THE LANGUAGE OF POETRY

English 9 Academic

2012

Ms. Brooks

LYRIC POEM Express the speakers emotions or

thoughts Does NOT tell a story Most will be short

FREE VERSE Poetry that does not have a regular

meter or line scheme. Poets use free verse in order to capture

the natural rhythms of ordinary speech

HAIKU A 3 line poem with 17 syllables

Lines 1 & 3 have 5 syllables eachLine 2 has 7 syllables

A haiku usually contrasts 2 images from nature or daily life.

SONNET A 14 line lyric poem They are written in iambic pentameter

and have a regular rhyme scheme.

CATALOG POEM A poem which presents a list of many

different images

BALLAD A song that tells a story They usually include a steady rhythm,

strong rhymes, and repetition.

IMAGE A word or phrase that appeals to one of

our five senses It is one of a poets strongest tools.

SENSORY DETAILS Elements or words that help you

imagine how something looks, sounds, tastes, or feels.

Sensory details combine to form images.

FIGURES OF SPEECH Comparisons that are not literarily true.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE Expressions that put aside literal

meanings in favor of imaginative connections.

It is used by poets to convey an idea that might otherwise take many words to express.

SIMILES Two unlike things are compared using a

word such as like, as, than, or resembles.

METAPHOR A comparison of two unlike things in

which one thing is said to be another. Does not use the words like or as.

PERSONIFICATION Human qualities are given to something

that is not human, such as an animal, object, force of nature, or even idea.

SYNECDOCHE A figure of speech in which a part is

substituted for the whole.

RHYME The repetitions of a stressed vowel

sound and any sounds that follow.

END RHYME Rhymes in poetry which occur at the

ends of lines.

RHYME SCHEME A regular pattern of end rhymes. Rhyme scheme is described using letter,

for example:AbabAabb

INTERNAL RHYME A rhyme in which at least one of the

rhymed words falls within a line.

APPROXIMATE RHYME Rhyming words which repeat some

sounds but are not exact echoes. Also referred to as:

Half rhymesNear rhymesSlant rhymes

RHYTHM A musical quality based on repetition This is the “beat” you hear when

reading a poem.

METER A regular pattern of stressed and

unstressed syllables that in the lines of a poem. Stressed syllables are marked Unstressed syllables are marked

FOOT One stressed and one or more

unstressed syllables.

IAMB A foot that has an unstressed syllable

followed by a stressed syllable

TROCHEE A foot that contains a stressed syllable

followed by an unstressed syllable.

ANAPEST A foot with two unstressed syllables,

then a stressed syllable

DACTYL A foot with one stressed syllable

followed by two unstressed syllables

SPONDEE A foot with two stressed syllables

BLANK VERSE A line of poetry or prose in unrhymed

iambic pentameter.

FREE VERSE Poetry without a regular pattern of

meter or rhyme. The verse is "free" in not being bound

by earlier poetic conventions requiring poems to adhere to an explicit and identifiable meter and rhyme scheme in a form such as the sonnet or ballad.

ONOMATOPOEIA Using words that sound like what they

mean

ALLITERATION Repetition of the same consonant sound

in several words

ASSONANCE The repetition of vowel sounds in

several words

AUTHOR’S PURPOSE The reason an author decides to write

about a specific topic The way in which an author uses words

to achieve that purpose

THEME The idea of a literary work abstracted

from its details of language, character, and action, and cast in the form of a generalization.

TONE The implied attitude of a writer toward

the subject and characters of a work.

STYLE The way an author chooses words,

arranges them in sentences or in lines of dialogue or verse, and develops ideas and actions with description, imagery, and other literary techniques.