Poetic%20Terminology

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Poetic Terminology
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What is Poetry?

• Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that
  burn. Thomas Gray
• Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought
  and the thought has found words. Robert Frost

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Sound Devices

• Assonance The repetition of vowel sounds at any
  place in a series of words
• Do you like blue?
• Well he seemed so low that I couldnt say no
  Robert Service (The Cremation of Sam McGee, pg.
  709)

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Sound Devices cont.

• Alliteration The repetition of a consonant sound
  at the beginning of a series of words
• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
• Rain races, ripping like wind. Its restless rage
  rattles like rocks ripping through the air.
• A fly and a flea flew up in a flue.
• Said the fly to the flea, What shall we do?
• Lets fly, said the flea.
• Lets flee, said the fly.
• So they fluttered and flew up a flaw in the
  flue.

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Sound Devices cont.

• Consonance The repetition of a consonant sound
  at any place in a series of words.
• I dropped the locket in the thick mud.
• Eric liked the book
• And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each
  purple curtain. Edgar Allen Poe

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Sound Device cont.

• Onomatopoeia The use of words whose sound makes
  one think of its meaning
• Wham! Bonk!
• Ding-dong
• Cuckoo
• Tick-tock
• snap, crackle, pop

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Figurative Language

• Simile A comparison of two nouns using the words
  like or as
• My love for you is like a red, red rose
• Metaphor A comparison of two nouns saying that
  one thing is another
• All the world is a stage
• Idiom An idiom is a word or phrase which means
  something different from its literal meaning. Idio
  ms are common phrases or terms whose meaning is
  not real, but can be understood by their popular
  use.
• Easy as pie
• Chip off the old block

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Figurative Language cont.

• Hyperbole Extreme exaggeration
• The books weigh a ton.
• I could sleep for a year.
• I have a million things to do.
• Personification When a non-human object has been
  given qualities of a person
• The wind whispered through the trees
• The moon danced on the water
• Oreo Milks favorite cookie.

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Figurative Language cont.

• Euphemism the substitution of a mild or pleasant
  expression for one that is too strong or
  unpleasant
• Passed away instead of died
• Correctional facility instead of jail
• Letting someone go instead of firing

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Figurative Language cont.

• Oxymoron a figure of speech in which apparently
  contradictory terms appear in conjunction 
• Jumbo shrimp
• Original copy
• Clearly confused

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Figurative Language cont.

• Symbol a person, place, thing, or event that
  stands for itself and for something beyond itself
  as well.
• Examples the American flag symbolizes freedom,
  liberty, and love for America.
• A wedding band symbolizes_______.
• A white flag symbolizes__________.

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Figurative Language cont.

• Prominent Symbols in Literature
• The Four Seasons
• Spring birth, rebirth, new beginnings, new life,
  etc.
• Summer the prime of life, youthful, energetic,
  growing
• Fall the decline, the approach of death, getting
  old
• Winter death, the end of life, something comes
  to an end
• Day life, goodness, knowledge, honesty,
  happiness, energy, purity, positive, light,
  understanding, clarity
• Night death, evil, darkness, mystery, bad, the
  end, scary, uninformed, unknown

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Figurative Language cont.

• Prominent Symbols in Literature cont.
• The Cycle of Life
• Dawn new beginning, birth, rebirth
• Dusk approach of the end, unknown
• Paths/Roads journey, lifes journey, choices,
  obstacles
• Bridges movement from one place to another
  symbolically
• Water gives and takes life, thought to be the
  source of first life, rebirth
• Earth mother, life giving, fertility
• Gardens fertility, life giving
• Rocks/Doors/Weather obstacles, problems (could
  be good or bad)

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Rhyme

• End Rhyme Rhyme that appears at the end of two
  or more lines of poetry
• I would not, could not, in a box.
• I could not, would not, with a fox.
• I will not eat them with a mouse.
• I will not eat them in a house.
• I will not eat them here or there.
• I will not eat them anywhere.
• I do not eat green eggs and ham.
• I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

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Rhyme Scheme

• Uses the letters of the alphabet to represent
  sounds to be able to visually see the pattern
• Are labeled according to their rhyme sounds
  (aabbcc)
• 1st rhyme sound in a poem is a and each time
  the 1st rhyme sound is heard, it is a
• 2nd rhyme sound in a poem is b and each time
  the 2nd rhyme sound is heard, it is b
• The pattern continues with c, d, etc.

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Rhyme

• Internal Rhyme The rhyming of words within one
  line of poetry
• 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...

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Rhythm

• Repetition The repeating of a word or phrase to
  add rhythm or to emphasize an idea
• And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go
  before I sleep. Robert Frost, Stopping By
  Woods on a Snowy Evening
• The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the
  purple moor, And the highwayman came riding-
  Riding-riding- The highwayman came riding, up to
  the old inn-door. Alfred Noyes, The
  Highwayman

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Form
a unit of meaning (1 word, a phrase, or even a
sentence)

• Line

Stanza
lines that are grouped together (usually each
has the same number of lines). A division in a
poem named for the number of lines it contains,
such as a couplet (2 lines), triplet (3 lines),
quatrain (4 lines), and octave (8 lines)
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Literal vs. Figurative

• Literal language means exactly what it says,
  while figurative language uses similes,
  metaphors, hyperbole, personification, etc. to
  describe something often through comparison with
  something different.

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Literal
Im tired and Im going home.
This means Im tired and Im going home. There
is no other meaning other than what is said.
It means exactly what is stated.
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Figurative

• To be figurative is to not mean what you say but
  to imply something else.

For example If I tell you, Youre the apple
of my eye
Im not saying that you are a piece of fruit in
my eye.
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Types of PoetryHaiku

• A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem
  with seventeen syllables total.
• It is written in a 5/7/5 syllable count.
• Often focusing on images from nature, haiku
  emphasizes simplicity, intensity, and directness
  of expression.
• Line 1 5 syllables
• Line 2 7 syllables
• Line 3 5 syllables

An old silent pond... A frog jumps into the
pond, splash! Silence again.
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Limerick

• Composed of five lines, the limerick adheres to a
  strict rhyme scheme and bouncy rhythm, making it
  easy to memorize.
• Typically, the first two lines rhyme with each
  other, the third and fourth rhyme together, and
  the fifth line either repeats the first line or
  rhymes with it. 

Rhyme Scheme aabba
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Ode

• An ode is a poem that is about one specific thing
  that you think is truly amazing and praiseworthy.
  
• This type of poem can be centered upon a person,
  an object, or something abstract like a feeling
  or an idea.

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Ode to Olives

• Oh Olive,You are as precious to me as any
  gem,With your beautiful, pure skin as smooth as
  silkAnd as green as the grass in summertime.I
  love your taste and the smell of your tender
  fruitWhich hides beneath your green
  armor.Olive, sweet, tasty Olive,How I love you
  so and my mealtimes wouldn't be the sameIf you
  weren't in my life.Oh Olive,Nothing can compare
  to you, nothing at all,You are food of the gods,
  a king's richesAnd, most importantly, you are
  mine, oh Olive!

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Elegy

• A poem of serious reflection, typically a lament
  for the dead.
• Towards the end the poet generally tries to
  provide comfort to ease the pain of the situation
•  The strongest of the tools elegy uses is its
  reliance on memories of those who are no more.

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Bread and Music

• Music I heard with you was more than music, And
  bread I broke with you was more than bread Now
  that I am without you, all is desolate All that
  was once so beautiful is dead. Your hands once
  touched this table and this silver, And I have
  seen your fingers hold this glass. These things
  do not remember you, belovèd, And yet your touch
  upon them will not pass. For it was in my heart
  you moved among them, And blessed them with your
  hands and with your eyes And in my heart they
  will remember always,They knew you once, O
  beautiful and wise.

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Cinquain

• The cinquain, also known as a quintain or
  quintet, is a poem or stanza composed of five
  lines. 
• Two main types
• American cinquain The most common cinquains in
  English follow a rhyme scheme of ababb, abaab or a
  bccb. 

To Helen     Helen, thy beauty is to
me          Like those Nicean barks of
yore,     That gently, oer a perfumed
sea,          The weary, way-worn wanderer
bore          To his own native shore.
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Cinquain

• Didactic Cinquain
• The first line is a one-word title, the subject
  of the poem
• The second line is a pair of adjectives
  describing that title
• The third line is a three-word phrase that gives
  more information about the subject (often a list
  of three gerunds)
• The fourth line consists of four words describing
  feelings related to that subject
• Fifth line is a single word synonym or other
  reference for the subject from line one. 

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Cinquain

• SnowSilent, whiteDancing, falling,
  driftingCovering everything it touchesBlanket

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Free Verse

• Written without any set rhyme or rhythm
• Is very conversational sounds like someone
  talking with you
• Some do not use punctuation or capitalization, or
  other ways of breaking the rules of grammar.
• A more modern type of poetry
• Use your senses when writing

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e.e. cummings
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Acrostic

• type of poetry where the first, last or other
  letters in a line spell out a particular word or
  phrase.
• The most common and simple form of an acrostic
  poem is where the first letters of each line
  spell out the word or phrase.

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Acrostic (beginning of line)
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Acrostic (end of line)
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Acrostic (middle of line)
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Shakespearean Sonnet

• Poem of expressive of thought, emotion or idea.
• It is 14 lines long which are formed by
  three quatrains (4 lines) with a rhyming
  couplet for the last two lines
• Each line is 10 syllables long.
• Lines containing 10 syllables each are called
  IAMBIC PENTAMETER

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Shakespearean Sonnet