Poetry Terms
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Reading a Poem
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verse
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any composition in lines of more or less regular rhythm, usually ending in rhyme
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theme
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the central thought of the poem
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subject
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the main topic; what the poem is ‘about’
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tone
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conveys an attitude toward the person addressed
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agency
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tells us who owns the poem; who possesses the verb; the subject of the sentence
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INTERNAL STRUCTURE of the poem
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Types of Poems
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lyric: a short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker
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aubade: a lover’s morning farewell
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epigram: a short and witty commentary
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epistle: informal, written as if a letter to a friend
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epithalamium: a lyric celebrating a marriage
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elegy: a formal lyric of mourning
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pastoral: about love in a rural, idyllic setting
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satire: a mocking critique of evil of foolishness, the poet ridicules someone
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ode: a formal lyric which celebrates or commemorates a person or object
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complaint: a lyric that unfolds as an occasion to complain
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emblematic / visual: physically look like what they describe (i.e. a poem shaped like wings)
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expository: a lyric which feels kind for prosy
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didactic: written to state a message or teach a body of knowledge, often patriotic or moralistic
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meditative / intellecturalized: poems that verbalize or intellecturalize feelings
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visionaryL imagines unreal places with mystical fervor
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sensual: glorifies the body’s sensations
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confessional: dark inner truths are admitted and explored
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narrative: its main purpose is to tell a story
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ballad: a short narrative song which retells tales that were once song orally
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epic: longer narrative stories
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dramatic: presents the voice of an imagined character speaking directly
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dramatic monologues
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Organization / Structure
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meditative: speaker musing on a topic or idea where the poem becomes a thinking through
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narrative: the poem unfolds like a story, chronologically
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dramatic: the poem unfolds in scenes where we see distinct settings and moments acted out
among characters
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serial / discursive: a topic thought through in a logical way (first, then, then..)
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descriptive: presents a scene, often a landscape, paints a picture
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ekphrastic: describes a work of art
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occasional: written to commemorate or celebrate an event or famous person
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imitative – parodies, tributes, retellings of other poems
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image-organized: focuses our attention on a series of images
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hypotactic
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there are clear temporal, logical, and syntactic relations between members and
sentences or stanzas expressed by words or phrases or by the use of subordinate phrases and clauses;
very often narrative (i.e. “when”, “because”, “as a result”, “therefore”)
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paratactic
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verse based on the use of parallel statements placed one after another without any
expression of their connection or relation (expect at most with the connective “and”)
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Word Choice
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diction
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choice of words
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