Poetry

This is a collective word for poems

Poem
• It is a ‘passage’ of well-chosen, well-arranged words expressing and
suggesting strong feelings about an experience.
• It can also be described as a song which tells us what people think or
feel about something.
• A poem can be recited or sung.
• It is usually written in verse unlike the plays or novels.
• Poems use fewer words and they are relatively short.
• Poets usually select most suitable words so as to effectively
communicate their feelings or emotions.
Example of a poem:
Cow for breakfast
Six o’clock
And you insist
I must kill a cow
For your breakfast
Here with me

What size of beast

Will you require
For your lunch at
Twelve o’clock?
Poems
• Poems aim at educating and entertaining at the same time.
• Words, phrases and sentences of the poem are organized in a neat,
imaginative patterns meant to catch the audience attention.
• Every poem is about some reality, an idea, an event, an object or a
situation that the poet has lived through or closely observed.
• The poet (one who writes poems) has a license (freedom) to use
language in whichever way they choose. The poet may choose to state
messages openly (the message in the poem can be very direct) or hide
the message through his/her choice of words and style.
Key Terms in Poetry
• Poet:
This is a person who writes poems or a poem
• Persona:
This is the speaker or the voice in the poem. A poet creates a character who ‘speaks’ in
the poem who brings out his/her views.
The poet usually writes his or her experiences from the perspective of the character
that is in the poem.
The poet can choose to write the poem from the perspective of a child, a driver, an
environmentalist, a father, a beggar, or even representing things and animals.
The poet can write from the first person perspective using pronouns such as I, we, our,
mine, me or write as if the poet is observing/standing from some place and writing
what he/she is observing.
Key Terms in Poetry
• Subject matter:
It refers to what the poem is about. It is the topic of the poem.
It is what happens or is done in the poem. It is the summary of what is
happening in the poem.
It is the content of the poem.
• Message/Theme:
This is the main message in the poem.
What is the message that the poet is trying to bring out in the poem?
What issue is being addressed in the poem?
The poem may bring out: poverty, corruption, suffering
Style in Poetry
• This is the manner in which a poet uses language to express himself or
herself.
• It is the channel through which the message is passed to the audience or
reader.
• The poet chooses words and expressions with extreme care and attention to
enhance the message being put across. The words and expressions chosen
must be appropriate and effective.
• If well used, style makes the poem more interesting, effective and beautiful.
• Style enhances communication, hence bringing out the message of the poem
clearly and forcefully.
Forms of style
• These are types of styles.

a) Sound Patterns:
These styles include, rhyme, alliteration, assonance and consonance.
These stylistic devices usually help to:
o make the poem rhythmic or musical.
o make the poem memorable.
o make the poem beautiful/aesthetic.
i. Rhyme
• This is the repetition of the same sound at the end of lines in the
poem. i.e. similar-sounding word endings at the end of lines in a poem.

Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

From the above poem, wall /fall rhyme; men/again rhyme too.
Rhyme Scheme
• The lines with similar endings may alternate or follow each other or at
times, there is no specific pattern followed when indicating the rhyme.

• So, a rhyme scheme is a pattern of end rhymes followed in a poem.

• We use the letters of the alphabet (small ones) to denote/indicate

similar sound endings.
Types of Rhyme Schemes
(i) Regular rhyme scheme: the flow of the rhyming words follow a
specific pattern.
Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall a
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall a
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men b
Couldn’t put Humpty together again. b
• The rhyme scheme of the above poem is aabb. It is a regular rhyme
scheme. Note that lines 1 and 2 rhyme; lines 3 and 4 rhyme. So it is
expected that in the next stanza, the rhyming will follow the above
pattern.
Types of rhyme schemes
• (ii) Irregular rhyme scheme: the way lines rhyme do not follow any
specific pattern. The rhyming lines occur without any order.
• The Rhyming follows no fixed pattern.
• Whititude (A.S. Bukenya)
I envied his being Negro: a
For there he was with his hardened face b
That told of night and her mystery, c
Of age and varied experience. d
In shame, in fear, in joy, his hue the same, e
Unlike my baby skin that told of all I felt. f
And while I pitied him for being black, g
I feared he had a depth unknown to me, h
Which his darkness hid. i

This is an irregular rhyme scheme: abcdefghi; it has no fixed pattern.

Rhyme schemes
• NB:
• The rhyme scheme is represented using small alphabetical letters.
• After every stanza, there is a comma or space stanzas. For instance, a
poem with two stanzas will be written as: “The scheme is regular,
aabb, ccaa.” OR abab, cdcd OR “abcd, becf, for irregular rhyme
scheme.”
• All words that rhyme are represented by the same letter throughout
the poem.
ii. Alliteration
• This refers to the repetition of initial or first consonant sounds in a
line.
• This consonant sound must be at the beginning of these words.
• It must be ‘consonant sound’ NOT letter.
• For example:
• Kelly cooked curry kales for King Kong. The /k/ sound has been repeated.
• he limply leans on a leafless tree. /l/ is alliterated
• blaring music, banging doors, breaking glasses. /b/ is alliterated
• The chauffeur was shoved away. ‘sh’ sound is alliterated

NB: You must read the words to get the sound. Do not rely on the spelling as the
letter might be pronounced differently. Take the case of these words: choir,
chauffeur, chore; the ‘ch’ in these three words are pronounced differently.
Assonance
• The repetition of vowel sounds in a line of a poem.
• The words must be read allowed so as to distinguish which vowels sound
the same.
• The verdict
He took a good look
At the nuisance tooth
And in awe exclaimed
‘Tis the food and mood
To blame for the main
Took, good, look, have the same vowel sound /u/
Food, mood, have the same vowel sound /u:/

Note that we have different vowel sounds in the two groups though same letters.
Practice the sounds to differentiate them
 Style
Repetition
- Repetition refers to the use of the same word or phrase multiple
times and is a fundamental poetic technique
- In repetition, words, lines or ideas recur in a given poem. They
appear repeatedly in the poem.
- Repetition helps to place emphasis on an idea, or to highlight an item
that the poet feels is important.
- Repetition can also be used to create rhythm in a poem. That is,
making the poem musical.
Repetition Example of a Poem
• I Shall Return (Claude B. Mackay)
I shall return again; I shall return
To laugh and love and watch with wonder-eyes
At golden noon the forest fires burn,
Wafting their blue-black smoke to sapphire skies.
I shall return to loiter by the streams
That bathe the brown blades of the bending grasses,
And realize once more my thousand dreams
Of waters rushing down the mountain passes.
I shall return to hear the fiddle and fife
Of village dances, dear delicious tunes
That stir the hidden depths of native life,
Stray melodies of dim remembered runes.
I shall return, I shall return again,
To ease my mind of long, long years of pain

The repetition here is to emphasise on the persona’s longing to go back to his/her native land after being
absent for such a long time.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
When the blazing sun is gone
When he nothing shines upon
Then you show your little light
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
Onomatopoeia
• This is a word used to describe the sounds made during an action.
• They are real words found in the dictionary and communicate a
meaning.
• They suggest the sound in question, but do not imitate the actual sound.
• For example, thud represents the sound of something heavy falling.
• Pop describes the sound of a small explosion. Swish represents a rush
of air. Splash sound made by water. Screech describes sound made as
the vehicle stop.
• Whistle, drone, flash, twinkle, hush, groan, buzz, ouch, coo, mow, oink,
gargle, swash, neigh, bray,
Example of a poem with onomatopoeia
• Swish Went the Fish -By Kelly Roper
Swish, swish, swish,
Went the little goldfish
As he swam around his bowl
Splash, splash, splash
Went his fancy little tail
Because he was a happy little soul
Glub, glub, glub
Went the bubbles he blew
As they floated up to the top
Smack, smack, smack
Went his tiny fishy lips
As he ate his flakes without a stop
Idiophones
• These are actual sounds produced during an action. They give the
actual sound in an attempt to create a better impression in the reader’s
mind.
• He knocked on the door kong! Kong!
• The duck quacked kwak! Kwak!
Idiophone and Onomatopoeia
For lack of choice
Bum! Bum! Bum!
The music booms to attract
The young ones – the louder the better
Pi …pii! Pi …pii! Pi … pii!
The matatu hoots
As it beckons passengers
I don’t like the loud music
But I’m late I get in
The matatu bangs the door shut.
Poem cont’d

The zooms to destination

I don’t like the man seated next to me
He’s filthy and his feet smelly
Ngrrh! Ngrrh! Ngr-h!
He snores, already in happy land
Mouth hangs open
Saliva quietly steals out
Bum! Bum! Bum!
The music gets louder
I don’t like this matatu
But I don’t have my own.

• Identify all the idiophones and onomatopoeia in the above poem.

.EZ