The document defines key concepts in poetry, including poetic devices, scansion, meter, elements of a poem such as lines and stanzas, point of view, and allusion. It explains that poetry uses metaphor, rhythm, and arrangement of words to explore reality and express truths to readers. Scansion involves analyzing patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables in lines, while meter measures lines by feet. Elements include the word, line, verse, stanza using rhyme or form, and point of view which can be first, third limited, or third omniscient. Allusion relies on reader familiarity to stimulate ideas beyond direct meaning.

1. • Poem: a literal and figurative space,
comprised of words, lines and stanzas, created
on a page or pages in which the poet, through
the poem’s speaker, explores the nature of
reality and expresses its metaphorical
observations (its truths) to its reader.

2. Poetry
• Meaning
– Metaphor and extended metaphor
– Simile
– Analogy
• Rhythm
• Meter

3. Poetic Devices
• Sounds of words
• Meanings of words
• Arranging the words
• Images of words
• (semiotics)

4. Scansion
• Analyzing the pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables in a line of poetry to
determine its meter.
– Stressed syllables: labeled with accent mark: /
– Unstressed syllables: labeled with a dash: —
– Metrical feet may be two or three syllables in
length, divided by slashes: |

5. Scansion: Basic Rhythms
Pattern Name Example
—/ Iamb/Iambic
/— Trochee/Trochaic
——/ Anapest/Anapestic
/—— Dactyl/Dactylic
/ / Spondee/Spondaic
—— Pyrric

6. Meter
• Measured by the number of feet in a line
– Common line lengths are
• Monometer: one foot
• Dimeter: two feet
• Trimeter: three feet
• Tetrameter: four
• Pentameter: five
• Hexameter: six
• Heptameter: seven
• Octameter: eight

7. Elements of a Poem
• Word.
• Line: corresponds to a series of metrical feet
– Usually indented to indicate continuation.
• Verse: one single line arranged in metrical pattern.
May be free verse (irregular or no pattern), blank verse
(unrhymed iambic pentameter), fixed verse (pattern:
rhyming schemes – ABA BAB CBC – and forms like
sestina, villanelle, haiku)
– Traditional verse forms determine line length (and rhyme
pattern) by convention, modern poetry uses more latitude.
Line length determined by the poet’s choice (rhyming is
considered passé).

8. Elements of a Poem
• Stanza: division of a poem by arranging lines into a unit, often
repeating same pattern or meter throughout. A unit of poetic
lines similar to a paragraph. Stanzas are separated by blank
lines.
• Stanza forms: names describing the number of lines in a
stanza
• Couplet (2), tercet (3), quatrain (4), quintet (5), sestet (6),
septet (7), octave (8)
• Some stanzas follow set rhyme schemes in addition to the
number of lines
– Ballad meter, ottava rima, rhyme royal, terza rima,
Spenserian stanza

9. Point of View
• The vantage of the speaker or “teller.” Also called
the poem’s “voice.” Sometimes referred to as the
poem’s persona.
– 1st person: the speaker is a character and speaks from
his or her perspective (uses the “I”).
– 3rd person limited: the speaker is not a character in
the poem, and speaks about the other characters
through limited perception of one other person
– 3rd person omniscient: the speaker is not part of the
poem but knows and describes with all characters are
thinking.

10. Allusion
• An allusion is a literary device that stimulates
ideas, associations, and extra information in
the reader's mind with only a word or two.
Allusion means “reference”. It relies on the
reader’s ability to understand the allusion and
on his familiarity with all of the meanings
hidden behind the words.