Explore the Key Elements of Poetry with Your Students 

The elements of poetry are the essential tools that poets use to craft their poems, enabling them to communicate ideas in creative and impactful ways. These key elements of poetry are often chosen to create specific effects or to evoke certain emotions in the reader.

Introduce your students to the key elements of poetry with this Elements of Poetry Teaching Presentation. Created by experienced educators, this resource offers an in-depth exploration of five commonly used elements of poetry. Each element is thoroughly explained, with an accompanying poem that demonstrates its use in context, making complex concepts accessible and engaging for your students.

The poetic devices explored in this presentation are:

• Structure
• Rhythm
• Rhyme
• Sound Play
• Figurative Language

Using This Elements of Poetry PowerPoint in Your Classroom

There are several creative and effective ways to use the PowerPoint presentation to teach elements of poetry. Here are three suggestions from our teacher team:

1. Direct Instruction and Discussion – Present each slide to introduce an element of poetry, followed by a class discussion. Pause after each device to analyze its role and effect within the example poem. Ask students to think of additional examples from poems or even songs they know. 
2. Group Activity or Collaborative Analysis – After reviewing the presentation, break students into small groups. Assign each group a poem to analyze and identify which elements of poetry are used. Students can then present their findings to the class, explaining how each element impacts the poem.
3. Creative Writing Workshop – Use the presentation as a launchpad for students’ own writing. After exploring the key elements of poetry, challenge them to write short poems incorporating one or more of the elements learned. You can even assign specific devices to ensure they experiment with a variety of techniques.

Download This Elements of Poetry PowerPoint

This slide deck downloads as a Google Slides presentation. Please use the presentation in slideshow format.

Project the resource onto your screen and work through the slides as a class for a paperless poetry lesson!

More Poetry Resources to Complement This Slide Deck

Click below to browse more teacher-created resources to use alongside this slide deck.

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Types of Poetry Anchor Charts with Annotations

Introduce structured forms of poetry to your students with this set of 9 annotated poetry posters.

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Write an Ode Worksheet

Set your students up for success when writing an ode with this set of scaffolded, easy-to-follow worksheets.

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Roll-a-Holiday Poem Dice Game

Get your students to write fun holiday poems with this engaging “Roll-a-Poem” dice game.