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A.      Definition of Poetry

Genres of literature are important to learn about. The two main categories separating the different genres of literature are fiction and nonfiction. But now we not study about the two main genres, we would like to study about another genre of literature that is Poetry.

Poetry is language written with rhythm, figurative language, imagery, sound devices and emotionally charged language. The art of poetry is rhythmical in composition, written or spoken. This genre of literature is for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts. Poetry is categorized by the number of lines in the poem, the words in the poem, whether it rhymes or not, and what it is about.

B.       Poetic Terms

1.    Poetic Forms

Poetry can be one of the most challenging types of literature to read and understand. Unlike prose, poetry places a great deal of emphasis on form as well as content, and its content tends to be more obscure and symbolic. Poetic form refers to a poem's physical structure; basically, what the poem looks like and how it sounds. The following elements combine to create form:

·       The poem's type - poems can be lyrics that focus on expressing emotions, narratives that tell a story, and/or descriptive poems that say something about the characteristics of the poet's world.

·       The poem's stanza structure - stanzas are simply groups of lines. Poets can choose from couplets (two lines together), tercets (three lines together), quatrains (four lines together), and so on.

·       The poem's line lengths - poetic lines can range from very short (one or two words) to very long.

·       The poem's rhyme scheme - poets may choose to rhyme various lines of their poems, or they may decide to leave out rhymes altogether, a style called blank verse.

·       The poem's rhythm - rhythm is simply the patterns of sound in a poem. If a poem has a regular sound pattern, we say that it has a meter. Rhythm and meter are formed when a poet chooses to use specific numbers of stressed and unstressed syllables in each line of a poem.

2.    Poetic Content

The content of a poem refers to its language. Several elements combine to create a poem's content, together these elements produce a poem's content. These include the following:

·       The poem's topic, subject matter, and theme - essentially, these elements express what the poem is about. A poem might have the topic of love, for instance, and express that topic by a subject matter that describes the relationship of a couple using the theme that love is both challenging and rewarding.

·       The poem's tone - tone is the poet's attitude toward his subject. It could be positive or negative, joyful, sarcastic, nostalgic, or any other emotion.

·       The poem's word choices - words are extremely important to poets, and they choose their words very carefully to express exactly what they want to say.

·       The poem's word order - poets don't always use standard word order. They deliberately mix things up to get their readers' attention and make their point.

·       The poem's figurative language - figurative language uses words and expressions in such a way that they go beyond their normal, literal meanings. It might include comparisons, like metaphors and similes, word play, manipulation of the sounds of words, deliberate exaggeration, symbolism, and much more.

·       The poem's imagery - imagery is a language that makes a special appeal to the senses. It is very vivid and is intended to create a mental picture in the reader's mind.

3.    Rhyme Scheme

a.    Definition Rhyme Scheme

Rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyme that comes at the end of each verse or line in poetry. In other words, it is the structure of end words of a verse or line that a poet needs to create when writing a poem. Many poems are written in free verse style. Some other poems follow non-rhyming structures, paying attention only to the number of syllables. The Japanese genre of Haiku is a case in point. Thus, it shows that the poets write poems in a specific type of rhyme scheme or rhyming pattern. There are several types of rhyme schemes as given below.

b.    Types of Rhyme Scheme

§   Alternate Rhyme it is also known as ABAB rhyme scheme, it rhymes as ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH.

§   Ballade it contains three stanzas with the rhyme scheme of ABABBCBC followed by BCBC.

§   Monorhyme it is a poem in which every line uses the same rhyme scheme.

§   Couplet it contains two-line stanzas with the AA rhyme scheme, which often appears as AA BB CC and DD.

§   Triplet it often repeats like a couplet uses rhyme scheme AAA.

§   Enclosed Rhyme it uses rhyme scheme of ABBA.

§   Terza Rime Rhyme Scheme it uses three line stanzas. Its interlocking pattern on end words follows ABA BCB CDC DED and so on.

§   Keats Odes Rhyme Scheme in his famous odes, Keats has used a specific rhyme scheme, which is ABABCDECDE.

§   Limerick is a poem that uses five lines with a rhyme scheme of AABBA.

§   Villanelle is a poem nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets and a final quatrain. It uses a rhyme scheme of A1bA2, abA1, abA2, abA1, abA2, abA1A2.

c.    Example of Rhyme Scheme in Literature

On literature, we not just use one rhyme scheme to make poetry. We can use one or more rhyme scheme as long as possible.

Example 1 : Neither Out Far Nor in Deep (By Robert Frost)

The people along the sand              (A)

All turn and look one way              (B)

They turn their back on the land    (A)

They look at the seal all day           (B)

As long as it takes to pass              (C)

A ship keeps raising its hull            (D)

The wetter ground like glass          (C)

Reflects a standing gull                  (D)

This is an ABAB pattern of rhyme scheme, in which each stanza applies this format. From instance, in the first stanza, “sand” rhymes with the word “Land”, and “way” rhymes with the word “day”.

Example 2 : Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (By Donald Barthelme)

Twinkle twinkle little star               (A)

How I wonder what you are          (A)

Up above the world so high           (B)

Like a diamond in the sky              (B)

The following example uses an AABB rhyme scheme. Here, the first line ends in the word “star”, which rhymes with the final word of second line is “are”. Since both words rhyme with each other, they are signified with letter “A”.

C.       Types of Poetry

There are more over 50 types of poetry. Poetry is categorized by the number of lines in the poem, the words in the poem, whether it rhymes or not, and what it is about. There are many different types of poems. The difference between each type is based on the format, rhyme scheme and subject matter. But this time, we will discuss some types of poetry that more popular that the others.

1.         Sonnet

One of the most famous types of poetry is sonnet, the best described as a lyric poem that consists of fourteen lines. Sonnet’s have at least one or two conventional rhyme schemes. Sonnet has been popular with authors from Dante to Shakespeare. The poems of William Shakespeare provide excellent types of poetry examples for sonnets.

Sonnet 116 (By Shakespeare)

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments.

Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not

Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

2.         Haiku

Haiku was originated from Japan, It’s the shortest type of poem and, often, the most difficult to understand. It consists of three lines that generally do not rhyme. The lines should have five, seven, and five syllables in them. They often express feelings and thoughts about nature; however, you could write a poem about any subject that you would like to in this form. Perhaps the most famous Haiku is Basho's Old Pond.

Old Pond (Basho)

Furuike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

Translated, this poem reads:
The old pond-
a frog jumps in,
sound of water.

3.         Free Verse

Free verse is the loosest type of poem. It can consist of as many lines as the writer wants. It can either rhyme or not, and it does not require any fixed metrical pattern. Free verse is commonly used among writers because it allows for maximum flexibility. The free verse form of poetry became popular in the 1800s, and continues to be popular among poets even to this day. TS Eliot was one of the masters of the form, as best seen in his poems The Waste Land and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Let us go then, you and I,  
When the evening is spread out against the sky  
Like a patient etherized upon a table;  
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,  
The muttering retreats          
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels  
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:  
Streets that follow like a tedious argument  
Of insidious intent  
To lead you to an overwhelming questionÉ.          
Oh, do not ask, ÒWhat is it?Ó  
Let us go and make our visit.

4.         Ballad

Ballad poems also tell a story, like epic poems do. However, ballad poetry is often based on a legend or a folk tale. Ballad poems may take the form of songs and may contain a moral or a lesson. Often, these ballads will tell stories and they tend to be of a mystical nature. Guido Cavalcanti's Ballad and Sir Walter Raleigh's As You Came from the Holy Land both demonstrate the musical quality of the ballad. An excerpt from Raleigh's poem can be seen here:

As you came from the holy land
Of Walsinghame,
Met you not with my true love
By the way as you came ?

How shall I know your true love,
That have met many one,
As I went to the holy land,
That have come, that have gone?

5.         Name Poems

Name poems are popular among children and are often used in schools. The name of the person becomes the poem. Each letter in the name is the first letter in the line of the poem. While a name verse poem can be as simple as using an adjective to describe a person that begins with each letter of that person's name, these poems can also be far more beautiful works of art. For example, here is a name poem for a person named Alexis.

“Alexis seems quite shy and somewhat frail,

Leaning, like a tree averse to light,

Evasively away from her delight.

X-rays, though, reveal a sylvan sprite,

Intense as a bright bird behind her veil,

Singing to the moon throughout the night.”

6.         Lyric Poetry

Imagine you're driving along in your car when your favorite song comes on the radio. If you're like most people, you will immediately start singing along without even realizing it. Did you know that when this happens, you're actually singing poetry? All songs can be considered poetry. In fact, they fall under the category of lyric poetry.

Lyric poetry expresses personal emotions or thoughts of the speaker, just like the songs of today. Also, just like songs, lyric poems always have a musical quality, or a specific melody which makes it easy for you to sing along with. The term 'lyric poetry' actually comes from the ancient Greek word lyre, which refers to the instrument in that era that accompanied the reading of the lyric poem. Almost like the first version of a live concert.