Poetry

1. Poetry A metrical writing chosen and arranged to create or evoke a specific emotional response through meaning, sound and rhythm.

2. Terminology • Alliteration – repetition of the same or very similar consonant sounds in words that are close together in a poem • “Open here I flung the shutter, when with many a flirt and flutter, /In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.” • Allusion- reference to a statement, a person, place or event in history, literature, etc.

3. Terminology • Analogy- a comparison made between two things to show how they are alike in some respects • Assonance- repetition of similar vowel sounds that are followed by different consonant sounds. • Ballad – a song that tells a story

4. Terminology • Blank verse - poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter • Connotation- the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests • Couplet- two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme • I am his Highness’ dog at Kew; Pray me, Sir, whose dog are you?”

5. Terminology • Denotation – the definition of a word • Diction- A writer or speaker’s choice of words • Epic – a long story told in an elevated language which relates the deeds of a “larger-than-life” hero who embodies the values of a particular society

6. Terminology • Free verse – poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme • Haiku– Japanese verse form consisting of three lines and usually seventeen syllables (5 first line, 7 second, 5 third) • Hyperbole – figure of speech using exaggeration to express an emotion. An overstatement. • His shoes were the size of ocean liners.

7. Terminology • Idiom – expression peculiar to a particular language that means something different from the original meaning of each word • Raining cats and dogs • Imagery - language that appeals to any of the senses • Inversion – reversal of the normal word order of a sentence

8. Terminology • Lyric poetry – poetry that does not tell a story but is aimed only at expressing a speaker’s emotions or thoughts. • Metaphor – a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things. Does not use LIKE or AS • “My love is a red rose” • Implied – does not directly say that something is something else but uses words to suggest the nature of the comparison • “O, my love bursts into bloom” • Extended - a metaphor that is developed over several lines

9. Terminology • Meter – generally regular pattern of stress and unstressed syllables • Iambic (*/) • That time of year thou mayst in me behold • Trochaic (/*) • Tell me not in mournful numbers • Anapestic (**/) • And the sound of a voice that is still • Dactylic (/**) • This is the forest primeval, the…

10. Terminology • Onomatopoeia – the expression of a sound through words • “Bang” • Personification - giving human-like qualities to non human things • “This poetry gets bored of being alone” • Refrain– repeated word, phrase, line or group of lines

11. Terminology • Rhyme – repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them in words that are close together as in poems • End - rhyme occurs at the end of a line of poetry • Internal – rhyme occurs within a line of poetry • Rhythm – musical quality in language produced by repetition

12. Terminology • Simile – figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things using words similar to like, resemble, as, etc. • “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” • Sonnet – a 14 line lyric poem that is usually in iambic pentameter and that has one of several rhyme schemes • Stanza – a group of consecutive lines in poetry that form a single unit

13. Terminology • Symbol – a person, place, thing or event that stands for itself and something beyond itself as well • A Scale, An eagle, etc. • Theme – a central idea of a work of literature • Tone – an attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject or a character