Entry #22: Types of Poetry

Entry#21: The Highwayman

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Alfred Noyes (1880-1958)
The Highwayman

    THE wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
    The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
    The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
    And the highwayman came riding—
                      Riding—riding—
    The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
                                                 II
    He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
    A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
    They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
    And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
                      His pistol butts a-twinkle,
    His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.
                                                 III
    Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
    And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
    He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
    But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
                      Bess, the landlord's daughter,
    Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
                                                 IV
    And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
    Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
    His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
    But he loved the landlord's daughter,
                      The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
    Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber says—
                                                 V
    "One kiss, my bony sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
    But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
    Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
    Then look for me by moonlight,
                      Watch for me by moonlight,
    I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."

Entry#20: Equal to Sentence

Line – a sentence in a stanza

Example:

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? => line

Deny thy father and refuse thy name

Significant – Help the reader to know the full meaning of a part of the poem, for them to stop and think back, as well as making the poem clearer.

Entry#19: Heart

Symbol - A symbol is a place, a person, a thing, or an event that has meaning in itself and stands for something else. In literature as well as poetry, some symbols are well-known and obvious, and some are subtle and personal.

Example:

Dove is the symbol of peace.

Significant – Symbol conveys more thing than its obvious meaning, helping express the altitude of the poet towards the poem.

Entry#18: Knock-knock

Onomatopoeia – word that is written to describe sound. Ex. Kaboom, quack, arg, etc.

Example:

What about the joke:
Knock-knock Who's there?
Boo
Boo who?
Don't cry, I was only joking

Significant - Onomatopoeia can also be used to describe the use of such words for rhetorical effect.  Making the sounds for the poems entertain the readers and make them to think about the sound.

Entry#17: VOWELS

 

Assonance - the repetition of the sound of a vowel that create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences.

Example:

“Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far.

 It is among the oldest of living things.

So old it is that no man knows how and why the first poems came.”

Significant – Assonance examples are sometimes hard to find, because they work subconsciously sometimes, and are subtle. The long vowel sounds will slow down the energy and make the mood more somber, while high sounds can increase the energy level of the piece. 

Entry#16: Tongue Twister

Alliteration - The repetition of an initial consonant sound.

Example:

"The soul selects her owns society."

                                     (Emily Dickinson)

She sells seashell on the sea shore.

Significant – Alliteration makes the poem more rhythm and interesting.