POETRY TERMS

Mrs. WithersEnglish 9

Poetry Videos• Rudy Francisco – “Love Poem Medley”

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR1_2lFXJI4

• Jonathan Reed – “The Lost Generation” (Palindrome)• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z92HQkRmhlc

• Maya Angelou – “Still I Rise” • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXCHKWFmU2s

Figurative Language

• Figurative Language • Language that can not

be taken literally; words or phases that describe one thing in terms of another.

Figurative Language

• Simile• A comparison of two

unlike things using the words “like” or “as”

• Example: She is like a rose.

• Metaphor • A comparison of two

unlike things without using like or as.

• She is a rose.

Figurative Language

• Personification • Giving human qualities to

something that is not human

• Example: They say the house died.

• Hyperbole • An exaggeration done for

effect• Example: My teacher gave

me a million pages to read for homework!

Types of poems• Lyric Poetry

• Poems that express an author’s thoughts and feelings; they do not tell a story.

• Example: “The Way It Is”

• Free Verse• Poetry that does not have regular rhythm or rhyme

scheme• Example: “Medicine”

Types of Poems

• Ode• A long, elaborate poem dealing with a serious subject

and treating it reverently **written or dedicated to a specific subject**

• Example: “Ode to Autumn”

Types of Poems

• Sonnet• A 14 line poem

written in iambic

pentameter that

has a rhyme Scheme

Example: Sonnet 18

Types of poems

• Elegy • Poem that laments the

death of a person; sad and thoughtful

• Ballad • A poem that tells a story;

usually very long; imitating folk ballads

• Example: Ballad of Birmingham

Sound Devices

• Rhyme Scheme• The pattern of rhymes used in a poem; usually marked

by letters to correspond to the rhyme.

Little Bo Peep A

Has lost her sheep A

And she doesn’t know where to find them B

Sound Devices

• Rhythm• The ordered or free occurrences of sound in poetry.

• Meter• A unit of rhythm in poetry; the pattern of the beats.• Example: Iambic Pentameter

Sound Devices

• Alliteration• Repetition of initial sounds

of words in a row• Example: Peter piper

picked a peck of pickled peppers

• Assonance• A similarity of vowel

sounds inside of words in a line of poetry

• Example: We went on a wild ride.

Sound Devices• Consonance

• Repetition of internal or ending consonant sounds of words close together

• Example: The locket was in the thick mud, and I had to pick it out.

• Onomatopoeia• Words that sounds like

sounds.• Example: bang, honk, drip

Sound Devices

• Repetition• The repeating of a word or a phrase of a poem to create

a sense of rhythm • Example: “His laugh, his smile, his eyes, his sparkle”

• Approximate/ Slant Rhyme• Not a perfect rhyme. • Example: “Near” and “Bear”

Sound Devices

• Couplet• Two lines of poetry that have an end rhyme. • Example: Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight.

For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

Other

• Speaker• The narrator in a poem

• Stanza• Divisions of a poem;

paragraphs of a poem

Other

• Tone• The speaker’s attitude

towards a subject.

• Imagery• Language that appeals to the

senses; paints a picture in the reader’s mind

• Example: One bite of the sour lemon caused my lips to pucker.