Structure of a Poem

We explain what the structure of a poem is like and show you with different examples the internal structure and the external structure.

What is the structure of a poem?

Poems are literary compositions that belong to the genre of poetryin which an emotional or existential state, an event and even a person is normally described subjectively, using a variety of metaphors and rhetorical procedures.

Poetry can be written in verse or prose, with cultured and hermetic language, or simple and colloquial, and is the freest of all literary forms. This is because poetry is extremely old, and over the centuries it has transformed along with society, adopting new forms, new themes and new ways of conceiving the structure of the poem.

In general terms, When we talk about “structure” in poetry, we refer to the way in which the different parts of the poem come together. and are configured as a whole. In the past, poems were understood as compositions with a fixed and regular structure, to the point that they could be classified according to the number of syllables and the type of rhyme that existed between the verses. Many of these demands have disappeared in contemporary poetry, so each poem is capable of proposing its own rules of the game.

Traditionally, it is possible to distinguish between two different types of poem structure:

The external structure of the poem. It refers to the parts visible to the naked eye in which the poem is composed, such as the verses and stanzas:

• A verse It is a line of the poem, with a certain beginning and end, whether it rhymes or not. In the past they were classified according to the number of syllables in each one, so that there were heptasyllabic verses (7 syllables), hendecasyllables (11 syllables), alexandrine verses (14 syllables), among others.
• a stanza It is a group of verses that must be read together, just as it happens with the lines of a paragraph in prose. In the past they were classified according to the number of verses they contained, so there were tercets (rhymed stanzas of three lines), quartets (rhymed stanzas of four lines), sonnets (two quatrains and two tercets with hendecasyllabic verses), among others.

The internal structure of the poem. It refers to the way in which the content of the poem is constructed, which requires a deeper reading. This structure is made up of:

• A lyrical speaker, which is the voice that says the poem, different from the author of the poem (who is the one who signs it). Answer the question of who?
• a lyrical object, which is what is evoked in the poem, that is, what the poem talks about. Answer the question of that?
• A lyrical attitude, which is the particular way in which the poem describes its emotional reality: lamenting (elegiac), in love (amorosa), etc. Answer the question of as?
• A lyrical motifalso called mood, is the state of mind or that emotion that the lyrical object evokes.

See also: Object, motif and lyrical speaker

Examples of the structure of a poem

As an example, the external and internal structure of the following poems will be analyzed below:

“A sonnet tells me to write Violante” by Lope de Vega

Violante tells me to write a sonnet,
I have never been in such a predicament in my life:
Fourteen verses say it is a sonnet:
Mocking mockingly the three go ahead.

I thought I couldn’t find a consonant
and I’m in the middle of another quartet:
But if I see myself in the first trio
There is nothing in the quartets that scares me.

For the first tercet I am entering
and it seems that I entered on the right foot,
Well, I’m going to finish with this verse.

I’m already on the second one, and I still suspect
that I am finishing the thirteen verses:
count if there are fourteen, and it’s done

External structure: Although the title of the poem already announces that it is a sonnet, it is possible to verify this if you check the number of stanzas that make up the poem (4). The first two have four verses (quartets) and the final two have three (tercets). Furthermore, the verses have eleven syllables and the final rhymes of the quatrains coincide with the form established for the sonnet: the first verse with the last and the two intermediate ones with each other.

Internal structure: the poem has a basic speaker who resembles the author himself, since he also speaks in the first person. The lyrical object is the sonnet itself, which is defined through the poem itself, with a satirical, mocking, playful lyrical attitude.

“When we were children” by Mario Benedetti

When we were kids
the old men were about thirty
a puddle was an ocean
plain and simple death
did not exist.

then when guys
the old people were people of forty
a pond was an ocean
death only
a word

when we got married
the elderly were in their fifties
a lake was an ocean
death was death
of the others.

now veterans
we already reached the truth
the ocean is finally the ocean
but death begins to be
ours.

External structure: The poem has four stanzas of five lines each, without rhymes or meter (what is known as free verse).

Internal structure: the lyrical speaker, in the first person plural, speaks on behalf of all humanity, that is, of all people, since his lyrical object is the experience of life and the passage of time. Likewise, the poem has a solemn, nostalgic lyrical attitude, and a reflective lyrical motivation, that is, the poem aims to reflect on life and transmit that perspective to the reader.

Continue with: Lyrical genre

References

• Subject and form of poetry. By Amado Alonso. Hispanic Romanesque Library Editorial Gredos (Madrid). Available online.
• “Literary genre: poetry. Stanza. Verse. Rima” in ELE Chaqueña Educational Platform (Argentina).
• “Poetry (literature)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.