Poetry

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Poetry

• Figurative Language
• Sound Devices

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Figurative Language

• Whenever you describe something by comparing it
  with something else, you are using figurative
  language. Any language that goes beyond the
  literal meaning of words in order to furnish new
  effects or fresh insights into an idea or a
  subject.
• The most common figures of speech are simile,
  metaphor, and alliteration.

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Imagery

• Language that appeals to the senses. Descriptions
  of people or objects stated in terms of our
  senses

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Simile

• A figure of speech which involves a direct
  comparison between two unlike things, usually
  with the words like or as.
• Example The muscles on his brawny arms are
  strong as iron bands.

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Silly Similes

• She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that
  sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
• She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli,
  and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

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More Silly Similes

• Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair
  after a sneeze.
• He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought
  he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck
  backing up.

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Metaphor

• A figure of speech which involves an implied
  comparison between two relatively unlike things
  using a form of be. The comparison is not
  announced by like or as.
• Example The road was a ribbon of moonlight.

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Implied Metaphor

• Comparison is not directly stated
• When your face came rising
• Implied that her face is the sun

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Extended Metaphor

• The comparison goes on for many lines, more than
  one basis of comparison
• Poem When Your Face Came Rising
• The entire poem is based around the comparison
  that his loves face is the sun

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PERSONA

• Speaker in the poem
• To Satch Satchal Paige was speaking persona
• Written in dialect gonna

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Alliteration

• Repeated consonant sounds occurring at the
  beginning of words or within words. Alliteration
  is used to create melody, establish mood, call
  attention to important words, and point out
  similarities and contrasts.
• Example wide-eyed and wondering while we wait
  for others to waken.

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Personification

• A figure of speech which gives the qualities of a
  person to an animal, an object, or an idea. It is
  a comparison which the author uses to show
  something in an entirely new light, to
  communicate a certain feeling or attitude towards
  it and to control the way a reader perceives it.
• Example a brave handsome brute fell with a
  creaking rending cry--the author is giving a tree
  human qualities.

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Onomatopoeia

• The use of words that mimic sounds. They appeal
  to our sense of hearing and they help bring a
  description to life. A string of syllables the
  author has made up to represent the way a sound
  really sounds.
• Example Caarackle!

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Hyperbole

• An exaggerated statement used to heighten effect.
  It is not used to mislead the reader, but to
  emphasize a point.
• Example Shes said so on several million
  occasions

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Paradox

• Something that at first seems to contradict
  itself A puzzle
•  "A little learning is a dangerous thing."
• (This line from Alexander Pope requires a bit of
  thought to realize the key word is "little". Pope
  wants us to learn all we can.)

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ALLUSION

•  A cross reference to another work of art
•  "My boyfriend dances like King Kong.
• Eldorado he will find Eldorado in the valley
  of the shadow allusion to 23rd psalm in Bible
  he will find Eldorado in death The valley of the
  shadow of death.

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Irony

• speaker or writer says one thing but wants you to
  understand something different, they are being
  ironic.
• Sometimes the implied meaning is the opposite of
  the words being used, or the person could be
  trying to be rude, even though the words used are
  seemingly polite etc.
• Example of irony
• Your friend turns up in ripped jeans. With a
  smirk, you say, "I see you have put on your best
  clothes!"

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Symbolism

•  Something represents a completely different
  thing or idea.
• Often more emotional than the actual object
  represented. Example the flag as a symbol of
  America
• Mighty Lion LHS

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Meaning of a poemMay be read on many levels

• The Pasture          by Robert Frost     
• I'm going out to clean the pasture spring 
      I'll only stop to rake the leaves away     
  (And wait to watch the water clear, I may)     
  I shan't be gone long. -- You come too. 
•     I'm going out to fetch the little calf     
  That's standing by the mother. It's so young, 
      It totters when she licks it with her
  tongue.      I shan't be gone long. -- You come
  too.   

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The Pasture

• LITERAL MEANING The author cleans a pond and
  gets a calf and wants you to join him

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The Pasture

• FIGURATIVE MEANING   I'm going to see beauty and
  I want to share it with you.
• METAPHORICAL MEANING Robert Frost is defining
  the nature of art. All artists, good or bad,
  working in any medium, are trying to share the
  beauty they see, hear, or feel, with an audience.

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Ogden Nash's famous short poem

• I?
• Why?
• Poems poetry cannot be defined easily. Poetry
  is a medium of images emotion.