Poetry Structure

Poetry is organized into lines and stanzas. Stanzas are the

“paragraphs” of poetry and each stanza will have the same

number of lines. Irregular stanzas are called strophes.

Rhyme

• Rhyme is the repetition of the same stressed vowel sounds and any succeeding sounds in two or more words. – Internal rhyme occurs when two or more

words in the same line rhyme– End rhyme occurs at the end of lines

Rhyme Scheme

• The pattern of end rhymes in a poem is called a rhyme scheme– The lines are identified by a letter, and each

new sound gets a new letter in the alphabet

Rhythm

• Rhythm is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.– A poem’s rhythm can be regular or irregular.– Rhythm is measured in two or three syllable

units– Trochee, Iamb, Dactyl, Anapest, Amphibrach

Types of rhythm

• Trochee – two syllables—the first one stressed, the second unstressed.

• Iamb – two syllables—the first one unstressed, the second stressed

• Dactyl – three syllables – the first one stressed, followed by two unstressed

• Anapest – three syllables—two unstressed followed by one stressed syllable

• Amphibrach – three syllables—one unstressed, one stressed, one unstressed syllable

Meter

• Meter is the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that can establish the rhythm of a poem.

• Meter is measured in feet and named by the number of feet– Monometer- Dimeter - Trimeter– Tetrameter - Pentameter - Hexameter– Heptameter - Octameter

Scansion

• Scansion is the process of marking the rhyme scheme, rhythm, and meter of a poem.– Stressed syllables are marked with “ / ”– Unstressed syllables are marked with “ 0 ”– Feet are divided by a vertical line

I’ve heard it in the chillest land

And on the strangest Sea–

Yet, never, in Extremity,

It asked a crumb—of Me.

The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play.

So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day.

I sat there with Sally, we sat there we two,

And I said, “How I wish we had something to do.”