POETRY AND THE RHYTHM OF EXPRESSION
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
Poets use everyday language in different ways to encourage
readers to see familiar things in a new light, to draw on their senses,
and to fantasize. Poets also use certain devices to create medleys of
sounds, to suggest visual interpretations, and to communicate
messages. The criteria for selecting poetry for children suggests the
importance of the following five poetic elements: (1) rhythm (2)
rhyme (3) repetition (4) imagery and (5) shape
([Link]
1. Rhythm
The word rhythm is derived from the Greek rhythmos, meaning "to
flow." In poetry, this flowing quality refers to the movement of words
in the poem.
According to Through the Eyes of a Child: An Introduction to
Children's Literature, "Poets use rhythm for four specific purposes:
(1) To increase the enjoyment in hearing language. (2) To highlight
and emphasize specific words. (3) To create dramatic effects. (4) To
suggest mood.
For example, in his poem "The Pickety Fence," David McCord uses
rhythm to suggest the sounds that a stick might make if a child
dragged it along a fence.
² Rhythm: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in
language (Chen, 2019).
1. Rhythmical pattern in poetry is called meter. The smallest unit
of rhythmical pattern is called a foot. Much poetry combines
more than one rhythmical pattern to achieve a particular effect.
2. Nursery rhymes tend to have very predictable rhythms. For
example, "Mary had a little lamb", "Twinkle, twinkle, little star"
(regular trochees; i.e., two syllables with the emphasis on the
first)
3. When reading poetry to children, we need to be aware of the
rhythm pattern(s) a poem contains so that we can gain good
effect from our reading.
2. Rhyme
Sound is an important part of the pleasure of poetry. One of the
ways in which poets can emphasize sound is with rhyme. Rhyming
words may occur at the end of lines and within lines. Poets of
nonsense verse even create their own words to achieve humorous
rhyming effects.
² Rhyme: the repetition of similar sounds in the two or more
words (Chen, 2019).
1. End rhyme: the repetition
of the ending sounds in
two or more lines.
2. Alliteration: the repetition
of initial sounds in two or
more words.
3. Assonance: the repetition
of vowel sounds within
words.
4. Consonance: the
repetition of consonant
sounds within words, often
with a variation in adjoining
vowels.
3. Repetition
Poets frequently use repetition to enrich or emphasize words,
phrases, lines, or even whole verses in poems. In "Pickety Fence,"
David McCord uses repetition of whole lines. Lewis Carroll, in his
poem from Alice in Wonderland, "Beautiful Soup," uses repetition to
accent his feelings about soup.
Beautiful Soup
BEAUTIFUL Soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Beau--ootiful Soo-oop!
Beau--ootiful Soo-oop!
Soo--oop of the e--e--evening,
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!
Beautiful Soup! Who cares for fish,
Game, or any other dish?
Who would not give all else for two
Pennyworth only of Beautiful Soup?
Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup?
Beau--ootiful Soo-oop!
Beau--ootiful Soo-oop!
Soo--oop of the e--e--evening,
Beautiful, beauti--FUL SOUP!
4. Imagery
Imagery refers to mental pictures created by words.
Literal Images: the words are used to describe something
directly by appealing to one or more of our sensory faculties.
1. Visual images: they consist of The sun was shining on the
things we can see. sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to
make
The billows smooth and
bright -
And this was odd, because
it was
The middle of the night.
(Lewis Carroll)
2. Tactile images: they appeal Through the green twilight
to our sense of touch. of a hedge,
I peered with cheek on the
cool leaves pressed
(Walter de la Mare)
3. Auditory images: they
suggest the sounds of Bow-wow, says the dog,
things, usually resulting in Mew, mew says the cat,
an effect onomatopoeia Grunt, grunt, goes the hog,
(Words that imitate sounds And squeak goes the rat.
or sounds that are linked Tu, whu, says the owl,
with objects). Quack, quack, says the
duck,
And what the cuckoo says
you know.
(Mother Goose)
4. Olfactory images: they As Mommy washed up
suggest the smells of things. and the children played,
smell of warm butter filled
the air.
(Anonymous)
5. Kinesthetic images: they A poem once stopped me
refer to actions or motions. on the street.
I've got a poem stuck on my
feet.
A poem attacked me in the
6. Gustatory images: they shower.
suggest the tastes of things. I find a poem most every
hour!
(Mark Stansell)
A mouse found a beautiful
piece of plum cake,
The richest and sweetest
that mortal could make:
'Twas heavy with citron and
fragrant with spice,
And covered with sugar all
sparkling as ice.
(Iona and Peter Opie)
Figurative images: the words are used to describe one thing
by comparing it to something else with which we are more
familiar. The poet uses figurative language to bring us new
experiences, new visions, new ways of looking at the world.
1. Simile: a stated comparison, "My love is like a red, red
employing a connective such rose"
as "like" or "as". (Robert Burn)
2. Metaphor: an implied In the morning the city
comparison, not directly Spreads its wings
stated with words such as Making a song
"like" and "as". In stone that sings.
(Langston Hughes)
3. Personification: human "The Night was creeping on
qualities are given to an the ground!
inanimate object, an abstract She crept and did not make
idea, or a force of nature. a sound"
(James Stephens)
5. Shape
Poets may place their words on pages in ways designed to
supplement meaning and to create greater visual impact. Word
division, line division, punctuation, and capitalization can emphasize
content, as when Lewis Carroll writes about "Beau--ootiful Soo--
oop!"
The shape of the poem may represent the thing or the physical
experience that the poem describes. For example, Joan Bransfield
Graham uses shape to reflect the content of her poem "Popsicle:"
