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FIND OUT MORE. Theatre 344–345 • Writers 348

“Bright”

sounds like

“night”, which

is a rhyme.

RHYME AND METRE

Poetry

Poetry (verse) is literature that works through sounds and images. It was

originally recited (spoken aloud) to an audience, and its rhythms and

sounds affect the meaning of the words. Poetic language is concentrated

(it says a lot in few words) and expresses feelings and ideas.

WHAT IS METRE?

Metre is the rhythm of a poem. Rhythm is created

by the stressed (long) and unstressed (short) syllables

(parts of a word) in a line. Short and long syllables

are arranged in fixed patterns known as feet. A foot

with a long and a short syllable is called a trochee.

A line with ten syllables is called a pentameter.

DO POEMS ALWAYS HAVE RHYME AND RHYTHM?

Rhyme (when words sound the same) does not always

suit the subject or feeling of a poem, so many poets

write poetry that does not rhyme, called blank verse.

Paradise Lost, the epic poem by John Milton (1608–

1674), does not rhyme but has a particular metre

(rhythm). Poetry without metre is called free verse.

IS A VERSE THE SAME AS A STANZA?

Verse can mean poetry in general, or it can mean a

paragraph of poetry, also called a stanza.

Traditionally, a stanza contains no more than 12 lines.

A two-line stanza is called a couplet, a four-line

couplet is a quatrain.

1 POETRY IN PERFORMANCE
Poems are often best appreciated when read aloud. Here the English poet
Benjamin Zephaniah recites his poetry at a concert. Popular music that
uses the spoken word, such as rap and hip-hop, is a new type of poetry.

1 THE TYGER BY WILLIAM BLAKE

Blake (1757–1827) was a painter

and a poet. This powerful poem

asks questions about the creation

of the world and good and evil.

1 18TH-CENTURY HAIKU

This is a simple form of poetry

from Japan that contains only

17 syllables. A haiga is a painting

of the words and image of a haiku.

WHAT IS THE OLDEST POEM?

The oldest written poem is the Epic of Gilgamesh

from Babylon. It is about 4,000 years old and tells

the story of a king, Gilgamesh, who was half-man,

half-god. The oldest poem in English is Beowulf,

written in the 8th century CE. This 3,000-line epic is

about a Scandinavian hero, Beowulf, who saves the

Danes from two monsters – Grendel and its mother.

WHAT ARE POETIC DEVICES?

Poetic devices are the special tricks and techniques

that make poetry different from everyday language.

Alliteration repeats consonants, as in “slithering

snake” – the repeated use of the “s” makes us think

of the sound a snake makes, which strengthens the

image. Other common devices are metaphor and

simile, both forms of comparison. A simile uses “like”

or “as”: “My love is like a red, red rose.” A metaphor

does not: “My love is a red rose.”

ARE THERE DIFFERENT TYPES OF POETRY?

The epic was the earliest known type of poetry,

presenting a long narrative (story) of amazing

heroic deeds. Lyric poetry, originally a song for

a lyre (an ancient musical instrument), is short

and often expresses the poet’s own ideas or feelings.

Dramatic poetry is written in the voices of different

characters and can be acted.

1

2

1 This symbol shows a metric foot. This type of foot is called a trochee

and contains a stressed syllable (“Ty-”) and an unstressed one (“-ger”).

2 This symbol shows a syllable or word that stands alone.

THERE WAS AN OLD MAN ON WHOSE NOSE

MOST BIRDS OF THE AIR COULD REPOSE ... 3

The English poet Edward Lear (1812–1888) invented

nonsense poems called limericks, consisting of five lines

that rhyme – usually in unexpected and

amusing ways. He also illustrated his poems.

Two lines that

rhyme form a

pair called

a couplet.

A

A

B

B

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

poetry