Elements of Poetry

1
Elements of Poetry

• Notes

2
Alliteration

• The repetition of the same consonant sound at the
  beginnings of several words of a line of poetry
  as a sentence.
• The tool in which poets use to create music in
  poetry.
• There will come soft rain and the smell of the
  ground,
• And swallows calling with their shimmering
  sound.
• (Sara Teasdale)

3
Allusion

• A reference to something with which the reader is
  likely to be familiar, such as a person, place,
  or event from history or literature.
• Allusions add extra layers of meaning and make
  poems richer.
• She drank from a bottle called DRINK ME
• And up she grew so tall,
• She ate from a plate called TASTE ME
• And down she shrank so small. (Shel
  Silverstein)

4
Exaggeration or Hyperbole

• The obvious stretching of the truth.
• Poets Sometimes have to stretch the truth to get
  their point across or to make people laugh.
• Red, black or orange,
• Yellow or white,
• We all look the same
• When we turn off the light.
• So maybe the way
• To make everything right
• Is for God to just reach out
• And turn off the light.
• (Shel Silverstein)

5
Free Verse

• Poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme,
  meter, or form.
• Poets use free verse to create lines as short as
  a breath, to make a reader stop and pause, and to
  create musical sounds and phrases.
• Let the rain kiss you.
• Let the rain beat upon your head with silver
  liquid drops.
• Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
• And I love the rain.
• (Langston Hughes)

6
Idiom

• Common phrases made up of words that cant be
  understood by their literal, or ordinary,
  meanings.
• Raining cats and dogs -- raining very hard
• Lay it on thick -- exaggerate
• Pass the buck give someone else the blame
• Poets use idioms to reflect the way people talk
  in everyday life.
• Please swallow your pride if I have things things
  you need to borrow,
• For no one can fill those of your needs that you
  wont let show.
• (Bill WHilhere)

7
Imagery

• Language that appeals to the five senses, touch,
  taste, smell, hearing, and sight.
• Poets use imagery to present objects, express
  ideas, or describe feelings and scenes. Imagery
  creates pictures in your mind that will stir your
  emotions.
• Im the sailor and the sail
• Im the driver and the wheel
• Im the one and only engine human auto mobile.
• (Lillian Morrison)

8
Lyric Poems

• A short poem that directly expresses the poets
  thoughts and emotions in a musical way.
• O my luve is like a red, red, rose,
• Thats newly sprung in June.
• O. My luve is like the melodie,
• Thats sweetly playd in tune.
• (Robert Brune)

9
Metaphor

• A direct comparison between two unlike things,
  without using like or as.
• The fog comes
• on little cat feet
• It sits looking
• over harbor and city
• on silent haunches
• and then moves on.
• (Carl Sandburg)

10
Mood

• The feeling created in the reader by a poem or
  story. Words, phrases, repetition, rhyme, and
  exaggeration all work together to create mood.
• It may be dark and mysterious for a scary poem or
  cheerful and peaceful for a poem about a Spring
  day.
• Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered,
  weak and weary,
• Over many a quaint and curious volume of
  forgotten lore,
• While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there
  came a tapping.

11
Narrative Poems

• A poem that tells a story. They will have all
  the elements of a short story character,
  setting, conflict, and plot.

12
Onomatopoeia

• The use of words that sound like the noises they
  decribe. Words like hiss, bang, and buss are
  powerful.
• Writers use onomatopoeia to add a little fun and
  power to the words they use.
• Susies galoshes
• Make splishes and sploshes
• And slooshes and sloshes
• As Susie steps slowly
• Along in the slush
• (Rhoda Bacmister)

13
Personification

• Type of figurative language in which writers give
  an animal, object, or idea human qualities, such
  as the ability to hear, feel, talk, and make
  decisions.
• Writers use personification to emphasize
  something in a new way or to make it stand out.
• Summer grass aches and whispers
• It wants something it calls and sings it pours
• out wishes to the overhead stars.
• The rain hears the rain answers the rain is
  slow coming
• the rain wets the face of the grass.

14
Repetition

• Means to repeat something. It is the use of any
  element of language -- a sound, word, phrase or
  sentence used more than once.
• Helps add a sense of rhythm to poem
• Creates suspense or adds humor or music
• Emphasizes meaning

15
Rhyme

• The repetition of similar sounds. End rhyme is
  the repetition of similar sounds at the end of
  the lines of poetry.
• Rhyme adds a musical quality to poetry.
• There are three common schemes.
• Couplets two-line poems that match in rhyme and
  length
• Triplets three-line poems that often rhyme
• Quantrains four line poems that rhyme.

16
Rhyme Scheme

• The rhyming sounds at the end of each line of
  poetry. The first one is represented by a lower
  case a, the next by b, the third by c, and
  so on.
• Some people wish their lives away a
• And some people say, If only I would b
• Some endlessly, ceaselessly play a
• And some people never do what they could. b

17
Simile

• A comparison between two unlike things using the
  words like and as.
• Writers can create a strong memorable image and
  uncover similarities between things that may
  otherwise go unnoticed.
• The willow is like and etching
• Fine-lines against the sky.
• The ginkgo is like a crude sketch,
• Hardly worthy to be signed.

18
Form, Lines, Stanzas

• Form The way a poem is arranged on a page
• Lines - Poems are made up of lines which may or
  may not be sentences.
• Stanza - A group of lines in a poem set off by
  blank lines. It usually develops one idea.
  Something like a paragraph in a prose.
• A man of words and not of deeds
• Is like a garden full of weeds
• Rain , rain, go away
• Come again another day

19
Symbol

• Something that stands for something else.
• A symbol is always itself, but it also suggests
  another means.
• This is my rock,
• And here I run
• To steal the secret of the sun
• This is my rock,
• And here come I
• Before the night has swept the sky
• Rock represents something solid, safe and strong.
• Night represents darkness, even our fears.

20
Tone and Voice

• Tone The attitude the writer takes toward the
  audience, the subject, or a character.
• Voice or speaker is the character or
  perspective that is taken on by a writer or poet.