Elements of poetry

Persona and poet

The poet is the poem’s writer while the persona is the person who speaks in the poem.
Sometimes, the persona could be the poet himself or a fictional character in the poem.
Sometimes it is important to identify the persona for a deep understanding of the poem
while other times its not. Whatever the case it is vital to listen carefully to the words of
the speaker and understand them.

A useful way of appreciating the persona or poet’s message is to recognize the context
in which the poem is written. This may be historical, social, political etc. The poet’s
personal background or manner of writing can give meaning to the poem.

Identify and comment on the different persona’s or voices in the poem ‘Ah, are you
digging on my grave’

The voice of the speaker

When a poem is read, we hear the speaker’s voice which conveys the poem’s mood.
This mood exposes the implied attitude of the persona towards his or her subject as
well as the general feelings or atmosphere of the poem. To determine mood, a reader or
listener focuses on the tone or the persona. Tone is the manner in which feelings are
expressed.

Structure of poems
Traditionally, poems are written in verses known as stanzas. However, there are some
poems that are not written stanzas like the shape poems. Poems can also be closed or
open. A closed poem is the one that takes on a predetermined configuration such as
sonnets, sestina, aubades.

An open poem allows the poet freedom to write the way they want. They can have many
stanzas, shorten or lengthen etc. the content shapes the poem.

Types of stanzas
A poet normally chooses to organize his poem according to the number of lines in order
to give meaning to the poem.
A poem with two lines stanzas is known as a couplet

A poem with three lines stanzas is known as a tercet or triplet

Four lines quatrain

Six lines sestet

Eight lines octave

14 lines sonnet

A terza rima is a three line stanza which is interlocked by rimes so that the rhyme of the
first line becomes the rhyme of the third line of the tercet.

Subject and theme

Subject is the central topic or idea while theme is the central thought. The subject of a
poem may be the same for all the readers but themes and ideas within the subject
different. Different readers or listeners interprete the same poem differently and bring
out different themes or ideas. However, each reader must only bring out relevant
responses from each poem. Poems state ideas that are arranged carefully. Those ideas
are understood by recognizing the arrangement of words and sentences by the poet.
Words and sentences can appear at two different levels. The dictionary or literal level
meaning which is the denotative level (building the nation by Henry Barlow) or deeper
meaning which is the inferred/configurative/connotative meaning (Blake’s The Sick
Rose, Khamadi Were’s They run out of mud, A leopard lives in a muu tree) etc. NB:
Connotative poems have surface or literal meaning. However, one must strive to unravel
the deep meaning.

It is important to pay attention to a poem’s words. Only then can you understand the
connotative and denotative meanings. The choice of words is known as diction. A poet
carefully uses these words in order to present his ideas. Some poems have the literal
meaning and others the literal and configurative meaning in order to experience the
poem effectively.

Syntax of a poem
Other than diction, syntax or ordering of words into sentences, clauses, or phrases is
vital. Poets uses syntax to express meaning and convey feelings. If a line in a poem is
structured in such a way that it breaks up abruptly in the middle of a thought, it reveals
the feelings or state of mind of the speaker who may be angry, anxious, excited etc. To
analyze syntax, a reader should focus on the length of the line, word order-normal or
inverted, statement and question, repetition, punctuation, pauses, capitalization,
italicization and elipses.

Style and language in poetry and Literature in general

Literary Language
Literary Language, or Literary Discourse, is a specialized language as applied in
literature. When we talk about literature, we also talk about language and how it is used.

In literature, language is used in a skillful, creative and artistic manner. This calls for
various choices that are employed in the phrasing and presentation of materials (words)
that form literature.

Literary Language also involves style: It is thought-provoking and serves to help in the
understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of literature.

Once you understand the language in a given text, you should be able to appreciate its
basic contents and style. Besides, you should also be able to appreciate how words
have been used to create a specific mood.

Poetry attempts to use language in an extra-ordinary manner in order to achieve its

heights of emotions and thoughts. When a poet uses heightened language to express
an idea, the language is known as figure of speech such as imagery. Examples
Stylistic devices can be divided into three groups: structural, sense, and sound
Structural are contrast-placing opposite pictures side by side for comparison or
contrast.
Illustration-creating a vivid picture to make an idea clear
Repetition-of lines or stanzas to emphasize an idea for musical effect
Sense devices

Figures of Speech
Figures of speech are a semantic category and they deviate at the level of meaning.
They expand the meanings of words through the transference of meaning. The term is
used interchangeably with imagery. In fact, all figures of speech are constitute imagery
but not all imagery is figures of speech

Figures of Speech
i) Similes
ii) Metaphors
iii) Conceit-it is a simile or metaphor that carries our comparison in great details.
(Death be not proud by John Donne.
iv) Personification-
v) Irony
It is reality that is incongruous, inconsistent with the appearance. Readers should
recognize the incongruity and understand the concealed meaning.

Types of Irony

Verbal Irony-incongruity in what the speaker says eg Lawino calling Clementina The
beautiful one. Sometimes it borders on sarcasm.

Situational Irony-not grammatical

Dramatic Irony-not grammatical

Tragic Irony-it occurs when a character expects to succeed and events points towards
that but he or she fails eg Tess or Okonkwo.

Comic Irony a character faces a lot of difficulties to an extent of expecting failure but at
the end he or she succeeds, eg henrik ibsen’s plays.

vi) Hyperbole/overstatement
vii) Litotes
viii) Oxymoron/concise paradox
All these are contradictory.

ix) Paradox
x) Metonymy
xi) Synecdoche
 xii) Allegory
According to Harmon & Holman (2000), an allegory is comparable with an extended
metaphor and it occurs when objects, persons and actions consist meanings or
abstract principles that are outside the text. These meanings could be moral or political.
xiii) Analogy
It is the comparison between one thing and another typically for the purpose of
explanation or classification. A thing or idea is compared to another that is quite
different from it. For instance metaphors or similes create analogy but an analogy is
more extensive.

Eg. Life is like a race. The one who keeps running wins the race and the one who stops
to catch a breath loses.

This flea is you and I and this our marriage bed and marriage temple is.

Examine the various layers of analogy in McGoye’sComing to Birth

xiv) Allusion-this is making reference to a person, place or event without actually

citing them in the poem. Poets assume that readers or listeners will recognize
whatever is being alluded to
xv) Symbolism

Rhetorical question-questions that don’t need to be answered. They are used to create
certain effects, express emotions etc.
Imagery-it is a related term of figures of speech. It is language used excite other senses.
Its used to help the reader focus on the following senses-smell, touch, sight, hearing
and taste.

All figures of speech form imagery but not all imagery is figures of speech

There are seven different kinds of imagery

Visual imagery-this is seeing something in the mind’s eye. She is as beautiful as a

peacock. I am a diamond in the snow

Auditory imagery-appealing to the mind’s ear. The car rattled like a rattle snake
Olfactory imagery-appealing to senses of smell. The mad man smelled like stinking
manure

Gustatory-appealing to the sense of taste. Your love is as sweet as milk in the rubindi

Tactile imagery-it appeals to the sense of touch. Your breasts are soft and tender like
ripe pawpaw. Your hand is as cold as snow

Organic imagery-appealing to internal sensation of hunger, thirst fatigue, fear etc. I am

cornered by the fear eating at my timid heart.

Kinesthetic imagery-it evokes movements or tensions within the mind. The sun climbed
slowly across the horizon

Other figures of speech include:, idioms and proverbs

Questions
 Evaluate the extent to which various figures of speech effectively communicate
the message in the poem “A Leopard Lives in a Muu Tree”
 Identify and discuss the various figures of speech in any text studied in this
course.
 Discuss the effectiveness of an allegorical novel in commenting about a wide
range of issues across the globe. Refer to any novel read in this course.
 Read the poem I met a thief and discuss the effectiveness of imageries used in
the poem

Sound devices
Onomatopoeia-it is a word that imitates the sound of an object eg bang, beep clap,
jingle
Ideophones-these are actual sound words. They aren’t found in a dictionary eg kukuru
kakara
Alliteration-a repetition of initial consonant sound

Consonance-repetition of consonant sound other than the initial consonant one

Assonance-repetition of vowel soun within a poem
Rhyme-a repetition of the same or similar sounds in words. Often rhyming words are
used at the end of lines in a stanza. When there is a recognizable pattern in the way
rhymes are arranged, it is known as regular rhyme scheme, represented by lower cases
of the alphabet

Types of rhymes
End rhymes-occur at the end of a poem’s lines
Internal rhymes-occur within the lines. They were the first to burst
Occasional rhyme-rhyme at the end of lines and does not follow any pattern
Half rhyme (slant, near off or partial) these are words that do not rhyme but have
similar sounds eg leaves and lives, flower and grower
Masculine-it is rhyme with one syllable eg boy and toy, blue and glue
Feminine rhyme-rhyme with two or more syllables intellectual and perpetual
Eye rhyme-the spelling looks alike but the pronunciation is different eg love and move,
rogh and dough

Rhythm
It is a beat in a poem or the regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables in a
poem. Stressed syllables are also known as accented and unstressed unaccented.

Rhythm can also be thought as the pause of beat we feel in a line of music or poetry. It
depends on the patterns of the stressed and unstressed syllables. Capitalization
indicates stressed or accented syllables while the lower case indicates unstressed or
unaccented syllables. Together with rhythm we have the term meter.

Meter- is the measure of patterned count of poetic line. It’s the count of the accented
and unaccented syllables.

The unit of measure for meter is called foot. So, meter is the number of feet within a line
of a poem. The feet in a poem may iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic.

An iamb is made up of one unaccented and one accented syllable. Eg. PreVENT
beCAUSE

A Trochee is made up of one accented and one unaccented syllable. E.g. FOOTball,
MONday, Most nursery lines are trochaic

An anapest is made up of two unaccented syllables followed by a stressed syllable. It is

also called galloping meter. Eg. TambouRINE

A dactyl is made up of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. Eg.
BEAUtiful Happily

Iambic and anapestic are also known as rising meter while dactylic and trochaic are
falling meter because they move from stressed to unstressed syllable

Meter is also classified by the length of the line. For example if we have a line that is
one trochee long, we call it a mono trochaic meter, mono anapestic meter

An iambic penta meter is a line of five iambic feet that form the meter (10 syllables)

The common line lengths are monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, and pentameter,
hexameter, heptameter, octometer,

The commonest metrical line in English poem are tetra and penta meter

The sonnet especially the Shakespearean one uses unrhymed iambic penta meter. This
means it has ten syllables where unstressed syllables are followed by stressed ones.
Five of the syllables are stressed but they do not rhyme.

A poem that is unrhymed but has a particular metrical pattern is known as blank verse.
On the other hand, a poem that is unrhymed and doesn’t follow a particular metrical
pattern is known as free verse.

A blank verse

Has no fixed number of lines

Has conventional meter

It is often used in descriptive and reflective poems and dramatic monologues in which a
character delivers his or her thoughts in the form of a speech

Blank verse can be composed in any kind of meter such as iamb, trochee, dactyl and
anapest
Eg. From Mending Walls by Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall (trochaic pentameter)

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it (iambic pentameter)

And spills the upper boulders in the sun

No proper rhyme scheme

10 syllables in each line