The “characteristics” of poetry are what separate it as a medium of writing from other forms. Specifically, what does poetry use as part of its forms and functions that different types of writing and expression do not? Poetry tends to have three main characteristics that set it apart from other forms of writing.

The first characteristic of poetry that is not found in many other types of writing is the use of rhyme. Rhyme is one of the most recognizable parts of poetry. When something rhymes, it typically has two words that have similar end sounds. Poetry uses rhyme in many different ways, usually called forms, because it brings closure to lines that are satisfying to the ear and can make it so different ideas are closely related.

The second characteristic of poetry is the use of stanza. Stanzas are particular to poetry as a means of separating different ideas or sections within a poem. A stanza lets the reader know that a specific set of images or lines are connected and that those lines or images should be read together to make meaning from the text.

The third characteristic of poetry is the use of different forms or patterns. Poems have a distinct flavor through the use of various forms like Sonnet, Villanelle, Limerick, or Sestina. Every form of poetry offers different patterns of rhyme and meter, the use of repetition of different lines or words, and a distinct conglomeration of images and ideas to help the listener or reader make sense of them.

While meter and lines are used in poems, they are also used in other media, like plays—therefore, I would not count those as characteristics of poetry but characteristic of literature.

The elements of poetry include meter, rhyme, form, sound, and rhythm (timing).

Different poets use these elements in many different ways. Some poets do not use rhyme at all. Some use couplets, while others may rhyme the second and fourth lines only...in a stanza.

Some use stanzas (form), which are often lines of four, grouped together—but poems can also be broken into sections consisting of eight lines or eleven. It depends on the author. In Shakespeare's Sonnet 29, for instance, the first and third lines rhyme, as do the second and forth—he uses three four-line stanzas, ending with a rhyming couplet (pair of lines):

When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,


I all alone beweep my outcast state,


And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,


And look upon myself, and curse my fate...

One aspect of poetry that many poets use is sound. It is here that you find use of literary elements: alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, etc. This devices appeal to the ear—the sound is an important characteristic because it gives poetry a musical quality. (Rhyme also uses "sound.")

Figurative language is essential to poetry. This is found with similes, metaphors, metonymy, hyperbole, personification, etc. However, it is important as a characteristic because poets endeavor to create an image in the reader's mind, so that the reader is moved in some way—able to envision the picture (and even experience an emotion) the author is trying to reproduce. Look to William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow." There is no rhyme; it is very short. But the imagery it creates is quite impressive:

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

There is no rhyme, but the senses pick up the color of the wheelbarrow, the slick surface from the rain, and the contrast in color between the red wheelbarrow and the white chickens. With regard to the characteristics of poetry, look deeper—the poet is still telling us that what seems simply picturesque by description will work hard in the hands of the gardener or farmer. In this case, it is easy to see that the author is also conveying an even deeper message or theme: do not be deceived by outward appearances...or..."don't judge a book by its cover."

The intent of the poet may be to praise love, lament heartbreak, glorify nature, tell a story (epics like Beowulf, or Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner), or even attempt simply to entertain. However, a poem's "success" relies on a reader's reaction to the work. The poet will use poetic devices to this end. The poet will also endeavor to share some message or deeper meaning with the reader, and in this way, create a connection between the poem and the reader, making the work memorable...appealing to common emotions: joy, love, fear, longing, sorrow, etc. 

What are the characteristics of modern poetry?

The words "modern" and "modernist" are both disputed descriptions of poetry and several other arts. Matters for dispute include the period covered and the characteristics of modernity and modernism. G. K. Chesterton, who wrote traditional poetry at the time when such modernists as T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound were conducting their experiments, famously complained that "modern" was an absurdly weak and unphilosophical description to attach to a way of writing. In "The Case for the Ephemeral," he wrote:

It is incomprehensible to me that any thinker can calmly call himself a modernist; he might as well call himself a Thursdayite.

Chesterton's own verse, however, makes the opposite point. He is not a modernist, even though his poems were written during the modernist period. There must, therefore, be some definite characteristics which identify modernism as a school and a style, and these can be found by comparing Chesterton and other traditional poets to Eliot and the modernists.

First, the modernists tended to use free verse. This is not invariable, and they certainly did not dispense with rhyme, meter, and form altogether. However, they were willing to vary the form to suit the subject, as Eliot does in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Second, there is a complexity and doubtfulness about modern poetry which is not found in more traditional verse. Take "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" again. This is not a simple poem about unrequited love, like an Elizabethan lyric in which the poet assumes that all would be well if his mistress returned his feelings. Prufrock questions everything and can see no possibility even of revealing his love—an act which seems to him to be a cataclysm which would "disturb the universe."

Beyond these two characteristics, modern poetry was reflective of the age in which it was written in a way that no previous school or period had been. One can argue that Kipling and Tennyson incidentally tell the reader quite a lot about what it means to be a Victorian, but this is not their subject, precisely because their Victorian values remain unquestioned. The equivocal, doubtful tone characteristic of modern poetry means that the reflection of the age is usually an uncomfortable one, as when Eliot, in "The Waste Land," continually contrasts the heroism and splendor of past ages with the squalor of London in the twentieth century.

What are the characteristics of modern poetry?

In addition to the points made by the first two educators, it should also be noted what Modernism was essentially about, the reason it emerged as it did. After the formal, flowery, and romantic era of Victorian literature, Modernist works leaned towards experimentation. Modern poets wished to both extract inspiration from diverse works of the past and ground poetry such that its language and meaning was more accessible to the average person.

With the end of the nineteenth century and two World Wars, the Modernists wished to comment candidly and competently on the degenerating state of the world. This context helps to explain the pervasive characteristics of Modern poetry: free verse and otherwise untraditional forms, disillusionment and a preoccupation with perception, and how to cope with a fragmented reality.

A more in-depth look at the Modernists can be found here: https://www.enotes.com/topics/modernists.

Overall, Wallace Stevens captured the essence of the period in his poem "Of Modern Poetry," when he wrote:

It has to be living, to learn the speech of the place.   

It has to face the men of the time and to meet   

The women of the time. It has to think about war   

And it has to find what will suffice.

What are the characteristics of modern poetry?

Modern poetry often features disrupted syntax, which refers to irregular sentence structures. In addition, many modern poems feature a stream of consciousness presentation in which the narrator presents the thoughts that come to his or her mind without regard to sequence or logic. Stream of consciousness mirrors the way in which the subconscious mind works and shows poets' increasing interest in psychology. An example in T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is the following:

"I grow old ... I grow old .../ I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. /Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?"

In this poem, the narrator presents his thoughts in a jumbled fashion, similar to the way in which thoughts pop into our conscious mind out of our subconscious mind. Thoughts about momentous subjects, such as aging, are combined with fleeting thoughts about whether the narrator should roll his pants or eat a peach.

Modern poets also convey a sense of alienation from the world. As Eliot writes in "Prufrock," "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. /I do not think that they will sing to me." The poet does not believe he can experience the wonders or delights of the world; instead, he is alienated and distanced from its experiences and marvels.

What are the characteristics of modern poetry?

The single most common characteristic of modern poetry (in the European and American traditions, at least) is probably open form and free verse, which is quite different from the fixed forms and meters of traditional poetry. A reader of high-brow poetry today sometimes has to look around a bit to find modern sonnets or even ballads or other poems with regular line length, stanza length, meter, and end rhyme.

A second characteristic might be called fragmentation, juxtaposition, intertextuality (reference to other poems or other writings), and allusion. For an example of all of the above, see T.S. Eliot's long poem The Waste Land.

Not all recent poetry is "modern," of course. If this is an assignment, you may want to consider putting two poems from different centuries side by side -- two love poems, one by William Shakespeare and another by e.e. cummings -- and seeing what sorts of differences emerge. 

What are the characterestics of poetry?

What a broad question! There are many different characteristics of poetry. The characteristics change based upon the period from which the poet comes from, the form the poet chooses to write in, the poetic/literary devices the poet chooses to use, and the rhyme or meter the poet chooses to depict.

Depending upon what genre you are looking at, one poet within a movement can differ greatly from another. Not only do poets within a movement differ, poets in different genres differ greatly as well.

That being said, there are some characteristics that are typical to many poems.

Poetic devices- Many poets use poetic devices within their texts. Common devices used are:

1. Alliteration- the repetition of a consonant sound within a line of poetry. Creates a sing-song affect which allows the words of the poem to roll off the tongue more smoothly.

2. Assonance- the repetition of a vowel sound within a line of poetry. Like alliteration, this devices provides a softening to the line or harshness depending upon the vowel repeated.

3. Metaphor- the comparison of two or more things one would not necessarily use to describe the other. The use of metaphors allows poets to make comparisons that readers would not normally make. This allows readers to expand their minds and look at simple (or elaborate) objects in a different way.

Poems also have specific moods. A mood is what an poet embeds in the text so as to evoke a specific feeling from the reader.

Many poems also have a specific theme. A theme is the subject of the poem. Examples are racism, love, hate, stereotypes, and fear (to name a few).

Some poets use specific forms to write in (such as iambic pentameter or couplets). While others choose to use free verse with no rules.

Basically, poetry can be as precise or as open as the poet wishes. Defined characteristics for all poetry simply do not exist given all poets are different and write in different ways.