What Makes Up Joyful Poems

By Cara Torres


These days, we learn of so much controversies, tragedies and disasters though the news where most of it are a challenging and dangerous. They can be read and heard in many mediums like newspapers, internet, TV, radio and even on our mobile phones. These events can suck out the joy in our lives and to regain it, reading about joyful poems can be helpful.

These poems are collections of words that expresses an idea or an emotion that often uses metaphor, sound patterns, or imagery to convey the message. They are composed more in verse rather than prose. A poem has many basic elements that contribute to its beauty and effectiveness such as form, voice, line, stanzas, sound, rhythm, and figures of speech.

Form is more flexible in modern poetry and lesser structured than the previous literary eras and often modern poets write in free verse, which has less or no rhyme and rhythm. Yet, it still can be distinguished from a prose by its form since many a basic structure can still be found in the best free verse. Even the best classic styles departs from the strict form for better emphasis or effect.

Form has three main types such as descriptive, lyric and narrative poems, and there are many others like haiku, limericks, ballads, sonnets, free verse and many others. Line of words that are grouped together are called stanzas, which are divided by an empty line or a space and it is equivalent to paragraphs in essays. In standard form, stanzas have a uniform number of lines, though it is not necessarily followed.

Sound in poetry can be very complex since it uses a variety of ways and effects. Rhyme, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, euphony, repetition, refrain, and consonance are some example of sound play. Rhymes are usually the most common among them in which the end word of each line sounds the same or just similar.

The oral pattern created when stressing a certain syllable in every line is called the rhythm. Metric is the measurement unit of these stress patterns though it can only be demonstrated when it is read aloud. Since it has stresses in certain syllables, it will not sound like a steady hum of words rather it creates different tones because of the rising and falling of the voice almost like singing.

Using figures of speech when choosing words to compare various things, emotions and sense is called figurative language. Metaphor, simile, hyperbole, symbolism, allegory, personification and irony are some of these figures of speech. On one hand, imagery is the usage of detailed descriptions to convey a sensory experience in very lifelike and dramatic detail to create a specific mental image on the subject.

It can include the vivid sensory experiences of smell, sound, touch, and taste that goes beyond mere description. The voice refers on how it is written, whether in first person, which is called the speaker, or in third person. In most poems, we know that the speaking voice is the poet, though we cannot assume that the author and the character are the same individual.

The tone, in literary terms, refers to the attitude of the writer towards the subject that is reflected in the work itself. The tone of the poem may indicate emotions such as joy, sadness, frustration, anger, confusion, amusement and so on. Joyful poems can evoke feelings of happiness, hope and love.




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