positive.

10. Syntax
The syntax is the ordering of words into meaningful patterns. Poetry has a distinct syntax
compared to prose, fiction, and other forms of literature. Poets manipulate the conventional syntax
to emphasize specific words. The purpose of adopting a specific syntax and diction is to achieve
certain artistic effects such as tone, mood, etc. For instance, in Dickinson’s ‘A Narrow Fellow in
the Grass,’ the speaker describes her surprise and amusement upon the discovery of a snake. To
convey her feelings, Dickinson uses a specific syntax:
A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him-did you not
His notice sudden is,

6 ELEMENTS OF FICTION

1. Characters - are the people through whom the readers experience the tale.
2. Plot - this answers the question “what happened?” It is the main events of a play, novel,
movie, or story devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence. It includes
the order in which your characters face things. It’s the organized structure, the outline. The
elements are:
a. Exposition – it is the introduction to the story. The characters and setting are introduced.
b. Conflict – it is the primary problem that drives the plot of the story. Often a main goal for
the main character to achieve or overcome.
c. Rising Action – it is the point where the main problem or conflict is revealed. The
protagonist will struggle to face the conflict which could be:
- Internal (protagonist vs self)
- External (protagonist vs antagonist, protagonist vs society/nature)
d. Climax – it is the turning point of the story, often centered around the protagonist’s most
difficult challenges or their bleakest moment. It is the most exciting part of the story.
e. Falling Action - it is the point that occurs immediately after the climax and reveals the
details of the consequences, good or bad, that the main character must deals with after
the turning point of events.
f. Resolution – it is where the fate of the protagonist and antagonist are revealed. It is the
part where the protagonist resolves the conflict, the end of the story unless there is a
sequel.

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3. Setting – this includes the physical location (real or invented) and the social environment of the
story (including chronology, culture, institutions, etc.). The setting develops who your
characters are.
4. Point-of-View – it is the position from which a a story is told (narrator). It is the way of the writer
to decide who is going to tell the story to whom. It is important because it dictates how your
readers interpret characters, events, and other important details. There are 3 kinds:
a. Firs-person point of view – the reader accesses the story through one person. It’s like
reading the main character’s diary (I, me/my, we/us or our).
b. Second-person point of view – it uses the pronoun, you. It establishes the reader as
the protagonist or main character. It is the most challenging and least used point of
view.
c. Third-person point of view – the narrator has the ability to know everything (he/nis,
she/her, they/them/their, and it/its). It allows for greatest flexibility and also creates the
most complexity.
5. Theme – it is a hidden element but is important, it is what your story is all about. It’s the
universal message that the story communicates.
6. Style – this includes diction (word choice), sentence structure and syntax, nature of figurative
language, rhythm and component sound, rhetorical patterns (narration, description,
comparison-contrast, etc.).
Rhetorical Patterns – are the way of organizing information. Rhetoric refers to the way people use
language to process information.

1. Chronological - wherein story is arranged according to the time sequence

Ex. Personal Diary, travel diary
2. Comparison and contrast- usually essays, wherein one talks about subjects that
are both similar and contrasting
Ex. Essays , Research works
3. Cause and effect - in a story, it is an action done by the characters that made a lot
of impact thus gave a different twist to what had been expected.
Ex. Because of Covid Pandemic, classes shifted to online. This is now the new
normal.
4. Inductive (specific to general) – supplying facts or evidence to form general
opinion
Ex. According to medical research, children and older people are sick-prone
because the function of immunity is lower. That’s why, they are not allowed to go out
during this pandemic.
5. Deductive (general to specific)- in writing, a type of reasoning that starts with general
statement and ends specific conclusion
Ex. All men are mortal.
Thor is mortal.
Therefore, Thor is human.
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