COURSE

GUIDE

ENG 172
INTRODUCTION TO POETRY

COURSE TEAM: Prof. A. R. Yesufu (Course Developer/Writer)

Department of Languages
National Open University of Nigeria.
Abuja.

Dr. Bridget A. Yakubu (Course Writer)

Department of Languages
National Open University of Nigeria
Abuja.

Dr. Adaobi Muo (Course Writer)

Department of General Studies
National Institute for Nigerian Languages
Aba, Abia State.

Prof. Sophia Akhuemokhan (Course Editor)

Department of English and Literature
University of Benin
Edo State.
NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA
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National Open University of Nigeria 2006

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CONTENTS

Introduction--------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Course Aim---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Course Objectives---------------------------------------------------------------4
Working through the course--------------------------------------------------- 5
Course Materials---------------------------------------------------------------- 5
Study Units-----------------------------------------------------------------------5
Set books and references------------------------------------------------------- 6
Assessment File------------------------------------------------------------------6
Tutor-Marked Assignments-----------------------------------------------------6
Final Examination and Grading------------------------------------------------6
Course Marking Scheme
Presentation Schedule
Course Overview and Presentation
How to get the best from this course-------------------------------------------7
Tutors and Tutorials -------------------------------------------------------------7
Summary---------------------------------------------------------------------------7
INTRODUCTION

ENG172: Introduction to Poetry

ENG172 is a one-semester course of two credit units. It is designed for English
Language students and others in related departments who are required to take language
and literature courses as electives. The course has fifteen units which cover almost all the
introductory information a student would need to understand poetry as a genre of
literature. This requisite information include: the nature of poetry as literature,
definitions, uses, elements, techniques and devices of poetry and, finally, how to criticise
or appreciate a poem.

You are expected to go through this course guide carefully to know what the course is all
about, the course materials you need, the tutor-marked assignments and some other
necessary information. Please attend your tutorial classes for practical discussion of some
of the various aspects of the genre of poetry. By the time you are through with the course,
you would be confident enough to appreciate poetry having acquired the necessary
knowledge of what poetry is and how to recognise good and effective poetry from the
poor and ineffective. Thus, you should also be able to analyse or criticise a poem by
focusing attention on its form (manner/style) and content (matter/subject), etc. Going
through this course will equip you specially for this purpose. Let me assure you that this
course is a very interesting one and it would prepare you for your future encounters with
poetry as a field of study.

Welcome on board.

Course Aim
This course is designed to expose you to the nature, uses, elements, techniques and
devices of poetry. Its aim is to:
- enable you acquire an understanding of the character of poetry as a genre of
literature
- introduce you to the functions of poetry in society
- enable you to understand the elements, techniques/devices, and forms of
poetry
- impart to you the requisite knowledge that would enable you distinguish
between effective and ineffective poetry
- encourage you (through Tutor-Marked Assignments) to criticise set poems.

Course Objectives
The objectives of a course are the things you are expected to be able to do at the end of
the course. These objectives will guide you when going through the study and they will
also help you in self assessment and where you need to improve on your learning and
study habits. By the end of this course, you should be able to:

1. define poetry as a form of writing or literature

2. discuss the elements of poetry that you have been taught in the course
3. identify the different forms of poetry through their characteristic features
2. comment on the qualities of any given poem to demonstrate the skills of
criticism/appreciation you have acquired in this course.

Working Through the Course

In this course, you have fifteen study units to go through. In each of the study units, you
are expected to study the contents very well before attempting the questions. You should
pay attention to the objectives of each study unit so that you can be properly guided
through the unit. You should be prepared to do a lot of thinking and writing in this course
because it is designed to make you do so. The assessment will be through (1) self
assessment exercises meant to enable you measure your level of understanding of the
units contained in this course material and (2) tutor-marked assignments which you are
expected to do and turn in at the appropriate time. You are also expected to write a final
examination at the end of the course. The time for the examination will be communicated
to you.

Course Materials
The major components of the course are:
1. The Course guide
2. The Study units
3. The Textbooks
4. The Assignment files
5. The Presentation schedule

Study Units
There are three modules which are divided into fifteen units in this course. Each study
unit constitutes a week‘s work and this is preceded by the objectives which you are
expected to study before going through the unit. The objectives spell out what you are
expected to be able to do at the end of the unit. In each study unit, you also have the
reading materials and the self assessment exercises. The Tutor-Marked Assignments; the
study units, the tutorials, all put together, will help you to achieve the stated objectives
for this course.

In addition to the above, unlike other courses where you just read and take notes,
ENG172 requires much involvement of your imaginative faculty since the study of poetry
is essentially a study of what ‗bodies forth‘ from the writer‘s intense imagination. You
are also expected to do a lot of writing. However, this does not mean that the theoretical
foundation, which this course is meant to impart to you is not important; it is very
important if you are to master the various manifestations of poetry.

The Modules and study units are as follows:

Module 1 The Nature of Poetry as Literature
Unit One What is literature (definitions; oral/written; imaginative; creative;
suggestive)
Unit Two What is poetry (definitions)
Unit Three Elements of poetry: imagery; sound; rhythm; diction
Unit Four Major form/types of poetry
Unit Five Functions or uses of poetry as a form of literature

Module 2 Techniques and literary devices of poetry

Unit One Tropes: irony; paradox; simile; metaphor; personification; etc
Unit Two Rhetorical figures: contrast; antithesis; apostrophe; hyperbole; etc.
Unit Three Types of Verse: blank, heroic, free
Unit Four Foot; Syllable; metre and types
Unit Five Duration/quantity

Module 3 Analysis of Poetry

Unit One Through matter or sense
Unit Two Through manner or method
Unit Three Through evaluation of manner/method vis-à-vis meaning
Unit Four Practice through selected poems for illustration
Unit Five Useful literary/Poetic terms

Set Textbooks and Other References

Each unit has a list of recommended reference textbooks and materials for further
reading. These are meant to deepen your knowledge of the course. Try to get as many as
possible and go through them for necessary assistance while going through the unit and
before attempting the exercises.

Assessment File
You will be assessed in two ways in this course: (a) the Tutor-Marked
Assignments (TMA) and (b) a written examination. You are expected to do the
assignments and submit them to your tutorial facilitator for formal assessment in
accordance with the stated deadlines in the presentation schedule and the Assignment
file. Your TMAs will account for 30% of the total course mark.

Tutor-Marked Assignment (TMA)

ENG172 is a course that involves a sizeable number of practical works, and this
translates to a lot of tutor-marked assignments at the end of every unit which you are
expected to do. You are also expected to master as many critical/literary terms that have
particular relevance to the study of poetry and possibly discuss them in class/study
groups or with your tutorial facilitator. You will be assessed on the aspects and activities
of this course material through the Tutor-Marked Assignments. Make sure you submit
your assignments before the stated deadline.

Final Examination and Grading

The final examination for ENG172 will be a two-hour paper in which you are expected to
answer all questions in sections A and B and a specified number of questions in section
C. Each question is 1 mark, giving you a total of 70 marks for the examination. The 30
marks for the course work and the 70 marks for the examination give a total of 100 marks
(i.e., 30+70 = 100). The structure or pattern of the questions will be MCQs and FBQs.
Revise properly before the examination date.
Course Marking Scheme
The following table shows how the actual course mark is broken down
Assessment Marks
Assignments Three Assignments, which count as
30% of course work.

Final Examination 70%

Total 100%

Presentation Schedule
The dates for the submission of all assignments will be communicated to you. You will
also be informed of the date of completion of the study units and the dates of the
examinations.

Course Overview
Unit Title of Work Week’s Assessment
Activity (End of Unit)
Course Guide 1
Module 1: The Nature of Poetry as
Literature
1 What is Literature? 1 Assignment 1
2 What is Poetry? 2 Assignment 2
3 Elements of Poetry 3 Assignment 3
4 Major Types of Poetry – the impersonal 4 Assignment 4
forms
5 Major Types of Poetry – the personal or 5 Assignment 5
romantic forms
Module 2: Techniques and Devices of
 Poetry
1 Tropes: Irony; paradox; metaphor; 6 Assignment 6
personification; simile; metonymy;
synecdoche; etc.
2 Rhetorical Figures: Contrast; antithesis; 7 Assignment 7
apostrophe; hyperbole; onomatopoeia;
oxymoron; etc.
3 Types of Verse: Blank; Heroic; Free. 8 Assignment 8
4 Syllable; metre and types 9 Assignment 9
5 Duration/quantity 10 Assignment 10
Module 3: Analysis of Poetry
1 Through Matter or Subject 11 Assignment 11
2 Through Manner or Method 12 Assignment 12
3 Through Evaluation of Manner vis-à-vis 13 Assignment 13
Meaning
4 Practice Through Selected Poems for 14 Assignment 14
Illustration
Revision 15
Examination 16
Total 17

How To Get the Most from this Course

In distance learning, the study units replace the university lecturer. This is one of the
advantages of distance learning; you can read and work through specially designed study
materials at your own pace, and at a time and place that suits you best. Think of it as
reading the lecturer instead of listening to a lecturer. In the same way that a lecturer
might give you some reading to do, the study units tell you when to read your set books
or other materials. Just as a lecturer might give you an in-class exercise, your study units
provide exercises for you to do at appropriate points. Each of the study units follows a
common format. The first item is an introduction to the subject matter of the unit and
how a particular unit is integrated with the other units and the course as a whole. Next is
a set of learning objectives. If you make a habit of doing this, you will significantly
improve your chances of passing the course. The main body of the unit guides you
through the required reading from other sources. This will usually be either from your set
books or from your course guides. The following is a practical strategy for working
through the course. If you run into trouble, telephone your tutor. Remember that your
tutor‘s job is to help you. When you need assistance, do not hesitate to call and ask your
tutor to provide it. Follow the following advice carefully:

1. Read this Course Guide thoroughly, it is your first assignment

2. Organise a study schedule. Refer to the ‗Course Overview‘ for more details. Note
the time you are expected to spend in each unit and how the assignments relate to
the units. Whatever method you choose to use, you should decide on and write your
own dates for working on each unit.
3. Once you have created your own study schedule, do everything you can to stick to
it. The major reason that students fail is that they get behind with their course work.
If you get into difficulties with your schedule, please let your tutor know before it is
too late for help.
4. Turn to Unit 1 and read the Introduction and the Objectives for the Unit
5. Assemble the study materials. Information about what you need for a unit is given in
the ‗overview‘ at the beginning of each unit. You will almost always need both the
study unit you are working on and one of your set books on your desk at the same
time.
6. Work through the unit. The content of the unit itself has been arranged to provide a
sequence for you to follow. As you work through the unit you will be instructed to
read sections from your set books or other articles. Use the unit to guide your
reading.
7. Review the objectives for each unit to inform that you have achieved them. If you
feel unsure about any of the objectives, review the study material or consult your
tutor.
8. When you are confident that you have achieved a unit‘s objectives, you can then
start on the next unit. Proceed unit by unit through the course and try to pace your
study so that you keep yourself on schedule
9. When you have submitted an assignment to your tutor for marking, do not wait for
its return before starting on the next unit. Keep to your schedule. Consult your tutor
as soon as possible if you have any questions or problems.
10. After completing the last unit, review the course and prepare yourself for the final
examination. Check that you have achieved the unit objectives (listed at the
beginning of each unit) and the Course Objectives (listed in the Course Guide)
11. Keep in touch with your study centre. Up to date course information will be
continuously available there.

Tutors and Tutorials

There are 8 tutorial hours for this course. The dates, times and location of these tutorial
sessions will be communicated to you as well as the name and phone number of your
tutorial facilitator. You will also be notified of your tutorial group.

As you relate with your tutorial facilitator, he/she will mark and correct your assignments
and also keep a close watch on your performance in the tutor-marked assignments and
attendance at tutorials. Feel free to contact your tutorial facilitator by phone or e-mail if
you have any problem with the contents of any of the study units.

Summary
ENG172 is designed to introduce you to the nature, uses, different types of poetry as well
as how to appreciate poetry based on your understanding of what a given poem is and
what makes it effective or ineffective. On completion, you should be well equipped with
all the necessary skills needed to criticise any type of poem.

We wish you the best as you go through this course.

MODULE 1 THE NATURE OF POETRY AS LITRATURE
UNIT 1: WHAT IS LITERATURE?

CONTENTS
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 What is Literature?
3.1.1 Imagination
3.1.2 Creativity
3.1.3 Suggestion/Indirection
3.2 Forms or Genres of literature
3.2.1 Poetry
3.2.2 Drama
3.2.3 Novel/Prose Fiction
3.3 Functions or Uses of Literature
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignments
7.0 References and Further Reading

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Literature is the art which imitates life in words with the twin objectives of entertaining
and edifying. There has always been an unresolved argument as to whether literature
inheres in the matter, subject or object that it concerns itself with or in its manner or style
of expressing this matter of focus. While these arguments are valid in locating literature
in a particular space in the array of other written forms produced by man, it is the major
characteristics of the art that defines it most precisely. In this regard, literature is best
seen as the body of work (written or oral) in which a person‘s record of his/her
experiences is given in an artistic form. The literary cosmos is best marked by its
qualities of imagination, creativity and suggestiveness. These qualities are most explicitly
discernible in poetry, our focus in this course, which is the oldest of the major forms or
genres of literature.

2.0 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
- define and identify the essentials of literature
- understand and identify the formal markers of literature
- identify the differences between literature and other forms of writing
- discuss the features of literature that lend it its universality

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

In this unit, you will learn about literature as the art form that mirrors life in deliberately
chosen words or diction with the purpose of pleasing, teaching and developing the
readers‘ or listeners‘ faculty of reasoning or thinking. You will also learn, as a means of
preparing the ground for your proper understanding of the study of poetry, the major
forms or genres of literature. The study of works of literature broadens our horizon,
refines our sensibilities as well as deepens our understanding of people and human nature
generally.

3.1 What is Literature?

Literature is writing in which ideas of permanent and universal values or interests are
expressed in a deliberately embellished language, the purpose of which is to please (both
sensually and intellectually) and teach by indirection. Compare this definition that gives
us a clear idea of literature as both content (what is said) and medium (how content is
expressed) to the following definition by Ezra Pound: ―Great literature is simply language
charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree‖ (28).
The polarity of opinions regarding the exact nature of literature captures the age-old
debate on whether literature or literariness should be judged merely by the subject or
content of a work or by the style of its expression. We shall leave this question for now
because you will have to form your own opinion as you get to understand the workings of
literature and defend it with facts or illustrations.

However, some of the foremost things that a reader needs to know about literature are its
constitutive elements or characteristics, viz: imagination, creativity, suggestion or
indirection.

3.1.1 Imagination
Literature thrives essentially on imaginative constructs; which means that it is a form of
composition that relies heavily on the composer‘s or writer‘s mental journeys that take
him/her beyond the realms of the given to a world of fantasy or of the mind. Hence, the
literary artist is not always bound by the ordinary daily experiences of people. For
example, a raconteur or story teller almost always takes his/her audience to improbable
and indeterminable lands and times which are products of his/her imagination. Writers
have led their readers through lands of giants, one-eyed monsters, flying humans,
speaking animals and forests; all these are emanations from their imagination. Some have
presented environments that could best be described as replicas of heaven or hell in a bid
to show the readers or audience the two poles of bliss/desire and repugnance/suffering
and pain. Franz Kafka, in his story ‗Metamorphosis‘, has given to written literature the
unforgettable image of a young insurance executive who woke up in the morning to find
that he had metamorphosed into a cockroach. All the extraordinary events and characters
are products of literary invention or imagination. Imagination also comes into play in the
literary artist‘s use of events and experiences in his/her social environment, but imbuing
them with imagined aspects or qualities which raise them above the ordinary.
The imagination of the literary artist is also clearly visible in his/her use of language to
express his/her experiences, be they real or imagined. A good artist always finds or
imagines a fresh way of expressing ordinary experiences, thereby raising them to a level
that appears to be out of the ordinary. For example, in the simple but extraordinary
expression, ―He watches from his mountain walls/And like a thunderbolt he falls‖, the
Victorian poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson, establishes a similarity between the speed of a
thunderbolt and that of an eagle descending from a height to catch its prey. The poet has
used his imagination to create this scene and the reader‘s imagination is similarly excited.
It is this collaboration that James Reeves so aptly describes in the statement that ―most
good poetry demands study and interpretation; it costs its maker much effort of thought,
imagination and feeling, and it is worthy of corresponding efforts by its readers‖ (xxi).
Aristotle‘s opinion, in his comparison of history and poetry, is instructive in this
discussion of literary imagination; he asserted that poetry (the poet) is superior to history
(the historian) because the former is philosophical, expressing the probable, while the
latter is factual, thriving on what has been.

3.1.2 Creativity
There is a very thin line that separates creativity that constitutes the bedrock of literature
from imagination that we have discussed above. For one, they are both essential qualities
and products of the artist; it is the competent artist that imagines the best forms that
his/her matter and manner would take. Similarly, it is the artist who creates a fictive
world in which his/her imagination plays among symbols to produce his/her work. So, in
essence, the two qualities overlap to give us a rounded or full understanding of the true
nature of literature. The literary artist, at the moment of creation is, in the words of
Andrew Lang (Blakeney, xv quoted by Brooke), ―a born visionary and mystic, beholding
things unapparent, believing in experiences that were never actual.‖ For example, British
poets like William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William B. Yeats who
believed/claimed that some of their major works were handed to them by some
supernatural mediums or agencies are of this mould. Some of their poems at times had
their origins in historical and legendary materials, which were then imbued with the
extraordinary poetic touch. It is this faculty that gave to English literature, among many
others, such great poems of the extraordinary and supernatural as Blake‘s ‗Jerusalem‘ and
‗The Marriage of Heaven and Hell‘; Coleridge‘s ‗The Rime of the Ancient Mariner‘ and
‗Kubla Khan‘; and Yeats‘ poems that incorporated the occult and mythology of Irish
folklore.

1.3 Suggestion/Indirection
There is no other quality of literature that distinguishes it more succinctly from other
forms of writing than this quality of suggestiveness. While other forms of writing could
claim to be both imaginative and creative in their own ways, they are definitely not
marked by the quality of indirection or suggestiveness which is the exclusive domain of
literary language. In fact, most factual writings such as works on the sciences, history,
geography, and so on, cannot afford to be purely suggestive in the manner that literature,
especially poetry, is. Acclaimed literary critics, such as William Empson, have
recommended a certain degree of ambiguity for a work of literature worth the label.
Empson, in his discussion of what he identified as the seven types of ambiguity, has
stated the virtue of indirection in literary language. The French Symbolist poet,
Mallarme, also averred that the essence of an object is destroyed by direct naming when
he said that ―poetry lies in the contemplation of things in the image emanating from the
reveries which things arouse in us.... To name an object is largely to destroy poetic
enjoyment, which comes from gradual divination. The ideal is to suggest the object‖
(quoted in Adams 1961, p. 168).
The effect of suggestion is achieved through figurative language in poetry and generally
through language that has multiple meanings. In the view of I. A. Richards and Cleanth
Brooks, indirection or suggestiveness is best achieved through the use of irony and
paradox. The latter critic has commented in his The Well-Wrought Urn that ―paradox is
the language that is appropriate and inevitable to poetry. It is the scientist whose truth
requires a language purged of every trace of paradox; apparently the truth which the poet
utters can be approached only in terms of paradox‖ (3). In its commonest/barest extreme,
suggestiveness or indirection could be achieved by a writer by deliberately restraining
himself from calling an object by its name, while using words and expressions that
suggest the object. The following is a very good example of a poet‘s description of an
object (a .....) by indirection:

I like to see it lap the miles

And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks
And then prodigious step

Around a pile of mountains,

And supercilious peer
In shanties by the sides of the roads,
And then a quarry pare

To fit its sides

And crawl between
Complaining all the while
In horrid, hooting stanzas
He then chase itself downhill

And neigh like Boanergesf

Then prompter than a star,
Stop, docile and omnipotent,
At its own stable door.
Emily Dickinson
Self-Assessment Exercise 1.1
1. What is the object that the poet has treated without mentioning its name?
2. Identify the words or expressions that suggest what this object is.
3. What effect does the poet achieve by not naming the object directly?

3.2 Forms or Genres of Literature

Literature, as you must have learnt in your previous studies, comprises some major types
or forms or genres. These major types, which could be further reduced to sub-types or
categories, are four and they are poetry, drama, novel or prose fiction, and non-fiction
prose, otherwise known as the essay. It is important for you to note that these literary
types are not defined or based on thematic focus, since all three types often share
common themes as literature. They are categorised strictly by their stylistic features.
Thus, the best approach to the study or understanding of these major forms is by noting
their elements or defining characteristics which are as follows:

3.2.1 Poetry
This is the oldest of the three major forms of literature with roots deep in the rituals and
religious observances of antiquity. Thus, it was mainly oral, performance-driven and
public as it was, more often than not, a tool for supplication, communal tribal celebration
and celebration of the supernatural as well as appreciation of the gifts of nature. From
these early beginnings developed the personal and impersonal forms of poetry
represented by the lyric on the one hand and the traditional epic and ballad on the other.
Since we shall dwell on this form (poetry) in more detail in subsequent sections of this
course material, we shall now move on to briefly enumerate the defining characteristics,
namely: imagery, sound, rhythm and diction.
 Imagery is the sensory language used in poetry. By sensory we imply that the
language appeals to or affects the senses of the reader or audience.
  Sound is the auditory aspect or quality inherent in poetry. The importance of this
characteristic lies in the fact that poetry is meant to be heard and in its original
form it was a song and most short lyrics today still retain this character.
 Rhythm is the wave-like movement discernible in poetry. It accounts, along with
sound, for the musical quality in poetry.
 Diction refers to the special choice or selection of words utilised by the poet in his
work.

3.2.2 Drama
Drama was the second to evolve of the three major genres of literature to be studied in
the course, and like poetry, it had its origins in ritual, song, and dance. Hence a
comprehensive definition of drama takes into account these defining strands, as you will
notice in the definition that follows: Drama is a story told through action by actors who
impersonate the characters of the story. It is a work of literature designed to be presented
on a stage in a theatre by persons who impersonate or imitate the characters of other
persons, speak and perform prescribed dialogues and actions. For drama to exist, there
must be characters who imitate or impersonate the speeches and actions of other persons
on a stage in a theatre; hence the defining characteristics or elements of this form are:
action, plot, dialogue, character (isation) and setting.

3.2.3 Novel/Prose Fiction

The novel is an extended fictitious prose writing or narrative with human beings or
humanised non-humans engaged in actions over a period of time, and displaying varieties
of human characters engaged in human relationships in situations that simulate life. In
other words, the novel is a make-believe account of the sequence of the lives of human
beings. As a literary genre, it attained recognition as a widely practised form of literature
at a later time than the other two major literary genres, although its antecedents were
already present in the oral modes and poetic narratives of past eras.
Despite its relative newness in relation to poetry and drama, the novel has developed by
leaps and bounds to be the most popular and widely read of the three and has successfully
embraced/accommodated such subcategories as science fiction, fantasy, and utopia,
within its fold. The unifying factors they share are the following elements or defining
features: story, plot, setting and characterisation.

Self-Assessment Exercise 2
1. Name the three major forms of literature
2. For each of these forms, give two examples each and give adequate reason for your
choice of the texts

3.3 Functions/Uses of Literature

As we have mentioned above, literature serves some important purposes in human
society, the two major ones being entertainment/pleasure and teaching of values. Along
the lines of these two uses, critics have made large claims of the role of literature to
include being the conscience of society. The writer is seen as the sensitive moral point of
society who is constantly chiding errant humanity and pointing them in the right
direction, to ensure that social harmony and health are maintained. P. B. Shelley, the
Romantic poet, regards poetry (by extension, literature generally) as the unacknowledged
legislator of the world.

While the above views of what literature is and is capable of doing in society may be
debatable, there is no doubt that literature entertains and edifies through the creation of
beauty, expression of thought and expression of emotions.

Self-Assessment Exercise 3
Discuss with reference to specific works how literature entertains and teaches.
4.0 CONCLUSION
We have been able to go through some of the basic concepts of literature as an art form in
this unit. This knowledge will serve as a good reference point as you study any of the
forms of literature and poetry in particular.

5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, you have learnt about the following:
1. The concept of literature as an imaginative and creative construct that communicates
its thoughts through suggestion/ indirection.
2. The major forms or genres of literature and their stylistic markers such as imagery,
sound, rhythm and diction (poetry); action, dialogue, plot and character(isation) and
setting (drama); story, plot, setting and characterisation (novel).
3. The main functions of literature in society, viz: pleasure and instruction.

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

1. With adequate examples, give and explain a comprehensive definition of
literature.
2. In your own words, define literature, explain its nature and identify what makes it
different from other types of writing.
3. Discuss the essential features of literature.
4. Explain the similarities and differences between the major genres of literature using
ample examples.
5. What are the functions of literature?
6. Literature is said to work by indirection. Discuss this assertion using any two texts of
your choice.

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING

Abrams, Meyer H. (1971). A Glossary of Literary Terms. New York: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston.
Adams, Hazard (1961). The Contexts of Poetry. New York: Harcourt.
Aristotle. ―On the Art of Poetry‖. Classical Literary Criticism. Edited T.S.
Dorsch. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics.
Blakeney, Edward H., ed. (1926). Selections from Shelley. English Literature Series.
No. 92. London: Macmillan.
Brooke, Stopford (1926). Introduction. E.H. Blakeney. Selection from Shelley.
Brooks, Cleanth (1975). The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of
Poetry. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
Heese, Marie and Robin Lawton (1988). The New Owl Critic: An Introduction to
Literary Criticism. Cape Town: Nasou.
Holman, C. Hugh (1972). A Handbook to Literature. Indianapolis: Bobbs-
Merrill.
Pound, Ezra. (1951). The ABC of Reading. London: Faber and Faber.
Reeves, James, ed. (1972). The Poets’ World. An Anthology of English Poetry.
London: Heinemann.
UNIT 2: POETRY AND ITS DEFINITIONS

CONTENTS
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 What is Poetry?
6.1.1 Definitions
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-Marked Assignments
7.0 References and Further Reading

1.0 INTRODUCTION
In this unit, you will learn the basic considerations in the study of poetry. Poetry, as we
have indicated in the foregoing Unit, is considered the most ancient of the four major
genres of literature. Accordingly, we have to begin by seeing it as a form of literary
expression with all the defining qualities of literature such as imagination; creativity;
suggestiveness or indirection, as a mirror reflecting the individual‘s perception of life
experiences. Generally speaking, these qualities apply to both oral and written forms of
poetry, but the medium of expression and transmission are markedly different.
Nonetheless, both manifestations of poetry share identical content, form and effect. This
is to say that irrespective of the obvious difference between these forms of poetry, their
sources and end-purpose are the emotions and imagination of the writer on the one hand,
and the reader or audience on the other. They convey significant truths about the human
condition and they employ a language that is deliberately adorned by the use of figurative
expressions. This will become clearer to you by the time we define poetry by way of
setting it apart as a specific genre of literature.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
1. Identify poetry as a form of literature;
2. Define poetry;
3. Explain some of the operative/recurrent words or terms in a good definition of
poetry.

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

The impulses responsible for the creation of poetry, whether oral or written, are as varied
as there are individual differences and individual situations of life. However, three main
motivations are generally discernible by critics, namely:
 Imitative (Mimetic): The innate human instinct to imitate things, which one can
observe even in young children and monkeys.
 Aesthetic/Emotional: The natural pleasure of recognising good or effective
mimicry. This is why Aristotle referred to poetry as ―an imitative art‖.
 Musical: The impulse or instinct for tune, music and rhythm as means of
expressing and thus giving vent to emotions.

These motivations by and large would apply in the consideration of other literary and
even plastic art forms, but they assume greater significance in the study of poetry, the
type we are undertaking in this course.

To illustrate the workings of these impulses, let us consider the following scenario, which
encapsulates the three principles listed above, that must be familiar to you. For most of
you, your first experience of poetry, when you began to recognise sounds and notes, must
have been the imitative sounds contained in the lullabies to which your mother or elder
siblings treated you. While you definitely could not have understood a word of the sing
songs, the occasional incorporation or introduction of common sounds of birds and other
animals as well as appropriately placed repetition of words and sounds must equally have
had some calming effect on you. As you grew up, you must have applied this same
method to achieve the same ends in your relation with your younger ones. The imitative
content and their pleasing effects on both you and your younger ones as you grew are
rudiments of the poetic instinct that we carry along with us into adulthood.

In the lullabies, you have inherent imitation, music and beauty/emotions. The lullabies
and such other utilitarian songs and practices show that poetry has been and is always
with us as human beings.

Nonetheless, this course is specifically designed to focus attention on written poetry,

which means that we shall define poetry as a written form, but which by reason of
common origins, share similar properties with its oral antecedent.

3.1 What is Poetry?

Since poetry means different things to different people, we shall not answer this question
by providing a single definition until we have considered a good number of available
definitions. The implication of this statement is that there is no one standard definition of
poetry that can satisfy all possible shades of opinions; rather an aggregate(d) definition
that contains aspects of some popular views or definitions representative of various
critical approaches to literature might just be the most sensible way to take. These latter
views take cognisance of basic concepts and words such as composition, words and their
arrangement, expression, emotion/feeling/passion, perception, thought, rhythm,
imagination, etc.

3.1.1 Definitions of Poetry

The following are well-known definitions of poetry which illustrate the varied view of
this genre:
  Poetry is the language that tells us, through a more or less emotional reaction,
something that cannot be said. All poetry, great or small, does this. - Edwin
Arlington Robinson.
 I would define poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty. Its sole
arbiter is taste. With the intellect or with the conscience it has only collateral
relations. Unless incidentally, it has no concern whatever either with duty or with
truth. – Edgar Allan Poe
 Poetry is the imaginative expression of strong feeling, usually rhythmical...the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquillity. – William
Wordsworth
 The proper and immediate object of Science is the acquirement or communication
of truth; the proper and immediate object of Poetry is the communication of
pleasure. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
 Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the best and happiest
minds. – Percy Bysshe Shelley
 An actual poem is the succession of experiences – sounds, images, thoughts,
emotions – through which we pass when we are reading as poetically as we can. -
Andrew Bradley
 ...the rhythmic, inevitably narrative, movement from an overclothed blindness to a
naked vision. – Dylan Thomas
 If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold that no fire can ever warm
me, I know that it is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken
off, I know that it is poetry. – Emily Dickinson

From the above definitions or explanations of what poetry is, it is clear as we have said
earlier on that there cannot be a single definition that will be comprehensive enough to
accommodate the various shades of opinions and schools of thought regarding the exact
nature of the genre. While one cannot correctly adjudge one definition as superior, better
or more comprehensive than another, it is true that each of them has its point of emphasis
which in turn places it in one or the other of the great literary/creative debate over
content, style and effect. It is thus clear that Edgar Allan Poe‘s conception of poetry as
expressed above emphasises style or form over content and effect, while both William
Wordsworth and Edwin Arlington Robinson focus more attention on content and effect in
their definitions to reflect their English and American Romantic pedigrees respectively.
In this regard, you should take particular note of Emily Dickinson‘s own idea of poetry
whose essential criterion is the effect it has on her and is capable of having on a reader. In
a final analysis, one cannot fault any one of these definitions, given the special interests
and period fascinations that shape them.

Besides the individual emphases noted in the definitions we have used as samples above,
we should take note of the occurrence of some common words and phrases such as
emotions/feelings, rhythm/rhythmical, truth, pleasure, imaginative expression, language,
and so on, which underscore the protean nature of poetry and which make it susceptible
to being conceived of variously by definers the way the proverbial blind men saw and
defined the elephant.

Finally, we may attempt a definition that strives to distil the various elements of the
explanations we have made so far as follows: Poetry is a form of composition in verse
form, especially one expressing deep feelings or noble thought in a rhythmic and
generally beautiful or embellished language written with the aim of communicating an
experience. This definition contains the grains of the essential elements of the genre of
poetry (imagery, rhythm, sound and diction) to which we will turn our attention in the
next unit of this course material.

Self-Assessment Exercise
In your own words, attempt a definition of poetry.
4.0 CONCLUSION
Poetry is the oldest of the major literary genres that has been part of the traditions of
people through the ages. It has manifested in most human ritual activities as well as
served as a ready means of entertainment in traditional festivals. Yet, in spite of its long
history and perennial occurrence and employment in important human activities, it has
defied common definition because it seems to strike different people differently.

5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, you have learnt several definitions and explanations of poetry as a literary
genre. While a common definition has not been found and this is exemplified by the
multiplicity of samples of definitions examined, we have provided a definition that has
incorporated the major strands of the various explanations common to different traditions
and periods of literary history.

7.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

1. What do you consider as the major difference between Edwin Arlington
Robinson‘s and Emily Dickinson‘s conceptions of poetry?
2. What is poetry? Please give examples.
3. Discuss the nature of poetry as an ancient art form with identifiable style.
4. What are the defining characteristics of poetry as a major genre of literature?
5. Analyse, at least four definitions of poetry studied in class. Your answer should illustrate
the relationship between all the definitions.
6. Using one known poem, discuss the reasons why poetry is said to lend itself to various
interpretations, like the proverbial blind men and the elephant.

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING

Holman, C. Hugh (1972). A Handbook to Literature. Indianapolis: Bobbs-
Merrill.
Reeves, James, ed. (1972). The Poets’ World. An Anthology of English Poetry.
London: Heinemann.
UNIT 3: ELEMENTS OF POETRY – IMAGERY, RHYTHM, SOUND,
DICTION

CONTENT
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Imagery
3.2 Rhythm
3.3 Sound
3.4 Diction
3.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-Marked Assignment
7.0 References and Further Reading

1.0 INTRODUCTION
As we have established in the foregoing units, poetry is one of the major genres of
literature and in order for us have a proper understanding of its nature, it is necessary for
us to possess an adequate knowledge of the elements or salient features that
differentiate/distinguish it from the other three literary genres – the novel/prose fiction,
non-fiction prose, and drama. These elements, which constitute the tools by which poets
convey the thoughts and experiences they wish to communicate, include imagery,
rhythm, sound, and diction. They are the very essence of poetic study or criticism and a
full comprehension of their meaning and functions in the realisation of the total
experience of any poem is of paramount importance.

2.0 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
 1. Identify the major elements of poetry;
2. Explain the major elements of poetry;
3. Discuss the functions of these elements of poetry;
4. Apply your understanding of these elements in your appreciation of any
given poem.

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1 Imagery
In simple terms, imagery is a collective term used to denote the images in a poem or all
the objects and qualities of sense perception in a poem. In other words, it is a language
that represents sense experience as graphically as possible. Thus, it is the sensory content
of a poem or a literary work in general that is meant to evoke a picture or an idea in the
mind of a reader or the audience, in the case of poetry. You must have had this
experience on occasions when you read a poem and images or pictures of the ideas and
objects described or mentioned in the lines appeared in your mind‘s eye or are flashed on
the mirror of your mind; you seemed to have seen these pictures right before you on the
page or in the spaces in front of you.

Due to the power of imagery, poets utilise it to achieve the following important effects in
their works:
 Arouse specific emotions in the reader or audience
 Create beauty, which is an important quality of poetry
 Communicate thoughts
 Achieve concretion of life experiences and ideas that are otherwise abstract

Accordingly, it is through imagery that the sense impressions and experiences evoked in
a poem acquire necessary vividness and clarity.
The following are the main types of imagery that you would always find used either
individually or in combination by poets in their works:

 Auditory
This is the type of imagery, words, or cluster of words that evoke the sense of hearing or
a specific sound. Quite often, the auditory image manifests through the figure of sound
known as onomatopoeia, that is, a combination of words whose sound seems to resemble
or echo the sound it denotes: ―hum‖, ―murmur‖, ―bang‖, ―crack‖, ―hiss‖, ―screech‖
―hoot‖. Examples of the use of auditory imagery are the following excerpts from J. P.
Clark‘s ‗Night Rain‘ and ‗Benin Sacrifice‘and Niyi Osundare‘s ‗Raindrum‘:

1. It is drumming hard here

And I suppose everywhere
Droning with insistent ardour upon
Our roof thatch and shed
(Clark, ‗Night Rain‘)
2. The roof sizzles at the waking touch,
Talkative like kettledrums
Tightened by the iron fingers of drought
(Osundare, ‗Raindrum‘)
3. Then the priest commanding
Intones the charge, and the latest
Instruments of slaughter stutter out
A message mortal...
(Clark, ‗Benin Sacrifice‘)

A sensitive reading of the first two excerpts above would definitely make you ‗hear‘ the
drumming, droning, sizzling and talkative drops of the rain that sound like kettledrums on
the thatch roof of the personae‘s abodes as well as on the desiccated earth ―licked clean
by the fiery tongue of drought‖. In the third excerpt, the sound of the machine guns
(‗instruments of slaughter‘) is mimicked or conveyed through the onomatopoeic word
―stutter‖. The sound of the drum beat is common to both poets‘ realisation of the
experience conveyed in their poems. You will agree that the sense of hearing they
express is what you are conversant with and would easily appreciate.

 Olfactory
Images of this type evoke our sense of smell whether sweet, pungent, fragrant, etc. An
example of this is:

1. The air was heavy with odours

Of diarrhoea of unwashed children
(From Chinua Achebe‘s poem, ‗A Mother in a Refugee Camp‘)

2. ‗ARE YOU
LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?‘ Button B. Button A. Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
(From Wole Soyinka‘s poem, ‗Telephone Conversation‘)

The lines, ―odours of diarrhoea of unwashed children‖ and ―stench of rancid breath‖
virtually transport the reader, through his or her imagination, to the settings of the poems
and make one a co-perceiver of the odours described by the poets.

 Tactile
This refers to the images that appeal to one‘s sense of touch. A good example of this is
the memorable line from James Shirley‘s poem, ‗The Glories of our Blood and State‘:
Death lays his icy hand on kings (Reeves 104).
This line makes someone feel by imagination the cold hand of death as it seizes its
victim. You must have often read in obituary announcements the mention or reference to
the ―cold hands of death‖ that have snatched away a loved one. This expression
accentuates the sense of touch by the use of ―icy‖ to underscore the coldness of death.

A similar poetic process takes place in these lines from Okinba Launko‘s poem,
‗Separation‘, where the coldness and aloneness of separation of people, probably former
lovers, are given a concrete approximation in the comparison/simile in the two last lines
of the following quotation:

So welcome again,
The old loneliness. I hear you spring awake and hiss,
Cold as the touch of steel
In a harmattan night

The combination of ―cold‖ and ―harmattan nights‖ in the above lines, no doubt, sends a
familiar feeling through your mind and body; the harmattan season is associated with the
cold draught of the wind that blows from the Sahara Desert and most of us have felt it.

 Gustatory
The images that evoke our sense of taste go by this name.
1. I like to see it lap the miles
And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks
And then prodigious step
(Excerpts from the poem, ‗I Like to See It Lap the Miles‘, by Emily Dickinson)

2. My husband‘s tongue
is bitter like the roots of the
 Lyono lily
........ ........ .........
It is ferocious
like the poison of a barren
Woman
And corrosive like the juice of
the gourd
(Excerpts from the poem, ‗Song of Lawino‘ by Okot p‘Bitek)

 Visual
Quite often, our sense of sight or vision is evoked by merely reading lines of poetry
where a poet has effectively utilised words or language that effectively create appropriate
pictures in the reader‘s mind. Such resultant images are referred to as visual images or
imagery. For example:

.... .... children

With washed-out ribs and dried-up
Bottoms struggling in laboured
Steps behind blown empty bellies
(Achebe, Beware Soul Brother )

On reading these lines, one cannot help but visualise a picture of emaciated children – the
sad relics of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war of the 1960s. The children are mere ghosts of
their former selves; their erstwhile robust bodies have now turned skeletal and their
bottoms are shrivelled. All these physical changes accentuate the ―blown empty bellies‖,
symptomatic of kwashiorkor.

 Kinaesthetic
Kinaesthetic imagery refers to those images that call forth in the mind of the reader the
perception of movement. In other words, these are images that appeal to the reader‘s
sense of movement or motion. Examples of this type of imagery are:
1. And ‗mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran.
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
Coleridge‘s ‗Kubla Khan‘ (Reeves 177)

2. From the west

Clouds come hurrying with the wind
Turning
Sharply
Here and there
Like a plague of locust
Whirling
Tossing up things on its tail
Like a madman chasing nothing
Rubadiri‘s ‗An African Thunderstorm‘

The lines, phrases and words highlighted above convey the impression of movement,
which a reader of the poems from which they have been excerpted cannot fail to realise in
their minds‘ eyes.

A very useful approach to the understanding of imagery is by seeing it as ―a description

of something concrete, whereby the writer conveys an impression of something else‖
(Heese and Lawton 82). While this definition introduces a new set of
words/terms/register that would further aid our understanding of how an image works in
a poem or in the realisation of the meaning of a poem, it also focuses our attention on the
necessary association of similar and dissimilar objects or ideas in imagery as well as the
expansion by accretion of the scope of words made possible by its usage. In this regard,
we should note that ‗concrete‘ means something that is perceivable or palpable to some
of the senses we have discussed above while ‘abstract’ means the opposite; that is, an
idea that could neither be seen, felt nor touched, etc.
The use of imagery makes it possible for the poet to bridge the gap between the abstract
and the concrete, in the words of Shakespeare, to give ―to airy nothing a local habitation
and a name‖ (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V, Scene 1). A good example of this
description of something abstract through concrete objects or entities could be seen in the
closing stanza of George Herbert‘s poem ‗Virtue‘, as follows:

Only a sweet and virtuous soul,

Like seasoned timber, never gives;
But though the whole world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives
In these lines, the abstract and reified ‗virtue‘, which gropes towards concretion in the
equally impalpable ‗virtuous soul‘, achieves a fully perceivable state in the comparison
―like seasoned timber‖, that does not break even when the hardest of pressures is exerted
on it.

In all the examples we have used in the above section on the well-known types of
imagery, we have to realise that the ability of the reader to perceive and share fully in the
pictures and sensations the poet has captured in his/her verse comes or is achieved
through the apt use of figures of speech and figures of thought such as simile, metaphor,
personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche, onomatopoeia, among others. It is
through the employment of these figures that the poet achieves the desired figurative
expression of thought as well as impresses his/her ideas in the minds of the readers.
Indeed, accordingly, it is through this process of collaboration that, in the words of James
Reeves we make the best poems ―part of our own lives and we make our own lives richer
and more full of meaning‖ (The Poet’s World, xxx).

Self-Assessment Exercise
1. Give an example each of four figures of speech and then analyse them.

1.2 Rhythm
Rhythm is derived from the Greek word which translates in English into ‗flow‘. As one
of the elements of poetry, it is considered the most important of a poet‘s technical
resources. In practical terms, it is the alternation of periods of effort with periods of
relaxation. According to R. N. Egudu,

Rhythm can be compared with a beat or pulse; and as a beat or pulse [it]
implies the presence of movement in which there is the recurrence of
identical points, rhythm can also be said to mean movement. Any action in
which motion is involved therefore has some rhythm. A moving vehicle
shows rhythm; and a flowing stream exhibits rhythm. Also the rise and fall
of the water in the ocean is rhythmical. (34)

Similarly, Reeves sees rhythm as ―a form of repetition – the repetition of a particular

pattern of light and heavy syllables‖ (xxxvii) while Abrams defines it as ―a recognisable
though variable pattern in the beat of the stresses in the stream of sound,‖ (93)

You should take note of the words ‗beat‘, pulse‘, ‗recurrence‘ and repetition‘ in the
above definitions of rhythm; they underscore the fact that rhythm obeys or follows a
basic movement of the pendulum of the metronome, which marks the underlying
approximate equivalent time intervals between specific sounds in music. It is equally
important to note that the repetition that characterises rhythm in poetry, as in music, is
variable and alternates between stressed and unstressed syllables. This variation removes
monotony and accounts for the variable combinations of sound patterns to which we
attribute the music in poetry. Have you ever imagined a song or a poem that maintains
the same rhythm throughout without variations in low and high tones or between light
and heavy syllables? Definitely, it would be a very boring song or poem. The American
poet and critic, Ezra Pound, has in his characteristic suave manner commented on this
flaw by saying that ―the writer of bad verse is a bore because he does not perceive time
and time relations, and cannot therefore delimit them in an interesting manner, by means
of longer and shorter, heavier and lighter syllables, and the varying qualities of sound
inseparable from the words of his speech‖ (199).

This leads us to the functions of appropriate rhythms in poetry. Generally, it contributes

greatly to the emotional content and effect of poetry. As with tones in our everyday
discourses, the poet uses different rhythms to convey different moods or emotions to the
reader or listener: s/he uses a long line and a slow rhythm to express a sombre and
studious mood; a light tripping rhythm to express a feeling of joy and gaiety. It may be
smooth, staccato, fast or slow, abrupt and disjointed or jerky. Thus, rhythm is intricately
connected with the form and the meaning expressed by the poet and provides both
emotional and intellectual pleasure for the reader or audience. For example, the following
excerpts illustrate the deployment of effective rhythmic patterns to achieve these different
emotional effects:

1. His gol/den locks/ Time hath/ to sil/ver turned;

O Time/ too swift,/ O Swift/ness ne/ver cea/sing!
His youth/ ‗gainst time/ and age/ hath e/ver spurned,
But spurned/ in vain;/ youth wa/neth by/ in/crea/sing:
Beau/ty, strength,/ youth are/ flo/wers but fa/ding seen;
Du/ty, faith,/ love/ are/ roots,/ and/ ev/er green.
George Peele (Reeves 51 – 52)
 2. Come, come away, to the tavern I say,
For now at home ‗tis washing day;
Leave your prittle-prattle, and fill us a pottle,
You are not so wise as Aristotle.
Drawer come away, let‘s make it holy day:
Anon, anon, anon, Sir, what is‘t you say?
Anon. (Reeves 21).

From our discussion so far, it is clear that the wave-like recurrence of sound and motion
that constitutes poetic rhythm has its foundation or basis in the pattern of stresses and the
length of lines of poetry. This aspect of the nature of rhythm
necessitates a knowledge of the metrical schemes, be they ‗regular‘ (basic metre) or
‗irregular‘ (deviation from the basic metre). Metre in poetry is a repetitive and
symmetrical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, and usually indicated by the
symbols or marks: ( ˇ ) for stressed syllables and ( ˉ ) for unstressed syllables.

The following is a table of the four common feet in English poetry with their sounds and
examples:
Name of foot Name of metre Sound Example
Iamb Iambic Ďa Dum Return
Trochee Trochaic Duˉm Ďa turning, running
Anapaest Anapaestic Ďa Ďa Dum resurrect, jubilate
Dactyl Dactylic Dum Ďa Ďa curious, serious, furious

Self-Assessment Exercise
What is rhythm and of what significance is it in the art of poetry?
3.3 Sound
Sound is one of the most pleasing features in a poem. Along with rhythm, it constitutes
the foundation of the musical quality that is associated with poetry as a form of literature.
Accordingly, its functions in a poem are similar to those of rhythm which we have
discussed in the preceding section on rhythm. The nature or significance of sound in a
poem can be better appreciated when the poem is read aloud. This, however, does not
mean that the aural qualities are not realised when a poem is read silently. For the
experienced reader, these qualities remain and are realised as inherent parts of the total
poem; instead of the vocalised realisation that marks reading aloud, these qualities are
achieved through a process of sub-vocal enunciation. When effectively deployed in a
poem, sound effects enable the reader to achieve a state of mind in which s/he can more
readily appreciate the emotions and meanings conveyed in the poem by the writer. In the
words of Heese and Lawton, ―much of the delight to be derived from the reading of
poetry stems from the pleasure experienced in contemplating patterns which are not only
decorative but significant‖ (33).

Generally, sound effects in poetry not only give aural/auditory pleasure to the reader, they
equally give added significance to the words used by the poet. In other words, sound in
poetry is used to convey meaning, emotions and pleasure. For example, the poet employs
such literary devices as alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme, onomatopoeia,
repetition, refrain, etc., to place desired emphasis on particular words as well as achieve
specific emotions or sensations in his work. It is important that the sound be appropriate
to the experience or action presented in a line, stanza or on work in its entirety. The
effects produced by sound in a poem could be good or bad, depending on how skilful the
poet is.

The following examples illustrate some of the sound effects, such as alliteration,
assonance, consonance, repetition, and rhyme, commonly used by poets and their effects
when skilfully applied:
 1. I have given you hands which you turn from worship,
I have given you speech, for endless palaver,
I have given you my Law, and you set up commissions,
I have given you lips, to express friendly sentiments,
I have given you hearts, for reciprocal distrust.
I have given you power of choice, and you only alternate
Between futile speculation and unconsidered action.
(Eliot, Choruses from ‗The Rock III‘ 115)

2. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow follow‘d free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.

3. Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship,

Yet she sailed softly too:
Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze –
On me alone it blew.

4. The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around:
It crack‘d and growl‘d, and roar‘d and howl;d,
Like noises in a swound!
Samuel T. Coleridge (Reeves 181, 182, 195)

You should take your time to appreciate these stanzas from the poet‘s memorable
art/literary ballad, ‗The Rime of the Ancient Mariner‘. Indeed, you should find a suitable
anthology of English poetry and read this poem in its entirety because it is a compendium
from which one could draw illustrations of most of the devices and elements studied in
this course. In terms of music, there is much sense in Pound‘s assertion that ―the way to
learn the music of verse is to listen to it‖ (56). Listening does not just imply listening to
someone else read aloud lines of poetry; you can equally listen to yourself as you read,
just the way you listen to yourself as you sing a song.

Self-Assessment Exercise
Attempt a critical appreciation of the poet‘s use of sound devices and their effects in any
one of the stanzas above.

1.3 Diction
Diction, in very simple terms, means the use of words in oral or written discourse; the
peculiar choice of words used by the poet or his/her vocabulary considered for their
meaning and association, rather than for their aural qualities. More expansively, Abrams
has defined the term as ―the selection of words in a work of literature. A writer‘s diction
can be analysed under such categories as the degree to which his vocabulary is abstract or
concrete, Latinate or Anglo-Saxon in origin, colloquial or formal, technical or common,
literal or figurative‖ (131). Accordingly, nothing is a clearer indication of the interests,
habit of mind, and the period of a poet than his/her diction – the words s/he uses in
his/her poems. Different periods in English literature have chosen and popularised
various forms of poetic diction. In addition to the categories mentioned in Abrams‘
definition above, a poet‘s diction can also be described as plain or ornate, homely or
exotic, contemporary or archaic, familiar or cryptic, etc., and each kind has its attractions
as well as its limitations. You should be able to analyse any given poem to determine the
dominant pattern of the diction or selection of words employed by a poet in his/her work.

Compare the following excerpts, in terms of the diction used by the poet. You will
discover, on reading the lines, that there is a world of difference between the poet‘s
peculiar choice of words, as represented in these lines:
 1. It comes so quickly
The bird of death
From evil forests of Soviet technology

A man crossing the road

to greet a friend
is much too slow (Achebe ‗Air Raid‘, BSB 15)
2. In the greyness
and drizzle of one despondent
dawn unstirred by harbingers
of sunbreak a vulture
perching high on broken
bone of a dead tree
nestled close to his
mate (Achebe ‗Vultures‘, BSB 39)

4.0 CONCLUSION
Poetry has been variously defined by different poets and critics over the ages. While
some would prefer to see it as the subject or content that is written about by the poet,
others emphasise that it is the manner of expressing this content that should determine the
essential nature of poetry. Nonetheless, irrespective of the positions of these schools of
thought, there is consensus on the major elements that, by and large, distinguish poetry
from other forms of writing, viz: imagery, rhythm, sound, and diction.

5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, we have focused attention on the elements of poetry that differentiate it from
the other major genres of literature, drama and the novel. With some suitable examples,
we have been able to indicate as well as demonstrate the nature of these elements and
their contribution to the effectiveness or quality of a poem. We have learnt that the
elements – imagery, rhythm, sound and diction – are the vehicles that the poet utilises to
convey his/her thoughts and emotions as well as delight his/her readers.

7. 0. TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. How would you define the term, ‗Diction‘?
2. Categorise the diction in the above two excerpts from Chinua Achebe‘s poetry
collection, Beware Soul Brother, as well as explain the reasons behind your
categories.
3. Identify the principal elements of poetry and discuss five.
4. What roles do the elements of poetry play in a poem?
5. Imagery is a very important element of poetry. Identify and explain the different types of
images used by poets.
6. Write all you know about rhythm and sound as two primary properties of poetry.
7. Using Achebe‘s poem ―Vultures‖ explain the place of diction in poetry.

8. 0. REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Achebe, Chinua (1971). Beware, Soul Brother. Enugu: Nwamife.
Abrams, Meyer H. (1971). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Third Edition. New York:
Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Pound, Ezra (1960). The ABC of Reading. New York: New Directions.
Reeves, James (1972). The Poet’s World: An Anthology of English Poetry.
London: Heinemann.
Egudu, Romanus N. (1979). The Study of Poetry. Ibadan: University Press
Coleridge, Samuel T. ―The Rime of the Ancient Mariner‖. In Reeves, J.,
ed. The Poet’s World, 1972, 179 – 201.
Heese, Marie & Robin Lawton (1968) The New Owl Critic: An Introduction to Literary
Criticism. Cape Town: Nasou Limited.
Clark-Bekederemo, John P. (1991). Collected Plays and Poems, 1958 – 1988.
Washington: Howard University Press.
Pound, Ezra. (1951). The ABC of Reading. London: Faber and Faber.
Rubadiri, David. (2004). An African Thunderstorm and Other Poems. Nairobi: East
African Publishers.
Soyinka, Wole. (1963). ‗Telephone Conversation‘. Modern Poetry from Africa, edited by
Moore, Gerald and Ulli Beier. Accra: Penguin African Library, p. 111.