Poetry Terms

1. Poetry Terms Literary devices and terms associated with poetry.

2. “Classifying” poetry • Lyric-expresses thoughts, feelings or responses, can rhyme • Narrative- tells a story • Dramatic- dramatic monologue

3. Lyric • Another over view • Expresses thoughts, feelings, or responses to personal experiences. • Single speaker. • Often contain “musical” elements such as rhyme, rhythm, and sound effects.

4. Narrative • Tells a story. • Often creates characters and settings, engages attention, and shapes a plot.

5. Dramatic • Presents the voice of an imaginary character or characters speaking directly, without any additional narration.

6. Poet is not necessarily the narrator of the poem -- poems are not necessarily autobiographical. Persona:The character Persona

7. Tone: The attitude of the poem. The choice of words and the details that communicate the attitude. Like tone of voice – communicates feeling. The feel of the poem- light and happy, or dark moody Tone

8. Tone “For a Lady I Know” She even thinks that up in heaven Her class lies late and snores, While poor black cherubs rise at seven To do celestial chores. Countee Cullen (1903-1946)

9. Diction: Language- mid victorian, argot, 17 century . Denotation- Dictionary Connotation- applied meaning Concrete Words-tangible Abstract Words-Love, hate Allusion- inside meaning Diction

10. Diction • Denotation:Dictionary • Connotation: Overtones, suggestions, implications, additional meanings. • Concrete Words: What we can immediately perceive with our senses or particular individuals. • Abstract Words: Ideas, concepts, generalities.

11. Allusion • Indirect references to any person, place, or thing – fictitious, historical, or actual. • Historical, cultural, and literary references that enrich the meaning of a poem. • The reader brings his/her knowledge and understanding of the reference to the poem.

12. Allusion “Grass” Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.- allusions to battles Shovel them under and let me work— I am the grass; I cover all. And pile them high at Gettysburg.- allusion And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.-allusions Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this? Where are we now? I am the grass. Let me work. Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

13. Quiz – You may use your notes. • Define “persona.”- character? narrator • Define “tone.”- attitude of poem • Define “diction.”- language • Give an example of a concrete word. • concrete • Give an example of an abstract word. • love • Define “allusion.” • Indirect reference

14. Imagery & Figurative Language • Imagery: Vivid, descriptive language that appeals to the senses. • Simile: comparison with words like or as • Metaphor: comparison with out words like or as • Personification: • Apostrophe: Addressing someone or something invisible, inanimate, or not ordinarily spoken to.

15. Imagery “Root Cellar” Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch, Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark, Shoots dangled and drooped, Lolling obscenely from mildewed crates, Hung down long yellow evil necks, like tropical snakes. And what a congress of stinks!— Roots ripe as old bait, Pulpy stems, rank, silo-rich, Leaf-mold, manure, lime, piled against slippery planks. Nothing would give up life: Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath. Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)

16. Imagery “Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter” It is a cold and snowy night. The main street is deserted. The only things moving are swirls of snow. As I lift the mailbox door, I feel its cold iron. There is a privacy I love in this snowy night. Driving around, I will waste more time. Robert Bly (b. 1926)

17. Imagery & Figurative Language • Hyperbole: exaggeration • Pun: Play on words., word reminds us of another word that sounds the same

18. Euphony: think Symphony MUSIC Cacophony: Chaos NOISE Sound

19. Sound • Alliteration:Repetition of words or sounds • Initial: At the beginning of words • Internal: Inside the words • Assonance: Repetition of vowel sound • Initial- at beginning • Internal in the middle • Consonance: Words have the same beginning and ending consonant sounds, but the vowel sound is different.

20. Sound “Recital” ROGER BOBO GIVES RECITAL ON TUBA --Headline in the Times Eskimos in Manitoba, Barracuda off Aruba, Cock an ear when Roger Bobo Starts to solo on the tuba. Men of every station—Pooh-bah, Nabob, bozo, toff, and hobo— Cry in unison, “Indubi- Tably, there is simply nobo- Dy who oompahs on the tubo, Solo, quite like Roger Bubo!” John Updike (b. 1932)

21. Rhyme: Words or phrases with an identical or similar sound. Exact: Identical sounds. Near: Similar sounds. End Rhyme: Words at the end of the lines rhyme. Internal Rhyme: Words within the lines rhyme. Rhyme

22. Rhyme Scheme, Scansion and Prosody in Poetry Determining Patterns

23. Rhyme Scheme • Rhyme Scheme: The pattern of end rhyme in a poem. • Lines that rhyme are assigned the same letter: a, b, c, d, e . . .

24. Rhyme Scheme “To see the world in a grain of sand” To see the world in a grain of sand-a And a heaven in a wild flower,-b Hold infinity in the palm of your hand-a And eternity in an hour.-b William Blake (1757-1827)

25. Rhyme Scheme “Fire and Ice” Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. Robert Frost (1874-1963)

26. Rhyme Scheme “The Eagle” He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

27. Lines • End-stopped: punctuation is used • Enjambment: line does not end, we read on

28. Rhythm: Recurrence of stresses and pauses. Scansion: Identifying the stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem and determining its pattern. Stress: Accented or emphasized syllable. Unstress: Not accented or not emphasized syllable. Caesura: A pause within a line of poetry. Rhythm

29. Scansion • Iambic: Unstress Stress But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? • Anapestic: Unstress Unstress Stress It was many and many a year ago In a kingdom by the sea That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee.

30. Scansion • Trochaic: Stress Unstress Tyger, tyger, burning bright In the forest of the night • Dactylic: Stress Unstress Unstress This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlock

31. Prosody • Prosody: The study of metrical structures of poetry. • Meter: Stress recurs at fixed intervals; pattern of stressed and unstressed. • Foot: A unit of two or three syllables that contains at least one stress.

32. Prosody • Monometer-1 • Dimeter-2 • Trimeter-3 • Tetrameter-4 • Pentameter=5 • Hexameter=6 • Heptameter=7 • Octameter=8

33. “When I was one-and-twenty” “When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, “Give crowns and points and guineas But not your heart away; Give pearls away and rubies But keep your fancy free.” But I was one-and-twenty, No use to talk to me. When I was one-and-twenty I heard him say again, “The heart out of the bosom Was never given in vain; ‘Tis paid with sighs a plenty And sold for endless rue.” And I am two-and-twenty, And oh, ‘tis true, ‘tis true. A. E. Housman (1859-1936)

34. “Counting-out Rhyme” Silver bark of beech, and sallow Bark of yellow birch and yellow Twig of willow. Stripe of green in moosewood maple, Color seen in leaf of apple, Bark of popple. Wood of popple pale as moonbeam, Wood of oak for yoke and barn-beam, Wood of hornbeam. Silver bark of beech, and hollow Stem of elder, tall and yellow Twig of willow. Edna St. Vincent Millay (1982-1950)