Parts of a poem

Category: Topics in the syllabus

Poetry is a literary genre that uses aesthetics and rhythmic qualities of language to evoke feelings and emotions, and a poem is what we call a piece of poetry.

There are so many different kinds of poems and it's almost impossible to define, but usually a poem ​is a piece of writing in which the words are chosen for their beauty and sound and are carefully arranged, often in short lines that rhyme.
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Main elements of a poem

Title
The name of the poem.
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Author/Poet
The person who writes the poem. They usually leave their signature.

Stanza
A group of lines which are together and separated by an empty line from other stanzas.

Names for stanzas:

• Couplet (2 lines).
• Tercet (3 lines).
• Quatrain (4 lines).
• Cinquain (5 lines).
• Sestet (6 lines).
• Septet (7 lines).
• Octave (8 lines). 

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Space
A gap between stanzas.
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Verse
A single line in a poem. It gives a structure to poetry form.
Here are the most common types of verses:

• Rhymed verse: It's the most common and it usually has a metrical form that rhymes throughout.
• Blank verse: It has no rhyme scheme. However, it has a consistent meter with 10 syllables in each line (pentameter); where, unstressed syllables are followed by stressed ones.
• Free verse: It doesn't follow the rules, and has no rhyme. However, it's still an artistic expression.

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Form
Here are the 3 most common types of poems according to form:

• Lyrics poetry: It expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.
• Narrative poetry: It's a form of poetry that tells a story, often making the voices of a narrator and characters as well.
• Descriptive poetry: It describes the world that surrounds the speaker. It uses elaborate imagery and adjectives.

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Rhyme
Words that end with similar sounds; usually at the end of a line. Rhyme is principally a function of sound rather than spelling. For example, words rhyme that end with the same vowel sound but have different spellings: right, kite, and  height. 

Here are some types of rhyme:

• Perfect rhyme - The ending sound of each word matches exactly: soap and hope.
• Rich rhyme - It involves words that are pronounced the same but are not spelled alike and have different meanings: break and brake.
• Eye rhyme - Two words that look similar on a page, but do not actually rhyme in spoken pronunciation: move and love. 

Rhyme scheme
The pattern of rhymes at the end of each verse or line in poetry. ​

Here are some types of rhyme scheme:

• Alternate rhyme: It follows the pattern ABAB CDCD EFEF and so on.
• Ballade rhyme: It's a lyric poem that follows the rhyme scheme ABABBCBC.
• Coupled rhyme: The rhymes occur in pairs, such as AABBCC.
• Enclosed rhyme: The pattern is ABBA, in which A encloses the B.

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Mood
Emotions involved in a poem.
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Theme
This is what the poem is all about.
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Centered
This is the way a poem is arranged on a page.

Capital letters
Each line of a poem must begin with capital letters.