Journal Entry 43: Elements of Poetry

When we talk about stories, we use words like “plot,” “character,” “setting,” “conflict,” and “resolution,” among others. In order to talk about poetry, we need to understand what it is made of. Aside from “words,” what are the elements of poetry? Do they share any of the same elements that we find in fiction? Explain giving specific examples from stories and poems you’ve read.

Some elements of poetry are metaphors, similes, imagery, and some poems also have plot, character, setting, conflict, and resolution just like any other stories. Although some poems like narrative poems and ballads have a story so they have elements story also have, but some poems like odes and lyric poems aren't stories. Instead, they are poems that expresses the author's thoughts, so most of the time, they don't have some elements that stories have. But, poems usually do have some things like metaphors and similes to make it more interesting to read and most poems have a beat to them, just like songs, and some also have to rhyme. Like the poem I read in seventh grade before, "I'm Nobody" by Emily Dickinson (which is a narrative poem) doesn't have characters or plots and other elements that fiction has, because it wasn't telling a story, instead, it's talking about how the author feels. In that poem, there was some similes in the poem, like "How public, like a frog...", and the poem also rhymes.

Another poem that I've read before when I was seven (I think) was "The Cat In The Hat". The poem definitely has a story, so it also has a plot, character, setting, and resolution, just like a fiction. But fiction, unlike poems, almost never rhymes. Whereas poems often rhyme, and rhyming poems usually have a rhythm to it too.