The STRUCTURE of a POEM

A poem is a literary composition written, generally, in verse, through which the author expresses his emotions, feelings or ideas about something that it happens either on universal literary themes such as love, hatred, loneliness, death or revenge, among others. The poems are characterized by being usually brief works that use different types of verses to show what the writer feels.

Depending on the number of syllables in each verse, along with the number of verses in each stanza, we find different types of poetic compositions. In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to study what is the structure of a poem a starting from the detailed analysis of each of its parts.

Index

1. Internal structure of a poem
2. External structure of a poem
3. The elements and structure of a poem
4. How to analyze a poem
5. Characteristics of a poem

The analysis of the structure of a poem se carried out in Two levels: internal structure and extreme structure of the poetic text.

Thus, in the internal structure they are carefully studied what are the parts into which the poem is divided according to the content, theme and main ideas that the author wants to convey is organized. For this, it is necessary to read the poetry very carefully and point out the key ideas that give meaning to the text.

Next we are going to take the famous sonnet 126 by Lope de Vega as an example:

Faint, dare, be furious, / rough, tender, liberal, elusive, / encouraged, deadly, deceased, alive, / loyal, traitorous, cowardly and spirited; / not find outside the good center and rest, / be happy, sad, humble, haughty, / angry, brave, fugitive, / satisfied, offended, suspicious; / flee from the face to the clear disappointment, / drink venom for soft liquor, / forget the profit, love the damage; / believe that a heaven fits into a hell, /give life and soul to disappointment, / This is love: whoever tasted it knows it.

Well, let's see now what is the internal structure of this poem. Poetry can be divided into two parts:

• The first of them is made up of the first two quartets, in which the poet defines what love is and which ones are its effects on the human being, listing in a chain a series of adjectives that describe how a person feels in love.
• The second part is made up of the two triplets, in which the moods that the lover goes through are reflected. Many of them are contradictory to each other, since love is also.

In this way, throughout the poem ideas and feelings experienced by the lover are contrasted, comparing them with death and the feeling of being alive. with the aim of reflecting that love envelops everything and that many times we act under the influence of it, without being aware of our actions or their consequences.

Having studied the internal structure of the poem, now we are going to analyze the external structure of poetic composition. In the first place, the title of it already gives us a clue, since it is a sonnet, a lyrical composition that consists of fourteen verses divided into two quartets (or stanzas of four verses each) and two third (or stanzas of three verses each) a).

In turn, the verses have eleven syllables, which is why they are called hendecasyllable verses. In addition, since they have more than eight syllables, they are verses of higher art, therefore, when representing the metric of the poem, capital letters are used. The rhyme of the text is consonant and follows the following metric structure: ABBA, ABBA, CDC, DCD.

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Now that you know that there is both internal and external structure in a poem, let's analyze the elements that make up a poem so that, thus, you can learn to detect them and, thus, understand well their composition.

The stanza of a poem

One of the main elements of the poem is the stanza, that is, the set of verses that we find in the composition. Normally, in the same poem stanzas with the same characteristics are repeated and it is repeated throughout the length of the poem. Although in the past the stanzas were exactly the same, in modern poetry stanzas with different numbers of verses or with different rhymes can coexist in the same text.

The verse, another element of the poem

Another element of poetry is the verse, an element that only has a function when it is related to other verses and, therefore, is forming stanzas. A verse is made up of short sentences that usually have a rhyme between them. In this way, poetry has a rhythm and differs from prose texts. There are different types of verses according to the syllables in which the poem is composed.

Rhyme

Within the structure of a poem we also find rhyme, that is, the technique of using words that have a similar sound at the end of the verses so that, thus, it has a specific melody. exist consonant and assonance rhymes and it is a classic element of the poem although, in recent times, many poets write without rhyme, that is, with free verse.

Metric of a poem

When we talk about the metric of a poem we are referring to the number of syllables that a verse has. The rhythmic structure of the composition will depend on this and, therefore, it is an essential element in poetry.

The importance of the title

An essential element of the structure of a poem is the title. Although it may seem silly to you, the truth is that with the title we can obtain a lot of information about the composition that we are going to read. Remember that poetry is an abstract and metaphorical art, therefore, the title that is given to a poem is important to help the reader understand it better.

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Once we know how the structure of a poem is divided, we are going to give you a series of guidelines that will be very useful when it comes to analyze a poem. First of all, it is important to read the poem carefully and carefully, at least twice. Next, we must look at the external structure of poetry and thus we will be able to establish if it is a poem written in verse or on the contrary it is written in prose. Next we will focus on the metric analysis, noting what type of composition it is, how many verses it consists of and what its rhyme is.

From the information extracted from the external structure, we will focus our analysis on the internal structure of the poem; that is, in the theme of the text. Thus, we can establish what the theme of the text is, how it is expressed in each of the stanzas through poetic language and what are the rhetorical figures that appear in the poem.

By following these little tips, we will be able to organize and write a good comment on a poetic text. But, if you want to delve deeper, in a PROFESSOR we will discover how to make an analysis of a poem so that you can discover how to do the analysis of a poem in a complete way.

Now that you know the structure of a poem, below we are going to discover some of the unique parts and elements of poetry. It is important that, first of all, you take into account that a poem is part of the lyric and that, as such, it also shares some characteristics that are worth knowing. Here you have a list of the most striking.

• They have no narrative content. This is one of the main characteristics of a poem and it is that this type of literary text is not intended to explain a story, but to convey a message, to offer a point of view, to analyze a detail... Although the poet may end up explaining a story, the way to do it will not be as the one does. narrative genre, but has its own unique peculiarity.
• Use of elements of poetry. A poem is also characterized because they are made up of elements that are unique to this literary genre, for example, verses, meter, rhyme, stanzas, etc.
• Look for the emotionality of the reader. Poetry is a type of lyrical creation that is usually brief and whose objective is to provoke reactions to the receiver of the message. These reactions can be positive, precious, or vice versa. But what the poet wants is to emotionally remove the person who is reading, connect and be able to create an intimate and emotional connection.
• Human theme. Although there are poems of many types and themes, the truth is that, in general terms, the topics covered are usually related to human experience. They can be love themes, metaphysics or, also, political themes, but almost always treated from a "poetic self", that is, from the experience of life itself.
• Use of literary resources. Another of the characteristics of a poem is that they are compositions that bet on a cultivated and worked language. Therefore, the literary resources They are very frequent in order to enrich the text and give it a more cultured and artistic air.

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