Poetry is a word that comes from the Greek word poiesis, which means "a making, fabrication, creation or production." So poetry is first and foremost a creative text, and this must be kept in mind when reading it, for it is anything but straightforward. Reading poetry requires time and patience, because it can have many layers of meaning, and to be properly understood, all of the layers must be analyzed. Merriam-Webster defines poetry as "writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm."
Poetry is written in STANZAS (also called VERSES) not paragraphs, and poetry is written without using margins in the same way as paragraphs. Poetry is commonly thought of as the opposite of prose, which is where paragraphs are used margin-to-margin, and where the language is more concrete than figurative. Poetry often does not take up so much space on the paper, and poets sometimes use the physical space to add to the meaning of the words, as in a shape poetry, where words are arranged to make an image that is relevant to the poem's meaning. Poetry also uses fewer words to mean more ideas, and some of those ideas are implied and not stated. Poetry falls into three categories:
When analyzing poetry, determine first what KIND of poem it is (lyric, narrative, or descriptive) and then look at the following three aspects: |
Word Choice
Word choice is particularly important in poetry. Since texts tend to be short, meanings have to be especially specific, since there is no room to explain, as in an informative text.
Word choice will give you insight into the author's tone, style and meaning. When you are analyzing word choice, you should pay attention to the following aspects of words:
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Devices
POETIC DEVICES are many. Some are CONCRETE, and mean exactly what they say, and some are FIGURATIVE, and do not mean exactly what they say.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE is defined by Merriam-Webster as "used with a meaning that is different from the basic meaning and that expresses an idea in an interesting way by using language that usually describes something else : not literal." Figurative language is basically playing with words in a standardized fashion. CONCRETE DEVICES
FIGURATIVE DEVICES
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Structure and Sound
Poetry is NOT required to rhyme. Some believe that if a poem has no rhyme, it is not a poem. This is unsophisticated. There are many forms of poetry, and one of the most common forms, free verse, is so called because it does not follow rhythm, rhyme or meter. It is still poetry.
You will, in your future schooling, come across something called blank verse, which is poetry with meter and rhythm, but no rhyme. Shakespeare was quite fond of this form. Rhyme: one of the definitions of rhyme is "one of two or more words thus corresponding in sound." There are three types of rhyme you should look for in poetry:
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