The key elements of poetry include rhythm, meter, stanza, rhyme, rhyme scheme, theme, symbolism, and imagery. Rhythm refers to the stressed and unstressed syllables that create musicality. Meter is the basic structural pattern of syllables in each line. A poem is organized into stanzas of lines that have a consistent meter or rhyme pattern. Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds within the poem. The rhyme scheme establishes the pattern of rhyming lines. A poem's theme conveys its central idea. Symbolism and imagery allow poets to represent ideas in a non-direct manner that engages the senses.

1. BASIC ELEMENTS OF POETRY

2. WHAT IS POETRY?
 Poetry can be defined as 'literature in a
metrical form' or 'a composition forming
rhythmic lines'.
 a poem is something that follows a particular
flow of rhythm and meter.

3.  Compared to prose, where there is no such
restriction, and the content of the piece flows
according to story, a poem may or may not have
a story, but definitely has a structured method
of writing.

4. ELEMENTS OF POETRY
Rhythm: This is the music made by the
statements of the poem, which includes the
syllables in the lines. The best method of
understanding this is to read the poem aloud,
and understand the stressed and unstressed
syllables.

5. ELEMENTS OF POETRY
Meter: This is the basic structural make-up of the
poem. Do the syllables match with each other?
Every line in the poem must adhere to this
structure. A poem is made up of blocks of lines,
which convey a single strand of thought. Within
those blocks, a structure of syllables which
follow the rhythm has to be included. This is the
meter or the metrical form of poetry.

6. ELEMENTS OF POETRY
 Stanza: Stanza in poetry is defined as a smaller
unit or group of lines or a paragraph in a poem.
A particular stanza has a specific meter, rhyme
scheme, etc. Based on the number of
lines, stanzas are named as couplet (2
lines), Tercet (3 lines), Quatrain (4
lines), Cinquain (5 lines), Sestet (6
lines), Septet (7 lines), Octave (8 lines).

7. ELEMENTS OF POETRY
 Rhyme: A poem may or may not have a rhyme.
When you write poetry that has rhyme, it means
that the last words or sounds of the lines match
with each other in some form. Rhyme is
basically similar sounding words like 'cat' and
'hat', 'close' and 'shows', 'house' and 'mouse',
etc. Free verse poetry, though, does not follow
this system.

8. ELEMENTS OF POETRY
 Rhyme Scheme: As a continuation of rhyme, the
rhyme scheme is also one of the basic elements of
poetry. In simple words, it is defined as the pattern
of rhyme. Either the last words of the first and
second lines rhyme with each other, or the first
and the third, second and the fourth and so on. It
is denoted by alphabets like aabb (1st line rhyming
with 2nd, 3rd with 4th); abab (1st with 3rd, 2nd
with 4th); abba (1st with 4th, 2nd with 3rd), etc.

9. ELEMENTS OF POETRY
 Theme: This is what the poem is all about. The
theme of the poem is the central idea that the
poet wants to convey. It can be a story, or a
thought, or a description of something or
someone; anything that the poem is about.

10. ELEMENTS OF POETRY
 Symbolism: Often poems will convey ideas and
thoughts using symbols. A symbol can stand for
many things at one time and leads the reader
out of a systematic and structured method of
looking at things. Often a symbol used in the
poem will be used to create such an effect.

11. ELEMENTS OF POETRY
 Imagery: Imagery is also one of the important
elements of a poem. This device is used by the
poet for readers to create an image in their
imagination. Imagery appeals to all the five
senses. For e.g., when the poet describes, 'the
flower is bright red', an image of a red flower is
immediately created in the reader's mind.