Form or Structure.
Poetry is one of the oldest and most versatile forms of literature. It is often seen as a free form of writing where the writer can let their emotions and thoughts roam free. It can be used to tell stories, convey emotions, make a statement, or simply entertain. While this may be true to some extent, poetry still has a form and structure that the writer must adhere to. To make your poetry effective, it's important to understand the form and structure of poetry.
The most basic unit of poetry is the line. A line can be as short as one word or as long as an entire line of a page. Most poems are composed of multiple lines, which are usually grouped into stanzas. A stanza is a unit of poetry that typically contains multiple lines and is self-contained. The most common form of poetry is the sonnet, which is a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme and structure. Other forms of poetry include the haiku (from japan), cinquain, and ghazal.
THE STRUCTURE/FORM.
The form of a poem has to do with its external shape which fives the poem a précised measured tone that makes the reader clearly follow the sequence of events. “The concrete shape of a poem acts out the message of the poem in a more vivid and immediate way even than the sentence says it.’’- Nortie and Chooara.
The form of a poem may be regular or irregular. A regular structure usually reflects and consistency in subject matter; while an irregular one. Reflects change, contradiction, or difference in subject matter. Form is also a poet’s craft in making words meaningful so that the ideas can begin to mean.
Form is divided into two;
1. The External structure
2. The internal structure.
1. External structure.
This has got to do with appearance of poem in a page. It deals with the shape of the general poem; the stanza shape and size, and the lineation. The external shape of a poem may suggest a subject matter.
a. The stanza structure form.
Apoem can have a one line stanza; However, the form of the structure is concerned with the ways in which the lines are grouped to make the bigger structure or unit.
The stanzaic structure is divided into formal division of lines that form separate unit of sense. A stanza can have one line that makes a unit of sense.
- A two lined stanza is called a couplet. The two lines normally rhyme.
- A three lined stanza is called a tercet/triplet.
- A four lined stanza is called quatrain.
- A fived lined stanza is called quintet.
- A six lined stanza is called a sestet. This might be composed of three couplets in it that rhyme.
- A seven lined stanza is called a septet. It’s also known as rhyme royal (because it was first used by king James of England).
- An eight lined stanza is called octave (you can have four lines rhyming).
- A nine lined stanza is called a Spenserian. It is called so because it was first used by a great poet called Edman Spenser.
- Stanzas of nine to thirteen lines are not very common although the ninth (9th) line of the Spenser is usually longer than all other lines and is often a conclusion of a subject matter. It’s called a lexardria. The fourteen (14th) line stanza is called a sonnet. It normally has a regular rhythm and rhyme.
Sonnets.
a) Shakespearean Sonnet.
Shakespearian Sonnet has a rigid and strait structure. This includes; the Octave (which makes the first part of the poem) and the Sestet which makes the last part of the poem.
The octave usually posses a question, bears burden entertains doubts, shows reflection, advances and arguments.
The sestet eases the burden in an Octave and provides an answer to resolve issues raised in the Octave. The whole poem consists of three Quatrains. The typical rhyme scheme of Shakespearean Sonnet is - ab ab cd cd ef ef gg.
The last couplet (often rhyme) in the last sestet commends whatever is stated in the Quatrain of the first octave and are epigrammatic in character (8:4:2) but in meaning its (8:6).
ii) Petrechian Sonnet. (13th century)
Patrician Sonnet is an original form of a sonnet discovered by an Italian poet called Francesco Patriarch. It permits strictly two rhymes in the Octave and not more than three in the whole poem. Its rhyme scheme is abba abba cde cde
iii) Sperceran Sonnet.
Combines the two above. It uses three Quatrains and a couplet but with a linking rhyme between the two couplet. For example, ab ab bc bc cd cd ee.
iv) Mitonic sonnet.
This is a special patriarch but the thought or the content runs through the fourteen lines uninterrupted. Example is a poem by John Hillstone,
‘On his blindness.’
The emphasis of the Sonnet is on the exactness and perfection of expression.
The size of a stanza usually gives a suggestion of the kind of content. Most of the big or long expressing things (it masque) or expressed stanzas give a lot of detail and more often than not show a relaxed mood or state of mind of the poet or persona.
b) Lineation Structure.
Lineation structure deals with or is concerned with lines.
i) Regular lines: Regular lines suggests stability of the subject matter.
ii) Irregular lines: Irregular lines reflect instability of the subject matter. They also suggest cheers, contradiction, tragedy and usually an informal subject matter.
iii) Run-on/Enjambed lines. These are lines whose unit of sense connects to the next line i.e. run on. They usually have no punctuation at the end of the line because the sense runs onto the next line.
iv) End-stopped lines:
They reflect the factor that at the end of the line, we have a complete unit sense. (They have punctuations at the end).
2) Internal structure.
Internal structure is not different from the external except that, the internal takes a detailed study of rhythm in relation to subject matter.
Rhythm is the musicality of a poem or a sonnet of a poem. It has got to do with what the reader hears in the mind’s ear than what he sees in mind’s eye.
It is also a movement – pace of poem that is determined by line of natural stretching of voice on curtain syllables. It is fundamentally a repetition of pattern accompanied by the subject month of development and variation. Rhythm is enhanced by the patterning of stress and unstressed syllables in a line.
It is said to be regular when the pattern is constant and irregular when it is not.
An irregular rhythm
- Has a varied beat
- May depict confusion
- May reflect aroused feeling
- Sometimes is pointer to a tragedy.
Regular rhythm
- May show consistent move
- It may also portray unity of subject matter.
- It gives musicality and hence pleasurable.
- May portray restrained motions.
Rhyme Type.
a) End rhyme:
This reflects similar end sounds of the syllabus that end the line. It also forms the rhyme scheme of the poem.
Example.
Jack and Jilla
went up the hilla
To fetch a pan of waterb
Jack fell down and broke his heela
And Jill came tumbling afterb
The rhyme scheme of the above poem is: aabab.
b) Complete/internal rhyme:
It occurs within the line. It deals with the ending sounds of the words within the lines. For example, Refer to the poem: Tarantella.
These are individual lines
And the cheers and jeers of the young muleteer
in the walls of the halls where falls
And the fleas that tease in the high Pyrenees
c) Incomplete rhyme/internal eye rhyme
These are rhymes that appeals to the eye rather than the ear. It’s a deceptive rhyme. The words within the line look alike and could sound the same but in sense, they are not. For example; Rendezvous and obvious or suit/suit/ and suite/swit/
d) Alliteration:
This is where the initial syllables within the line sound the same with a consonants sound. Sometimes the initial consonants are repeated.
A good example is in Hillarie Bellocs poem,
‘Tarantella.’
And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteers under the vine of the dark veranda?
Do you remember an Inn, Miranda.
And the hammer at the doors, and the din
And the Hip! Hop! Hap!
And the Ting! Tong! Tang! Of the guitar?
Notice the reparation of the initial/v/, /d/, /H/, and /T/ sound in the repeated lines.
Note that, some words may begin with the same consonant letter but may not alliterate because they will not necessarily begin with the same sound. For instance, still and shall,
Poets take nothing for granted, every art of it (poetry) has role to play. They often use alliteration to create a particular effect that you must always forge to identify. For example Hillarie Bellocs uses it to help in imitating the state of violent mental agitation of the dance in her poem.
e) Assonance:
This is when the initial syllable within the lines sounds the same with vowel sounds regardless of the position. For example, c.f Tarantella again.
Of the girl gone advancing backing
Dancing
Backing and advancing
Snapping of the clapper to the spin
Out and in
And Aragon a torrent at the door:
No sound in the walls of the halls where fall
Only the boom of the far waterfall line.
f) Consonance:
These are words with syllables that sound alike within the line but with consonant sound.
Example from Tarantella.
And the tedding and spreading of the straw for bedding
And the wine that tasted of the tar
Under the vine of the dark veranda?
Snapping of the clapper to the spin
g) Repetition:
This is when a word or a group of words is repeated by the poet for special effort. It is normally used for emphasis.
h) Linking/linkage:
It is a kind of repetition in the poem where the ending word or words of a line begin the next or the ending words or line of the first stanza begin the next stanza.
i) Refrain:
This is a repetition of a whole phrase represented by a line or group of lines, It can be a whole line or stanza. Refer to poems, ‘I beg you’, ‘I see a road’ ‘A freedom song.’ etc.
i) Parallelism:
This is where the sense rather than the words are repeated. For example: ‘The village well.’
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