Notes

Word choice is a writer's selection of particular words to convey tone, meaning, and theme. Every word in a poem is very economical and essential. Writers can spend hours trying to find just the right word to put into their poem, just to get the right meaning and tone. They think about the meaning of the word, the connotation of the word, the way the word sounds when you say it, or the rhythm that's created when you put different words together. They might try to find words that are more formal or more conversational, maybe words that are more technical or a little more commonplace, maybe words that are more literal or more figurative.

Poets also use word choice to create effective imagery. The term imagery refers to words and phrases that create vivid, sensory experiences for the reader. Now imagery is any vivid language that helps the reader to form a mental picture while they're reading the poem. Imagery can help the reader to connect with a poem by making it feel like they're really there with it. It helps the reader connect because it makes the ideas in the poem more concrete instead of abstract. And although most imagery is visual, it can appeal to any of the five senses-- sight, taste, touch, smell, or hearing.

A stanza is a block of lines separated by a break. Think of it kind of like a paragraph inside of a poem. The word "stanza" actually comes from the Italian word for room. So if you think about it, a stanza is like a small room inside of a larger house, which could be considered the whole poem. Now, structure in a poem is formed by the number of stanzas in the poem and the number of lines in each stanza. And poems are often organized by a recurring rhyme scheme. Quatrains means that each stanza has 4 lines. Six-line stanzas are called sestets.

A rhyme scheme is a pattern of rhymes in a poem. Now, a strict rhyme scheme is typical of formal poetry. And the stricter the rhyme scheme, the more formal the poem is. The use of strict rhyme scheme is very common among the fireside poets. Now, here's how you identify the rhyme scheme. First, you're going to look at the rhymes at the end of each line, and you're going to mark them each with a letter, starting with the letter A and moving forward. Now, each time you come to a new rhyme, you're going to mark it with a new letter. And if you go to a new stanza and you see a line that has the same rhyme from the beginning, you're going to mark it with that same letter.

In poetry, each syllable of a word is either stressed or unstressed. Stressed syllables are emphasized, and unstressed syllables are not. When spoken, the unstressed syllables receive a little less power than the stressed syllables. The pattern of stressed syllables, which is also called the meter, and the rhyme together determine the poem's rhythm.

Enjambment is a structural technique in which a sentence runs across two lines of poetry. The natural pause at the end of a line of poetry is enjambed, or carried over, into the following line. Enjambment makes the connection between the two lines more powerful. It compels the reader to continue reading, and to connect the meaning of the two lines in a more powerful way.