Poet’s Tools

A poet’s tools are:

1. Word Choice

2. Imagery

3. Sound Devices

4. Formal Devices (Structure and Rhythm)

4. Formal devices

The fourth group of tools the poet uses to create his/her work are formal devices. Formal devices include the structure of a poem and the different types of styles that a poem can be written in.

Stanza - the name we give the “paragraphs” found in a poem.

Invictus: The Unconquerable

Out of the night that covers me,Black as the Pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstanceI have not winced nor cried aloud,Under the bludgeoning's of chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms but the horror of the shade,And yet the menace of the yearsFinds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,How charged with punishments the scroll,I am the master of my fate:I am the captain of my soul.

This poem has 4 stanzas

Line - A group of words in a poem arranged into a row. A line of poetry is not like a sentence. Just because the words are one line, doesn’t mean that the complete thought is finished.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door."'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door -Only this, and nothing more."

This stanza has 6 lines

How To Read a Poem with Punctuation

When reading poetry, if you reach the end of the line and there is no punctuation after the last word, do not pause – continue reading as you would any sentence.

Excerpt from “Late Movies with Skylar”By Michael Ondaatje

I lie in bed fully awake. The darkness

breathes to the pace of a dog’s snoring.

The film is replayed to sounds

Of an intricate blues guitar.

“I lie in bed fully awake. The darkness breathes to the pace of a dog’s snoring. The film is replayed to sounds of an intricate blues guitar.”

How To Read a Poem with Punctuation

When reading poetry, if you reach the end of the line and there is no punctuation after the last word, do not pause –continue reading as you would any sentence.

In Flanders FieldsBy Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place: and in the skyThe larks still bravely singing flyScarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved: and now we lieIn Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foeTo you, from failing hands, we throwThe torch: be yours to hold it highIf ye break faith with us who die,We shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Flanders fields

Rhyme scheme - the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem. We represent a poems rhyme scheme with letters.

What is the rhyme scheme?

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.

Poetry Analysis“Richard Cory”

Edwin Arlington Robinson• Born in Maine in 1869

• Unhappy kid – at the age of 6 he wrote journals wondering why he was born

• President Roosevelt was a fan of his work and gave him a steady job that allowed him to keep writing

• He wrote sad poems mostly about people from the New England states

• Died in 1935

“Richard Cory”

• Read through the poem on your own a few times.

• Think about the terms we’ve talked about in class to make sense of the poem.

• Answer the questions in pen using MLA format on loose leaf.

• This assignment is due on Thursday.

This is a summative assessment.

Theme – the underlining message of the poem