ENGLISH POEMS (MINOR ENGLISH of 11th GRADE)

ENGLISH POEMS

(MINOR ENGLISH of 11th GRADE)

Welcome to the blog

In this part we will share about Understanding Poem.

There are 4 points we will discuss on this video.

·        Distinction between poem, poetry, and prose

·        Structure of the poem

·        The example of the poem

·        Exercises

The distinction among poem, poetry, and prose will be explained in sequence.

To make clear understanding, let's watch this video!

Let's take a look at the lyrics of this song, entitled BEAUTY & THE BEAST. You will find the common structures of a poem. Check this out.

WHAT IS POEM?

Poem is a piece of writing that partakes of the nature of both speech and song that is nearly always rhytmical, usually methaporical.

William Henry Davies

Here’s an example from 
A Butterfly; 
That on a rough, hard rock 
Happy can lie; 
Friendless and all alone 
On this unsweetened stone.

Now let my bed be hard 
No care take I; 
I’ll make my joy like this 
Small Butterfly; 
Whose happy heart has power 
To make a stone a flower.

WHAT IS POETRY?

Poetry is literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feeling and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhytm.

william Shakespear

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed,

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed

WHAT IS PROSE?

Prose is written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.

Charlotte Brontë

The ledge, where I placed my candle, had a few mildewed books piled up in one corner; and it was covered with writing scratched on the paint. This writing, however, was nothing but a name repeated in all kinds of characters, large and small—Catherine Earnshaw, here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff, and then again to Catherine Linton. In vapid listlessness I leant my head against the window, and continued spelling over Catherine Earnshaw—Heathcliff—Linton, till my eyes closed; but they had not rested five minutes when a glare of white letters started from the dark, as vivid as spectres—the air swarmed with Catherines; and rousing myself to dispel the obtrusive name, I discovered my candle wick reclining on one of the antique volumes, and perfuming the place with an odour of roasted calf-skin.

Perbedaan Antara Poem, Poetry Dan Prose

• Poem : Merupakan sebuah sajak dalam bahasa inggris yang setiap barisnya saling memiliki keterikatan.
• Poetry : Merupakan sebuah puisi (karya tulis) dalam bahasa inggris yang memiliki sebuah estetika dan makna yang mendalam.
• Prose : Prose atau prosa merupakan karya tulis yang memiliki ritme yang besar dan biasanya digunakan untuk menuagkan ide atau gagasan akan suatu hal.

STRUCTURE

As we know that every culture or language has its own forms. It's impossible and will take hours to list one by one. However, if you are interested in poems, I suggest you to learn the following basic terms first, so you will be able to encounter complex structures. Look at these points:

Rhythm

·         Stressed syllable

·         Unstressed syllable

rhyme scheme

·         consonant rhyme: when the last two syllables rhyme with the same consonant falling between them.
Example in English: “Humpty Dumpty”

·         assonant rhyme: When the last two vowels of the last two syllables rhyme, but the consonant between them is different. This form of rhyme is pretty rare in English, but is very common in Romance languages. Example in Spanish: “ala / brava”

·         slant rhyme: AKA “half-rhyme” - these are words that can “rhyme” when written, but do not when spoken. For example, “wind / find” when “wind” refers to a gust of air. Otherwise, slant rhyme can be words that are *nearly* alike, but don’t quite rhyme. Emily Dickinson used this with some frequency.

meter: the number of syllables in one poetic verse

·         foot: two syllables make up a foot, and a verse is composed of a number of feet, having a pattern of emphasis (unaccented and accented syllables)

·         Example of a type of meter: iambic pentameter: A metrical line consisting of five feet in unaccented/accented sequence for a total of ten syllables. Much of Shakespeare's plays and poems employ iambic pentameter with consonant rhyme.

stanza: a grouping of any number of individual lines/verses, followed by a break, or that stand on their own as a single poem.

·         couplet: Two verses.

·         tercet: Three verses.

·         quatrain: Four verses.

form: the collection/pattern of stanzas that comprise a poem. Form can be strictly or loosely defined.

·         An example of strict form: the sonnet: A poem with strict form obeys rules of rhyme, meter, and stanzas. The Shakespearean sonnet often consists of fourteen lines: three quatrains and then a couplet. The meter is iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is (abab cdcd efef gg) where each letter represents the rhyming of the last syllable(s).)

·         Looser forms of poetry have stanzas that are more intuitive, and lack the formal structures (rhyme, meter, stanzas) as defined by tradition. Free verse is an example of poetry that lacks formal structures, obeying only the logic of the poem's content.

Let's Practice!

SPRING

In the early part of spring

You will hear, many birds sing

They are just letting, the rest of us know

Winter is over, spring melted the snow

You will notice, a beautiful scene

The trees will slowly, begin to turn green

Chipmunks and bunnies will come out and play,

Bears will no longer, sleep during the day

It’s exciting, when spring finally arrives

Bees will make honey, inside their hives

So much to do, so much to see

Insects and animals are happy and free

1.    What is the poem about?

2.    How many stanzas does the poem have?

3.    What are spring, sing, know, and snow (stanza 1) called?

4.    How many lines does the poem have?

5.    What did melt the snow?

Waiting At The Window

By A. A. Milne More A. A. Milne

These are my two drops of rain
Waiting on the window-pane.

I am waiting here to see
Which the winning one will be.

Both of them have different names.
One is John and one is James.

All the best and all the worst
Comes from which of them is first.

James has just begun to ooze.
He's the one I want to lose.

John is waiting to begin.
He's the one I want to win.

James is going slowly on.
Something sort of sticks to John.

John is moving off at last.
James is going pretty fast.

John is rushing down the pane.
James is going slow again.

James has met a sort of smear.
John is getting very near.

Is he going fast enough?
(James has found a piece of fluff.)

John has quickly hurried by.
(James was talking to a fly.)

John is there, and John has won!
Look! I told you! Here's the sun!

1.    What is the poem about?

2.    How many stanzas does the poem have?

3.    What are last and fast (stanza 8) called?

4.    How many lines does the poem have?

5.    What is the connection between the poem? (something describing about your favorite rainy day activities from your childhood)

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/waiting-at-the-window-by-a-a-milne

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