This document provides definitions and examples of different types and techniques of poetry. It begins by defining poetry as literary works that use distinctive styles and rhythm to express feelings and ideas. It then discusses the origin of the word poetry and provides definitions and examples of different types of poems, including narrative poetry, lyric poetry, sonnets, refrain poetry, odes, free verse, haiku, limericks, and irony poems. It also explains common poetic techniques such as meter, foot, stanza, couplet, and techniques used for poetic sound including rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia.

1. Poetry
 Literary work in which special intensity is given
to the expression of feelings and ideas by the
use of distinctive style and rhythm; poems
collectively or as a genre of literature.
Origin of Poetry
 Late Middle English: from medieval
Latin ”poetria”, from Latin poeta ‘poet.’ In early
use the word sometimes referred to creative
literature in general.

2. TYPES OF POETRY
Narrative Poetry
Lyric Poetry
Sonnet
Refrain Poetry
Ode
Free Verse
Image
Haiku
Limericks
Irony Poems

3. Narrative Poetry
 is a form of poetry that tells a story, often making
use of the voices of a narrator and characters as
well; the entire story is usually written in metered
verse. Narrative poems do not have to follow
rhythmic patterns.

4. Narrative Poetry is found in different
types of poetry such as Ballads, Epics,
and Lays. All of these examples are
different kinds of narrative poems
some of which are the length of a book
such as the Song of Hiawatha or the
Iliad.

5. Don't Wait Until I Am Gone
By: Jennifer Fernandes
Treat me with love, dignity, respect and compassion now as I am
healthy, vibrant and alive.
Don't wait to hear that I am sick and dying to love me the way I was
meant to be loved.
Bring me flowers and candy on any day just because...
Don't wait for a holiday, love and cherish me every day.
Tell me I am beautiful...
See my beauty in my body and soul.
Don't wait to see that I am disfigured and then tell me that I am
beautiful...
Because you think that is what I want to hear.
Talk to me lovingly now so I can hear your beautiful voice and listen
to the ringing of your laughter.

6. Don't try to talk to me that way now that I am deaf and can no longer
hear your sweet voice.
Speak words of love and compassion so I can remember those
conversations...
Even though I may not be able to hear them again...
Come one day and you will be sad, you will be sorry!
Treat me like a human being with a life that needs to be lived my
way...not yours!
Remember that our Creator gave you your own life to live the way
you please...
Leave me to live mine!!
I do not tell you what you should or should not do...I just listen and
give you support.
Why can't you do the same?
I am this way and you are that way...
That's because we are different...we are unique...can't we
compromise?
Bury the hatchet and move along...
Free your body, free your soul...

7. Let's just take the precious time we have now to live and to
love...
Everything else will slowly fall into place.
Now I am sick and dying...
You are now trying to love me, to bring me flowers, to stroke
my hair and to speak loving words...
Why did we waste all those years, all that time...just to be
where we are now...
Now when I am too weak, too sick to enjoy your gifts!
Love me now...
As your sister, your brother, your husband, your wife, your
niece, your nephew, your daughter, your son...
Don't wait until it is too late!
Don't wait until I am gone...

8. Lyric Poetry
A highly musical
poetry that
expresses the
emotions of the
speaker.

9. Definition of Lyric Poetry
Lyric Poetry consists of a poem, such as a
sonnet or an ode, that expresses the
thoughts and feelings of the poet. The term
lyric is now commonly referred to as the
words to a song. Lyric poetry does not tell a
story which portrays characters and actions.
The lyric poet addresses the reader directly,
portraying his or her own feeling, state of
mind, and perceptions.

10. A Dream
Poem by: William Blake
Once a dream did weave a shade
O'er my angel-guarded bed,
That an emmet lost its way
Where on grass methought I lay.
Troubled, wildered, and forlorn,
Dark, benighted, travel-worn,
Over many a tangle spray,
All heart-broke, I heard her say:

11. 'Oh my children! do they cry,
Do they hear their father sigh?
Now they look abroad to see,
Now return and weep for me.'
Pitying, I dropped a tear:
But I saw a glow-worm near,
Who replied, 'What wailing wight
Calls the watchman of the night?
'I am set to light the ground,
While the beetle goes his round:
Follow now the beetle's hum;
Little wanderer, hie thee home!

12. Sonnet
English (or
Shakespearean) sonnets
are lyric poems that are 14
lines long

13. Sonnet
Definition of Sonnets
English (or Shakespearean) sonnets
are lyric poems that are 14 lines long
falling into three coordinate quatrains
and a concluding couplet. Italian (or
Petrarchan) sonnets are divided into
two quatrains and a six-line sestet.

14. “When I Consider How My Light is Spent”
By: John Milton, 1600s
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide;
“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work or His own gifts. Who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”

15. Refrain Poetry
Poetry that has a
phrase, some lines
or group of lines
repeated.

16. Refrain Poetry
Definition of Refrain Poetry Term
The word 'Refrain' derives from the Old
French word refraindre meaning to repeat.
Refrain Poetry Term is a phrase, line, or
group of lines that is repeated throughout a
poem, usually after each stanza. A famous
example of a refrain are the words " Nothing
More" and “Nevermore” which are repeated
in “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe.

17. One Art
By: Elizabeth Bishop
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster…
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

18. Ode
A lofty lyric poem
on a serious theme.

19. Definition of Odes
Odes are long poems which are serious
in nature and written to a set structure.
John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
and "Ode To A Nightingale" are
probably the most famous examples of
this type of poem.

20. Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections
of Early Childhood
by: William Wordsworth
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight
To me did seem
Appareled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;

21. Free Verse
Poetry that avoids use
of regular rhyme,
rhythm, meter, or
division into stanzas.

22. Definition of Free Verse
Free Verse is a form of Poetry composed of
either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have
no set fixed metrical pattern. The early 20th-
century poets were the first to write what
they called "free verse" which allowed them
to break from the formula and rigidity of
traditional poetry. The poetry of Walt
Whitman provides many illustrations of Free
Verse including his poem "Song of Myself".

23. A Noiseless Patient Spider
By: Walt Whitman
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark‘d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark‘d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch‘d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of
space,…….
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile
anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O
my soul.

24. Cheddar Cheese and Chocolate
Cake
I am crazy about rich, dark, espresso coffee.
I am addicted to extra-sharp cheddar cheese and chocolate cake.
I never tire of window-shopping or munching crisp apple pies from Burger
King.
I can consume a whole package of Wheat Thins while curled up reading a
favorite novel.
I wear purple eyeshadow and pink nail varnish- always.
I love to laugh and scream for joy, to sing at the top of my voice.
I like to play heavy rock loud enough to burst your eardrums.
I like crazy parties, whipped cream, and solitude.

25. Image
The vivid mental
picture created in
the reader’s mind by
the language.

26. Definition of Imagery Poems
Imagery Poems draw the reader into
poetic experiences by touching on the
images and
senses which the reader already
knows. The use of images in this type
of poetry serves to intensify the impact
of the work.

27. One Hundred Years of Solitude
By:Gabriel García Márquez
On rainy afternoons, embroidering with a group of friends on the
begonia porch, she would lose the thread of the conversation
and a tear of nostalgia would salt her palate when she saw
the strips of damp earth and the piles of mud that the
earthworms had pushed up in the garden. Those secret
tastes, defeated in the past by oranges and rhubarb, broke
out into an irrepressible urge when she began to weep. She
went back to eating earth. The first time she did it almost out
of curiosity, sure that the bad taste would be the best cure for
the temptation. And, in fact, she could not bear the earth in
her mouth. But she persevered, overcome by the growing
anxiety, and little by little she was getting back her ancestral
appetite, the taste of primary minerals, the unbridled
satisfaction of what was the original food.

28. Haiku Poetry
Japanese poem
composed of three
unrhymed lines that
reflects on some aspect of
nature and creates
images.

29. Haiku Poetry
Definition of Haiku Poetry Type
Haiku Poetry Type is a Japanese poem
composed of three unrhymed lines of
five, seven, and five syllables. Haiku
poetry originated in the sixteenth
century and reflects on some aspect of
nature and creates images.

30. Example:
Nature Haiku:
Skies so azure blue
Youthful hue makes my heart race
Infinite blessing.
Person Haiku:
Angry from day one
Critical of all that’s fun
You suffer the most

31. Limericks
Short nonsense type
poems with a 5 line
structure

32. Limericks
Definition of Limericks
Limericks are short sometimes bawdy,
humorous poems of consisting of five
Anapaestic lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 of a
Limerick have seven to ten syllables and
rhyme with one another. Lines 3 and 4 have
five to seven syllables and also rhyme with
each other. Edward Lear is famous for his
Book of Nonsense which included the poetry
form of Limericks.

33. Example of Limericks:
Limerick from the Book of Nonsense
by: Edward Lear
There was an Old Man with a gong,
Who bumped at it all day long;
But they called out, 'O law!
You're a horrid old bore!'
So they smashed that Old Man with a gong.

34. Irony Poems
an action or
situation in a poem
that is the opposite
of what is expected

35. Irony Poems
Definition of Irony
Irony illustrates a situation, or a use of
language, involving some kind of
discrepancy. The result of an action or
situation is the reverse of what is expected.
A famous example of irony is ''Water, water,
every where, Nor any drop to drink' in the
Ancient Mariner.

36. Ironic Poem About Prostitution
by: George Orwell
When I was young and had no sense
In far-off Mandalay
I lost my heart to a Burmese girl
As lovely as the day.
Her skin was gold, her hair was jet,
Her teeth were ivory;
I said, 'for twenty silver pieces,
Maiden, sleep with me'.
She looked at me, so pure, so sad,
The loveliest thing alive,
And in her lisping, virgin voice,
Stood out for twenty-five.

37. Techniques of
Poetry….

38. Meter
The rhythmical
pattern of the poem.

39. Foot
The unit of rhythm
consisting of
strongly and weakly
stressed syllables.

40. Pentameter
5 units of rhythm
within a poem;
consists of 5 stressed
syllables and 5
unstressed syllables

41. Stanza
The basic unit of a
poem; length can
vary

42. Couplet
A form of stanza within a
poem.
2 Lines -“couple”; often
rhymes, but doesn’t have
to rhyme.

43. Quatrain
A stanza containing
four lines.
Does not have to
rhyme.

44. Sestet
A 6 lined stanza
within a poem.

45. Octave
An 8 lined stanza
within a poem.

46. Techniques
of
Poetry Sound…..

47. Rhythm
A pattern of beats
and stresses in a
line of verse or
prose.

48. Rhyme
The repetition of
sounds at the ends
of words

49. End Rhyme
The use of rhyming
words at the ends of
lines

50. Internal Rhyme
The use of rhyming
words within lines

51. Alliteration
The repetition of initial
consonant sounds.
Example: Sally sold
seashells at the
seashore.

52. Assonance
The repetition of
vowel sounds.
Example: …molten
golden notes…

53. Onomatopoeia
The use of words or
phrases that sound like
the items to which they
refer.
Examples: Buzz, Hiss,
Boo, Bam, Pow, Zoom

54. Paradox
 The term Paradox is from the Greek word
“paradoxon” that means contrary to expectations,
existing belief or perceived opinion.
 It is a statement that appears to be self-
contradictory or silly but may include a latent truth. It
is also used to illustrate an opinion or statement
contrary to accepted traditional ideas. A paradox is
often used to make a reader think over an idea in
innovative way.

55. Example of Paradox:
o Your enemy’s friend is your enemy.
o I am nobody.
o “What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young.” –
George Bernard Shaw
o Wise fool
o Truth is honey which is bitter.
o “I can resist anything but temptation.” – Oscar Wilde

56. Literary Terms Revisited
Simile
Metaphore
Idiom
Imagery
Onomatopoeia
Symbolism
Alliteration