Poetry Terms

1. Poetry Terms • 2 general kinds of poetry– lyric and narrative. • Lyric: originate from ancient poems sung to a lyre; includes sonnets, odes, and villanelles • Narrative are longer and were also probably chanted • The line between the two blurs in longer forms of poetry

2. 8 Elements of Poetry • 8 elements of poetry include: • Language • Imagery • Tone • Rhythm & rhyme • Metaphor & figurative language

3. 8 Elements of Poetry • 6. Symbols & allegory • 7. Form • 8. Ideas

4. Language • Discursive language depends on telling the reader something • Imagery is language that shows the reader something • Denotation=the dictionary definition

5. Language • Connotation=the meaning of a word on an emotional level • The poet usually controls meaning of the poem through meaning of words and sounds

6. Language • Sounds • Euphony: words that sound good together (very musical) • Cacophony: words that grate, annoy, or create distaste • Onomatopoeia: imitates the sound it refers to

7. Imagery • Images directly appeal to one of the senses: touch, sight, hearing, smell, taste • Imagist poets rely on creating responses through images rather than discursive language

8. Imagery • Synaesthesia refers to when an image appeals to 2 or more senses at the same time

9. Tone • Tone may be thought of as arising from the voice the poet projects. • They can be ironic, conversational, angry, satirical, or judgmental

10. Rhythm & Rhyme • A rhythm is a regular beat • End-stopped lines have a pause at the end of the line, usually indicated by punctuation. • Run-on lines force the reader to read beyond their end into the beginning of the next lines • Enjambment

11. Rhythm & Rhyme • Rhymed and metrical poem is called verse. • Masculine rhymes: one syllable rhymes (still, fill) • Feminine rhymes: 2 syllable rhymes (balcalava, lava)

12. Rhythm & Rhyme • Slant rhyme: sounds almost echo each other (mousse, clues) • Assonantal rhyme: vowels echo each other (tube, mood) • Consonantal rhyme: consonants echo each other (klutz, blitz)

13. Rhythm & Rhyme • Internal rhyme: end word rhymes with a word in the middle of the same line or another nearby line (turned the air, a prayer) • Eye rhyme: words look alike but do not sound alike (blood, food)

14. Meter • Meter is a measure of syllables into feet. • Iambic is the usual metrical foot in English (an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable)

15. Meter • 1 foot / line = monometer • 2 feet/ line= dimeter • 3 feet/ line= trimeter • 4 feet/ line= tetrameter • 5 feet/ line= pentameter • 6 feet/ line= hexameter • 7 feet / line= septameter • 8 feet/ line= octameter

16. Meter • Metrical foot pattern: • Iamb U / in-sist • Trochee / U pen-cil • Anapest U U / in a fix • Dactyl / / U im-pli-cate • Spondee / / top gun

17. Meter • Pyrrhic U U of a • Amphribrach U / U in-ter-nal • Cretic / U / med-I-ate

18. Meter • Iamb and anapest are usually called rising rhythms because they begin with an unstressed syllable and proceed to a final stress. • Trochee and dactyl are, therefore, falling rhythms.

19. Metaphor & Figurative Language • Metaphor is a direct comparison between 2 unlike things • Figurative language includes: metaphor, oxymoron, irony, paradox, personification, pun, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, and litote

20. Irony • Saying one thing and meaning another or giving an apparently innocent comparison that reveals shortcomings on the subject. • Verbal irony is commonly used in conversation, as when someone claims to be bad, but the reader knows the opposite is meant.

21. Irony • Dramatic Irony is not limited to words, but includes actions • Tragic irony is when the result is a tragic end to a hero

22. Irony • Cosmic irony shows fate reaching from the heavens to make an otherwise admirable person so unhappy as to cause his or her death.

23. Other figurative language • Paradox: an apparently impossible circumstance, situation, or condition. • Personification: giving a non-being the characteristics of a person.

24. Other figurative language • Pun: a play on words that usually depends on a word having several meanings or sounding like another word with a different meaning. • Metonymy: when you use one thing in the place of something closely related (instead of athlete using jock)

25. Other figurative language • Synecdoche: closely related to metonymy and uses part of a whole to mean the whole thing (wheels instead of car) • Hyperbole: overstatement for effect • Litotes: understatement for effect

26. Symbols and Allegory • Symbols are specialized use of words (metaphor) that is universal in nature. • Begins with a comparison but the reader is not always immediately aware that the comparison is important

27. Symbol & Allegory • Allegories are forms of symbols which are fixed (Animal Farm)

28. Form--Sonnets • All sonnets have 14 lines and usually rhyme according to one of several patterns. • All 14 lines are usually iambic pentameter, but are not always regular—sometimes other patterns may occur.

29. Form--Sonnet • Petrarchan Sonnet (Italian) • Divided into an octave and a sestet • The octave rhymes abbaabba • The sestet my rhyme cdcdcd, cdecde, cdcdee, or cdedcd

30. Form--Sonnet • The normal pattern is to state the main idea in the first four lines of the octave and then to elaborate on that idea in the next 4 lines • Between the octave and the sestet is a turn, a change of tone, action or concept.

31. Form--Sonnet • The first part of the sestet sometimes has an example or complication of the idea developed in the octave. • The last 3 lines conclude the poem.

32. Form--Sonnet • Shakespearean Sonnet (English) • Divided in 3 quatrains rhyming abab, cdcd, efef and ends with a couplet gg. • The first 12 lines are elaborating an idea or a problem with details or examples.

33. Form--Sonnet • The last 2 lines resolve the issues raised by the first 3 quatrains • The couplet almost sounds like a tag or resoultion

34. Form--Ballad • The term “ballad” implies a song • Is sometimes recited to a guitar or lute • Traditionally tells a story, often of love, promises, war, and disappointment • Often depends on repetition of key lines for effect

35. Form--Ode • A long irregular poem, originally meant to be a sublime poetic utterance inspired by gods • Lyric in nature, exalted in tone • 3 phases: strophe, antistrophe, and epode

36. Form--Ode • Odes are usually predicted on oppositions—the subject of one stanza (the antistrophe) may sometimes reevaluate the subject of the previous stanza (the strophe).

37. Form--Ode • The end of the ode (epode) usually attempts to resolve the tensions raised in the body of the ode.

38. Form--Villanelle • Not a common fixed form, lots of rhymes • Extremely difficult to create in English • 6 stanzas with iambic pentameter: 5 with 3 lines, and the last with 4 lines

39. Form—Villanelle • There are only 2 rhymes • The first line and the third line of the first stanza repeat throughout the poem • Stanza 2 ends with line 1 • Stanza 3 ends with line 3

40. Form--Villanelle • Stanza 4 ends with line 1 • Stanza 5 ends with line 3 • Stanza 6 ends with lines 1 and 3