Figurative LanguageNot just for poetry

What kind of poem am I reading/hearing?

Types of Poems

BalladA kind of narrative poemA long poem that uses rhyme to tell a story, often a folktale or legend. A traditional ballad has a refrain (chorus)

• The structure of the poem is integral to the understanding of it and adds an unexpected visual element

ConcreteA poem written inside a shape that is reflective of the poem itself

• The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized dead, and finally consolation and solace

• Example:

Elegyis traditionally written in response to the death of a person or group. Though similar in function, the elegy is distinct from the epitaph, ode, and eulogy: the epitaph is very brief; the ode solely exalts; and the eulogy is most often written in formal prose.

LimerickA short, humorous, or nonsense poem with a strictrhyme scheme (AABBA).

The first two lines rhyme with the last lineand the third and fourth line rhyme, and they are usually shorter.

LyricA type of poetry of intense feeling and emotion• Often short• Elegy, Sonnet, Ode or

Free Verse

NarrativeA type of poetry where the poem tells a storyOften has a repeating rhythm

OdeA type of Lyric Poem• Serious in nature• In praise of

something or someone

Sonnet(Shakespearean)• Iambic

pentameter• 14 Lines• Specific Rhyme

Scheme

While some poems may not be a specific type, they can still have an internal structure

Poetic Structure

• Notice thelines are a similarlength (clue 1)

• Count the syllablesin each line and note there are 10 in each

Blank Verseunrhymed lines of iambic pentameter meant to mimic patterns of natural speech

CoupletA pair of successive lines of verse, especially a pair that rhyme and are of the same length (approx.)

Enjambmentthe continuation of a sentence or clause over a line-break

Pay close attention to enjambment when reading a poem so you read a complete thought

Notice how the lines change meaning when you pay attention to the line stops and enjambment

End Stop Line VS. Enjambment

End Stopped Lines

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,Old Time is still a-flying:The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,The higher he's a-getting,The sooner will his race be run,And nearer he's to setting.That age is best which is the first,When youth and blood are warmer ;Then be not coy, but use your time,

Run on or Enjambed Lines

But being spent, the worse, and worstTimes still succeed the former.And this same flower that smiles to-dayTo-morrow will be dying.For having lost but once your primeYou may for ever tarry.

• Consider : • Why might a poet use one over the other?• How this impacts a reading• How this impacts your understanding

• “Fog” by Carl SandburgThe fog comeson little cat feet.It sits lookingover harbor and cityon silent haunchesand then moves on.

• Consider the effect of using structure verses not using any sort of structure on a poem and its intent.

Does the poem have a rhyme Scheme or is it Free Verse?Free verse poems do not follow the rules, and have no rhyme or rhythm; but they are still an artistic expression

Free Verse VS. Rhyme Scheme

Free Verse“After the Sea-Ship” Walt WhitmanAfter the Sea-Ship—after the whistling winds;After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars and ropes,Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening, lifting up their necks, Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship: Waves of the ocean, bubbling and gurgling, blithely prying,Waves, undulating waves—liquid, uneven, emulous waves,Toward that whirling current, laughing and buoyant, with curves, Where the great Vessel, sailing and tacking, displaced the surface;

Rhyme Scheme“Shall I Compare thee to a Summer’s Day” ShaksepeareShall I compare thee to a Summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm'd,And every fair from fair some-time declines,By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd:But thy eternal Summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,    So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,    So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Stanzais a grouped set of lines within a poem, usually set off from other stanzas (a paragraph in poetry)

RhymeInternal Rhyme

“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

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,As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—Only this and nothing more.”

End Rhyme• “The Lady of Shalott” Lord Tennyson• Part One

• On either side the river lie • Long fields of barley and of rye, • That clothe the wold and meet the sky; • And thro' the field the road runs by •        To many-tower'd Camelot; • The yellow-leaved waterlily • The green-sheathed daffodilly • Tremble in the water chilly •        Round about Shalott. •

Willows whiten, aspens shiver. • The sunbeam showers break and quiver • In the stream that runneth ever • By the island in the river •        Flowing down to Camelot. • Four gray walls, and four gray towers • Overlook a space of flowers, • And the silent isle imbowers •        The Lady of Shalott.

Ways that poets can add depth to their words to make readers/listeners understand their thoughts

Poetic Devices

AnaphoraThe repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses (think Google!)

Allusiona brief reference to a person, event, or place, real or fictitious, or to a work of art. An allusion may be drawn from history, geography, literature, or religion.

AlliterationSound device

Repetition of the front consonant sounds. Needs only two and they don’t need to be back to back.

“her frolicking kitten favored the snow”

AssonanceSound Device

Repeating vowel sounds in the middle of words.The sound must repeat not just the letter.

ApostropheAn address to a dead or absent person, or personification as if he or she were present

Consonance

Sound DeviceRepeating consonant sounds in the middle of words

Cliché A phrase, line or expression that has been so over-used it has become common place and unoriginal

• It was a dark and stormy night

• Then they lived happily ever after

• After everyone counted him out, he scored the winning goal

• Can often be used like stereotype

EuphemismThe substituting of a mild, indirect, polite or vague term for one considered harsh or offensive

Examples:• Saying that someone has

recently ‘passed away’ (in place of died)

• Saying that a car is ‘certified-pre owned’ instead of saying used.

Eye Rhymeor visual rhymean imperfect rhyme in which two words are spelled similarly but pronounced differently (such as move and love)

Eye rhyme serves to make the poem look more cohesive and while the words do not actually rhyme, they look like they belong

Hyperbole A special kind of metaphor that uses extreme exaggeration for effect

IdiomSayings or expressions we use in the English language that wouldn’t translate literally

ImageryUse of vivid and descriptive language to appeal to the reader’s senses thus forcing them to create a mental picture

Irony3 TypesDramatic: When the audience knows something is coming, but the characters do notVerbal: opposite of what is said, is meant (sarcasm)Situational: When the opposite of what is expected to happen, happens.

Metaphora figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance

MetonymyThe name of one object is substituted for something closely associated with it(“Hollywood to mean the film industry)

Onomatopoeia

Sound deviceWords that imitate soundsBe on the lookout for more subtle examples

OxymoronA pair of single word opposites placed side by side for dramatic effect (must be in contradiction to each other)

• Statements such as Oscar Wilde’s “I can resist anything except temptation” and G.K Chesterton’s “spies do not look like spies” are examples of rhetorical paradox.

• Polonius’ observation in Hamlet that “though this be madness, yet there is method in’t

• G.W Bush “when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace”

Paradoxis a statement that apparently contradicts itself and yet might be true

(similar to Oxymoron, but longer)

PersonificationGiving human qualities to non-human objects or things (this includes animals)

PunA play on a word’s meaning versus how it sounds

SimileTwo unalike things are compared directly using the words “like” or “as” (and sometimes “than”)

Symbolthe practice or art of using an object or a word to represent an abstract idea. An action, person, place, word, or object can all have a symbolic meaning and significance

“In the spring, I asked the daisiesIf his words were true,And the clever, clear-eyed daisiesAlways knew.Now the fields are brown and barren,Bitter autumn blows,And of all the stupid astersNot one knows.”

In the above lines, “spring” and “daisies” are symbols of youth. “Brown and barren” are symbols of transition from youth to old

age. Moreover, “Bitter autumn” symbolizes death.

“Wild Asters”Sara Teasdale

• “His eye met hers as she sat there paler and whiter than anyone in the vast ocean of faces about her” (The Lady or the Tiger)

• Faces represent the people in the crowd and because a face is a part of a human, this is synecdoche

• My parents bought me a new set of wheels

• The wheels are a part of the car meant to represent the whole of the car

Synecdoche(a special kind of metonymy)

a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something, or vice-versa

UnderstatementThe opposite of hyperbole

Stating less than is necessary and deliberately downplaying something