Poetry Terminology

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Poetry Terminology

• We will make a flip chart for
• our poetry terms!

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Alliteration

• Definition The repetition of consonant sounds at
  the beginning of words or within words
• Ex) All day within the dreamy dwelling
• The doors darkened with dew.

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• Notice the alliteration in the following poems
• Daddy's Gone A Hunting by Mother Goose
• Bye, baby bunting,Daddy's gone a -
  hunting,Gone to get a rabbit skinTo wrap baby
  bunting in.
• Dancing Dolphins by Paul McCann Those
  tidal thoroughbreds that tango through the
  turquoise tide.Their taut tails thrashing they
  twist in tribute to the titans. They twirl
  through the trektumbling towards the tide .
  Throwing themselves towards those theatrical
  thespians.

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Onomatopoeia

• Definition The use of words whose sounds imitate
  or suggest their meaning.
• Ex) Buzz, boom, tick tock

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Assonance

• Repetition of vowel sounds in words that dont
  end with the same consonant.
• Example Try to light the fire.
• Hayden plays a lot.

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Personification

• Definition A figure of speech in which an object
  or animal is spoken of as if it had human
  thoughts, feelings, or attitudes.
• Slowly, silently, now the moon
• Walks the night in her silver shoon
• This way and that, she peers and sees
• Silver fruit upon silver trees

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Free Verse

• Definition Poetry that breaks the rules
  because it does not contain regular pattern of
  rhythm or rhyme.
• But that doesnt necessarily mean that anything
  goes, because some poets like to make their
  lines rhythmic.
• One way they do that is by repeating sentence
  patterns. One example is Walt Whitmans poem,
  Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun.

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from Give me the Splendid, Silent Sun

• Give me the splendid silent sun with all his
  beams full-dazzling,
• Give me juicy autumnal fruit ripe and red from
  the orchard,
• Give me a field where the unmowed grass grows,
• Give me an arbor, give me the trellised grape

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Repetition

• When the author repeats a word or phrase to
  emphasize it in the poem.

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Speaker

• Just as a story has a narrator, a poem has a
  voice that talks to readers. This voice, or
  speaker, is sometimes a fictional character
  rather than the poet.
• Page 604

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Hyperbole

• An exaggerated statement used especially as a
  figure of speech to heighten effect.
• There was a young lady from Lynn
• Who was so exceedingly thin
• That when she essayed
• To drink lemonade
• She slid down the straw and fell in.
• Lets look at Cremation of Sam McGee pg. 637
  for more hyperbole.

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Imagery

• Language that appeals to one or more of your
  senses- sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch
• A quarter horse, no rider
• canters through the pasture
• thistles raise soft purple burrs
• her flanks are shiny in the sun

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Symbol

• A person, a place, a thing, or an event that has
  meaning in itself and stands for something beyond
  itself as well
• Ex) The American eagle stands for freedom.
• Lets read The New Colossus pg. 493 of you
  Literature book.

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Metaphor

• Definition an imaginative comparison between two
  unlike things in which one thing is said to be
  like another- does not include the word like or
  as
• Ex) Fog rubbing its back on windows
• makes a sudden leap and curls
• around the house to fall asleep
• By using words that we associate with a cats
  behavior, the author, Eliot, suggests a
  comparison without stating, The fog is a cat.

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Metaphor (cont)

• Ex) Computers are the vehicles for tomorrow
• Ex) The parks are the lungs of London.
• Ex) My heart is a lonely hunter.

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Meter

• The PATTERN of stressed and unstressed
  syllables/beats in spoken or written language

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Extended Metaphor

• A metaphor that extends over several lines,
  stanzas, or an entire poem

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Rhyme

• The repetition of vowel sounds and all the sounds
  following them in words that are close together
  in the poem.

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Stanza

• A group of consecutive lines in a poem that form
  a single unit
• The stanzas work together to convey the overall
  message of the poem

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Rhythm

• A musical quality produced by the pattern of
  stresses of beats in spoken or written language

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Simile

• Definition A comparison between two unlike
  things using a word such as like, as, than, or
  resembles.
• Example The steak is tougher than an old shoe.
• Example My mom is as old as a Civil War soldier.
• Example The cat is soft like peach fuzz.