Types of Literature - Poetry (focus on theme)

Poetry captures the essence of an idea or experience through carefully selected, distilled language. Poetry appeals to the sensory images of the ear, mind and emotion. Poetry is often rhythmic and rhymed. Sometimes the shape of a poem reinforces the idea. A love of poetry is fostered through repeated experiences of listening to, reading, writing and discussing poetry.

The carefully selected, distilled language of poetry can:

create sensory images
express emotions
promote love of language

Terms Associated with Poetry

Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds of words at close intervals

e.g.. Peter Piper picked . . .

Figurative language: comparing two objects or ideas to provide added meaning

e.g., poem comparing cars at a distance moving slowly to tiny, crawling beetles

Imagery: language that awakens our senses, helping us hear, smell, taste, see, or touch

Onomatopoeia: words created from natural sounds associated with their actions

e.g., hiss, bang, snap, crack

Rhyme: refers to words whose ending sounds are alike

Rhythm: recurrence of specific sounds or stressed and unstressed syllables;

rhythm of poetry is often metrical (ordered)

Types of Poetry

Ballad: narrative poem adapted for singing or written to provide the effect of singing when read; action in a ballad is usually heroic or tragic; developed in Europe during the Middle Ages when minstrels and bards (poets) sang legends

Narrative verse: relates a specific event or tells a story, typically with chronological, fast action

Lyric poetry: language provides a musical quality emphasizing sound and imagery; began in ancient Greece

Limerick: nonsense, five-line verse; first, second and fifth lines rhyme and have three distinct beats each; third and fourth lines rhyme and have two distinct beats each; fifth line often presents surprise or humor; Edward Lear popularized the limerick in the 19th century

Free verse: doesn’t rhyme and has a prose-like rhythm similar to regular speech

Haiku: ancient Japanese verse form with seventeen syllables; first and third lines contain five syllables, the second line contains seven syllables; haiku first presents a description referring to the natural world followed by a mood or feeling

Concrete poetry: shape of poem presents idea of language

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This page was last updated on December 08, 2010.