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Poetry Terms
General Elements
Figurative Language
Sound Devices
Forms of Poetry
Types of Poetry
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Elements: Stanza
Formal division of lines in a
poem
Considered a unit
Separated by spaces
Couplets: two lines
Quatrains: four lines
3
Speaker
Imaginary voice assumed by poet
Often not identified by name
May be person, animal, thing, or
abstraction
E.g.: Dickinson as dead person:
“Because I could not stop for
Death-He kindly stopped for me-”
4
Tone
Writer’s attitude to
audience and subject
E.g.: formal or informal
serious, playful, pompous
bitter, ironic, personal
sympathetic, friendly
grieving, sarcastic, harsh
5
Allusion
Reference to well-known person,
place, event, literary work, or art
Usually to the Bible or to
mythology
E.g.: “The Magi . . . were wise men
. . . who brought gifts to the Babe
in the manger.”
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Connotation
Ideas or meanings associated with
a word (in addition to dictionary
definition)
E.g.: “caged bird” = sad, trapped
creature
“previously owned vehicle” = used car
“vacation spot” = lake
Compare: fragrance, smell, stench
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Denotation
Dictionary definition of a word
Independent of other associations
(connotations)
E.g.: lake
Denotation: inland body of water
Connotation: vacation or fishing spot
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Paradox
Statement that seems
contradictory but may be true
Surprising, catches reader’s
attention
E.g.: “Youth is wasted on the young.”
“The more things change, the
more they stay the same.”
9
Symbol
Object has own meaning but also
represents abstract idea
Stands for something else
E.g.:
Flag symbolizes country
Scarlet ibis symbolizes Doodle and
other people who struggle
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Figurative Language
Writing not meant to interpret literally
Compares dissimilar things
Creates vivid impressions
Metaphors, similes, personifications
E.g.:
“My black eyes are coals burning
Like a low, full jungle moon
Through the darkness of being”
11
Fig Lang: Metaphor
Figure of speech
A comparison
One thing spoken of as if
it is something else
E.g.: “Poetry is a river.”
“The sky is a patchwork quilt.”
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Fig Lang: Simile
Figure of speech, comparison
Uses like or as to compare
two unlike ideas
E.g.:
“The morning sun is like a red
rubber ball.”
“Does it dry up, like a raisin in the
sun?”
13
Fig Lang: Imagery
Descriptive or figurative language
Creates word pictures (images)
Details of sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, or movement
E.g.: “ghostly marching on pavement
stones”
“wind-tanned skin”
“wise black pools”
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Fig Lang: Personification Figurative language
Nonhuman subject given human
characteristics
E.g.: “The wind danced in the trees.”
Daffodils “tossing their heads in sprightly
dance”
Storm “tosses her hair, throws back her
head, and closes her eyes”
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Fig Lang: Extended Metaphor
Writing about a subject as if it were
something else
Comparison several lines long or
entire poem
E.g.: “caged bird” becomes
person who is not free
“broken-winged bird that cannot fly”
becomes life without a dream
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Fig Lang: Sensory Words/Lang
Writing that appeals to the senses -
images
Provides details related to senses
E.g.: feeling the sun beating
down on one’s head
Sound Devices: Onomatopoeia
Words that imitate sounds
E.g.: murmur, thud, sizzle, hiss,
buzz, bang, pop, cuckoo
E.g.: Poe’s “Bells”
“Of the bells, bells, bells, bells”
ringing, chiming, jangling,
rangling, clang, clash, roar”
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Sound Devices: Assonance
Repetition of vowel sounds
followed by different consonants in
2 or more stressed syllables
E.g.: “weak and weary”
“child of silence”
“so rolling…a stone”
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Sound Devices: Alliteration
Repetition of initial consonant sounds
Emphasizes words, imitates sounds, creates musical effects
E.g.: “I grew like a thin, stubborn weed, watering myself whatever way I could.”
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary.”
“The fair breeze blew, the white foam
flew.”
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Sound Devices: Rhyme Repetition of sounds at ends of words
End rhyme vs. internal rhyme
E.g.: “Swans sing before they die—’twere no bad thing
Should certain persons die before they sing.” (end)
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.”
(internal)
Exact rhyme vs. slant rhyme (slant rhyme – similar but
not identical sounds)
E.g.: ball and hall (exact)
hold and bald (slant)
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Sound Devices: Repetition Use of any language element – a sound,
word, phrase, clause, or sentence –
more than once
Used for musical effects and for
emphasis
E.g.:
Alliteration, assonance, rhyme, rhythm
repeat sounds
Refrain repeats line/s
“You liked winning…You liked
writing…You liked all the faces…”
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Sound Devices: Refrain Regularly repeated line
or group of lines
In music: a chorus
E.g.: Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”
“Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one
like Macavity.”
23
Sound Devices: Rhythm Pattern of beats or stresses
Some poems have a specific pattern or
meter
E.g.:
“There was a young lady named bright
Whose speed was far faster than light;”
Prose and free verse use natural
rhythms of everyday speech
24
Forms of Poetry: Fixed Form
Stanzas have repeated or predictable patterns
Words in each stanza may rhyme or sound alike
Length and rhythm of stanzas are related
Number of syllables in line may be fixed
25
Forms of Poetry: Free Form or Free Verse
Lacks structure or pattern
Words may not rhyme
Lines do not match in number of
syllables, length, or rhythm
Types of Poetry: Sonnet
14-line lyric poem
Formal patterns of rhyme, rhythm
and line structure
Two types:
English, or Shakespearean
(3 quatrains + couplet)
Italian, or Petrarchan
(octave + sestet)26
27
Types of Poetry: Haiku 3-line verse form
1st and 3rd lines: 5 syllables (?)
2nd line: 7 syllables (?)
Single vivid emotion
Images from nature
E.g.: Basho:
“furu-ike ya “An old pond
kawazu tobi-komu A frog jumps in
Mizu-no-oto” The sound of water”
28
Types of Poetry: Lyric Poem
Brief poem
Musical verse: uses rhythm,
alliteration, and rhyme
Observations and feelings of
one speaker
Sung with lyre in ancient times
29
Types of Poetry: Narrative Poem
Tells a story in verse
May be an epic or a ballad
E.g.:
“Casey at the Bat”: humorous
narrative poem
Poe’s “Raven”: serious narrative
poem
30
Types of Poetry: Ballad
Songlike poem that tells a story
Often adventure and romance
Most written in 4 to 6-line stanzas,
regular rhythms and rhyme
schemes, often a refrain
31
Types of Poetry: Limerick
Humorous, rhyming, five-line poem
Specific meter and rhyme scheme
E.g.: Edward Lear:
“There was an Old Person whose habits,
Induced him to feed upon rabbits;
When he'd eaten eighteen,
He turned perfectly green,
Upon which he relinquished those habits.”
32
Types of Poetry: Concrete Poem
Poem with shape that suggests
subject
. .
.
t
e
a
r
s
33
Types of Poetry: Dramatic Poem
Uses techniques of drama
Writer tells a story
Character’s own thoughts/words
E.g.: Poe’s “Raven” uses dramatic
dialogue
Dramatic monologue: 1 person
speaks to silent listener