Poetry Structure Essay

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What is the structure of a poem / a sonnet? Unfortunately, the question is a little bit too general for a good answer. However, what you need to know is different types of poetry have different structures, and some poetry such as free verse is essentially structureless. The only thing that you could say is that poetry is mostly shorter than stories and novels, and poetry usually has a more concise way of writing. Poetry consists of different forms: free verse, blank verse, sonnet, ballad, etc. Each form consists of number of stanza in which a stanza can contain any number of lines according to the form. Each stanza maybe constructed by the poet to present different or similar ideas with the ending stanza usually concluding the thought process expressed in the poem. Structure also consists of whether the stanza rhyme, and again depending on the form, rhyming schemes will be different. For example, a Shakespearean sonnet: - Consists of 14 lines 1 - It contains 3 quatrains (4 line stanzas each), and an ending couplet - The rhyming scheme is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG - Each line is written in iambic pentameter. A meter is a sequence of foot each of which is a sequence of syllables. Iambic pentameter, is a sequence of five iambic feet or iambs, each 2 consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. That means each line consists of ten syllables. - Each stanza can be introduced in a different idea and the couplet serves as interpreting all three quatrains. Or the poet might introduce three arguments in each stanza with the couplet serving as the conclusion. 3

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