Structured+Poetry

=**A structured poem is one that follows a particular repeated pattern, typically using STANZAS, METER and RHYME .**=

===** STANZAS break the poem into parts. They're like paragraphs in a story or an essay and serve the same purpose. ("Stanza" is the Italian word for "room.") Usually in a structured poem, the stanzas would all be the same number of lines and use the same metrical rhythm. They also typically have the same rhyme scheme if the poem is a rhyming one.**===

===** METER is the "beat" in a line of poetry. The beats are counted by looking at the stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. Structured poems often incorporate a particular meter, wherein each line has roughly the same beat, or the lines use an alternating beat. Emily Dickinson, for example, nearly always used the IAMBIC meter (1 unstressed syllable + 1 stressed = 1 foot of IAMBIC meter.)**===

4 iambs per line is IAMBIC TETRAMETER; 3 is IAMBIC TRIMETER. Shakespeare preferred IAMBIC PENTAMETER, or BLANK VERSE, which is one of the most common metrical forms used in structured poetry.
===**We all know what RHYME is. MASCULINE RHYME is the strict, pair of one-syllable words that sound the same, like "nice-mice." But rhymes can also be NEAR or SLANT, like in "some-home," or FEMININE (multi-syllable) as in "painted-acquainted." Rappers like to use clever feminine rhymes, such as Eminem's "root of all evil" -- "cruel and deceitful."**===

===**Adept poets understand that rhyme can have a huge effect on the reader's ear -- whether hypnotic, pleasing, or emphatic. If a poet does not want the rhyme to overpower the poem, to either distract the reader from the poem's meaning or to make the poem sound childlike, the poet will often rely more on slant and feminine rhymes. These create more of a suggestion of rhyme than the more drum-like pounding of an exact rhyme.**===

===** A RHYME SCHEME is the rhyme pattern employed at the ends of lines throughout the poem. To figure it out, we use the letters of the alphabet, assigning a new letter each time we encounter a new ending sound. The Dickinson example above would be: ABCB. Or, if you consider lines 1 and 3 to be slant rhymes, it could be: ABAB.**===

==There are also **FIXED FORMS** in poetry, such as the **SONNET, VILLANELLE, BALLAD** and **SESTINA.** These are poems that adhere to very strict rules using the three ingredients above. They have fallen out of fashion in the contemporary poetry world, though the **SONNET** -- very popular in Shakespeare's day -- is still considered the "highest" form of poetry and among the most difficult to write successfully.==

===A sonnet always uses 14 lines of the same length, making it look like a SQUARE on the page. The sonnet poses a question or a problem in the first QUATRAIN (set of 4 lines). Then in the next parts of the poem, the poet further explores the subject, finally reaching a conclusion or answering his initial question at the end. The //shift// or //turn// from the exploration to the conclusion is called the //volta//.===

===The sonnet form emerged during the Italian Renaissance of the 15th century and is attributed to a poet named Petrarch. It originally used this pattern:===

1 Sestet (6 lines)
===The rhyme scheme for the ITALIAN or PETRARCHAN sonnet could be ABAB, CDCD, or perhaps ABBA, CDDC. The sestet could use EFGEFG or EFEFEF. Here is an example. Notice the //volta// comes in the middle of line 9 rather than at the start:===

===When the English Renaissance occurred, Shakespeare got hold of the sonnet form and altered it slightly, giving the poet more room to expand on his topic by adding a 3rd quatrain and reducing the resolution to a 2-line COUPLET.===

===The ENGLISH or SHAKESPEAREAN sonnet used the same patterns above for its 3 quatrains, (ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, or ABBA, CDDC, EFFE) and then GG for the couplet. Here is an example by Shakespeare himself. Notice the //volta// as he moves into the final couplet:===



I never writ, nor no man ever loved. (g)
==The ODE is another poetry form favored by the Romantic poets. An ode is a lyric poem marked by exaltation of feeling and style, with a varied line length but uniform stanzas. Odes are written to a person or object, or in honor of a person or object, expressing the positive qualities of the subject or showing empathy for the subject's situation.==

Here is my sample:

iness

 * (1958)**

in Boston on said ship, after a journey on which her mother died)

 * (2015) **