Poetry 101

1. Poetry 101

2. Allusion • reference to history, culture, mythology, etc. that the author expects you to recognize and understand • Example: Garden of Eden

3. Alliteration • repetition of consonant sounds in words close to one another • Example: Careless cars cutting corners create confusion. Crossing centrelines. Countless collisions cost coffins. Collect conscious change. Copy? Continue cautiously. Comply?Cool.

4. Assonance • repetition of vowel sounds in words that are close together • Example: all the night tide I lay down by my side

5. Consonance • the repetition of the same consonant two or more times in short succession • Example: pitter patter

6. Sonnet • lyric poem of fourteen lines and strict meter • Shakespearean/English sonnet: follows rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg • Petrarchan/Italian Sonnets: follows rhyme scheme abba abba ccde ed (or something similar)

7. Metaphor • comparison between two unlike things without using like or as • Example: I was a lonely cloud. • EXTENDED metaphor: a metaphor that continues into the following lines (sometimes referred to as a conceit)

8. Simile • comparison of two unlike things typically using like or as • Example: I wandered lonely as a cloud.

9. Personification • attributing human qualities to non-human things • Example: Misery loves company.

10. Onomatopoeia • the use of a word whose sound imitates its meaning • Example: a thin whine of wires, a rattling and flapping of leaves

11. Hyperbole • extreme exaggeration • Example: his words pounded like the hooves of a thousand horses

12. Understatement • expression of less strength than what would be expected • Example: “It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.” (from The Catcher in the Rye)

13. Paradox • A statement that appears to contradict itself • Example: • “The swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot."(Henry David Thoreau, Walden) • “Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.“ C.S.Lewis

14. Rhythm • alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language • can also be created by rhyme, repetition, pauses, variations in line length, and balancing of long and short words and phrase • Free verse — no regular rhythm or rhyme schemes

15. Cadence • Balanced, rhythmic flow of poetry • Example: So strong you thump, O terrible drums—so loud you bugles blow.

16. Rhyme scheme • pattern of rhymed lines determined by assigning a letter to each new sound Example: • Once upon a midnight dreary, a while I pondered, weak and weary,     a  Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— bWhile I nodded, nearly napping, c suddenly there came a tapping, cAs of some one gently rapping, c rapping at my chamber door. b“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, d “tapping at my chamber door— b  Only this and nothing more.” b

17. Foot • A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables • believe (iamb  stressed/unstressed) • mercy (trochee  unstressed/stressed) • understand (anapest  2 <short> unstressed/ 1 <long> stressed) • meter –pattern determined by type and number of feet in the line

18. Internal rhyme • rhyme occurs within a line • Example: the grains beyond age, the dark veins of her mother

19. End Rhyme • Rhyme that occurs in the last syllables of verses • Example: Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks into gravelly ground (from Seamus Heaney’s “Digging”)

20. Slant or Approximate rhyme • words sound similar but do not rhyme exactly • Example: …with madman’s flash famishing for flesh

21. Imagery • descriptive words that appeal to the five senses • When all aloud the wind doth blow And coughing drowns the parson’s saw And birds sit brooding in the snow And Marian’s nose looks red and raw, When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, Then nightly sings the staring owl, “Tu Whit, Tu Who!” a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keep the pot. --Love’s Labours Lost

22. Parallel Structure • similar grammatical structure within a line or lines of poetry. • Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them.

23. Catalog • A list of items, people, places, or things in poetry • In Song of Myself, Whitman uses a catalog of all that he sees — people of all ages, all walks of life, in the city and in the country, by the mountain and by the sea. Even animals are included. And the poet not only loves them all, he is part of them all.

24. & of course . . . don’t forget • Tone • Diction • Syntax • Repetition (and all of the other literary terms we have discussed!)

25. “Hope” is the thing with feathers By Emily Dickinson “Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.

26. “Hope” is the thing with feathers By Emily Dickinson • Title: Introduces the controlling metaphor which compares hope to a bird. Dickinson refers to hope as a thing instead of a bird because hope is a formless feeling that can’t be held or caged; even the word, “hope,” in the title is set aside with quotation marks to indicate even the name is uncertain. What some call hope, others may call something else.

27. “Hope” is the thing with feathers By Emily Dickinson “Hope” is the thing with feathers - 2. Hope has feathers That perches in the soul - And it stays in a person’s soul And sings the tune without the words - And it can be heard though it And never stops - at all - speaks no words, and it never stops And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - Hope sounds best in times of great And sore must be the storm - difficulty – It must be an extremely That could abash the little Bird difficult time to stop hope from That kept so many warm - encouraging people. I’ve heard it in the chillest land - I have heard hope in the coldest And on the strangest Sea - place and in the most remote place Yet - never - in Extremity, Yet never in these harsh places It asked a crumb - of me. Did hope require a return from me.

28. “Hope” is the thing with feathers By Emily Dickinson “Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - 3. Gale: contrast to sweet And sore must be the storm - Capitalized to emphasize a That could abash the little Bird Significant trial or undertaking That kept so many warm - I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Chillest, Sea, Extremity: Yet - never - in Extremity, Contrast to warm, emphasizes It asked a crumb - of me. the time hope is heard.

29. “Hope” is the thing with feathers By Emily Dickinson “Hope” is the thing with feathers - 4. Attitude: Reassuring and That perches in the soul - encouraging. Describing hope And sings the tune without the words - as warm, singing, in the soul, And never stops - at all - sweet and comparing it to a bird all connote positiveAnd sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - traits. And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.

30. “Hope” is the thing with feathers By Emily Dickinson “Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, 5. Shift: Indicates the extent It asked a crumb - of me. of hope’s benevolence.

31. “Hope” is the thing with feathers By Emily Dickinson “Hope” is the thing with feathers - 7. Hope is constant, it never That perches in the soul - wavers. It lifts us up, and the And sings the tune without the words - controlling metaphor comparing And never stops - at all - hope to a bird reinforces this. And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.