The Elements of Poetry

THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY

The basic elements of poetry include the speaker, content, theme, shape and form, mood or tone, imagery, diction, figurative language and sound-effect devices. Here are the definition.

1.  Speaker

The poem’s speaker is the person who is addressing the reader. Sometimes, the speaker is the poet, who addresses the reader directly or another person. The poet reveals the identity of the speaker in various ways. Choice of words, focus of attention and attitudes will indicate the age, perspective and identity of the speaker.

2.  Content

Content is the subject of the poem. It answers the question “what?” What is the poem all about? What happens in the poem?

3.  Theme

The theme of the poem is the meaning of the poem – the main idea that the poet is trying to communicate. The theme may be stated directly or it may be implied.

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4.  Shape and Form

Basically, the actual shape and form of poems can vary dramatically from poem to poem. In poetry, you will encounter two forms: structured and free verse. Structured poetry has predictable patterns of rhyme, rhythm, line-length and stanza construction. Some examples are the sonnet and the haiku. In free verse, the poet experiments with the form of the poem. The rhythm, number of syllables per line and stanza construction do not follow a pattern.

5.  Mood or Tone

The mood or tone of a poem is the feeling that the poet creates and that the reader senses through the poet’s choice of words, rhythm, rhyme, style and structure. Poems may express many moods – humorous, sarcastic, joyous, angry or solemn.

6.  Imagery

Imagery refers to the “pictures” which we perceive with our mind’s eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, and through which we experience the “duplicate world” created by poetic language. Imagery evokes the meaning and truth of human experiences not in abstract terms, as in philosophy, but in more perceptible and tangible forms. This is a device by which the poet makes his meaning strong, clear and sure. The poet uses sound words and words of color and touch in addition to figures of speech. As well, concrete details that appeal to the reader’s senses are used to build up images.

Read the poem bellow

Love Story

By Conrado S. Ramirez

I walked last summer into the barrio of Niyugan.

A pretty girl was singing at a lighted door;

Now a woman sits weeping at my darkened window:

I walked last summer into the barrio of Niyugan…

Image, metaphor, and symbol shade into each other and are sometimes difficult to distinguish. In general, however, an image means only what it is; the figurative term in a metaphor means something other than what it is; and a symbol, that is, functions literally and figuratively at the same time. 

For example, 

if I say that a shaggy brown dog was rubbing its back against a white picket fence, I am talking about a dog (and a picket fence) and I am therefore presenting an image. 

If I say, “Some dirty dog stole my wallet at the party,” I am not talking about a dog at all and I am therefore using a metaphor. 

But if I say, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” I am talking not only about dogs but about living creatures of any species and I am therefore speaking symbolically.

7.  Diction

Diction is the poet’s choice of words. The poet chooses each word carefully so that both its meaning and sound contribute to the tone and feeling of the poem. The poet must consider a word's denotation - its definition according to the dictionary and it’s connotation - the emotions, thoughts and ideas associated with and evoked by the word.

TYPES OF POETRY

Poetry can be classified into three types: narrative, lyric, and dramatic poetry.

NARRATIVE POETRY

Along with dramatic and lyric verse, narrative poetry is one of the three main groups of poetry. It is a form of poem that tells a series of events using poetic devices such as rhythm, rhyme, compact language, and attention to sound. In other words, a narrative poem tells a story, but it does it with poetic flair. Many of the same elements that are found in a short story are also found in a narrative poem. Here are some elements of narrative poetry that are important:

1. Character
2. Setting
3. Conflict
4. Plot

KINDS OF NARRATIVE POETRY

a. Epic

An epic is a long unified narrative poem, recounting in dignified language the adventures of a warrior, a king or a god, the whole embodying the religious and philosophical beliefs, the moral code, customs, traditions, manners, attitudes, sciences, folklore and culture of the people or country from which it came. Characteristics of the classical epic include these:

1. The main character or protagonist is heroically larger than life, often the source and subject of legend or a national hero.
2. The deeds of the hero are presented without favoritism, revealing his failings as well as his virtues.
3. The action, often in battle, reveals the more-than-human-strength of the heroes as they engage in acts of heroism and courage.
4. The setting covers several nations, the whole world, or even the universe.
5. The episodes, even though they may be fictional, provide an explanation for some of the circumstances or events in the history of a nation or people.
6. The gods and lesser divinities play an active role in the outcome of actions.
7. All of the various adventures form an organic whole, where each event relates in some way to the central theme.

b. Metrical Romance

A metrical romance recounts the quest undertaken by a single knight in order to gain a lady’s favor. Frequently, its central interest is courtly love, together with tournaments fought and dragons and monsters slain for the damsel’s sake. It stresses the chivalric ideals of courage, loyalty, honor, mercifulness to an opponent, and exquisite and manners; and it delights in wonders and marvels.

c. Metrical Tale

A metrical tale is a simple, straightforward story in verse.

d. Ballad

A ballad is a narrative poem which is meant to be sung, usually composed in the ballad stanza. Although some ballads (literary ballad) are carefully crafted poems written by literate authors and meant to be read silently, the folk ballad (or popular ballad or traditional ballad) is derived from the oral tradition.

LYRIC POETRY

Lyric poetry is generally considered the most intense genre of poetry, the form that honors its musical origins. The term lyric comes from the Greek word for the lyre, a stringed instrument similar to a guitar and suitable for the accompaniment of a solitary singer. Like the concert of an impassioned singer, the lyric poem is a private, often visionary act of intelligence and emotion that becomes public through the music of language. It is also a highly concentrated poem of direct personal emotion, most often written in the first person. Moreover, lyric poetry is an artifact of language, capable of great beauty and excitement in its exploration of new perceptions.

KINDS OF LYRIC POETRY

a. Ode

An ode is a dignified and elaborately structured lyric poem praising and glorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature intellectually rather than emotionally. Odes originally were songs performed to the accompaniment of a musical instrument.

b. Elegy

An elegy is a lyric poem, written in elegiac couplets, that expresses sorrow or lamentation, usually for one who has died. This type of work stemmed out of a Greek word known as elegus, a song of mourning or lamentation that is accompanied by the lyre.

c. Sonnet

A sonnet is a short poem with fourteen lines, usually written in iambic pentameter. There are many rhyming patterns for sonnets. The Italian or Petrarchan has two stanzas: the first of eight lines is called octave and has the rhyme-scheme abba abba; the second of six lines is called the sestet and has the rhyme cdecde or cdcdcd. The Spenserian sonnet, developed by Edmund Spenser, has three quatrains and a heroic couplet, in iambic pentameter with rhymes ababbcbccdcdee. The English sonnet, developed by Shakespeare, has three quatrains and a heroic couplet, in iambic pentameter with rhymes ababcdcdefefgg.

Soledad

By Angela C. Manalang-Gloria

It was a sacrilege, the neighbors cried,

The way she shattered every mullioned pane

To let a firebrand in. They tried in vain

To understand how one so carved from pride

And glassed in dream could have so flung aside

Her graven days, or why she dared profane

The bread and wine of life for one insane

Moment with him. The scandal never died.

But no one guessed that loveliness would claim

Her soul's cathedral burned by his desires,

Or that he left her aureoled in flame. . .

And seeing nothing but her blackened spires,

The town condemned this girl who loved too well

And found her heaven in the depths of hell.

d. Song

A song is a lyric poem which is set to music. All songs have a strong beat created largely through the 3R’s: rhythm, rhyme, and repetition.

Song of a Mad Man

By Francisco G. Tonogbanua

I see the summer sun

Shine on the winter snow,

And the things I know in my heart

No other man may know.

I see a withered leaf

Fall from a tree in spring,

And the song I sing in my heart

No other man may sing.

I see a new born rose

Slink limply in the stream,

And the dreams I dream in my heart

No other man may dream.

Oh, rose that’s first to die,

Dead leaf and melted snow,

The strange lovely ways of my heart

Only you may know.

e. Simple Lyric

A simple lyric is a short poem expressing the poet’s thought, feeling, or emotion.

Be Beautiful, Noble, Like The Antique Ant

By Jose Garcia Villa

Be beautiful, noble, like the antique ant

Who bore the storms as he bore the sun,

Wearing neither gown nor helmet,

Though he was archbishop and soldier:

Wore only his own flesh.

Salute characters with gracious dignity:

Though what these are is left to

Your own terms. Exact: the universe is

Not so small but these will be found

Somewhere. Exact: they will be found.

Speak with great moderation: but think

With great fierceness, burning passion:

Though what the ant thought

No annals reveal, nor his descendants

Break the seal.

Trace the tracelessness of the ant,

Every ant has reached this perfection.

As he comes, so he goes,

Flowing as water flows,

Essential but secret like a rose.

DRAMATIC POETRY

Dramatic poetry presents one or more characters speaking, usually to other characters, but sometimes to themselves or directly to the reader.

KINDS OF DRAMATIC POETRY

a. Dramatic Monologue

A dramatic monologue is a literary device that is used when a character reveals his or her innermost thoughts and feelings, those that are hidden throughout the course of the story line, through a poem or a speech. This speech, where only one character speaks, is recited while other characters are present onstage. This monologue often comes during a climactic moment in a work and often reveals hidden truths about a character, their history and their relationships. Also it can further develop a character’s personality and also be used to create irony.

The Innocence of Solomon

By Nick Joaquin

Sheba, Sheba, open your eyes!

The apes defile the ivory temple,

the peacocks chant dark blasphemies;

but I take your body for mine to trample,

I laugh where once I bent the knees.

Yea, I take your mouth for mine to crumple,

drunk with the wisdom of your flesh.

But wisdom never was content

and flesh when ripened falls at last:

what will I have when the seasons mint

your golden breasts into golden dust?

Let me arise and follow the river

back to its source: I would bathe my bones

among the chaste rivulets that quiver

out of the clean primeval stones.

Yea, bathe me again in the early vision

my soul tongued forth before your mouth

made of a kiss a fierce contrition

salting the waters of my mouth…

Sheba, Sheba, close my eyes!

The apes have ravished the inner temple,

the peacocks rend the sacred veil

and on the manna feast their fill—

but chaliced drowsily in your ample

arms, with its brief bliss that dies,

my own deep sepulcher I seal.

b. Soliloquy

A soliloquy is the act of speaking while alone, especially when used as a theatrical device that allows a character’s thoughts and ideas to be conveyed to the audience.

From A Portrait of the Artist as a Filipino
By Nick Joaquin

“Oh, Paula, Candida—listen to me! By your dust, and by the dust of all generations, I promise to continue, I promise to preserve! The jungle may advance, the bombs may fall again—but while I live, you live—and this dear city of our affections shall rise again—if only in my song! To remember and to sing: that is my vocation…”