Module 6

Poetry
Poetry and Its Forms
Every poem is an expression of human sentiments, sometimes
happy, sometimes bitter, sometimes casual.
Numerous poets have different views on poetry. For
Wordsworth, “it is the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings.” For Edgar Allan Poe, “it is the rhythmic creation of
beauty.” Dylan Thomas thinks that “Poetry is what makes me
laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes
me want to do this or that or nothing” (cited from SyGaco, 2017).
For Marjorie Evasco, a Filipino poet (cited from SyGaco,
2017), “Poems tell stories, paint pictures or scenes and sing the
spirit to a listening stillness. Poems invite the readers to
learn by heart and teach them how to travel light. They require
the reader’s collaboration, the imaginative process to complete
the experience.” Evasco added that “The freshness of the poems
would still be for nothing if the reader doesn’t know how to
bring forward many images.”
*Persona is the speaker in the poem. He or she could be anyone or
could be something which represents an idea, issue, humanity,
emotion, etc.

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Forms of Poetry

a. Lyric Poetry is a singing short and simple poem with an

accompaniment of a lyre that expresses emotions and feelings of
the poet.

Types of Lyric Poetry

1. Folksongs are short poems that are tainted with
love, hope, joy, grief, sadness, or sorrow as common
themes.
2. Sonnets can be Italian, Petrarchan, or Shakespearean
with 14 lines illustrating emotions, feelings, and
ideas.
3. Elegy demonstrates grief and melancholy to the dead.
Example: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by
Thomas Grey
 4. Ode expresses noble yet dignified emotions with no
definite syllable or lines per stanza
Example: Ode to the West Wind by Shelley
5. Psalms (Dalit) illustrates praise songs of God as
well as the Virgin Mary
6. Song (Awit) contains twelve syllables accompanied by
a guitar or banduria in a slow tempo.
Example: The Highway Man by Alfred Noyes
7. Corridos show eight syllables which is spoken to
synchronize a martial tap.
Example: Ibong Adarna by Jose Dela Cruz (Huseng Sisiw)
b. Narrative Poetry tells the significant events in life or make-
believe. Epic, metrical tale, and ballad comprise the narrative
verse.
Types of Narrative Poetry
1. Epic demonstrates heroism of gods and the fantastic.
It is often circuitous and is an unending tale.
Example: Beowulf
2. Metrical Tale can be a ballad or a metrical romance
revealing love and supernatural stories.
3. Ballads display the shortest and the simplest poems
accompanied by a dance that will narrate any of the
themes such as war, sea, humor, moral, mystical or
historical.
c. Dramatic Poetry written for the theater which can be often
lyrical and provides dramatic monologues.
Types of Dramatic Poetry
1. Comedy provides amusing and happy endings.
2. Melodrama covers musical plays with an opera on it
that will link to
misfortune. There is sadness in the tale but
the main character has a
happy fate towards the end.
3. Tragedy invokes catharsis or pleasure among the
audience where
the hero struggles meeting his or her
misfortune.
4. Farce is an exaggerated and extravagant comedy where
characters
are like caricatures and quite absurd.
5. Social Poems can be comic or tragic whose goal is to
bring social
changes in the community.
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Elements of Poetry
I. Sense is revealed through the use of words, images and
symbols.
A. Diction is the denotative (dictionary meaning) and
connotative words or the
meaning assigned by the writer to the words he uses in
his literary piece.
B. Figures of Speech is the use of word or words different
from the usual
meaning in order to provide emphasis, freshness of
expression, or clarity.
It can be created through the four fundamental
operations:
1. addition (adiectio), also called
repetition/expansion/superabundance
2. omission (detraction) also called
subtraction/abridgement/lack th
3. transposition (transmutatio) also called
.transferring
4.permutation (immutatio) also called
interchange/switching/substitution/transmutatio
n
The Figures of Speech
1. Simile (from the Latin word simile which means
similar) is a stated
comparison between two things that are different,
but share some
common element. It is introduced by like, as, as if,
than similar to
resemble, etc.
Examples: 1. His mind is like a sponge.
2. Your eyes are as bright as the stars.
2. Metaphor (from the Greek verb methapherein which
means to carry
over) is a suggested or implied comparison between two
unlike things without the use of as, as if, like.
Examples: 1. He is a walking encyclopedia.
2. Character is a diamond that scratches
every other stone.
3. Personification gives human qualities or attributes
to an object, an
animal, or an idea.
Examples: 1. The volcano is very angry.
2. Time had fallen asleep in the afternoon
sunshine
4. Metonymy (from the Greek prefix meta, which means
change + the root onoma, name + the noun suffix –y)
consists in substitution the literal noun for another
which it suggests because it is somehow associated with
it.
Examples: 1. There is Death (poison) in the cup.
2. Malacañang announced a non-working
holiday.
(the president)
5. Hyperbole (from the Greek prefix hyper which means
beyond + the
root ballein, to throw) is a deliberate
overstatement or exaggeration
– not to deceive, but to emphasize a statement –
often for humorous
effect.
Examples: 1. She cried forever!
2. I’ve been waiting for eternity.
6. Irony is a statement of one idea, the opposite of
which is meant.
Examples: 1. You’re so lovely today, you look like a
Christmas tree.
2. How good of you to put me into shame.

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7. Oxymoron is the combining of contraries (opposites)

to portray a particular image or to produce a striking
effect.
Examples: 1. Less is more.
2. Sound of silence
8. Apostrophe is a direct address to an inanimate
object, a dead person (as if present), or an idea.
Examples: 1. Oh, Rizal, where is the hope of our
motherland?
2. Abraham, look at your children!
9. Synecdoche uses a part to represent the whole.
Examples: 1. I feed eleven mouths. (for persons)
2. She is the brain of this group. (the
leader)
10. Paradox uses contradictory statements but in a
closer examination turns out to make sense.
Examples: 1. You can save money by spending it.
2. The more you hate, the more you love.
11. Litotes makes a deliberate understatement used to
affirm by
negating its opposite
 Examples: 1. She is not pretty that she attracts many
men.
2. War is not healthy for children and
other living things.
12. Antithesis involves a contrast of words or ideas.
Examples: 1. Love is so short……Forgetting is so long.
2. They promised freedom and provided
slavery.
13. Onomatopoeia is the formation or use of words which
imitate
sounds, but the term is generally expanded to
refer t any word
whose sound is suggested of its meaning whether
by imitation or
cultural inference.
Examples: 1. buzz
2. bang
C. Imagery and sense impression is the creation of a picture
or images in the
mind of a reader by the use of words that appeal to
the senses.
1. Visual Imagery is the imagery produced by the use of
words that
appeal to the sense of sight like dark,
scintillating, and neon signs.
2. Auditory Imagery is the imagery produced by the use
of words that
appeal to the sense of hearing as in loud,
explosion and creaking.
3. Olfactory Imagery is the imagery created by the use
of words that
appeal to the sense of smell, as in odorous,
fragrant, and stinks.
4. Gustatory Imagery is the imagery made by the use of
words that
appeal to the sense of taste like sour,
sweet, and flavorful.
5. Tactile Imagery is the imagery produced by the use
of words that
appeal to the sense of touch like slimy,
greasy, and stiff.
6. Kinesthetic Imagery is the imagery created by the
use of words that
appeal to the sense of movement, as in
galloping, squinting, and
jumping.
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7. Thermal Imagery is the imagery made by the use of

words that
appeal to the sense of heat, such as
lukewarm, frigid, and steamy.

II. Sound is the use of tone color, rhythm, and measure to

produce euphony
(good sound) and harmony in poetry.
A. Tone Color is the element resulting from the use of
the following
sound devices:
1. Alliteration, a figure of sound which is the
repetition of the i
initial letter or sound in a
succession of words.
Examples: 1. sea shell, sea shell in the sea shore
2. Tiny Tony takes tea for tonight.
2. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sound (not
necessarily
the initial sound) in a succession of
words.
Examples: 1. Haste makes waste.
2. Nine times ninety-nine.
3. Anaphora is a figure of a repetition of a word
or words at the
beginning of lines, clauses, or
sentences.
Examples: 1. Thou shall not kill.
2. Thou shall not steal.
4. Consonance is the repetition of consonant sound
(not
necessarily the initial sound) in
a succession of words
Examples: 1. Betty baked Toby a banana cake.
2. Ninety-nine nannies renewed their
contracts.
B. Rhyme is the presence of words that have identical
or similar
(approximate) final sounds, the recurrence of the
same final sounds
result in what is known as rhyme pattern such as
aabb (star-are-
 high-sky), abab (star-high-are-sky), or abba (star-
high-sky-are).
1. Internal Rhyme is the rhyme that exists within
a line.
Example: “In litanies of silentness”
2. Terminal Rhyme exists at the end of line as in
Jose Garcia
Vila’s ”God Said, I Made a Man”
“God said, I made a man
Out of day ---
But so bright he, he spun
Himself to brightest Day”
3. Perfect/Exact Rhyme is exhibited by words
having identical
final sounds as i n rhyme-time, sound-
round, and final-fatal.
4. Approximate/Imperfect Rhyme is exhibited
by words having
similar or approximate final sounds, as
in rhyme-thine,
sound-count, and final—fable.
5. Eye Rhyme is exhibited by words having the same
final letters
with differing sounds, as in come-home,
Joan-loan, and
comb-tomb.

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6. Masculine/Single Rhyme is displayed by one-

syllable words, as
in lame-dame, star-are, and high-sky.
7. Feminine/Double Rhyme is shown by two-syllable
words with
stress on the first syllable, as in mother-
father, children-
brethren, and walking-talking.
8. Triple Rhyme is exhibited by three-syllable
words with stress
on the same syllable (either first, second, or
third) as in:
wonderful-beautiful, outrageous-courageous,
and snorkeling-
funneling.
 9. Compound Rhyme is exhibited by compound words
producing
two pairs of rhyming words, as in eyesight--
daylight,
moonwalk—goon talk, and dishcloth—fish broth.
10. Rime riche/Identical Rhyme is displayed by
homophonous
words or homonyms, as in seen—scene, sight—
site, and
night-knight.
11. Monorime is displayed by a stanza having
terminal words
with the same final sounds as in Jose Garcia
Villa’s couplet;
“First, a poem must be magical,/Then musical
as a seagull”.
12. Dirime is shown by a stanza having two pairs
or sets of
rhyming words at the end of lines.
13. Tririme is exhibited by a stanza having three
pairs or sets of rhyming words at the end of
lines.
C. Rhythm like the beat of music, is the recurrence of
pattern of sound. It is
the regular succession of accented and unaccented
syllables in a line,
associated with the metrical feet classified below.
It may be choppy or
smooth, fast or slow.
1. Iamb -- a two-syllable foot which is accented on the
second syllable
Examples: aLONE, beGAN, reFILL
2. Anapest/Antidactylus --a three-syllable foot which
is accented o the
third syllable
Examples: overTURN, maraTHON
3. Trochee/Choree/Choreus -- a two-syllable foot which
is accented on
the first syllable
Examples: HARbor, MAson, FAvor
4. Dactyl – a three-syllable foot which is accented on
the first syllable
Examples: TERrible, SAnity, ORchestra
5. Spondee – a two-syllable foot which is accented on
both syllables
 Examples: MARRY, FAIRY
6. Pyrrhus/Pyrrhic/Dibrach – a two-syllable foot which
is unaccented on
both syllable
Examples: butter, copy, happy
7. Tribrach –a three-syllable foot which is unaccented
on all syllables
Examples: trinity, misery
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8. Amphibrach – a three-syllable foot which is accented

on the second
syllable

Examples: amNEsia, bapTISmal, syNOPsis

9.Bacchius – a three-syllable foot which has one
unaccented syllable
followed by two accented ones
10. Antibacchius – a three-syllable foot which has two
accented
syllables followed by one unaccented one
11. Amphimacer/Cretic – a three-syllable foot which has
an unaccented
syllable between two accented ones
12. Molossus – a three-syllable foot which is consists
of three accented
syllables

D. Meter is the measure with which we count the beat of rhythm.

It is taken from the Greek word ”metron” meaning “in measure.” It
is the stress, duration or number of syllables per line, fixed
metrical pattern, or a verse form, quantitative, syllabic,
accentual and accentual syllabic.
1. Monometer is a line which has one foot.(means one
syllable)
Example: I
am
gay.
2. Dimeter is a line which has two feet.(two syllables)
Example: Believe,
in me;
always.
 3. Trimeter is a line which has three feet. (three
syllables)
Example: Remember,
that I am;
forever.
4. Tetrameter is a line which has four feet. (four
syllables)
Example: Destiny is,
a journey to;
eternity.
5. Pentameter is a line which has five feet. (five
syllables)
Example: How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways…
(lines from How Do I Love Thee by Elizabeth Browning)
6. Hexameter is a line which has six feet. (six
syllables)
Example: We can do anything,
In glory or in shame;
7. Heptameter is a line which has seven feet. (seven
syllables)

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Example: Yes, I have a thousand tongues,

And nine and ninety nine lies.
(lines from Yes, I Have a Thousand Tongues by Stephen
Crane)
8. Octameter is a line which has eight feet. (eight
syllables)
Example: I think that I shall never see,

A poem as lovely as a tree.

(lines taken from Trees by Hellen Keller)

E. Rhyme Scheme is the formal arrangement of rhymes in a stanza

or the whole
poem.
1. Shakespearean (or English Sonnet) is a sonnet because it
is composed of fourteen lines. It has three quatrains (with
three stanzas of four lines each) and one couplet ( a stanza
 with two lines). It has abab-cdcd-efef-gg rhyme scheme. The
meter is iambic pentameter.
Example: When In Disgrace
by: William Shakespeare

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

a
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
b
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
a
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
b

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

c
Featured like him, like him with
friends possessed, d
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope;
c
With what I most enjoyed contented least;
d

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

e
Haply I think on thee – and then my state,
f
Like to the lark at break of day arising
e
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate
f

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

g
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
g

2. Spenserian is composed of three quatrains and one couplet

with abab-bcbc-cdcd-ee rhyme scheme. It consists of five
foot iambic lines followed by Alexandrine, or line of six
iambic feet, this being to break the monotony of the
terminal rhyming five-foot couplet.

44
 Example:
Amoretti (Sonnet 75)
by: Edmund Spenser

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

a
But came the waves and washed it away: b

Again I wrote it with a second hand,

a
But came the; tide, and made my pains his
prey. b

“Vain man,” said she, ‘that dost in vain assay,

b
A mortal thing so to immortalize; c
For I myself shall like to this decay,
b
And eke my name be wiped out likewise.”
c

“Not so,” (quod I) “let baser things devise

c
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
d
My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,
c
And in heavens write your glorious name:
d

Where whenas death shall all the world subdue’

e
Our love shall live, and later life renew.”
e

3. Petrarchan is composed of one octave (eight lines in

a stanza) and one
sestet (six lines in a stanza) with abbaabba cdcdcd
rhyme scheme.
Example:
During the Life of Laura
by: Petrarch
O ye that hear in vagrant rhymes the sighing
a
 On which the headlong heart of youth went feeding,
b
When, still unseasoned, still at folly’s leading
b
I turned from fears in sudden tenor flying
a
To hopes whose glitter proved no less a lying—
a
As variously related for your reading—
b
If ever from Love’s arrow ye fled bleeding,
b
Pity, and pardon me this anguished crying!
a

But well I know how, I must walk derided,

c
A jest, a syllable in tavern chatter;
d
By self-reproach my self-deceit goes chided,
c
And shame is all the fruit my follies scatter—
d
Shame and a sense of pleasures that have glided
c
Like ghosts in a dream too trivial to matter.
d

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III. Structure is a property of poetry which refers to the way

the words are put together or arranged such that they make
sense. Structure is composed of the following:
a. Word order is the natural and unnatural arrangement of
words. b. Punctuation may be the presence or absence
of punctuation marks like,
comma, semi colon and period.
c. Shape is the contextual and visual designs, jumps,
omission of spaces,
capitalization and lower case.

Structure could be of vertical and horizontal measure.

 A. Vertical Measure is the number of lines within a stanza
or the number of
stanza
1. Couplet is a poem or stanza which has two lines.
Example: But in your fear you would see only
love’s peace and love’s pleasure
(Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet)
2. Triplet is a poem or stanza which has monoriming
lines
Example: Oh, Philippines, you’re the land of my birth.
You’re teaming with
bountiful Nature’s wealth;
But, of good leaders , suffering from
dearth.
(Philippines, My Philippines)
3. Tercet is a poem or stanza which has three lines
that are not
monoriming
Example: To whom should I speak today?
Brother are evil;
The friends of today love not.
(To Whom Should I Speak Today? by T. Eric
Peet)
4. Terza Rima is a poem or stanza which has three lines
with the
following rhyme scheme aba-bcb-cdc-ded, etc.
Example: Before the Spaniards set foot here,
a
Three waves of migrators arrived;
b
The black Negritoes first came
here. a

Atop the trees they simply thrived,

b
They fed on fruits and vegetables;
c
With the barest needs they survived.
b

The next group of men more stable,

c
And better built than the first came;
d
With their crude tools they were able.
c
 The hunt for food such as game,
d
The last group known as the Malays;
e
The Pinoys’ ancestors became
d
46

(from The Early Settlers)

5. Quatrain is a poem or stanza which has four lines.

Example: We are no other than a moving row
Of magic Shadow-shapes that come and go

Round with this sun-illumined lantern, held

In midnight by the Master of the Show.
(from Stanza LXVIII of Rubaiyat by Omar
Kayyam)
6. Cinquain/Quintet/Quintain is a poem or stanza with five
lines.
Example: Yes, I have a thousand tongues,
And nine and ninety-nine lie.

Though I strive to use the one,

It will make no melody at my will,
But is dead in my mouth.
(Yes, I Have A Thousand Tongues, by Stephen
Crane)
7. Sestet is a poem or stanza which has six lines.
Example: It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may
By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me.
(from Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe)
8. Septet is a poem or stanza which has seven lines.
Example: But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we,
Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels of heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
 Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee,
(from Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe)
9. Octave is a poem or stanza which has eight lines.
Example: Education is a key to success,
A college diploma makes us winners;
Without it, we will turn into losers.
At work are many competing forces
In almost all the different courses.
Education is shown through good manners,

47

In transforming for the better, not worse.

Success gained through educative process.
(from Education Key to Success by Jose Rizal)
10. Nonet is a poem or stanza which has nine lines.
Example: Life
Is short
That we have
To make good use
Of every second
Of our waking time.
Let us not waste precious time;
Let us make every minute count;
Let’s spend everyday meaningfully.
(A Short Life Worth Living)

11. Etheree is a poem or stanza which has ten lines with a

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 syllable count or the reverse 10-9-8-7-
6-5-4-3-2-1 syllable count. It may
be doubled (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
syllable count), tripled, quadrupled, and so on.
Example: You
Are the
Only one
Who makes me feel
Genuinely happy.
When you are beside me;
I derive satisfaction
From your warm smile, from your embrace,
From your gentle touch and sweet kisses,
Indeed, you really put me in a trance.
 12. Sonnet is a poem which has 14 lines. It may be
Shakespearean, Spencerian, Petrarchan or Filipino, with
variable rhyme scheme or vertical measure. (Examples of
sonnets were discussed in the rhyme scheme.)
13. Tail-rhyme stanza are those characterized by the
presence of two or more six short lines together and serving
as tails to the various parts of the stanza.
Example: We, sleekit cow’rin, tim’rous,beastie,
Oh, what a panic’s in the breastie!
Thou need a start awa sae hasty
Wi, bicherin brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee
Wi, murd’rin pattie!

B. Horizontal Measure is the number of syllables or metrical feet

within a line.
1. Monosyllabic is a line which has one syllable, such as
the last line in a nonet or the first line in an etheree.
48

Example: I
was
sad.
2. Disyllabic is a line which has two syllables.
Example: Loving
is best
for us.
3. Trisyllabic is a line which has three syllables.
Example: Forever
is never
a promise.
4. Tetrasyllabic is a line with four syllables.
Example: There is a word
Which bears a sword
(There Is A Word by Emily Dickinson)
5. Pentasyllabic has five syllables.
Example: Why shouldn’t I say
That the parrot’s mine
When only of in light
That the parrot’s mine
When only of in flight
Can I not trap it?
(Tubad-Tubad, translated by Abdulla Madali)
6. Hexasyllabic a line with six syllables.
Example: Down river, up river
 rows the boatman singing
(Chantney by Ramon Escoda)
7. Heptasyllabic is a line with seven syllables.
Example: Africa, my Africa
Africa of proud warriors
In ancestral savannahs,
(from Africa)
8. Octasyllabic is a line with eight syllables.
Example: Wise education, vital breath
Inspires an enchanting virtue
(from Education Gives Luster to the Motherland by
Jose Rizal)
9. Nonasyllabic is a line with nine syllables.
Example: For loneliness is a silver word,
An acid wine, or a broken chord
(from Hermit’s Chant by Francisco Tonogbanua)
10. Decasyllabic is a line which has ten lines.
Example: Rise from your dreams, I bring you love more sweet
(from Soft Night by Abelardo Subido)
11. Undecasyllabic is a line with eleven syllables.
Example: Then you must follow her teaching and obey…
49

Only then can we prove we respect deeply

(from Our Plea by Marra Lanot and Lilia Santiago)
12. Dodecasyllabic is a line with twelve syllables.
Example: But let there be spaces in your togetherness.
And let the winds of the heavens dance between
you.
(from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran)
C. Parallelism is the use of similar structure in poetry and
prose works.
Example: The youth of the land is a proud and noble appellation
The youth of the land is a panoramic poem,
The youth of the land is a book of paradoxes.
(from Like the Molave)

D. Ellipsis is the omission of some words or phrases to produce a

literary effect.
Example: Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
(from the Prayer of Peace)