Figurative Language &

Poetic Devices

Poetry is…

• one of the major genres (types) of literature

• using language to create a flow of sounds and ideas

• the art of playing with words to influence emotions

Stanza • A group of lines in a poem (such as a paragraph

in an essay)

Figurative Language

• Writing or speech which is not meant to be taken literally (word for word)

• Examples: metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification

Metaphor • A figure of speech which makes a comparison

between two dissimilar things

• Saying something is something else

• People already know about one item, so they can better understand the other using comparison

• Examples: Education is a treasure, rich with opportunity.

Figurative Language

Simile • A figure of speech which makes a comparison of

two dissimilar things AND uses the words “like” or “as”

• People already know about one item, so they can better understand the other using comparison

• Examples: My puppy is like a hairy hurricane, unpredictable and destructive.

Figurative Language

The Lighthouse The light house, the guardian angel of the night

She shines her light for all the lost sailors passing by Her beam bright as the sun, flashing through the night sky The lighthouse, a soldier during the storms Standing tall, unafraid of the chaos Her light piercing through the storm like sharp knives The light house the night owl of the day Sleeping and cozzed away until the night Her beam off as silent as a deer not wanting to be found By: Katherine Sessor

Hyperbole

• Extreme exaggeration for effect

• Examples: I have told you a million times not to dance on that ladder.

Figurative Language

My Dog Her bark breaks the sound barrier

Her nose is as cold as an ice box. A wag of her tail causes hurricanes Her jumping causes falling rocks. She eats a mountain of dog food And drinks a water fall dry. But though she breaks the bank She’s the apple of my eye.

Personification • A figure of speech which gives human qualities,

feelings, actions or characteristics to non-human things

• Example: The leaves are dancing in the wind.

Figurative Language

Dinnertime Chorus

The teapot sang as the water boiled The ice cubes cackled in their glass the teacups chattered to one another. While the chairs were passing gas The gravy gurgled merrily As the oil danced in a pan. Oh my dinnertime chorus What a lovely, lovely clan!

by Sharon Hendricks

Poetic Devices

• Writing or speech which creates a mood or sound to convey the author’s message

• Examples: imagery, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, repetition, rhyme, and rhyme scheme

Imagery • Consists of words/ phrases that appeal to a

reader’s five senses; Sensory details help readers imagine how things look, feel, smell, sound and taste

Poetic Device

Alliteration • Repetition of initial consonant sounds: Used to

create a rhythmic effect

• Examples: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

Poetic Device

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping

Assonance • Repetition of vowel (a, e, i, o, u) sounds in the

middle of words

• Examples: and the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Poetic Device

Try… mope and groan spoon and blue

An excerpt from “Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe:

From the second stanza:

Hear the mellow wedding bells,

Golden bells!

What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!

Through the balmy air of night

How they ring out their delight!

From the molten-golden notes,

And in tune,

What a liquid ditty floats

To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats

Onomatopoeia • Words that sound like their meaning; Use of

words to imitate sounds

• Examples: crack, snap, roar, sizzle

Poetic Device

Meeting at Night

By Robert Browning

I

The grey sea and the long black land;

And the yellow half-moon large and low;

And the startled little waves that leap

In fiery ringlets from their sleep,

As I gain the cove with pushing prow,

And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.

II

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;

Three fields to cross till a farm appears;

A tap at the pane, the quick sharp

scratch

And blue spurt of a lighted match,

And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and

fears,

Than the two hearts beating each to

each!

Repetition

• The use (more than once) of any element of language (sounds, words, a phrase, a line, etc.)

• Used to emphasize a point

Poetic Device

An excerpt from “Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe: From the fourth stanza: Keeping time, time, time In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the throbbing of the bells - Of the bells, bells, bells: - To the sobbing of the bells: - Keeping time, time, time, As he knells, knells, knells, In a happy Runic rhyme, To the rolling of the bells - Of the bells, bells, bells - To the tolling of the bells - Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells, - To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

Poetic Device

Rhyme

• Repetition of ending sounds (at the end of words); Used to create a musical effect

• Example: Roses are red, violets are blue. Sugar is sweet, and so are you.

Poetic Device

Rhyme Scheme • A regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem

• Lower case letters are used to indicate the rhyme scheme

• Example:

Mr. Brown, the circus clown puts his clothes on upside down. He wears his hat upon his toes and socks and shoes upon his nose.

Poetic Device

a a b b