Every aspect of a poem– including line, white space, and language – is purposeful and creates the overall effect of the poem.
Poets say more with less words.
The poet paints images with words for the reader.
These images help the reader to visualize the poem.
Figurative Language
Sensory Details
Tools for Imagery
Painting images with the five senses:
Those Winter Sundays
Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Let’s look at the sensory details in
beginning of “Those Winter
Sundays”
Painting images with comparisons.
You should be familiar with these comparisons as metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, and more.
Comparisons using like or as.
› The river is peaceful, like a sleeping newborn.
› The river is as peaceful as a sleeping newborn.
FogCarl Sandburg
The fog comes on little cat
feet. It sits looking over harbor and
city on silent haunches and then
moves on.
How are metaphors used
in the poem, “Fog”
Direct comparisons that do NOT use like
or as.
“It is the
East, and
Juliet is the
sun!”
“Oh, bright angel, speak
again!”
Romeo, “Romeo and Juliet”, William Shakespeare
Comparison made by giving human traits to non-human things.
the clock’s hands the table’s legs
The Vacuum
The house is quiet now
The vacuum cleaner sulks in the corner closet,
Its bag limp as a stopped lung, its mouth
Grinning into the floor, maybe at my
Slovenly life, my dog-dead youth.
I’ve lived this way long enough,
But when my old woman died her soul
Went into that vacuum cleaner, and I can’t bear
To see the bag swell like a belly, eating the dust
And the woolen mice, and begin to howl
How does Howard Nemerov
personify a vacuum in the
beginning of this poem?
Comparisons using exaggeration, usually with humor
Written words that are comparable to sounds
Wind SongBy Lilian Moore
When the wind blows the quiet things speak.Some whisper, some clang, some creak.
Grasses swish. Treetops sigh.Flags slap and snap at the sky.
Any type of writing must have something to hold it together and give it shape.
Form is the term used to describe the poem’s structure.
FormsTechniques
Tools for Structure
A stanza in poetry is like a paragraph in prose.
The author organizes the poem by grouping lines into 1 or more stanzas.
Stanzas are named by the number of lines they contain:› 2 lines = couplet 3 lines = tercet› 4 lines = quatrain 5 lines = cinquain› 6 lines = sestet 8 lines = octave
Rhythm is the beat of a poem.
It is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.
› I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
Exact rhyme words have the exact same ending sounds, like cat and hat
Slant rhyme words sound similar, but aren’t exact, like one and down.
There was an old man from Peru, da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
who dreamed he was eating his shoe. da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
He awoke in the nightda da DUM da da DUM
with a terrible fright, da da DUM da da DUM
and found that it all was quite true. da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
Let’s look at the following limerick and see if we can
identify the rhythmic and
rhyming pattern
Practice…A
A
B
B
A
We Real Coolby Gwendolyn Brooks
THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool. WeLeft school. We
Lurk late. WeStrike straight. We
Sing sin. WeThin gin. We
Jazz June. WeDie soon.
Repetition of initial consonant sounds in a poem is called alliteration.› Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
Repetition of other consonant sounds is called consonance.› All mammals named Sam are clammy
Repetition of vowel sounds is called assonance.› Hear the mellow wedding bells
FogCarl Sandburg
The fog comes on little cat
feet. It sits looking over harbor and
city on silent haunches and then
moves on.
How is repetition used in the poem,
“Fog”?
1. Read it once silently and again aloud. What do you think is happening in the poem? Jot down your first impressions.
2. Read again slowly. What elements of poetry can you find (sensory detail, figurative language, structure techniques and form)? Mark your text! What new ideas are your getting about the poem’s meaning?
3. Read it again with new awareness of the poet’s craft. What’s the big idea? What do you think he/she is trying to express about life? What questions do you have?
Analyze this poem
using the close reading
steps on the previous slide.
Fueledby a millionman-madewings of fire-the rocket tore a tunnelthrough the sky-and everybody cheered,Fueledonly by a thought from God-the seedlingurged its way through the thickness of black-and as it piercedthe ceiling of the soil-and launched itselfup into outer space-nooneevenclapped
FueledBy Marcie Hans