Reading poetry

When reading poetry a reader will interpret what it means to them. Everyone's response is different.

Learn about how writers use imagery, the impact of imagery and how it appeals to the senses.

Ballads can be based on real-life events, or created purely from the imagination to tell tales of romance, mystery and even magic!

Discover the conventions and the history of short form poetry such as haiku and limericks.

Learn about the conventions of a sonnet, the difference between Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnets, iambic pentameter and rhyme schemes.

Closed form poetry uses stricts patterns of rhymes and stanzas, whereas open form poetry is freeform.

Learn how how rhyme scheme and stanza length can be clues to a poem's form.