PROSE

In the simplest terms, prose is everyday

writing.

It covers all the different types of writing you

read daily, from blogs to articles to novels.
Prose might be a fictional novel taking you
away to a far-off planet, or it could be a non-
fictional news article covering the latest
natural disaster. It can also be a verbal story.
PROSE

Within prose, the writing structure includes

sentences, paragraphs, and chapters.
Additional qualities woven within the text
include theme, mood, point-of-view, plot,
setting, etc.
There are 4 common types of prose:

1. Fictional prose takes you away to a made-

up world or story such as The Hunger
Games.

2. Non-fictional prose is factual accounts of

events such as Anne Frank’s The Diary of
a Young Girl.
There are 4 common types of prose:

3. Heroic prose includes oral and written

traditions like fables and legends.

4. Poetic prose is writing with poetic

qualities, such as heightened emotions
and imagery, that is not written in verse.
One example is Amy Lowell’s Bath.
POETRY

While prose is writing, poetry adds artistic

style to writing. Poetry is all about vivid
imagery and rhythm. It works to make you feel
something or drive a point home. Poetry
writers select their structure, rhyme scheme,
pattern, and words with the purpose of
arousing emotion.
POETRY

Rather than sentences and paragraphs, poetry

uses lines, stanzas, verses, meter, stress,
patterns, and rhythm. It offers an artistic way
to present emotions and events.
DIVISION OF POETRY
1. NARRATIVE – Narrative
poetry tells stories through verse. Like a
novel or a short story, a narrative poem
has plot, characters, and setting. Using a
range of poetic techniques such as rhyme
and meter, narrative poetry presents a
series of events, often including action
and dialogue.
NARRATIVE POETRY
Epic – An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily
concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and
events significant to a culture or nation.
Ballad – A ballad is a form of narrative verse that is
considered either poetic or musical. As a literary device, a
ballad is a narrative poem, typically consisting of a series of four-
line stanzas.
Tale – a usually imaginative narrative of an event
Example
s of Epic
Poetry
DIVISION OF POETRY

2. DRAMATIC POETRY –
Dramatic poetry is meant to be recited or
enacted; the "dramatic" label does not
necessarily imply that the work is dark.
More correctly, dramatic implies
theatrical. Shakespeare, for example,
wrote all of his plays in dramatic verse.
DRAMATIC POETRY
Tragedy –branch of drama that treats in a serious
and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered
or caused by a heroic individual.
Comedy – is a humorous and entertaining
genre of literature, film, and television.
DRAMATIC POETRY
Tragic-comedy – A tragicomedy is a
fictional genre that incorporates elements of tragedies and
comedies.
Masque - a type of theater entertainment
including poetry, singing, and dancing, performed in
England in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially at a
royal court.
For example, the Duke, tells the story in Robert
Browning's "My Last Duchess." He believes that
the Duchess gave herself freely to other men,
but without the point of view of another more
objective speaker, you can't really know
whether that is true.
DIVISION OF POETRY

3.LYRIC POETRY – The most

popular form of poetry written in any age.
It deals with the sweet, sad, and beautiful
songs about the sorrows, joys, fears and
aspirations which exists within his own
soul.
LYRIC POETRY
Elegy - a poem of serious reflection, typically a
lament for the dead.
Ode - is a formal lyric poem that is written in
celebration, appreciation, or dedication. They are
generally directed as a specific person, place, idea,
or object. Unlike other forms of poetry, the ode does
not have a strict line or stanza requirement.
LYRIC POETRY

Sonnet - is a type of fourteen-line

poem. Traditionally, the fourteen lines of a
sonnet consist of an octave (or two quatrains
making up a stanza of 8 lines) and a sestet (a
stanza of six lines).
POETRY
Poetry comes in several different forms, but
the common types of poetry include:

• Haiku - traditional Japanese poetry

• Acrostic - mixes letters and phrases
• Free verse - no set meter
• Rhymed - creates specific rhyme pattern
• Descriptive - uses descriptive language to
express a message
HAIKU
ACROSTIC
EXAMPLE
Information by David Ignatow

This tree has two million and seventy-five thousand leaves.

Perhaps I missed a leaf or two but I do feel triumphant at having
persisted in counting by hand branch by branch and marked
down on paper with pencil each total. Adding them up was a
pleasure I could understand; I did something on my own that was
not dependent on others, and to count leaves is not less
meaningful than to count the stars, as astronomers are always
doing…
In Ignatow’s work, first notice the use of complete
sentences in his work. Additionally, he breaks up
the work into a paragraph form. While the writing is
creative and unique, the format is definitely a
prose piece.
EXAMPLE
Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
In this Frost poem, the structure is much different.
The lines of the poem follow the AB rhyme scheme
throughout. Additionally, each line begins with a
capital letter regardless of whether it is starting a
new sentence.
 Difference Between Prose and Poetry
Prose Poetry
Written in sentences and paragraphs Written in lines and stanzas

Normal language patterns Artistic language to express thoughts

and emotions
No limit on words Word limits
Doesn’t use a rhyme scheme or Can include rhyme and rhythm
rhythm

Easy to understand Can take dissecting the words to

understand the meaning
May or may not be used creatively Used creatively and artistically
Similarities and Differences Between Poetry and Prose

Since poetry and prose are forms of literature, they have

a few similarities like being used creatively and having
different types. However, when it comes to their structure
and purpose, they are quite different. Since you know
how to spot prose vs. poetry, you might give essay
writing a try.
 Elements of Poetry
1. Stanza – a group of lines that form the basic metrical
unit in a poem or verse.

Stanzas may be classified into different types:

-couplet- two lines that rhyme -cinquain-five lines
-tercet-three lines -sestet-six lines
-quatrain-four lines -octave-eight lines
-septet-seven lines
 Elements of Poetry
2. Rhyme – the repetition of the same or similar
sounds at the end of each line. This rhyme creates a
pattern within the poem, called rhyme scheme, which
makes the poem more interesting.
 Elements of Poetry
3. Rhythm– the pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables in each line, giving the poem a regular beat.
Each group of stressed and unstressed syllable is called
“foot”.
 Elements of Poetry
One kind of metered foot is the iamb, which is a unit of rhythm
consisting of one unstressed (ˇ), followed by one stressed (/)
syllable.

An iamb is a unit of meter with two syllables, where the first

syllable is unstressed and the second syllable is stressed. Words
such as “attain,” “portray,” and “describe” are all examples of the
iambic pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables.
 Elements of Poetry
Iambic pentameter consists of five iambs in a
single line. A line with five iambs (ten syllables total).
Iambic pentameter is one of the most common meters
used in all of English language poetry, and became
especially popular in Renaissance England. It remained
popular for hundreds of years.
ROMEO: But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
(Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare)
 Elements of Poetry
4. Tone – the attitude of the writer about a subject. This is created by
word choice, setting, regular or irregular meter, and figurative language.
Tone can offer insight into an author’s views and experiences. Tone is
something an author can convey clearly.

Serious, hilarious, amused, angry, playful,

cheerful, sad, gloomy, and other terms that may
be used to characterize the tone of a poem
 Elements of Poetry
Mood– the emotion evoked by the author. It is the
feeling or the atmosphere that the reader gets when he is
reading a text.

Mood is the feeling a reader gets. Mood can provide

insight into a reader’s views and experiences.
 Elements of Poetry
5.Imagery – the use of vivid words that appeal to
the five senses in order to deepen the reader’s
understanding of the text. It also means the use of
figurative language to represent ideas in a way that
appeals to our physical senses. It usually creates an
image in the reader’s mind.
 Elements of Poetry
6. Figurative Language – refers to a
language that conveys deeper and more complex meaning
of words than what it literally suggests. It is achieved
mostly when identifying or comparing one to another. The
most common figures of speech used in poems are simile,
metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony, alliteration,
assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, repetition, and
symbolism.
 Elements of Poetry
6. Figurative Language – refers to a
language that conveys deeper and more complex meaning
of words than what it literally suggests. It is achieved
mostly when identifying or comparing one to another. The
most common figures of speech used in poems are simile,
metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony, alliteration,
assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, repetition, and
symbolism.
FIGURES OF SPEECH
What is Alliteration?

Alliteration is a type of figurative

language that relies on repetition of stressed initial
sounds. Unlike rhyming, which typically occurs at
the end of words, alliteration happens at the
beginning of words that are next to each other, or
nearby.
An Example of Alliteration

“Lo! the Spear-Danes’ glory through splendid achievements

The folk-kings’ former fame we have heard of,
How princes displayed then their prowess-in-battle.
Oft Scyld the Scefing from scathers in numbers
From many a people their mead-benches tore.”

—Beowulf (translated from the Heyne-Socin text by Lesslie Hall)

What is Consonance?

Consonance is a poetic device involving the

repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the end of
stressed syllables and without repetition of vowels.
Consonance is a little more flexible than alliteration, since
the repeated sounds can be found anywhere in a word,
not necessarily at the very beginning.
An Example of Consonance

“When you are old and gray and full of sleep

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep.”

—“When You Are Old” by W. B. Yeats

An Example of Consonance

“When you are old and gray and full of sleep

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep.”

—“When You Are Old” by W. B. Yeats

• R sounds (gray, fire, read)

• L sounds (old, full, sleep, slowly, look)
What is Assonance?

Assonance refers to repetition of a vowel

sound, usually on stressed syllables, in words that
are close together. Assonance can create internal
rhyme, such as in “bake a cake,” or not rhyme at
all, such as in “down and out.”
An Example of Assonance

“Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.”
—The Lord’s Prayer, New Testament

• kingdom and come rhyme, while done, in the next line, repeats
the same vowel sound without rhyming.