“The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in

tranquility…”

~William Wordsworth~

“Poetry is the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective

mode of saying things. It is the most perfect speech in man which he
comes nearest to be able to utter to.”

~Matthew Arnold~

“Poetry is the language of the imagination and passion. It is the

universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself.”

~William Hazlitt~

“Poetry is the orchestral silence.”

“Poetry is night seen through a rose.”

“Poetry is a white cat asleep in a white light.”

“Poetry is so beautiful that it cannot be told.”

~Jose Garcia Villa~

 These quotes touch upon three important elements of poetry: its
art, its emotion, and its rhythm.

Poetry is the presentment, in musical form, to the imagination, of

noble grounds for the noble emotions. It is also the rhythmic creation
of BEAUTY.

However, safe to say that poetry is the artistic expression of

emotion in rhythmical language. In another definition, it is a metrical
expression of lofty or beautiful thoughts, feelings or actions in an
imaginative and artistic form.

The poet must have a command over the art of creating the
poetic form; he must have some emotion which he wishes to express
– the poet is never an empty man; and he is capable of expressing
this emotion in words that fall upon the ear with pleasing cadence.

The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony, and other stylistic

elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple
interpretations.
 • Stanza consists of two or more lines of poetry that together form one
of the divisions of a poem. The stanzas of a poem are usually of the
same length and follow the same pattern of meter and rhyme and are
used like paragraphs in a story.

• Free Verse. It has no rhyme and it follows no regular meter.

Its lines may be of varying length.

For Example:

Poem for a Child about to Grow Always misses

You ask me And even as I look at you

now
Why today I look at you
A wind will passed between
Like it would be the last time us
All my life I have looked Will have taken something
At so many things with it

Have seen so many changes And what is left

And have looked for one thing hidden Is always what is here

But something there is the eye Always all of a sudden.

• Blank Verse. It has no rhyme, but does have metrical rhythm.

For Example:

When I see birches bend to left and right But swinging doesn’t bend
them, down to stay.
Across the lines of straighter dark trees,
~Robert Frost~
I like to think some boys been swinging
them.

• Heroic Couplet. It consists of two rhyming lines of iambic

pentameter.

For Example:

The She Devil

My theme; a lass with thickly powdered Who proudly walks with

face, vain, affected grace,
In mad display, man’s lewd hearts to Enhanced by gems, the
ensnare, idiot’s eyes beguile;

Her shoulders, back and arms she dares And her damned vanity,
to bare; pride and wanton way,

Her gaudy dress of latest fluffy style, A vampish heart in her

betray!

• Ballad Stanza. It is a stanza of four lines: the first and third

are tetrameters that don’t rhyme, the second and fourth are
trimeters that rhyme. Extra unaccented syllables are frequent.

For Example:

“Mark ready, mark ready, my merry men ah!

Our guide ship sails the morn”

“Now, ever lack! My master dear, I fear a deadly storm.”

~Anonymous~

• Quintain. It is a stanza of five lines.

For Example:

Hail to thee blithe spirit! Pourest thy full heart

Bird thou never wert, In profuse strain of

unpremeditated art.
That from Heaven, or near it,
~Shelly~

• Terza Rima. It consists of stanzas of three iambic pentameter

lines each (tercets). Each is linked to the next by the rhyme
scheme: aba, bcb, cdc, ded, ee, etc.

For Example:

O Wild West wind, through breath of Are driven, like ghosts from
autumn’s being a an enchanter fleeing.
a
Thou, from those unseen presence the
leaves dead b
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic Her clarion o’er the
red, b dreaming earth, and fill

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou d

c
Driving sweet buds like
Who charioted to their dark wintry bed flocks to feed in the air
b
e
The winged seeds, where they lie cold
and low, With living hues and odours
c plain and hill; d

Each like a corpse within its grave, until

d
Wild Spirit, which art moving
Thin azure sister of the spring shall blow everywhere; e
c
Destroyer and preserver;
hear O hear!
e

• Sestet. It is a stanza of six lines.

For Example:

I wandered lonely as a cloud Beside the lake, beneath

the trees,
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
Fluttering and dancing in
When all at once I saw a crowd; the breeze.
A host of golden fields; ~Wordsworth
Longfellow~

• Rhyme Royal. It is a stanza of seven iambic pentameter lines

with definite rhyme scheme. Its rhyme scheme is ababbcc.

For Example:

To you, my purse, and to non other wight I am so sorry, now that ye

a be light; a

Compleyne I, for ye be my lady dare! For certes, but ye make me

b hevy chere, b
Me were as leef be leyd up on my bere; Beth hevy ageyn, or elless
b not I dye!
c
For whiche un – to your mercy thus I
crye: c ~Chaucer~

• Ottava Rima. It consists of eight iambic pentameter lines

rhyming abababcc.

For Example:

Milton’s the prince of poets – so we say; We’re told this great high
a priest of all the Nine

A little heavy, but no less divine; b

b
Was whipt at college – a
An independent being in his day – a harsh sire-odd spouse c
Learned, pious temperate in love and For the first Mrs. Milton left
wine; b his house c
But his life falling into Johnson’s way, a ~Byron~

• Spenserian Stanza. Made up of nine lines – the first eight in

iambic pentameter, the last of iambic hexameter.

For Example:

A Gentle Knight was prickling on the plaine,

Ycladd in the mightie armes and silver shielde,

Wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine.

The cruel markes of many a bloody fielde;

Yet armes till that time did he never wield;

His angry steede did chide his forming bitt,

As much disdaining to the curbe to yield;

Full iolly knigh he seemed and faire did sitt,

As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fit.

~Spenserian Stanza~

• Meter means measure in poetry. It refers to a unit or measure

of metrical verse involving an accented syllable and one or
two unaccented ones.

• Monometer. Composed of one foot

For Example:

Thus I Unknown

Pass by And gone.

And die ~Herrick~

As one

• Dimeter. Composed of two feet.

For Example:

He is gone on the mountain.

He is lost to the forest.

Like a summit – dried fountain,

When our need was the sorest.

~Scott~

• Trimeter. Composed of three feet.

For Example:

Under the greenwood tree

Who loves to lie with me

And turn his merry note

Unto the sweet bird’s throat.

~Shakespeare~

• Tetrameter. Composed of four feet.

For Example:

With blackest moss the flower-plots

Were thickly crusted, one and all:

The rusted nails fell from the knots

That held the pear to the gable wall.

~Tennyson~

• Pentameter. Composed of five feet.

For Example:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments: Love is not love

Which alters when its alteration finds

Or bends with the remover to remove.

~Shakespeare~

• Hexameter. Composed of six feet.

For Example:
This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks,

Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight.

~Longfellow~

• Foot is a group of regularly recurring accented and unaccented

syllables. It is a measurement that is either disyllabic or trisyllabic
long. A disyllabic foot is two syllables long while a trisyllabic foot is
three syllables long.

• Iambic. Composed of two syllables, the second is

accented(unstressed, stressed).

For Example:

The sun that brief December day

Rose cheerless over hills of gray.

~John G. Whittier~

• Trochee. Composed of two syllables, the first is

accented(stressed, unstressed).
For Example:

Drop the oar where phantom ripples

Comb the silken water weeds

Where a mist across the valley

Cordly swathes the sleeping road.

~Angela Manalang Gloria~

• Anapest. Composed of three syllables, the first is accented. It

is usually the galloping rhythm(2 unstressed, stressed).

For Example:

‘Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

~Clement C. Clamore~

• Dactyl. Composed of three syllables, the first. It is sometimes

described as smooth-flowing and limpid (stressed, 2
unstressed).

For Example:

I am monarch of all. I survey.

~Cowper~

Feet used less frequently:

• Spondee. Composed of two accented syllables equally

divided. It is usually employed in connection with another of
the forms.

• Pyrrhic. Composed of two unaccented syllables equally

divided.
• Amphibrack. Composed of an unaccented, an accented, and again
unaccented syllables.

• Amphimacer. Composed of an accented, an unaccented, and again

accented syllables.
 • The Rhyme makes the poem musical sounding. It is the similarity of
sounds which produces a pleasurable effect. It is the identity of
sounds within a verse line or at the end of the verse lines. The
identity of sound within is called an internal rhyme.

• A rhyme scheme is a regular pattern of rhyme, one that is

consistent throughout the extent of the poem. Poems that rhyme
without any regular pattern can be called rhyming poems, but only
those poems with an unvarying pattern to their rhymes can be said
to have a rhyme scheme.

For Example:

Alone
Edgar Allen Poe

From childhood’s hour I have not been a

As others were; I have not seen a
As others saw; I could not bring b
My passions from a common spring. b
From the same source I have not taken c
My sorrow; I could not awaken c
My heart to joy at the same tone; d
And all I loved, I loved alone. d
Then—in my childhood, in the dawn e
Of a most stormy life—was drawn e
From every depth of good and ill f
The mystery which binds me still: f
From the torrent, or the fountain, g
From the red cliff of the mountain, g
From the sun that round me rolled h
In its autumn tint of gold, h
From the lightning in the sky i
As it passed me flying by, i
From the thunder and the storm, j
And the cloud that took the form j
 (When the rest of Heaven was blue) k
Of a demon in my view. k

• End Rhyme. When the last word in each line of a poem has a
recognizable pattern.

For Example:

Too long concerned with marble floors a

And pillars tangent to the sun b

I quite forget beyond my doors a

The carnival of life is run. b

• Perfect Rhyme. Stressed vowel and all the sounds are

repeated perfectly.

For Example:

… dreamingly …seemingly

• Imperfect Rhyme. Not all sounds are repeated.

For Example:

…lonely …fondly

• Eye Rhyme. End words seem to rhyme because of their

spelling.

For Example:

…save …have

• Masculine Rhyme. End sounds are stressed.

For Example:

…day …away
 • Feminine Rhyme. Words more than one syllable rhyme and
have a falling accent.

For Example:

…shaken …taken

• Internal Rhyme. In this kind of rhyme, the end word rhymes with a
word within the line.

For Example:

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast

For he heard the loud bassoon.

Different Kinds of Rhyme Schemes:

• Cinquain. ababb

• Clerihew. aabb

• Couplet. aa, bb, or cc

• Enclosed Rhyme. abba

• “Fire and Ice” Stanza. abaabcbcb

• Keatsian Ode. ababcdecde

• Limerick. aabba

• Monorhyme. aaaaaa… an identical rhyme on every line.

• Ottava Rima. abababcc

• Rhyme Royal. ababbcc

• Scottish stanza. aaabab

• Rondelet. abaabba

• Rubaiyat. aaba
• Simple 4-line. abcb

• Spenserian stanza. ababbcbcc

• Sonnet:

• Petrarchan sonnet. abba abba cde cde or abba

abba cdc dcd

• Shakespearean sonnet. abab cdcd efef gg

• Spenserian sonnet. abab bcbc cdcd ee

• Sonnet is a poetic form of fourteen rhymed lines, arranged

according to set patterns. The object of the sonnet is to express a
single wave of emotion.
 • Petrarchan. or Miltonic consists of an octave(first eight lines) which
presents the problem and a sestet(remaining six lines) which shows a
resolution of the problem. The octet rhymes abba, abba; the sextet rhymes
cde, cde.

For Example:

When I consider how my light is spent They also serve who only stand and
a wait.” e

Ere half my days in this dark world and

wide, b

And that one talent which is death to

hide b

Lodged with me useless, though my soul

more bent a

To serve therewith my Maker, and

present
a

My true account, lest he returning chide,

b

“Doth God exact day – labor light

denied?”
b

I fondly ask, But Patience to prevent

c

That murmur, soon replies, “God doth

not need a

Either man’s work or his own gifts. “Who

best d

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best.

His state e

Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,

c

And post o’er land and ocean without

rest: d
 • Shakespearean. Consists of three-four line groups
(quatrains) of alternate rhymes and a clinching couplet
which is often an epigrammatic summary of the idea of the
sonnet. It rhymes abab, cdcd, efef, gg.

For Example:

Sonnet XXX

When to the sessions of sweet silent And weep a fresh love’s

thought a long since cancel’d woe

I summon up remembrance of things c

past, b
And moan the expense of
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, many a vanish’d sight:

a d
And with old woes new wail my dear Then can I grieve at
time’s waste: grievances foregone,
b e
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, And heavily from woe to
c woe tell o’er f
For precious friends hid in death’s The sad account of fore-
dateless night, bemoaned moan, e
d
Which I now pay as if not
paid before f
But if the while I think on thee, dear All loses are restored and
friend,g sorrows end. g

• Spenserian. A sonnet form composed of three quatrains and

a couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme abab
bcbc cdcd ee. A sonnet comprising of three quatrains with the
latter rhyme part being carried over from one quatrain to the
next, and a concluding couplet; therefore, comprising of a
rhyme scheme of abab bcbc cdcd ee.

For Example:

I Can’t Win! (Spenserian Sonnet)

by Helga Ross
I take a stand and I’m stubborn, you say. a
Okay, I am. So are you. What are we to do? b
When impasse comes to pass to our dismay a
forestalling allies-at-odds, (nothing new), b
whose blood see-through bond obliges breakthrough? b
The debate's a draw--not worth losing sleep— c
see, (S)He who can't be reasoned with, is YOU! b
Okay, my friend, you win, so I may keep c
my peace of mind, sow only as I’d reap. c
I have no choice but learn to get along— d
there is no trade—sometimes you make me weep. c
Still, our combination’s made me strong: d

Thanks to you, Conscience, I can look at me: e

Some One I like, despite your victory. e
 • The Elizabethan poetry (1558 to 1603) in poetry is
characterized by a number of frequently overlapping
developments. The introduction and adaptation of
themes, models and verse forms from other
European traditions and classical literature, the
Elizabethan song tradition, the emergence of a
courtly poetry often centred around the figure of the
monarch and the growth of a verse-based drama are
among the most important of these developments.

• Edmund Spenser

His angry steede did For whose sweet sake

For Example: chide his foming bitt, that glorious badge he
As much disdayning to wore,
The Faerie Queen the curbe to yield: And dead as living ever
A gentle Knight was Full iolly knight he him ador'd:
pricking on the plaine, seemed, and faire did Upon his shield the like
Y clad in mighty armes sitt, was also scor'd,
and silver shields, As one for knightly giusts For soveraine hope,
Wherein old dints of and fierce encounters which in his helpe he
deepe wounds did fitt. had:
remaine, Right faithfull true he
The cruel markes of But on his breast a was in deed and word,
many' a bloudy fielde; bloudie Crosse he bore, But of his cheer did
Yet armes till that time The dear remembrance seem too solemne sad;
did he never wield: of his dying Lord,
 Yet nothing did he That greatest Glorious To prove his puissance
dread, but ever was Queen of Faerie lond, in battle brave
ydrad. To winne him worship, Upon his foe, and his
and her grace to have, new force to learn;
Upon a great adventure Which of all earthly
he was bond, things he most did crave;
That greatest Gloriana And ever as he rode, his
to him gave, hart did earn
Upon his foe, a Dragon As one that inly She was in life and
horrible and stearne. mourned: so was she every virtuous lore,
sad, And by descent from
A lovely Ladie rode him And heavy sat upon her Royall linage came
faire beside, palfrey slow: Of ancient Kings and
Upon a lowly Ass more Seemed in heart some Queens, that had of yore
white then snow, hidden care she had, Their scepters stretch
Yet she much whiter, and by her in a line a from East to Western
but the same did hide milk white lamb she lad. shore,
Under a veil, that And all the world in
wimpled was full low, So pure and innocent, their subjection held;
And over all a black as that same lamb, Till that infernal fend
stole she did throw, with foul pore
For wasted all their Sir Walter Raleigh
land, and them expeld:
Whom to avenge, she
had this Knight from far
cõpeld

• This Elizabethan times man was a poet, statesman, explorer and courtier.
He was famous for establishing the first colony in America and importing the
first tobacco to England. He was also remembered for his courtly manners
and placing his cloak over a puddle in order to prevent Queen Elizabeth I
from muddying her shoes! Important facts accomplishments, dates and
events in the life and history of Sir Walter Raleigh and the Elizabethan times
in which he lived.

For Example:

The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd

Sir Walter Raleigh
If all the world and love were young, Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue, Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies
These pretty pleasures might me move Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten
To live with thee and be thy love. In folly ripe, in season rotten.

Time drives the flocks from field to fold Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold, Thy coral clasps and amber studs,
And Philomel becometh dumb; All these in me no means can move
The rest complains of cares to come. To come to thee and be thy love.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields But could youth last and love still breed,
To wayward winter reckoning yields; Had joys no date nor age no need,
A honey tongue, a heart of gall, Then these delights my mind might
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall. move
To live with thee and be thy love.

Christopher Marlowe

• The life of Marlowe was surrounded with mystery, spying and intrigue during
his times. And was Christopher Marlowe the real author of the plays
attributed to William Shakespeare? Even the premature death of
Christopher Marlowe is surrounded with mystery. This Elizabethan was
famous as a Poet, Translator, Dramatist and Spy! Important facts
accomplishments, dates, times and events in the life and history of
Christopher Marlowe and the Elizabethan times in which he lived.

For Example:

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Christopher Marlowe

Come live with me and be my love, Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, A gown made of the finest wool
Woods or steepy mountain yields. Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
And we will sit upon the rocks, With buckles of the purest gold;
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls A belt of straw and ivy buds,
Melodious birds sing madrigals. With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
And I will make thee beds of roses Come live with me and be my love.
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle The shepherds' swains shall dance and
sing
For thy delight each May morning:

If these delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me and be my love.
Nikki Tan
Joshua Noguera
III-SDS
Submitted to:
Ms. Mei Barrera

Poetry