Poetry Lessons 101

by Michael Pascoe

A quick course in the basics to writing and constructing poetry

Lesson One

What is Poetry?

Poetry should be learned in segments. One just doesnt write poetry. It has to be experienced.
Also, poetry is desinged. To construct a poem, you must have a blueprint on what you want to write. Then
decided what style you want. The more you know about the different things to know, the easier it is to design a
poem.
First off, what is poetry? Most people think that poetry is rhyming words. This is far from it. There are many
poems that dont rhyme at all. How do you define those poems? So, what is poetry. Poetry is sinply a series of
verses. Shakespeare wrote in verse. Even his plays where in verse.
Prose of course is not verse. Prose is what you are reading now. It encompass most written works. The words
are written until they reach the end of the paper. Then it continues on to the next line. Poetry doesnt do this.
According to Colliers Encyclopedia, poetry is different from regular language by, systematic rearrangements of
the ways in which words for the most part are typically used symply to communicate a message. When the poet
rearranges these words he appears to make the science of his particular language and its sound with a set structure. These patterns are written in what is called verse.
Then what is verse? Verse simply means words written in lines. Thats why free verse is considered poetry. However, I feel real verse writting is more than that. Verse is series of lines formed in a pattern. Otherwise it is prose
seperated in lines. However, verse is not neccassary poetry. The verse has to be used in a creative way to make it
poetry. The arrangements of schemes into a metaphor and you have a poem.
Rhythm is poetry. Rhythm is the combination of words formed into a meter. Meter is the name given to to a
system of either accented and unaccented syllables in English. Since we can only read English, we can only study
the poems written in our laguange. However, we can study scemes written for French and Latin. As well as the
use of long and short syllables in the classical languagues.
A good way to learn poetry is to read poetry. When reading a poem, look for the many things that will be shown
in these lessons. Shakespeare is the best source to study. When reading poetry, use your eyes and ears, as well as
your other senses.
One thing to notice is the way the words appear on the paper. See if you can notice some patterns. Some repeat, others almost sing off the page. Others seem choppy, where others flow. Dont worry if you dont notice all
of them. It is not your job to teach yourself to write poetry. I dont feel one can write poetry this way. Oh, Im
sure with time, one can. However, there are things that one can never figure out for themselves unless someone
shows them. I hope I can share what I have learned so far in my experience in poetry.

Lesson Two

The Sights and Sounds of Poetry

When you write your own poems, there are a few things to be aware of. Be careful of repeating consonants
called alliteration. This is when you repeat the beginning consonants in the course of a sentance. Too many
sounds like a tongue twister; Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers etc.
If you use any in your poems, it is better to use three sounds than two. E.g. Roving reporters roam around the
scene. This sounds more intentional. Four or more is too much. Roving reporters roam the room revealing the
rapture of his deed. This sounds like it is overdone. The more of these that are clustered, the more it slows down
the verse.
When reading poetry, pay attention to the rhyming patterns. These patterns are called schemes. Schemes is the
pattersn of rhyme, syllabble, word, line and stanza. All of these arrangements of language combine to make what
is known as a poem. See if you can discover some of these schemes for your self.
You might have noticed right away the rhyming pattern. This is called a rhyme scheme. To map out these
schemes, use the letters of the alphabets like in algebra. Some are used in couplets like AABBCC.
Chancers Canterbury Tales:
Whan that Aprill with shoures soote
(a)
The droght of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every vein in switch licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour.

(a)
(b)
(b)

Most poems follow a different pattern. Most alternate in clever ways. When grouped together four lines it is
called a quatrain. This poem is a quatrain. Quatrains limit the variety of patterns that can be designed.
Another pattern in a quatrain is this one from A.E. Housmans With Rue My Heart Is Laden. This pattern is
called cross rhyming:
With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.

(a)
(b)
(a)
(b)

You can also just rhyme the second and fourth line or the first and third line. However, it does not sound right to
the ear to rhyme on the odd line.
One of my favorite rhyming pattern is this one called enclosed rhyming. You can see the way this pattern sings
by reading an excerp from one of my poems:
She looked at me with those eyes of blue
And spoke delicatly in a soft mutter,
Which her sweet voice cannot utter.
Oh, how words alone will never do.

(a)
(b)
(b)
(a)

This is a nice variety, but not to be over used. Once a pattern is established it should be adheared to. However,
if a poem is long, a variety is nice. I like to use the enclosed rhyming as a bridge to break up the pattern of the
simple quantrain line.
Not all lines are grouped in quatrains. Three are called terza rima: ABA, BCB CDC etc. A Five line stanza is
called quintet or cinquain. Their rhyming pattersn can varry. Six lines are called sestet, sextet, or sextain. Longer poems use the six line or the seven line stanza called septet.
Octave is of course eight lines. Italian sonnets use the eight line pattern. A nine and ten line stanzas do not have
a name. Many others more than ten are used in odes. Fourteen line stanzas are used in sonnets like those of
Shakespeare. If the strict structure of the sonnet is not used, the fourteen line stanza is called quatorzain.
However, dont narrow your poetry reading to just rhyming verses. Poems written thousands of years ago did
not include rhyming. Ancient Greek and Latin poems did not rhyme. During the Middle Ages, Troubadours
made rhyming popular.
Ezra Pound in A Retrospect says, Some slight element of suprise if it is to give pleasure; it need not be bizarre
or curious... She goes on to say, ...but it must be well used if used at all. John Drury in Creating Poetry says
that, Rhymes must be well chosen. He feels that they should be put in the text so it sounds natural.
Rhymes are often use monosyllables words, but not always. Those that are monosyllabic and end on a stressed
syllable are called masculine. Some examples are: tree/bee, where/there, house/mouse etc. Those that use more
than one syllables are called polysyllabic. When the rhyme ends in an unstressed syllable it is called feminine.
Like; ending/finding, hollow/follow, etc. Because the nature of English, most poems use masculine rhyming.
Rhyme words should be exact. Pop music writers use near rhymes. These sound like rhymes, but are not true
rhymes. Box/knock, time/line, find/mine etc. However, slant rhymes are a pleasant change. Instead of using
the rhyme exactly, it is a little off kilter. The last sound is the same, but the vowel is different. Boat/beat, waken/
thicken, shore/chair etc. I feel that slant rhymes could be used subtly to make it appear that there is no rhyming,
but the ear hears something.
Some wonder if using a rhyming dictionary is helpful. Uncle Junior felt this hindered him. I feel it helps to discover words I might not have thought of. Especially using the alphabetical method of going through the alphabet looking for the right letter for that sound. Using this method makes you miss out on words that use more
than one constenent, e.g.: br, bl, tr, th, thr, etc. Also, these books give poetry tips that are invaluble.
If you cant afford one a poetry book, or want to get started right away, the internet has a rhyming dictionary.
The internet also has a thesaurus which is helpful when you have two words that you want to use in a line, but
do not want to repeat them. My warning is; dont get thesaurus happy. Remember the episode on Friends when
Joey used the thesaurus for every word?
For an excercise, read some poems with different styles. Try picking out some of the rhyming patterns. See if
you can find the masculine or feminine rhymes. Then try writing a quatrain using some of these patterns. Dont
worry about meter because we havent discussed it yet. Just get the feel for the patterns and how they are used.
Remember, you are not writting poetry yet. Just getting a feel for its techniques.

Lesson Three

The Movement of the Poetry

Next, we will discuss meter. Meter is a measuring devise used in music and poetry. In music, if you have four
beats to a bar, its four/four time. Poems work a little different. Both are used for its musicality, but for different
reasons. Not all poems makes good songs, and not all songs are good poetry. A song has a different use in its
stanzas. Stanza is Italian for room. It is the room in the song or poem.
There are four ways to count a meter in poetry. First is the number of syllables. Count the syllables in a word by
using your fingers. Most can hear it, but it is best to count them with the fingers. If you have trouble with counting syllables, look up the word in the dictionary. It is spaced out by its syllables.
Now re-read a poem and count its syllable. Did you notice its pattern? If it is free verse, there probably no disernable pattern. However, most poems have some sort. Some seem to break its pattern. Thats because there is
another facture involved in meter patterns.
The accents in the line contribute to its pattern. The second way to count a meter is the number of accents.
When I refer to accent, I mean the mechanical empahasis that is usually placed upon one syllable in every two
or three in spoken English. This is also known as stresses or beats. A stressed syllable is called its accent. If you
look in the dictionary, you can see the marks placed before, after or on the acented syllable. It will show the
mark as (`). It is written as; `. An unstressed syllable is marked as; ~.
Sometimes you will see in some texts that shows the accent as capitalized. An example of this is: CONcert, EMphasis, imAGinAtion, etc. There is also a variations on the strengths of the accent. As you can see, in the word
EMphasis, the first part of the word gets the stress. However, in the word imAGinAtion, the second and fourth
syllable gets the stress. In this word, the fourth accent is usually pronounce weaker than the stronger second syllable.
In poetry, these accents are alternated to form a sceme. If you combine the accents and the number of syllables,
then you have the third principle in counting a meter. How the dictionary shows the strength of accent is not the
method to determine the stress that is used in poetry. What matters is the strong stressing of the four main syllables. No account is taken of any weak or secondary accents which may also be present. Also, it is not important on the number of syllables betweeen stresses.
The meters depends only upon paterns of two or three syllables each. Two or more of these marks are called a
foot. How they are arrange determines what kind of feet they are. If two syllables are are arranged with the first
being unstressed and the second stressed (~`), then it is called an iambic. An iambic foot would look like this: a
BOY. Most lines in poetry contain iambic.
When the first syllable is stressed (`~) it is called an trochaic foot. E.g.; BOYish. Other combinations can be
used. If you combine three together, you can get other kinds of feet.
These patterns continue. A spondaic foot is marked as; ``. By using two long syllables like this: West WIND / is
one example of a spondaic foot. If you use two unstressed syllables (~~) it is called Pyrrhic.
Three syllables can be used effectivly. The word javelin has three syllables with the first and last syllables are
stressed. It is called an amphimacer or cretic is `~`. The word eLEKtro is an amphibrach and marked as ~`~.

By combining two unstressed with a stressed syllable (~~`) you get what is called anapestic. Another three syllable meter is called dactylic. This is least used in English, but popular in Greece. The first syllable is accented in
English, and long in Greek and Latin. Dactylic foot if marked like this; `~~.
Using two or three syllables is not a hard and fast rule. If you want to use four syllables, the best two are called
ionic feet. A minor ionic is ~~``, and major ionic is; ``~~. Another one is called the paeon. It combines one
stressed and three unstressed. One example that can be used is; SHAD-ow-i-ness. The paeon hardly ever occurs
in a line of English poetry.
The number of feet make poetry rhythmic. The sound of the poem is sort of mathematic. To use the above feet
in a line of poetry determines the style used.
Lines According to Length
Once you know how to measure a foot, next we need to know how to use it a line of poetry. By combining what
is learned from above and the line length, you get a line of poetry. The total number of feet represents a line of
poetry. One foot in a line is called monometer. An iambic monometer looks like this:
I told
a lie
as bold
as I
could dare
to try.

i TOLD
a LIE
as BOLD
as I
could DARE
to TRY.

A Trochaic monometer looks like this:

Once a
ONCE a
turtle,
TURtle,
name of
NAME of
Myrtle,
MYRtle,
wandered WANdered
sadly
SADly
down to
DOWN to
Hadley... HADley...
An Anapestic monometer looks like this:
In a branch
Of a tree...

in a BRANCH
of a TREE...

A dactylic monometer looks like this:

Children are CHILDren are
Slumbering... SLUMbering...

If you use any of the other feet that you learned to the monometer, you can come up with styles. As you can tell,
the monometer looks very choppy. You would not like to write entire poem using a monter no matter how much
you vary it. How best to use any of these short lines like the monometer is to use it like a bridge. Use two long
lines, then break it up with a short one like the monometer, then continue with a long line, as in this example
from Thoreau:

Dangling this way and that, their links

Were made so loose and wide,

Methinks

For milder weather.
Now lets add more feet to a line. A two foot line is called a dimeter. Use any of the feet to make combinations to
the dimeter. If you use an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable in a two foot line, you get a iambic dimeter.
Then use the stressed, unstressed in a two foot line, you have trochaic dimeter. Get the idea now?
Combine the feet with the dactylic and get its meter. Here is an example of a dactylic dimeter:

And so to bed;

A six-foot line is called a hexameter. If you combine the three syllable to the six-foot line and you get a dactylic
hexameter. You can see it Longfellows Evangeline:
THIS is the / FORest pri / MEval. The / MURmuring / PINES and the / HEMlocks
BEARDed with / MOSS and in / GARments / GREEN, indis / TINCT in the / TWIlight...
If you notice, the last syllable on each line has only two syllables. When a syllable is left off like this, it is called
a truncated. The reason Longfellow uses it here is so that when the poem is read outloud, it makes a delibarate
split second pause after the truncated syllable.
Counting by Syllable Length
The fourth way to count a meter in poetry is length of syllable. As English speakers, we are not aware of long
and short syllables. Logically we know a long syllable is a vowel that is spoken longer. Some even know that it
can also be a lengthy combination of consonants. Every English vowel has a long and a short pronunciation and
sometimes both.
For instance, a has two long sounds; ay in make and ah in father. The short a has the a sound as bat. In the
vowel e, the sound in bee is long, where as the sound in bet is short. It only gets more complicated than that.
Even with short vowels, the consonatns around them can make a big difference. If there are a combination of
consonants before the vowel, it can make it longer. For instance, the short e sound eh can seem longer in the
word breath, than it does in the met.
Most emphasis on accents is usually done naturally for English speakers. As poets, we place it in a line show the
importance of a meaning. A tonic accent, that which gives strength, is the tum-tum of the musicality of the science of our laguange. Most iambic meters have this sound.
To sum it up, any method to count a regular pattern in a line of poetry qualifies as a meter. One way is to do a
word count. Syllables dont matter in this pattern. A word count of five maybe a good amount to use per line.

Any method that is used to measure a line and its stanza is called verse. Blank verse is poems that dont rhyme.
Even though the dialoge in Shakespeares plays dont rhyme, it is still written in verse. If you have access to any of
his plays, look at the pattern. It is written in an iambic pentameter.
Modern writers do not like rules to hold them back. They feel shackled when they have follow these patterns.
They like to use what is called free verse. This general is a free meter. It is not measured in syllables or accents.
For that matter, it is not measured by anything else. However, many free verse poetry have some kind of pattern
to it. This is according to the poet.
The main concern to free verse is figuring out how to move the line from one to the other. Where does one
begin and the other start? This depends on the poet. If you want to use end-stops as your guide. A period or a
comma can be your pattern. Or you can use enjamb. If you do, then where do you stop? You stop on your own
personal impulse.
Allen Ginsberg says that breaths is where the poets lines break. Here are three examples:
1. End where there is a natural pause. Either through phrases and after punctuation.
2. In the middle of a natural phrase. Cutting across the grain, by disrupting the syntax.
3. Or you can do it at the point of suspence. You can leave the line hanging until the next one picks up. Then
the next line satifies the readers curiosity. This provides suspense.
Even though there are many ways to do free verse, once you set down rules, then in my opinion, it ceases to be
free verse. I am not a fan of free verse. If the poet is clever and creates a pattern, then its alright. However, if it
is too free, then it no longer poetry, it is prose.

Poetry Selections from Michael Pascoe

Here are four samples from my own works of poetry. The first one is an example of using humor. The second is
the typical poem... a love poem. The third uses positive affirmations for goal setting. The last shows that not all
poems are used for love. It can even be dark poem.
I Saw A Clown
I saw a clown in the heart of nowhere.
This fool was not where a clown should egress.
He was not in a circus or a faire.
A mixed up clown, but a clown none the less.
Sure as I stand here, I did see a clown.
One that reaps the fruits of Miss Lady Luck.
As he wanders and roams all over town
He approached me and said, Whats up Chuck?
Whats up with you clown? I said.
Can I be a clown if God has given me wealth?
Drifting off as I stared at his nose of red.
I noticed on his arm was a fine Rolex
And glanced at it as if it was a Timex.
Time will soon tell, said the gallant jester!
Wearing nothing but clown polyester.
Without You I Could Not Exist
I could not function without you in my life.
Every time I look at you, I think of the many trials and tribulations we have gone through
Even though you may not think it is all worth it,
Trust me when I say I do care.
Every time I look at you, I think of the many trials and tribulations we have gone through
Without you I couldnt exist.
Trust me when I say I do care.
Without you life would not be worth living.
Without you I couldnt exist.
Even though you may not think it is all worth it.
Without you life would not be worth living.
I could not function without you in my life.

Do Not Let Your Dreams Go To Waist

Once a burning desires placed
With a problem you cannot solve.
Do not let your dreams go to waste.
A real solution will evolve.
With a problem you cannot solve,
Use the computer thats your brain.
A real solution will evolve.
Dont let ideas go in vain.
Use the computer thats your brain
And just put that concept to bed.
Dont let ideas go in vain
In the garden that is your head.
Now just put that concept to bed
And let the little seedlings grow
In the garden that is your head.
Dont think about it, just let it go.
Just let the little seedlings grow,
Do not let your dreams go to waste.
Dont think about it, just let it go.
Once a burning desires placed.

Mortality Waits for us All

Mortality waits for us all.

Buckets of tears many will cry
As each season passes us by
As we fall into the abyss.
Mortality waits for us all
As each season, death does this.

Yes, even the Grim Reapers knows

One always reaps what one always sows.
Do not get fooled by your close call
Of the skip of your hearts spasm.
Mortality waits for us all
As he guides us in the chasm,
Mr. Death hides behind his cowl
A vast void that reveals a scowl.

All kinds of sounds soon will depart.

Breaking the silence is the shrill
Of the flatline of our stilled heart.
This monotone buzz is for us all.
The smell of death fills the air,
Mortality waits for us all,
He writes our death date with a quill.
As each season passes beware,
Set in stone is our finality
With our fate with mortality.

Now that you have the tools, go out and construct your own poem. Its fun and rewarding. Dont worry if its
lousy. Practice and practice by actually making mistakes. Then be honest and brutal and make the changes or just
trash it. You can alway write more.
Good luck and hope to see your work in print.