UNDERSTANDING POEM
Welcome to study English
In this series we will share about Understanding Poem
WHAT IS POEM?
Poem is a piece of writing that partakes of the nature of both speech and song that is nearly always rhytmical, usually methaporical.
William Henry Davies
Here’s an example from
A Butterfly;
That on a rough, hard rock
Happy can lie;
Friendless and all alone
On this unsweetened stone.
A Butterfly;
That on a rough, hard rock
Happy can lie;
Friendless and all alone
On this unsweetened stone.
Now let my bed be hard
No care take I;
I’ll make my joy like this
Small Butterfly;
Whose happy heart has power
To make a stone a flower.
No care take I;
I’ll make my joy like this
Small Butterfly;
Whose happy heart has power
To make a stone a flower.
WHAT IS POETRY?
Poetry is literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feeling and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhytm.
william Shakespear
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed
WHAT IS PROSE?
Prose is written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.
Charlotte Brontë
The ledge, where I placed my candle, had a few mildewed books piled up in one corner; and it was covered with writing scratched on the paint. This writing, however, was nothing but a name repeated in all kinds of characters, large and small—Catherine Earnshaw, here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff, and then again to Catherine Linton. In vapid listlessness I leant my head against the window, and continued spelling over Catherine Earnshaw—Heathcliff—Linton, till my eyes closed; but they had not rested five minutes when a glare of white letters started from the dark, as vivid as spectres—the air swarmed with Catherines; and rousing myself to dispel the obtrusive name, I discovered my candle wick reclining on one of the antique volumes, and perfuming the place with an odour of roasted calf-skin.
Perbedaan Antara Poem, Poetry Dan Prose
- Poem : Merupakan sebuah sajak dalam bahasa inggris yang setiap barisnya saling memiliki keterikatan.
- Poetry : Merupakan sebuah puisi (karya tulis) dalam bahasa inggris yang memiliki sebuah estetika dan makna yang mendalam.
- Prose : Prose atau prosa merupakan karya tulis yang memiliki ritme yang besar dan biasanya digunakan untuk menuagkan ide atau gagasan akan suatu hal.
STRUCTURE
There are so many! And every culture/language has its own forms! To list them all would be impossible. However, if you are going to start somewhere, I would suggest learning a few basic terms first so that when you encounter complex structures. I would start with the following terms:
Example in English: “Humpty Dumpty”
Example in English: “Humpty Dumpty”
Let's Practice!
SPRING
In the early part of spring
You will hear, many birds sing
They are just letting, the rest of us know
Winter is over, spring melted the snow
You will notice, a beautiful scene
The trees will slowly, begin to turn green
Chipmunks and bunnies will come out and play,
Bears will no longer, sleep during the day
It’s exciting, when spring finally arrives
Bees will make honey, inside their hives
So much to do, so much to see
Insects and animals are happy and free
1. What is the poem about?
2. How many stanzas does the poem have?
3. What is ‘spring, sing, know, snow’ (stanza 1) called?
4. How many lines does the poem have?
5. What is able to melt the snow?
THE OWL AND THE PUSSY-CAT
I
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!"
II
Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-Tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
III
"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.
Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (1983)
