Literature in English · Lesson 5

Poetry: types, metre, sound and imagery

JAMBWAECNECO

What the syllabus asks

JAMB: Poetry: types (sonnet, ode, lyrics, elegy, ballad, panegyric, epic, blank verse etc.); poetic devices (structure, imagery, sound: rhyme, rhythm, repetition, pun, onomatopoeia etc.; diction; mood/tone; preoccupation; socio-political relevance; style)

WAEC: Poetry: types (sonnet, ode, lyric, elegy, ballad, epic, blank verse, free verse etc.), poetic devices, structure, imagery, sound, diction, tone and mood; unseen poem (Paper 1); essays on African and non-African poetry (Paper 3)

NECO: Poetry: types (sonnet, ode, lyric, elegy, ballad, epic, blank verse, free verse etc.), poetic devices, structure, imagery, sound, diction, tone and mood; unseen poem (Paper 1); essays on African and non-African poetry (Paper 3)

What you will learn

Define poetry and its basic units.
Identify and describe the main poetic forms.
Distinguish blank verse from free verse.
Scan lines and name metres.
Work out rhyme schemes and identify sound devices.
Analyse imagery, diction, tone, mood and structure using a clear method.

Key points

Poetry: lines, stanzas, concentrated musical language; persona is the speaker.
Stanzas: couplet 2, tercet 3, quatrain 4, sestet 6, octave 8.
Forms: lyric, sonnet, ode, elegy, dirge, ballad, epic, panegyric, limerick, haiku.
Petrarchan sonnet: octave abbaabba + sestet; Shakespearean: abab cdcd efef gg.
Blank verse = unrhymed iambic pentameter; free verse = no regular metre or rhyme.
Feet: iamb u/, trochee /u, anapaest uu/, dactyl /uu, spondee //.
Line lengths: monometer to octameter; pentameter = 5 feet.
Rhyme: end, internal, full, half, eye; schemes lettered a, b, c…
Sound: alliteration, assonance, consonance, sibilance, onomatopoeia.
SMILE-T: subject, meaning, imagery, language, effect/structure, tone.

Start here: What is poetry?

Poetry is the oldest form of literature. Before writing, people sang praise songs, lullabies and dirges; much African poetry today still keeps that musical, oral quality.

Poetry is literature written in lines (verse), usually arranged in stanzas, that uses concentrated, musical and imaginative language to express feelings and ideas. The writer is a poet; the voice in the poem is the persona or speaker.

Features of poetry

Line and stanza arrangement.
Compression: much meaning in few words.
Sound: rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, repetition.
Imagery and figures of speech.
Emotion: poetry often expresses intense feeling.
It is often meant to be read aloud.

Poet and persona

The persona is the speaking voice of the poem, which may not be the poet. A man may write a poem in the voice of a grieving mother or a market woman. In exams, say “the speaker” or “the persona” unless you know the poem is personal.

Verse terms

Verse: writing in lines with rhythm; also a single line or stanza.
Stanza: a group of lines forming a unit. A couplet has 2 lines, a tercet 3, a quatrain 4, a quintain/cinquain 5, a sestet 6, a septet 7, an octave 8.
Enjambment (run-on line): a sentence continues past the end of a line without punctuation. End-stopped line: ends with punctuation.
Caesura: a pause within a line.

Worked example 5.1 (original)

The rain came down on Onitsha market,
washing the dust from the pepper sellers’ trays,
and from the faces of the children who sold
sachets of water to people who had plenty.
Identify: (a) the type of stanza, (b) an enjambed line, (c) the irony in the last line.

(a) Four lines: a quatrain.
(b) Line 3 runs on into line 4 (“who sold / sachets”).
(c) The children sell water while rain falls everywhere: the water they sell is plentiful around them, yet they must work to survive.

(a) quatrain (b) line 3 (c) irony of selling water in the rain

Try it yourself. How many lines does a sestet have?

Show solution

Six.

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Practice questions

1. A stanza of four lines is a

quatrain
couplet
tercet
sestet

Show answer

A: quatrain
A couplet has two lines.

2. A poem of fourteen lines with a fixed rhyme scheme is a

ode
ballad
limerick
sonnet

Show answer

D: sonnet
Petrarchan and Shakespearean are its two main types.

3. The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is

aabb ccdd eeff gg
abcd abcd abcd ab
abab cdcd efef gg
abba abba cde cde

Show answer

C: abab cdcd efef gg
It ends with a rhyming couplet.

4. A Petrarchan sonnet is divided into

two sestets and a couplet
an octave and a sestet
three quatrains and a couplet
seven couplets

Show answer

B: an octave and a sestet
The turn (volta) comes after line 8.

5. A poem mourning the dead is an

elegy
ode
epic
ballad

Show answer

A: elegy
A dirge is a funeral song.

Key words

Poetry: Literature in lines and stanzas using concentrated, musical language.
Persona: The speaking voice in a poem.
Stanza: A group of lines forming a unit.
Couplet: Two lines, usually rhyming.
Quatrain: A four-line stanza.
Sestet: A six-line stanza or part of a sonnet.
Octave: An eight-line stanza or part of a sonnet.
Enjambment: A line running on without punctuation into the next.
Caesura: A pause within a line.
Lyric: A short poem of personal feeling.
Sonnet: A fourteen-line lyric with a fixed rhyme scheme.
Volta: The turn in a sonnet.

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