Poetry

• In Western civilization the oral tradition was how stories were told and preserved. This is the origin of poetry.

• Poems always have themes. Love has been the preeminent theme throughout history.

• Poetry in the earlier centuries had very strict conventions (closed-verse) when it came to rhyme and rhythm

• In the 19th century more open forms of poetry emerged.• In the 20th century free verse dominated poetry and

continues to today though some poets are returning to stricter formats.

Scansion

• Scansion is the act of scanning a line of poetry• Each unit of stressed and unstressed syllable is a foot• The meter (formal rhythm) of a poem is signaled by the type of

foot it employs and the number of feet in each line: 4 (tetrameter), 5 (pentameter), 6 (hexameter), 7 (heptameter) feet are the most common

• Most poems employ a single meter throughout with specific feet to create emphasis

• Scansion is relevant in the analysis of poems of a certain genre, by a specific author, from a certain time period as it is a way of identifying a pattern within a work (as discussed in the last lesson about Critical Reading)

Poetic Rhymes• Seen often in closed-verse• Emerged in the Middle Ages. Latin and Greek were based on meter.• End-rhyme is what we see most often in poems and songs• Masculine rhyme – Final syllables of an exact rhyme are stressed and

identical– Short and Sort– Long and Throng

• Feminine rhyme – Unstressed syllable rhyming with stressed syllable– Explicit and Visit

• Triple rhyme – Final three syllables are identical – Merrily and Verily

• Half or off-rhyme – Only final consonant rhymes exactly– Ill able and Syllable

Other Poetic Rhymes• Eye rhyme – Appears to rhyme based on spelling but pronounced

differently– Plow and Blow

• Internal rhyme – Two words in a line rhyming– I went home to find my comb

• Alliteration – Repetition of initial sounds– Amazing America– Incredible India– Always asleep

• Assonance – Repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonants– Coop, comb

• Consonance – Repetition of consonant sound with different vowel sound– Come to my arms my beamish boys

Unrhymed Forms

• Blank verse – epic poetry, mirrors the pattern of natural speech

• Haiku, Tanka, Japanese poetry – determined solely by syllables

• Free verse – enormous range of choice• Prose poem – visual appearance of prose but

has poetic aspects

Analyzing Poetry

• Poetic rhythm is identified by the meter of the lines• Structure of stanzas (groupings of lines)• Parse sentences of poem• Analyze adherence of diversion from poetic

convention• Meter has a more subliminal effect affecting our

feelings towards the tone of a poem• Rhyme and repetition can be more obvious and

overt in their aesthetic and oral effect

Fiction

• Artistic depiction of facts that may be real or completely imagined.

• Classified by Genre (science fiction, romance) and by Length (novel, short story)

• Common forms of fiction– Short Story– Novella– Novel

Elements of Fiction• Plot

– Events which occur, motivation and driving force of the story• Character• Narration

– Reliable Narrator– Unreliable Narrator– Different Points of View

• First Person• Second Person• Third Person

• Setting– Time period– Physical location and environment

Diction/Word Choice

• Exercise– Asked vs. Interrogated– Existence vs. Life– Said vs. Declared– Dad vs. Father

• Meaning and context– Father instead of Dad in a fight scene – what

would that indicate?