The Elements of Poetry

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The Elements of Poetry
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Simile

• A comparison using like or as
• Mary is like a red rose.

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Metaphor

• A direct comparison between two seemingly unlike
  objects
• The road was a ribbon of shimmering moonlight

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Personification

• Giving human characteristics to non living
  objects
• The car crept down the street.

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Hyperbole

• An exaggeration
• My father is as tall as a mountain.
• My dog eats mailmen for lunch.

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Imagery

• Words or phrases that appeal to the 5 senses
• Painting pictures with words

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Repetition

• Repeating words, phrases or lines
• I Have a Dream

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Onomatopoeia

• Words sound like what they mean
• OUCH!
• Bang
• boom

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Alliteration

• The repetition of beginning consonant sounds
• Fragrant and flowers
• Dog days
• Hot and Heavy
• Short and Sweet

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Assonance

• Repetition of similar vowel sounds that are
  followed by different consonant sounds
• Examples
• base fade
• young love

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Speaker

• The voice of the poem
• Who is talking in the poem
• This is usually not the poet.
• It sometimes is a narrator.

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Stanza

• Poems are arranged in stanzas.
• Stanzas are the grouping of lines in a poem.
• Stanzas look like paragraphs, but they are not.

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Lines

• In poetry, lines are often phrases or single
  words.
• Lines are usually not complete sentences.

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Rhyme

• Repetition of sounds in words
• End rhyme- occurs at the ends of lines
• If you will tell me why the fen
• Appears impassable, I then
• Internal rhyme- occurs in the middle of a line
• Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered,
  weak and weary.

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Rhythm

• The beat of the poem

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Theme

• The meaning, or main idea, that the poem reveals
  or suggests.
• Examples
• life, death, love, happiness, or anger.

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Form

• Form- the way the poem looks on the page.
• Examples - xxxxxxx
• xxxx xxxx xxxxxxx
• xxxx xxxx
• xxxx xxxx xxxxxxx
• xxxx xxxx xxxxxxx

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Poet

• The writer of the poem.
• May also be called the author.