When writing an essay, you will often need to know concepts or ideas such as thesis statement, topic sentence, or supporting details. Understanding these concepts is needed to write academic essays.
Like essay writing, creative writing has certain concepts that are often used to write poems. These concepts are specific to poetry.
Concept | Part of Speech | Definition | Example |
stanza | noun | a group of lines that make a unit in a poem1 | The Road Not Taken [excerpt] by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, |
line | noun | a horizontal group of words in a poem. A line may be a word, phrase, clause, or sentence; a line is not defined by length | The Road Not Taken [excerpt] by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, |
rhyme | noun | a word that ends with the same sound as another word2 | Cat Bat Rat Sat Heart Cart Dart Mart The Road Not Taken [excerpt] by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, |
rhyme scheme | noun | a pattern of rhyming words at the end of lines in poems | The Road Not Taken [excerpt] by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, A |
syllable | noun | a unit of sound that has at least one vowel3 | Cat = 1 syllable Some•thing = 2 syllables Gov•ern•ment = 3 syllables De•vel•op•ment = 4 syllables |
1. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/stanza?q=stanza
2. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/rhyme_1?q=rhyme
3. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/syllable?q=syllable
Match the concept term to its example. The letter of the example on the line The examples come from "Book of Nonsense Limerick 26" by Edward Lear.
Vocabulary Word | Example | |
1. ___ line | a. AACCA | |
2. ___ rhyme | b. But it's colour and size, So bedazzled her eyes, | |
3. ___ rhyme scheme | c. But it's colour and size, | |
4. ___ stanza | d. bon•net | |
5. ___ syllable | e. There was a young Lady of Dorking, Who bought a large bonnet for walking; But it's colour and size, So bedazzled her eyes, That she very soon went back to Dorking. |
Follow the directions to annotate the poem below. You can print a pdf of this page to do this activity or write the poem on a piece of paper and then do the activity.
There was an Old Man with a beard
by Edward Lear
There was an Old Man with a beard, A
Who said, "It is just as I feared! - A
Two Owls and a Hen, B
Four Larks and a Wren, B
Have all built their nests in my beard!" A
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