Poetry Terms and Examples

1. Poetry Terms and Examples S. Colley 2011-2012

2. Patterns of Sound • Rhyme – the repetition of sound • End rhyme: rhyme at the ends of lines of poetry • Internal rhyme: rhymes inside the lines • Eye-rhyme: rhymes that look alike, but do not sound alike. • Rhyme scheme: using letters to show the arrangement of rhyme

3. End rhyme • Words end in the same sound like • Flake, ache “Your are old, Father William,” the young man said “And your hair has become very white, And yet you incessantly stand on your head Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

4. Internal rhyme • When the rhyme is inside the lines. The splendor falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story; The long light shakes across the lakes, And the wild cataract leaps in glory.

5. Eye-rhyme • When the rhyme looks the same, but does not sound the same. At once a voice arose among The bleak twigs overhead In a fullhearted evensong Of joy illimited.

6. Rhyme Scheme • Using letters to show the arrangement of rhyme. How doth the little crocodile Improve his shining tail, And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale! Rhyme scheme is abab

7. More patterns of sound • Onomatopoeia – a word that sounds like what it describes • Alliteration: the repetition of initial vowels or consonants • Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds.

8. Onomatopoeia • Pow • Bang • Kapow

9. Alliteration • Sally sells seashells by the seashore.

10. Assonance • Fish, lift, miss and blip

11. Consanance Assured of certain certainties, The conscience of a blackened street Impatient to assume the world.

12. ASSIGNMENT • You are to find a poem to illustrate each pattern sound – total of 3-6 poems • On each poem highlight the pattern of sound AND explain why. • 60 points • Due: _________________ • Quiz on Patterns of sound to follow soon.

13. Meter and Stanza • By controlling the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poems, poets can create regular rhythm, called METER. They do this by using small units of meter; each unit is called a FOOT. • Iamb – 2 syllable foot with stress on the SECOND syllable.

14. IAMB I do not like thee, Doctor Fell; the reason why I cannot tell.

15. Trochee • 2 syllable foot, stress on 1st syllable • Mary, Mary, quite contrary….

16. Spondee • 2 syllable foot, stress on both syllables (in a row) • And a merry OLD SOUL was he. This is the house that JACK BUILT.

17. Stanza • Couplet – 2 line stanza • Triplet – 3 line stanza • Quatrain – 4 line stanza • Quintet – 5 line stanza • Sestet – 6 line stanza • Sonnet – English – 14 lines, 3 quatrains + 1 couplet. • Sonnet – Italian – 14 lines, 1 octave, + 1 sestet

18. Limericks • 5 line nonsense poem • Rhyme scheme of aabba • Lines, one, two and five rhyme and lines three and four rhyme. There was an old person of Nice, Whose associates were usually Geese They walked out together In all sorts of weather. The affable person of Nice!

19. Limerick There was an old man on the Border, Who live in the utmost disorder; He danced with the cat, And made tea in his hat, Which vexed all the folks on the Border.

20. Figures of speech • Simile – an openly expressed comparison using like or as. • Metaphor – an implied comparison • Personification – portraying an object as a person • Apostrophe – addressing someone or something not present

21. Simile • The tangled bine-stems scored the sky LIKE strings of broken lyres.

22. Metaphor • I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

23. Personification • The sun was shining on the sea, • Shining with all his might • He did his very best to make • The billows smooth and bright.

24. Apostrophe O CAPTAIN! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; • But O heart! Heart! Heart! • O the bleeding drops of red! • Where on the deck my Captain lies, • Fallen cold and dead.