...Whether rap should be considered poetry has been an ongoing debate in the literary world for years. People who believe that it should be considered poetry argue that rap has rhythm and rhyme and is filled with emotion, while people who argue against it say that rap is a bunch of meaningless mumbo jumbo, but before we jump into the question of whether rap is poetry, let us ask the question, what is poetry? A poem could be long or short, profound or silly, metaphorical or literal. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines poetry as “writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm”. Because poetry comes in many different styles and forms, I believe that rap should be considered poetry. The first reason why rap is poetry that it utilizes rhythm and rhyme. Both rhythm and rhyme are defining aspects of poetry. Rhythm in poetry is created by a metric pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables,...
Words: 698 - Pages: 3
...most general genres in literature are (in loose chronological order) epic, tragedy,[1] comedy, and creative nonfiction.[citation needed] They can all be in the form of prose or poetry. Additionally, a genre such as satire, allegory or pastoral might appear in any of the above, not only as a subgenre (see below), but as a mixture of genres. Finally, they are defined by the general cultural movement of the historical period in which they were composed. Genre should not be confused with age categories, by which literature may be classified as either adult, young-adult, or children's. They also must not be confused with format, such as graphic novel or picture book. GenresEdit For more details on this topic, see List of literary genres. Just as in painting, there are different types: the landscape, the still life, the portrait; there are different types of literary works. These types tend to share specific characteristics. Genres describe those works which share specific conventions.[2] Genres are often divided into subgenres. Literature, is divided into the classic three forms of Ancient Greece, poetry, drama, and prose. Poetry may then be subdivided into the genres of lyric, epic, and dramatic. The lyric includes all the shorter forms of poetry, e.g., song, ode, ballad, elegy, sonnet.[2] Dramatic poetry might include comedy, tragedy, melodrama, and mixtures like tragicomedy. The standard division of drama into tragedy and comedy derives from Greek drama.[2] This parsing into...
Words: 3155 - Pages: 13
...Nature of Poetry: Genres and Subgenres Introduction, Out of Chaos Order and Pattern formed by Rhyme: Order and Pattern formed by Rhythm: Major Types • Epic • Narrative • Lyrical The student should also recall that many of these terms can be found in Prof. Rearick's literary glossary at this link. Introduction, Out of Chaos Poetry is as old as the human heart. Long before there were libraries, before people were writing down lines, before there were even cities, commerce or any manifestation of what we think of as culture, there was poetry. More than one critic has noted that literary works are, in some way, an attempt by writers to take the unacceptable chaos of human life and bring order into it. An overt reference to this is Wilde's famous observation given through the voice of Miss Prism, describing her own three volume novel: "The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means." (The Importance of Being Earnest, Act II, Emphasis Mine). To Wilde fiction tried to take the chaotic quality of the unfairness of life and turn it right. Perhaps Poetry is pleasant to human ears because it attempts to the most random of things, human speech, and tries to bring it into some sort of order and pattern. Order and Pattern formed by Rhyme: Most students think that poetry is made when words are brought together which have the same kind of sound at the end of them, but this is only one type of the many kinds of rhyme. Old English poetry, for example...
Words: 696 - Pages: 3
...The word poetry is an ancient Greek word ποιεω (poieo), which means “I create”. In other words poetry is the sound and meaning of words combined to express feelings, thoughts, and ideas. Poetry is usually written in lines. There are many elements of poetry, these includes: Rhythm, Sound, Imagery, Form. RHYTHM Rhythm is the flow of the beat in a poem. Gives poetry a musical feel. Can be fast or slow, depending on mood and subject of poem. You can measure rhythm in meter, by counting the beats in each line. SOUND Writers love to use interesting sounds in their poems. After all, poems are meant to be heard. These sound devices include: Rhyme Repetition Alliteration Onomatopoeia “In a poem the words should be as pleasing to the ear as the meaning is to the mind.” -- Marianne Moore RHYME Rhymes are words that end with the same sound. (Hat, cat and bat rhyme.) Rhyming sounds don’t have to be spelled the same way. (Cloud and allowed rhyme.) Rhyme is the most common sound device in poetry. RHYMING PATTERNS Poets can choose from a variety of different rhyming patterns: AABB – lines 1 & 2 rhyme and lines 3 & 4 rhyme ABAB – lines 1 & 3 rhyme and lines 2 & 4 rhyme ABBA – lines 1 & 4 rhyme and lines 2 & 3 rhyme ABCB – lines 2 & 4 rhyme and lines 1 & 3 do not rhyme REPETETION Repetition occurs when poets repeat words, phrases, or lines in a poem. Creates a pattern. Increases rhythm. Strengthens feelings...
Words: 663 - Pages: 3
...What is Poetry? Poetry can be defined as 'literature in a metrical form' or 'a composition forming rhythmic lines'. In short, a poem is something that follows a particular flow of rhythm and meter. Compared to prose, where there is no such restriction, and the content of the piece flows according to story, a poem may or may not have a story, but definitely has a structured method of writing. Elements of Poetry There are several elements which make up a good poem. Although it is not mandatory for a poet to use all these elements or devices, they form an important aspect of poetry. So what are the elements of a poem? In brief, they are described below. Rhythm: This is the music made by the statements of the poem, which includes the syllables in the lines. The best method of understanding this is to read the poem aloud, and understand the stressed and unstressed syllables. Listen for the sounds and the music made when we hear the lines spoken aloud. How do the words resonate with each other? How do the words flow when they are linked with one another? Does sound right? Do the words fit with each other? These are the things you consider while studying the rhythm of the poem. Meter: This is the basic structural make-up of the poem. Do the syllables match with each other? Every line in the poem must adhere to this structure. A poem is made up of blocks of lines, which convey a single strand of thought. Within those blocks, a structure of syllables which follow the rhythm...
Words: 1895 - Pages: 8
...English - Final Exam Terms to Know The following link is very helpful: Examples Glossary from Your Dictionary Alliteration In alliteration, the first consonant sound is repeated in several words. A good example is “wide-eyed and wondering while we wait for others to waken”. Alliteration can be fun, as in tongue twisters like: “Kindly kittens knitting mittens keep kazooing in the king's kitchen 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Alice’s aunt ate apples and acorns around August. Becky’s beagle barked and bayed, becoming bothersome for Billy. Carries cat clawed her couch, creating chaos. Dan’s dog dove deep in the dam, drinking dirty water as he dove. Eric’s eagle eats eggs, enjoying each episode of eating. Examples of Alliteration Allusion “I was surprised his nose was not growing like Pinocchio’s.” This refers to the story of Pinocchio, where his nose grew whenever he told a lie. It is from The Adventures of Pinocchio, written by Carlo Collodi. “When she lost her job, she acted like a Scrooge, and refused to buy anything that wasn’t necessary.” Scrooge was an extremely stingy character from Charles Dickens’, A Christmas Carol. “I thought the software would be useful, but it was a Trojan Horse.” This refers to the horse that the Greeks built that contained all the soldiers. It was given as a gift to the enemy during the Trojan War and, once inside the enemy's walls, the soldiers broke out. By using trickery, the Greeks won the war. “He was a real Romeo with the ladies.” Romeo was a character...
Words: 3244 - Pages: 13
...One’s view of poetry is extremely personal. With over fifty-five different formal styles of poetry to choose from (Kennedy & Gioia 681-717) no two individual’s tastes will coincide, the same can be said for poets. No one will argue that Walt Whitman and Herman Melville have vastly different techniques for chronicling the events they experienced. This is especially true for the author’s interpretations of events leading up to, throughout, and after the American Civil War. Although they approached their subject from the same vantage point, that of the Union or Northern Army, both author’s writing styles could not be more different. Melville and Whitman’s family history, personal experiences, professional interactions and literary notoriety all factor into their chosen poetic style and content. The following is a critical analysis of these similarities and differences using select works from Melville’s Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War and Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. The list of recommended poems is not sufficient to adequately fulfill this requirement. For thoroughness, additional poems...
Words: 2287 - Pages: 10
...Poetry (from the Greek "poiesis" — "ποίησις" — with a broad meaning of a "making", seen also in such terms as "hemopoiesis"; more narrowly, the making of poetry) is a form of literary art which uses the aesthetic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning. POETRY Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively-informative, prosaic forms of writing. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a fundamental creative act employing language. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly, metaphor, simile and metonymy[1] create a resonance...
Words: 374 - Pages: 2
...Poetry (from the Greek poiesis — ποίησις — with a broad meaning of a "making", seen also in such terms as "hemopoiesis"; more narrowly, the making of poetry) is a form of literary art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic[1][2][3] qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning. Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively-informative, prosaic forms of writing. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a fundamental creative act employing language. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly...
Words: 384 - Pages: 2
...and or “appears” Metaphor: “to be”, “is”, “are”, “was” and or “were” Metonymy: a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another Synecdoche: a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole Image: the thought of how something looks or might look Imagery: language that causes people to imagine pictures in their mind Meter: arranged and measured rhythm in verse Foot: the basic unit of verse meter consisting of any of various fixed combinations or groups of stressed and unstressed or long and short syllables Iamb: unstressed-stressed Trochee: stressed-unstressed Anapest: unstressed-unstressed-stressed Dactyl: stressed-unstressed-unstressed Pyrrhic: unstressed-unstressed Spondee: stressed-stressed Scansion: the analysis of verse to show its meter Caesura: a pause separating phases within lines of poetry Rhyme: one of two or more words or phrases that end in the same sounds Alliteration: the use of words that begin with the same sound near one another Assonance: repeating identical or similar vowels in in nearby words (half-rhyme)...
Words: 656 - Pages: 3
...Honors Poetry Terms: MEMORIZE! 1. Allegory- A story in which the characters, settings, and events stand for abstract or moral concepts 2. Alliteration- The repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close to one another at beginning of words. 3. Allusion- Reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, history 4. Anapestic- A foot of three syllables, two short followed by one long in quantitative meter, and two unstressed followed by one stressed in accentual meter 5. Aphorism- A concise, sometimes witty saying that expresses a principle, truth, or observation about life. 6. Apostrophe- A figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses an absent or dead person, abstract quality, or something non-human as if it were present and capable of responding. 7. Assonance- The repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in words that are close together. 8. Ballad- A song or songlike poem that tells a story 9. Blank Verse- Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter 10. Caesura- A pause or break within a line of poetry, usually indicated by the natural rhythm of the language. 11. Canto- A subdivision in a long poem, corresponding to a chapter in a book. 12. Conceit- A fanciful and elaborate figure of speech that makes a surprising connection between two seemingly dissimilar things. 13. Connotation- All the meanings, associations, or emotions that have come to be attached...
Words: 1205 - Pages: 5
...The major two-fold division of literature is that between poetry and prose. Poetry, from the Greek word for "a making," is notable for its unusual structure and meter in language. Poetry uses a number of literary techniques which serve to make it stand apart from prose with obvious differences in rhythm, imagery and meaning. Prose is a term from the Latin word for "straightforward" and is the type of writing that mimics everyday speech. Prose consists of both fiction and non-fiction, imaginative and factual writing.Poetry, which came first in history, employs regular stressed and unstressed syllables to create a sound pattern that improves the literary experience. These patterns of stressed and unstressed sounds create qualities such as melody and rapidity, and evoke emotions such as joy, solemnity, grandiosity, whimsicality, and majesty. Words may seem sonorous or airy, sharp or timid. These sound effects helped people to remember poetry long before writing had ever occurred. Poetry also uses extreme imagery and techniques such as personification, metaphor and simile to create visualization effects that are less often seen in prose. Some poetry uses rhyme and verse schemes to make an effect, but these can sometimes be seen in prose, as well.Prose reverts to the average speech that one might encounter in school, at work, in media or on the street. Prose can be the article in the newspaper or magazine, the journal or online blog, a fiction novel, a non-fiction biography, an essay...
Words: 316 - Pages: 2
...Classification of Literature According to Form * CLASSIFICATION OF LITERATURE ACCORDING TO FORM * POETRY * -one of the three major types of literature * -divided into lines, stanzas, with diverse and unique characteristics and often employ regular rhythmic patterns or meters. * -most poets make use of imagery, figurative language, and special devices * ELEMENTS OF POETRY 1. Persona or the voice- “speaker”, may be a poet or completely different character 1 2. Theme- insight into life revealed by the poem 3. Rhythm and Rhyme-2 (pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry ,3 repetition of sound at the ends of words, * 4. Form/Genre (Lyric, Narrative, Dramatic)4-6 * 5. Diction (Connotative, Denotative) * 6. Literary Devices (Techniques, Figures of Speech) * Miscellaneous elements: * Tone-attitude of the writer 7 * Mood-atmosphere or general feeling * TYPES AND FORMS OF POETRY 1. LYRIC POETRY- meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre -short, simple and easy to understand 8 A. Kinds of Lyric Poetry B. Sonnets- 14 lines with a formal rhyme scheme or pattern 9 C. Elegy- expresses lament or mourning for the dead 10 3. Ode- noble feeling, expressed with dignity and praises * TYPES AND FORMS OF POETRY * 4. Songs- poem w/ or w/o definite number of syllables and stanza and always accompanied by musical instrument * 5. Psalms- song praising God or the Virgin Mary and containing...
Words: 309 - Pages: 2
... 2 lines ---- couplet b. 3 lines ---- tercet c. 4 lines ---- quatrain d. 5 lines ---- cinquain e. 6 lines ---- sestet f. 7 lines ---- heptastich g. 8 lines ---- octave Rhythm: This is the music made by the statements of the poem, which includes the syllables in the lines. The best method of understanding this is to read the poem aloud. Listen for the sounds and the music made when we hear the lines spoken aloud. How do the words resonate with each other? How do the words flow when they are linked with one another? Does sound right? Do the words fit with each other? These are the things you consider while studying the rhythm of the poem. METER of a poem is its rhythmical pattern. This pattern is determined by the number and types of stresses, or beats, in each line. Rhyme: A poem may or may not have a rhyme. When you write poetry that has rhyme, it means that the last words of the lines match with each other in some form. Either the last words of the first and second lines would rhyme with each other or the first and the third, second and the fourth and so on. Rhyme is basically similar sounding words like ‘cat’ and ‘hat’, ‘close’ and ‘shows’, ‘house’ and ‘mouse’ etc. Free verse poetry, though, does not follow this system. Or RHYME is the repetition of sounds at the ends of...
Words: 997 - Pages: 4
...least twice. Read it aloud. Listen to it. Poetry is related to music, so the sound is important. You listen to your favourite CDs many times; the principle is the same. It takes time to fully appreciate and understand a work of art. Make a note of your first impressions or immediate responses, both positive and negative. You may change your mind about the poem later, but these first ideas are worth recording. 2. LITERAL MEANING AND THEME Before you can understand the poem as a whole, you have to start with an understanding of the individual words. Get a good dictionary. Look up, and write down, the meanings of: • • • words you don’t know words you “sort of know” any important words, even if you do know them. Maybe they have more than one meaning (ex. “bar”), or maybe they can function as different parts of speech (ex. “bar” can be a noun or a verb). If the poem was written a long time ago, maybe the history of the word matters, or maybe the meaning of the word has changed over the years (“jet” did not mean an airplane in the 16th century). An etymological dictionary like the Oxford English Dictionary can help you find out more about the history of a particular word. Use an encyclopaedia or the Internet to look up people and places mentioned in the poem. These allusions may be a key to the poet’s attitudes and ideas. As you pay attention to the literal meanings of the words of the poem, you may see some patterns emerging. These patterns may relate to the diction of the poem: does...
Words: 1778 - Pages: 8
