Exploring Poetry

1. Exploring Poetry Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry upLike a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore--And then run?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over--like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sagslike a heavy load.Or does it explode?

2. What is Poetry? • Type of rhythmic, compressed language that uses figures of speech and imagery to appeal to the readers’s emotions and imagination

3. Elements of Poetry • Poetry is literature in verse form, a controlled arrangement of lines and stanzas • Poems use concise, musical, and emotionally charged language to express multiple layers of meaning • Poets use figurative language to help readers recognize relationships and similarities among different things

4. Figurative Language • Language that is used imaginatively , rather than literally to express ideas or feelings in new ways • Figures of speech • similes- comparisons between unlike things using the words, like, as or than Ex. She runs like the wind • metaphors- comparisons that speaks of one thing in terms of another Ex. It is the east, and Juliet is the sun • Personification- human traits given to nonhuman things Ex. The ocean snarled and pounded against the shore • Imagery- descriptive language that makes vivid impressions • Images developed through sensory language that relate to sight, sound, taste, touch, smell and movement

5. Poetic Sound Devices • Poets use sound devices to achieve a musical quality • Rhythm- the pattern created by stressed and unstressed syllables of words in sequence • Meter- a pattern of rhythm • Rhyme- the repetition of identical sounds in the last syllables of words • Rhyme scheme- a pattern of rhyme at the ends of the lines Most common type is end rhyme Internal rhyme occurs within lines- ex. The warm sun is failing, the bleak wind is wailing • Alliteration- the repetition of the initial consonant sounds of nearby words Ex. light and lemon • Assonance- the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words Ex. date and fade • Consonance- the repetition of consonants within nearby words in which the preceding vowels differ Ex. milk and walk • Onomatopeia- use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning; it reinforces meaning and create musical sound Ex. Buzz, Splash, Bark

6. Graphic Elements • Poets use graphic elements to help readers understand the poem and strengthen the sound or visual appeal of the poem • Stanza- group of consecutive lines that form a single unit in a poem; Similar to a paragraph and often expresses a unit of thought • Punctuation- marks such as commas to show the reader where to slow down or pause • Line length- help determine whether a poem has a flowing sound or a short, choppy sound • Word position- show relationships between words and ideas • Foot- a single rhythmical unit of verse • Blank poetry- poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter • Iambic pentameter- each line consists of five iambs • Iamb- type of metrical foot that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

7. Types of Poetry • Blank verse- poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter line; verse form widely used by William Shakespeare • Free verse- poetry not written in a regular pattern of meter or rhyme ex. Cornelius Eady’s“The Poetic Intepretation of the Twist” • Narrative- tells a story with a plot, characters, and setting Ex. The Bridegroom • Epic- long narrative poem about the feats of gods or heroes such as Beowulf • Ballad- a songlike narrative with stanzas and a refrain • Dramatic- tells a story using a character’s own thoughts or spoken statements Ex. The Bridegroom • Lyric- poems written in highly musical language that expresses the thoughts, observation and feelings of a single speaker • Lyrics are the most common type of poem in modern literature • Sonnet- a fourteen-line lyric poem with formal patterns of rhyme, rhythm, and line structure; Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (four- line stanzas) and a couplet (two lines at the end); usually rhyming ababcdcdefefgg

8. Poetry Vocabulary • Allusion- reference to a well-known person, place, event literary work or work of art • Apostrophe-breaking off from normal speech and speaking to an imaginary person or even to an abstract quality or idea; typically a question, an explanation or an expression of frustration • Denotation- word in its dictionary meaning, independent of other associations that the word may have ex. Lake- an inland body of water • Connotation- word is the set of ideas associated with it in addition to its explicit meaning ex. Vacation spot or place where the fishing is good • Diction- author’s choice of words, especially with regard to vocabulary (formal or slang) • Metonymy- figure of speech where a name of one thing is replaced with the name of something that is closely associated with it ex. He write with a fine hand • Mood- the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage; suggested by descriptive details and can be described in a single word ex. Frightening feeling

9. Poetry Vocabulary • Oxymoron- combination of words that contradict each other; device used to reveal the deeper truth ex. Bittersweet; wise fool • Paradox- statement that seems contradictory but that actually may express a deeper truth; it catches the readers attention • Speaker- an imaginary voice assumed by the writer of a poem; speaker is not identified by name and the speaker can be a person, animal, thing or an abstraction • Tone- the writer’s attitude toward his/her audience and subject; described by a single adjective ex. Bitter tone • Theme- central message or insight into life revealed through a literary work

10. Famous World Poets • William Shakespeare • Langston Hughes • Emily Dickinson • William Blake • E.E. Cummings • Lord Byron • Maya Angelou • Edmund Spenser • Shel Silverstein • Gwendolyn Brooks • Walt Whitman