Types of Poetry

Narrative:
It's a type of pome that tells a story.
Agnes Hatot, by Henry Abbey

Ballads:
It's a story in a poem. Usually ballads are about love.
The Mermaid

Epic:
It's a poem that talks about heroes conquering evil. Usually epic poems are really long and written in a elegant language.
Hiawatha's Departure from The Song of Hiawatha

Lyric:
This type of poem expresses the feelings and thoughts of the poet.
Dying

Sonnets:
It's a fourteen line lyric poem that has a specific rhyming pattern and meter.
O thou my lovely boy - Sonnet 126

Elegies:
It's a sad and thoughtful poem about someone's death.
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Free Verse:
It's a free style poem that doesn't have a specific rhyming pattern or a meter.
Song of Myself

Lines

Lines:
something that is arranged in a straight line. In poetry, lines are words arranged in a straight line.

Lines:
Here i'm in the cold of emptiness
sitting on a stair with a broken lot on my heart
though i'm dying in solitary comfort
i still miss to see her smile at me

Importance:
Lines help the poem to be more organized and easy to read. Lines help to create rhyme. Lines also help to organize syllables in a poem, which is mportant because different poems require different number of syllables in a line.

Symbol

Symbol:
It's an object or a person that represents something else.

Usage:
I want to drink poisons, to lose myself
in mists, in dreams!

Importance:
Symbols are very important in poems. Symbols make it easier for poets to hide their hidden meaning or a theme to a poem. Symbols also help the reader to imagine things more which helps imagery. Finally, symbols help to create simile and metaphors which make the reader think more about the poem.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia:
Words that represent sounds.

Usage:
I'm getting married in the morning!
Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime.

Importance:
Onomatopoeia is important because it allows poets to make it more interesting for young children. Onomatopoeia can be used to describe an animal, which helps imagery. Finally, onomatopoeia creates a lot of sound effects, thus it makes it more interesting for young children to read.

Assonance

Assonance:
When sounds in the middle of words sound similar.

Usage:
If I bleat when I speak it's because I just got . . . fleeced.

Importance:
Assonance is very similar to rhyme, so just like rhyme, assonance helps to create rhythm to a poem, which makes the poem more interesting, enjoyable and funny.

Alliteration

Alliteration:
the repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of a word. Tongue twisters are example of alliteration

Usage:
She sells seashells by the seashore

Importance:
Alliteration is very important because it can make poems more important. Finally alliteration can be used in tongue twisters to help children learn how to pronounce certain letters like 's' or 'r'.

Meter

Meter:
the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Usage:
1 2 3 4 5
Shall I | com PARE | thee TO | a SUM | mer’s DAY?

Importance:
Meter is important because it can create rhythm to a poem. Somtimes, a certain meter makes poems more meaningful. Finally meter can be used to stress important words that can provde the reader with hints of what the poem is about.

Elegy

Elegy:
a type of poem which is very sad and thouhgtful. This type of poem is about a dead person.

Usage:
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Importance:
Elegy is very important because it is a different kind of poem. Because this type of poem is very meaningful, it usually makes the reader think a lot about what happened to the dead person and how did a person's death affect the speaker. Elegy is very sad, which means it creates a strong imagery to the reader. Finally, I think that elegy sometimes teaches people life lessons about people's deaths.

Couplet

Couplet:
it's a pair of lines, especially the pair of lines that rhyme.

Usage:
I made a hat from fur and felt,
a feather, and a leather belt.
I topped it with a pretty bow
and lots of ribbons, just for show.
I held it up, admiring it,
then tried it on. It wouldn't fit!
I pushed and pulled with all my might,
the front, the back, the left, the right.
And yet, no matter how I tried
it wouldn't fit. I nearly cried!
I yanked it off and yelped because
I saw then what the problem was.
I'm such a dolt, I had to frown.
I'd made the darned thing upside down!

Importance:
If a reader wants to look back at a poem, couplet helps the reader to locate the lines that contain important information. Couplets also make poems more organized by pairing up two rhyming lines, or pairing up two lines with the same or similar meaning.

Rhyme

Rhyme:
when two or more words end with the same or similar sound.

Usage:

A pug is a dog
with a curlicue tail.
He eats like a hog
and he snores like a whale.
He's flat in the snout
and his belly is big.
The pug came about
just by misspelling pig.

Imporatance:
Rhyme is importance because it makes it easier for rhythm to be created. When words, it can make the poem more interesting, especially for young children.

Rhythm

Rhythm:
Rhythm is created by the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Usage:
I have a dog.
His name is Fred.
He won't play fetch.
He won't play dead.

He won't shake hands
or sit or stay
or bark or beg
or run and play.

He won't roll over,
shake or crawl.
In fact, he won't
do tricks at all.

When folks ask why
I tell them that's
because my dog
was raised by cats.

Importance:
Rhythm can give you a feel of a poem, which might tell you something about the meaning of the poem. Rhythm also make poems more entertaning, and can sometimes make people move and dance a bit. Finally rhythm makes poem sound like they fit together.

Personification

Personification:
the comparison of a non-living thing having human characteristics.

Usage:
The wind stood up and gave a shout.

Importance:
Personification is very similar to a metaphore. Therefore, personification has a similar importance to a metaphore. The image of non-living things having human abilities can make the poem more interesting and more meaningful and the same time. Personifications also help to creat imagery.

Speaker

Speaker:
the narrator of the poem

Usage:
I was the speaker of the poem when I was reading the poem.

Importance:
I think that having a good speaker is very important because the speaker must pronounce correctly, pause at the right time and read with emotions to make the poem more meaningful and interesting.

Tone

Tone:
The tone of a poem is the mood of the poem.

Usage:
"I could kill you."
(if he screams the line it might mean murderous anger)
(if he murmurs the line in a low, even voice it might mean cool power)
(if he laughts as he says the line, it might just be a joke)

Importance:
The tone of a poem is very important when reading a poem. It is essential that the tone of the poem matches the words of the pome, otherwise the reader might be confused or it could send a completely different message to the reader. The tone of a poem can give you hints about the poem and it could also give you a feeling of a poem, which is part of imagery.

Interpretation

Interpretation:
It's the understanding of something.

Usage:
People interpret things differently because each person looks at things differently.

Importance:
Interpretation is very important when making poems. Each person looks at things differently, so when there's a poem, people will come up with many different interpretations of the poem. Poets have to make sure that the message they are trying to send is clear, so that people would be able to interpret the correct message. Finally, poets have to think about interpretation of different age groups. If the poets are writing for children, they need to make the message as simple as possible. On the othe hand, if they are writing for adults, they can make the poem more complex.

Simile

Simile:
It's the comparison of two unlike things by usings words like or as.

Usage:
She laughed like a hyena.

Importance:
Similes are very important because they can give more meaning to a poem. Comparing two unlike things can also make the reader thing more about the poem. Similes can also be used in a poem to give a hint to the meaning or the meassage of the poem. Finally, some similes can be humurous therefore similes can make the poem more entertaninig to the reader.

Extended Metaphor

Extended Metaphor:
It's the comparison of two unlike things that continues through many sentences in a poem. In extended metaphor there are many comparisons between unlike objects.

Usage:
"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

"And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

"I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me."

Importance:
Extended metaphor is importance because it can make the poem seem interesting and magical. Since in extended metaphor people usually repeat the same thing through many metaphors, it's a repetition which is used to stress a theme or the main point of a poem. Finally, extended metaphors allows people to look at a theme through many points of view, making the reader think more about the message of the poem.

Metaphor

Metaphor:
It's a figure of speech where you compare one thing to another.

Usage:
Her home was a prison.

Importance:
I think that metaphors are important because it makes the poem more interesting. It also helps the reader to visualise what he or she is reading. Metaphors are important in order to creat imagery. Metaphors also make the reader think about the comparison and how it might be connected to the poem. Finally, metaphors make the reader more instersting in the poem. Sometimes, metaphors might make the reader laugh.

Stanza

Stanza:
A set of lines in a poem. There are many types of stanza. The type of stanza depends on the number of lines in each stanza.

Usage:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Importance:
I think that stanza is very important because it makes the poem easier to read. For example, if you read a poem and then you want to look back at something, the stanza help you to find it easier. Finally, I also think that the type of stanza varies depending on the message of the poem, or the rhythm. Therefore, stanza might help the reader understanding the message of the poem or help the rhythm sound better.

Imagery

Imagery:
When pictures begin to form in your mind. Imagery also includes imagining the five senses.

Usage:
The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o'clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.

Importance:
Imagery is very important when making poems or a story. By creating images in the readers' mind you can make the story or the poem more interesting for the reader. Imagery can also be used to make the reader think more about the poem find out the hidden meanings to the poem. Finally, by using imagery you can make the poem or the story more memorable.

Poetry

Poetry:
a bunch of meaningful words that are written in an imaginative way. Poetry is a kind of a written and creative art that is used to express one's emotions. Most poems have a rhymes and a hidden meaning.

Usage:
My chickens all had chicks
and I've got more than I can keep.
Perhaps you'd like to purchase one?
They're cheap, cheap, cheep!

Importance:
I think that learning poetry is important because it makes people really think about words and what they mean. When writing poems it requires people to write in a different style than writing a story. Poetry also allows people to express their emotions through words, which might be easier to do than saying them.It's important to study poetry because poetry is mostly about symbolism and
symbolism is important in writing stories, and other texts.