Poetry Terms

1
Poetry Terms

• General Elements
• Figurative Language
• Sound Devices
• Forms of Poetry
• Types of Poetry

2
Elements Stanza

• Formal division of lines in a poem
• Considered a unit
• Separated by spaces
• Couplets two lines
• Quatrains four lines

3
Speaker

• Imaginary voice assumed by poet
• Often not identified by name
• May be person, animal, thing, or abstraction
• E.g. Dickinson as dead person
• Because I could not stop for DeathHe kindly
  stopped for me

4
Tone

• Writers attitude to
• audience and subject
• E.g. formal or informal
• serious, playful, pompous
• bitter, ironic, personal
• sympathetic, friendly
• grieving, sarcastic, harsh

5
Allusion

• Reference to well-known person, place, event,
  literary work, or art
• Usually to the Bible or to mythology
• E.g. The Magi . . . were wise men . . . who
  brought gifts to the Babe in the manger.

6
Connotation

• Ideas or meanings associated with a word (in
  addition to dictionary definition)
• E.g. caged bird sad, trapped
• creature
• previously owned vehicle used car
• vacation spot lake
• Compare fragrance, smell, stench

7
Denotation

• Dictionary definition of a word
• Independent of other associations
• (connotations)
• E.g. lake
• Denotes inland body of water
• Connotes vacation or fishing spot

8
Paradox

• Statement that seems contradictory but may be
  true
• Surprising, catches reader attention
• E.g. Youth is wasted on the young.
• The more things change, the more they stay
  the same.

9
Symbol

• Object has own meaning but also represents
  abstract idea
• Stands for something else
• E.g.
• Flag symbolizes country
• Scarlet ibis symbolizes Doodle and other people
  who struggle

10
Figurative Language

• Writing not meant to interpret literally
• Compares dissimilar things
• Creates vivid impressions
• Metaphors, similes, personifications
• E.g.
• My black eyes are coals burningLike a low, full
  jungle moonThrough the darkness of being

11
Fig Lang Metaphor

• Figure of speech
• A comparison
• One thing spoken of as if
• it is something else
• E.g. Poetry is a river.
• The sky is a patchwork quilt.

12
Fig Lang Onomatopoeia

• Words that imitate sounds
• E.g. whirr, thud, sizzle, hiss, buzz, bang,
  pop
• E.g. Poes Bells
• Of the bells, bells, bells, bells
• ringing, chiming, jangling,
• rangling, clang, clash, roar

13
Fig Lang Simile

• Figure of speech, comparison
• Uses like or as to compare
• two unlike ideas
• E.g.
• The morning sun is like a red rubber ball.
• Does it dry up, like a raisin in the sun?

14
Fig Lang Imagery

• Descriptive or figurative language
• Creates word pictures (images)
• Details of sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, or
  movement
• E.g. ghostly marching on pavement
• stones
• wind-tanned skin
• wise black pools

15
Fig Lang Personification

• Figurative language
• Nonhuman subject given human characteristics
• E.g. The wind danced in the trees.
• Daffodils tossing their heads in sprightly
  dance
• Storm tosses her hair, throws back her head, and
  closes her eyes

16
Fig Lang Extended Metaphor

• Writing about a subject as if it were something
  else
• Comparison several lines long or entire poem
• E.g. caged bird becomes person who is not
  free
• broken-winged bird that cannot fly
• becomes life without a dream

17
Fig Lang Sensory Words/Lang

• Writing that appeals to the senses, e.g. images
• Provides details related to senses
• Example feeling the sun beating down on ones
  head

18
Sound Devices Assonance

• Repetition of vowel sounds followed by different
  consonants in 2 or more stressed syllables
• E.g. weak and weary
• child of silence
• so rollinga stone

19
Sound Devices Alliteration

• Repetition of initial consonant sounds
• Emphasizes words, imitates sounds, creates
  musical effects
• E.g. I grew like a thin, stubborn weed,
  watering myself whatever way I could.
• Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered
  weak and weary.
• The fair breeze blew, the white foam
• flew.

20
Sound Devices Rhyme

• Repetition of sounds at ends of
• words
• End rhyme vs. internal rhyme
• Exact rhyme vs. slant rhyme
• E.g.
• Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered,
  weak and weary.
• Swans sing before they dietwere no bad thing
• Should certain persons die before they sing.

21
Sound Devices Repetition

• Use of any language element a sound, word,
  phrase, clause, or sentence more than once
• Used for musical effects and for emphasis
• E.g.
• Alliteration, assonance, rhyme, rhythm repeat
  sounds
• Refrain repeats line/s
• You liked winningYou liked writingYou liked
  all the faces

22
Sound Devices Refrain

• Regularly repeated line
• or group of lines
• In music a chorus
• E.g. Quoth the raven, Nevermore.
• Macavity, Macavity, theres no one like
  Macavity.

23
Sound Devices Rhythm

• Pattern of beats or stresses
• Some poems have a specific pattern or meter
• E.g. There was a young lady named brightWhose
  speed was far faster than light
• Prose and free verse use natural rhythms of
  everyday speech

24
Forms of Poetry Fixed Form

• Stanzas have repeated or predictable patterns
• Words in each stanza may rhyme or sound alike
• Length and rhythm of stanzas are related
• Number of syllables in line may be fixed

25
Forms of Poetry Free Form or Free Verse

• Lacks structure or pattern
• Words may not rhyme
• Lines do not match in number of syllables,
  length, or rhythm

26
Forms of Poetry Sonnet

• 14-line lyric poem
• Formal patterns of rhyme, rhythm
• and line structure
• Two types
• English, or Shakespearean
• (3 quatrains couplet)
• Italian, or Petrarchan
• (octave sestet)

27
Forms of Poetry Haiku

• 3-line verse form
• 1st and 3rd lines 5 syllables (?)
• 2nd line 7 syllables (?)
• Single vivid emotion
• Images from nature
• E.g. Basho
• furu-ike ya An old pondkawazu tobi-komu
  A frog jumps inMizu-no-oto The sound of
  water

28
Types of Poetry Lyric Poem

• Brief poem
• Musical verse uses rhythm, alliteration, and
  rhyme
• Observations and feelings of
• one speaker
• Sung with lyre in ancient times

29
Types of Poetry Narrative Poem

• Tells a story in verse
• May be an epic or a ballad
• E.g.
• Casey at the Bat humorous narrative poem
• Poes Raven serious narrative poem

30
Types of Poetry Ballad

• Songlike poem that tells a story
• Often adventure and romance
• Most written in 4 to 6-line stanzas, regular
  rhythms and rhyme schemes, often a refrain

31
Types of Poetry Limerick

• Humorous, rhyming, five-line poem
• Specific meter and rhyme scheme
• E.g. Edward Lear
• There was an Old Person whose habits,Induced
  him to feed upon rabbitsWhen he'd eaten
  eighteen,He turned perfectly green,Upon which
  he relinquished those habits.

32
Types of Poetry Concrete Poem

• Poem with shape that suggests subject
• . . . t e a r
  s

33
Types of Poetry Dramatic Poem

• Uses techniques of drama
• Writer tells a story
• Characters own thoughts/words
• E.g. Poes Raven uses dramatic dialogue
• Dramatic monologue 1 person speaks to silent
  listener