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When you talk, your voice has a natural rhythm. Say, "I like watermelon, it tastes wonderful." aloud. Try clapping your hands when you say it. Then try clapping your hands in the same rhythm without saying the words. You can hear the rhythm of the phrase. The natural rhythms of speech are very important in poetry.
Poetry, like all literature, makes use of language. Poetry is a type of rhythmic writing. In poetry, the arrangement and sound of the words as well as the words themselves express emotion and meaning. Poets make patterns of sound and rhythm. These patterns often come from different types of repetition.
"Belinda lived in a little white house,
With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse,
And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon,
And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon."
This is the first stanza of "The Tale of Custard the Dragon" by Ogden Nash. Read this poem aloud. It has a strong rhythm. The poet has used several different kinds of repetition in this poem. Most poems make use of repeating sounds to help establish a pattern. Rhyme is an example of a pattern repeating sounds. In many poems, the last word in a line rhymes with the last word in another line.
Poetry also creates pictures in our minds. Poets help us look at familiar things in new ways.
"There are lions and roaring tigers, and enormous camels and things,
There are biffalo-buffalo-bisons, and a great big bear with wings,
There’s sort of a tiny potamus, and a tiny nosserus too—
But I gave buns to the elephant when I went down to the Zoo!"
In "At the Zoo" by A. A. Milne, the poet uses parts of words and jumbled descriptions to help us think about the zoo in an unfamiliar way. The poem expresses the excitement and confusion of the zoo as experienced by a young child.
Some poems are written according to specific rules called a "form". A form might tell the poet how many lines to write, how long the lines should be, which lines should rhyme and other rules about how the poem should be constructed.
"There was an Old Man with a beard ,
Who said, "It is just as I feared! --
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard."
This poem, by Edward Lear is an example of a Limerick. The first, second and fifth lines rhyme, and the third line rhymes with the fourth. It has eight syllables in lines one two and five as well as five syllables in lines two and three. A limerick is only one example of a poetic form. There are many others, including the sonnet, cinquain, and haiku.
Poems can create pictures on the page as well as pictures in our minds. Sometimes the arrangement of words on the page itself can help us see things in new ways.
"1(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness"
What do you think is the idea of this poem? If you take out all of the line breaks and separate out the part in parenthesis, the poem reads "loneliness (a leaf falls)". The poet, e. e. cummings, is writing about being alone and watching a leaf fall. How many different times and different ways can you find the idea of 'one' or solitude expressed in this poem?
Poetry is rhythmic writing, but it is also expressive and can be filled with meaning.
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