Word Play

1. Word Play How and why do poets play with words?

2. Review from Text • Space is limited, so poets carefully select words

3. Review from Text Kinds of diction: • Poetic diction—elevated language, common in older and/or traditional poetry • Dialect—typical language spoken by a definable group of people (location, race, income-level, etc) • Jargon—typical language spoken by a group of trade and/or professional members Levels of diction: • Formal diction—dignified, impersonal, elevated • Middle diction—spoken by most educated people • Informal diction/colloquial—conversational, often includes slang

4. Review from Text Denotation—literal definition meaning Connotation—associations and social meanings that shade word why?

5. Review from Text Persona—a speaker created by the poet Ambiguity—intentional freedom of interpreting a word, phrase, action, character, and/or situation in more than 1 way

6. Review from Text Syntax—order of words and/or sentences

7. Word Play Terms Onomatopoeia—words that sound like their meanings; examples: boom, buzz, crackle, gurgle, hiss, pop, sizzle, snap, swoosh, whir, zip Cliché—any figure of speech that once was clever and original but now is overused and/or outdated; examples: busy as a bee, time will tell

8. Word Play Terms Oxymoron—a phrase that joins 2 opposite words: bittersweet, cold flame Pun—playing with meaning and sound; examples: I'm trying to find a rope tying class, should I look for a knot for profit organization?, He drove his expensive car into a tree and found out how the Mercedes bends., When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

9. Word Play Terms • Synesthesia—an attempt to fuse different senses by describing one kind of sense impression in words that typically used to describe another; examples: The sound of her voice was sweet, a loud aroma, a velvety smile

10. Let’s practice!