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Poetry Terms

Poetry Terms. General Elements Figurative Language Sound Devices Forms of Poetry Types of Poetry. Elements: Stanza. Formal division of lines in a poem Considered a unit Separated by spaces Couplets: two lines Quatrains: four lines. Speaker. Imaginary voice assumed by poet

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Poetry Terms

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  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 Death—He kindly stopped for me”

  4. Tone • Writer’s 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.: Poe’s “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 one’s 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 rolling…a 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 die—’twere 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 winning…You liked writing…You 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, there’s 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 • Poe’s “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 rabbits;When 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 • Character’s own thoughts/words • E.g.: Poe’s “Raven” uses dramatic dialogue • Dramatic monologue: 1 person speaks to silent listener

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