Poetry: Figurative Language and Word Structure

1. Poetry: Figurative Language and Word Structure • Verse (poetry) is among the oldest forms of human communication • Before stories were written, story tellers passed down in oral form, long odes and epicpoems. • The Iliad and The Odyssey are two examples of ancient epic poems.

2. At the beginning of the twentieth century, modernists began writing poems that did not have rhythm and rhyme. • Examples of modernist poetry include • T. S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” • Ezra Pound “The Cantos” • Figurative language – a way of expressing what is experienced without having to use only plain, dry facts. • Figurative language makes a poem or story come alive.

3. Personification – giving human qualities to something not human • Example: • “The oak trees whispered softly in the night breeze.” • John Steinbeck • The author of The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane, uses personification in the novel.

4. Metaphor – direct comparison between two unlike things without using the words like or as. • Examples: • The sun is a big ball of fire. • The beach is a golden blanket of sand. • Extended metaphor – when an author makes a comparison of two things from the beginning of the selection to the end of the selection

5. Imagery – the use of words/phrases that evoke the sensations of sight, hearing, touch, smell, or taste • Edgar Allan Poe is a master at creating imagery in the mind of his reader. • Conceit – usually used in love poems – when opposite words describe conflicting emotions • Example: • A love/hate relationship may result in a man describing his love for a woman as bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, etc.

6. Simile – a comparison between two things using like or as • Example: • The beach looks like a golden blanket of sand. • Synecdoche – a common figure of speech in which something is referred to indirectly, either by naming only some part or element of it. • Examples: • hands for men working on a ship • “All hands on deck!” • the law for a police officer • “The old woman called the law because her neighbor’s dog barked continuously.”

7. Hyperbole – the use of exaggeration to create an effect • Example: • I was so surprised, you could have knocked me over with a feather. • Symbolism – any object, person, place, or action that has a meaning in itself and that also represents a meaning beyond itself • Example: • A skull and crossbones symbolize poison. • A dove symbolizes peace. • The letter A symbolizes sin and adultery in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

8. Metonymy – a term is substituted with another term with which it is closely associated • Example: • The crown or scepter stands for/represents a monarch. • Allusion – a reference to a well-known place, literary or art work, famous person, or historical event • Example: • “Be careful, the gift may be a Trojan horse.” – This refers to Greek mythology and the story of the fall of Troy. • Pixar films produced the movie Finding Nemo, which alludes to (makes an allusion to) Captain Nemo of the story 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. • There are numerous examples of biblical allusions found, particularly, in Shakespearean works.

9. Understatement (meiosis) – opposite of hyperbole. This is a way of stressing the importance of an issue by minimizing the expression of it. • Example: • If you told a friend about all of the things you had to accomplish this afternoon and then you said, “I guess I am not going to be bored tonight,” you would be using understatement or meiosis. • Irony – the appearance of things differs from reality. It is ironical when there is a difference between what is spoken and what is meant, what is thought about a situation and what is actually the case, or what is intended by actions and what is their actual outcome. • Paradox – holding contradictory ideas together in order to point to a deeper truth. • It is in giving that we receive. • The child is the father of the man.

10. Dramatic irony – a situation in which the reader or audience know more about the immediate circumstances or future events of a story than a character within it; thus, the audience is able to see a discrepancy between characters’ perceptions and the reality they face. • Example: • Remember what happened in Romeo and Juliet? • The audience knows Juliet did not drink poison, but rather a strong sleeping medicine. • When Romeo wakes up, he thinks Juliet is dead and kills himself rather than go on living alone. • When Juliet wakes up, she sees that Romeo is dead, which is not at all what she intended. • The audience knew what was going on the entire time… the characters did not = dramatic irony

11. Narrative Poetry • Epic – an ancient genre of narrative poetry. The oldest forms of literature in Western civilization are epics. • Examples: • Beowulf • The Divine Comedy • Paradise Lost – considered the last epic written in the English language. Since that time there have been works that contain epic characteristics, but no true epics have been written.

12. Characteristics of an Epic • Narrative; it tells a story • Usually very long; divided into “books,” or parts • Written in verse; very long poems • Tell of the extraordinary feats of legendary heroes like Beowulf and Odysseus. Often these heroes fight mythical monsters and complete feats of daring bravery • Take place in mythical or magical places • Usually begin in media res – Latin term meaning “in the middle of things” • Almost always begin with an invocation – the author addresses either the gods, or the poet’s muse, to help him in the writing of the epic

13. Lyric poem – communicates an exact mood or feeling to the reader. The poet speaks directly to the reader and relates his own feelings, viewpoints, and state of mind • Sonnet – fourteen-line poem with a particular rhyme scheme • Alliteration – the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words • Assonance – the repetition of vowel sounds in words • Ballad – narrative in song, usually a saga about a past love affair or relationship; slow, emotional song about enduring or lost love. Ballads focus on the actions/dialogue, not on the characters. Usually, ballads end in catastrophe for the characters involved. • Examples (modern): • Wild Horses – Rolling Stones • Hotel California – the Eagles • Tears in Heaven – Eric Clapton

14. Meter – a word pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables • Free verse – has no regular meter or rhythm • Rhythm – arrangement of sounds or movement in a definite pattern over a period of time • Consonance – the repetition of consonant sounds anywhere but at the beginning of a word

15. Rhyme – repeating similar sounds in words that appear close together in a poem • Internal rhyme – found inside a single line of poetry • Example: “Poor Jesse had a wife to mourn his life.” • Slant rhyme (half rhyme) – words that almost—but don’t quite—rhyme • Example: • I heard a fly buzz when I died— • The stillness in the room • Was like the stillness in the air • Between the heaves of storm. • Emily Dickinson • End rhyme – occurs at the end of lines • Rhyme scheme – pattern of rhymes formed by end rhyme • Fixed rhyme scheme – repeated rhyme pattern in a poem • Couplets – two-line rhyme pairs • Stanza – a group of lines