Understanding the elements of poetry

AS we explore how to write a poem step by step, these three major literary elements of poetry should sit in the back of your mind:

1. Rhythm (Sound, Rhyme,

and Meter) 1. Elements of poetry: Rhythm “Rhythm”refers to the lyrical, sonic qualities of the poem. How does the poem move and breathe; how does it feel on the tongue?

Traditionally, poets relied on rhyme and meter to accomplish a rhythmically sound poem.

Free verse poems — which are poems that don’t require a specific length, rhyme scheme, or meter — only became popular in the West in the 20th century, so while rhyme and meter aren’t requirements of modern poetry, they are required of certain poetry forms.

Sound

Poetry is capable of evoking certain emotions based solely on the sounds it uses. Words can sound sinister, percussive, fluid, cheerful, dour, or any other noise/emotion in the complex tapestry of human feeling.

Rhyme

It would be a crime if you weren’t primed on the ins and outs of rhymes. “Rhyme” refers to words that have similar pronunciations, like this set of words: sound, hound, browned, pound, found, around.

Many poets assume that their poetry has to rhyme, and it’s true that some poems require a complex rhyme scheme.

However, rhyme isn’t nearly as important to poetry as it used to be. Most traditional poetry forms — sonnets, villanelles, rimes royal, etc. — rely on rhyme, but contemporary poetry has largely strayed from the strict rhyme schemes of yesterday. There are three types of

rhymes: Homophony: Homophones are words that are spelled differently but sound the same, like“tail”and “tale.” Homophones often lead to commonly misspelled words. Perfect Rhyme: Perfect rhymes are word pairs that are identical in sound except for one minor difference. Examples include “slant and pant,”“great and fate,” and “shower and power.”

Slant Rhyme: Slant rhymes are word pairs that use the same sounds, but their final vowels have different pronunciations. For example, “abut” and “about” are nearly-identical in sound, but are pronounced differently enough that they don’t completely rhyme. This is also known as an oblique rhyme or imperfect rhyme.

Meter

Meter refers to the stress patterns of words. Certain poetry forms require that the words in the poem follow a certain stress pattern, meaning some syllables are stressed and others are unstressed.

What is“stressed”and“unstressed”? A stressed syllable is the sound that you emphasize in a word. The bold syllables in the following words are stressed, and the unbold syllables are unstressed: ◆

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The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables is important to traditional poetry forms. This chart, copied from our article on form in poetry, summarises the different stress patterns of poetry.

Form

“Form” refers to the structure of the poem. Is the poem a sonnet, a villanelle, a free verse piece, a slam poem, a contrapuntal, a ghazal, a blackout poem, or something new and experimental?

Form also refers to the line breaks and stanza breaks in a poem.

Unlike prose, where the end of the page decides the line breaks, poets have control over when one line ends and a new one begins.

The words that begin and end each line will emphasizethe sounds, images, and ideas that are important to the poet. — Online