Poetry Techniques

1. Poetry Techniques “How do poems grow? They grow out of your life.” Robert Penn Warren

2. Persona • A dramatic character, distinguished from the poet, who is the speaker of a poem. We will be reading poems by poets who take on the persona of a child

3. Form • Stanza: A division in a poem named for the number of lines it contains, such as a couplet (2 lines), triplet (3 lines), quatrain (4 lines), and octave (8 lines) • This is as though the poem is broken up into “paragraphs” • “Gleaming in silver are the hills! Blazing in silver is the sea! And a silvery radiance spills Where the moon drives royally!” –James Stevens, “Washed in Silver”

4. Form cont. • Haiku: A three-line poem that originated from Japan, often about nature, with a syllable pattern of 5, 7, 5 • Verse: The name for a line of traditional poetry written in meter • A line of poetry

5. Sound Devices • Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds at any place in a series of words • Doyou like blue? • “Well he seemed so low that I couldn’t say no” –Robert Service (“The Cremation of Sam McGee, pg. 709)

6. Sound Devices cont. • Alliteration: The repetition of a sound at the beginning of a series of words • “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers…” • “Rain races, ripping like wind. Its restless rage rattles like rocks ripping through the air.”

7. Sound Devices cont. • Consonance: The repetition of a consonant sound at any place in a series of words. • I dropped the locket in the thick mud. • Eric liked the black book • “And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.” –Edgar Allen Poe

8. Sound Device cont. • Onomatopoeia: The use of words whose sound makes one think of its meaning

9. Appeals to the senses • Visual imagery pertains to graphics, visual scenes, pictures, or the sense of SIGHT. • Auditory imagery pertains to SOUNDS, noises, music, or the sense of hearing. (This kind of imagery may come in the form of onomatopoeia). • Olfactory imagery pertains to odors, scents, or the sense of SMELL. • Gustatory imagery pertains to flavors or the sense of TASTE. • Tactile imagery pertains to physical textures or the sense of TOUCH.

10. Figurative Language • Simile: A comparison of two nouns using the words like or as • “My love for you is like a red, red rose” • Metaphor: A comparison of two nouns saying that one thing is another • “All the world is a stage”

11. Figurative Language cont. • Hyperbole: Extreme exaggeration • The books weigh a ton. • I could sleep for a year. • I have a million things to do. • Personification: When a non-living object has been given qualities of a person • The wind whispered through the trees • The moon danced on the water • “Oreo: Milk’s favorite cookie.”

12. Figurative Language cont. • A Symbol: a person, place, thing, or event that stands for itself and for something beyond itself as well. • A wedding band symbolizes_______. • A white flag symbolizes__________.

13. Rhyme • End Rhyme: Rhyme that appears at the end of two or more lines of poetry • “I would not, could not, in a box. I could not, would not, with a fox. I will not eat them with a mouse. I will not eat them in a house. I will not eat them here or there. I will not eat them anywhere. I do not eat green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am.”

14. Rhyme • Internal Rhyme: The rhyming of words within one line of poetry • “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…” Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping...”

15. Rhythm • Repetition: The repeating of a word or phrase to add rhythm or to emphasize an idea • “And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.” –Robert Frost, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” • “The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor, And the highwayman came riding- Riding-riding- The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.” –Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”