Poetic Terms to Know

A comparison where one thing is said to be another.

Example 1 The student is a brain

Example 2 Fog by Carl Sandburg

The fog comes

On little cat feet.

It sits looking over harbor and city

On silent haunches

And then moves on.

Example 3 “Life is a cherished possession”

Metaphor

A Comparison using like or as

Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night,

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear (Shakespeare, R and J)

Simile

The attempt to make a written or spoken word sound like the sound it represents.

Example 1 “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died” Emily Dickinson

Example 2 Hear the loud alarum bells,

Brazen bells!In the startled ear of nightHow they scream out their affright!Too much horrified to speak,They can only shriek, shriek,Out of tune . . . How they clang, and clash, and roar!What a horror they outpourOn the bosom of the palpitating air! . . . (Edgar Allen Poe, “The Bells”)

Onomatopoeia

The use of harsh sounding words or a discord of sounds.

Example 1 Salt caked smoke stack

Example 2 ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe

All mimsy were the borogroves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.. .

from “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll

Cacophony

The use of sweet sounding words to imply gentleness or softness

Eupony used long vowels and harmonious consonants (l, m, n, r, f, v)

Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness

(Ode to Autumn by John Keats)

Euphony

The repetition of sounds at the beginning of words.

Example 1 “ . . . danced in the dizziness of death “ Afu Cooper

Example 2 Nothing is so beautiful as Spring – When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Example 3 In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea. . .

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Alliteration

The repetition of vowels in two or more words. The vowel rhyme is created through the relatively close juxtaposition of the same or similar vowel sounds, but with different end consonants

Example 1 Lifted by the winnowing wind

Example 2 “So twice five miles. . . .” from Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Assonance

The repetition of consonants or of a consonant pattern, especially at the ends of words.

Examples:Litter and batter

Spelled and scald

Laughed and deft

Dress and boss

Slither and lather

Consonance

An exaggeration or an overstatement for the sake of emphasis.

And I will come again, my love,

Though it were ten thousand miles

Hyperbole

A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole - refers to a thing by the name of one of its parts.

All hands on deck

I got new wheels

Synecdoche

Resembles synecdoche but is different. In a metonymy, the word we use to describe another

thing is closely linked to that particular thing, but is not a part of it.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

(the word “ears” replaces the concept of attention)

The pen is mightier than the sword.

(pen refers to written words and sword refers to military force)

Metonymy

A play on words – playing with the sound of words

Example 1 Tree jokes are pretty popular

Example 2 from Romeo and Juliet

“ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.”

Mercutio says this as he is bleeding to death

Pun

The combination in one expression of two words or phrases of opposite meaning for effect.

Falsely true

Bitter-sweet

Sweet sorrow

O, loving hate

Beautiful tyrant

Honorable villain

Oxymoron

A statement which, though it seems to be self-contradictory contains a basis of truth.

I must be cruel to be kind (Hamlet)

“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” (Animal Farm)

Paradox

The poet calls on someone or something which is not present or cannot answer.

Milton! Thou should’st be living at this hour.

Apostrophe

A reference to characters and events of mythology, legends, bible, history other literature.

Calling something a “wooden horse”

A gift that backfires – comes from the “gift” that the Greeks left for the Trojans. Or someone or something that attacks the group it belongs to. The Trojan horse was a large wooden horse that the

Greeks used to take soldiers secretly into the city of Troy in order to destroy it.

Allusion

Imagery is the use of words and details that appeal to a reader’s physical senses (sight, touch, taste, hearing, smell).

Example 1

A red wheelbarrowGlazed with rain water

Example 2 from “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“. . . And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny sports of greenery. . .

Imagery

A symbol is one thing that represents or stands for another. In literature a symbol is generally an object, person, situation or idea

that deepens the meaning of the work by evoking content that is not literally expressed in the work itself.

A rose has long been considered a symbol of love and affection.

Colors can be symbolic:

white – innocence, peace, youth, cold, clinical, sterile

red – desire, power, love, aggression, danger, violence

purple – royalty, spirituality, wisdom, cruelty, arrogance, mourning

In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” the raven is thought to be the symbol of a prophet.

Symbol

A lyric is a non-narrative, short poem that expresses the speaker’s feelings and perceptions typically spoken in the first person. Initially, lyric poems were meant to be sung and poets used to sing them with the accompaniment of a musical instrument called a lyre. Modern lyric poems are usually not sung but still have musical qualities like rhythm, rhyme, alliteration etc.

Example I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodills;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.. . .

William Wordsworth

Lyric Poetry

A form of poem which has as its primary intention teaching of some truth or moral or the making of some critical statement about society.

Do not stand at my grave and weepI am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sun on ripened grain,I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hushI am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight.I am the soft starshine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry:I am not there; I did not die.

Elizabeth Frye

Didactic

A lyric poem of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter following one of several possible rhyme schemes.

The two main types are

Italian (Petruchan) and English (Shakespearean).

Sonnet

Usually has three four line sections, each with its own rhyme scheme, and ends in a two line rhymed couplet. The rhyme

scheme is usually abab dcdc efef gg.

The final couplet is usually a concluding statement commenting on the preceding thoughts.

Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Shall 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:

…

English Sonnet

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,W’hen in eternal lines to time thou growest:So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

ABAB CDCD EFEF GG NOTE – this sonnet is an example of an extended metaphor

(comparison continues throughout)

Is divided into two parts: an eight line section (octave) rhymed abba, abba and a six line section (sestet) rhymed cde cde or cdc cdc.

Often the octave states a problem or a question and the sestet offers a solution.

London, 1802Octave – 8 lines – introduces the theme or problem

Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour:England hath need of thee: she is a fen

Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,

Have forfeited their ancient English dowerOf inward happiness. We are selfish men;

Oh! Raise us up, return to us again;And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

Italian Sonnet

Sestet – 6 lines – solves the problem(sestet) rhymed cde cde or cdc cdc.

Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:

Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,

So didst thou travel on life’s common way,

In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart

The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

A poem written in humorous imitation of another poem. Usually, the parody imitates the tone, form and imagery of the original, but applies

them to some ridiculous object.

In contemporary society, a parody is a satirical redux of art. It imitates another work of art to make light or make fun of it in some way. Many people see it as a form of ridicule, while others revere it as the highest

form of flattery.

"Austin Powers" (spoof on James Bond movies)"Spaceballs" (spoof on Star Wars movies)

"Blazing Saddles" (spoof on American Western movies)"Robin Hood: Men in Tights" (spoof on all Robin Hood movies)

"Scary Movie" (spoof on horror movies)

The ever popular "Saturday Night Live" where there is a live broadcast of satirical sketches that ridicule the latest celebrity or reality star in the

headlines, or even what is going on in the news.

Parody

A humorous, five-line poem, usually in ananpestic rhythm; the first, second, and fifth lines have three feet and rhythm with

each other; the third and fourth lines have two feet and rhyme with each other. Limericks usually tell of the actions of

a person.

There was an old man with a beard,

Who said, “It is just as I feared!

Two Owls and a Hen,

Four Larks and a Wren,

Have all built their nests in my beard!”

Limerick

A narrative poem, usually containing much repetition and often a repeated refrain. Ballads were originally folk songs

passed on from age to age.

The Highwayman

By Alfred Noyes

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,

The moom was a ghostly galleon tossed up cloudy seas,

The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,

And the highwayman cam riding –

Riding – riding –

The highwayman came riding up to the old inn door…

Ballad

A poem that tells a story and organizes its action according to a sequence of time.

Example “The Listeners” by Walter de la Mare ‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door;And his horse in the silence champed the grassesOf the forest’s ferny floor:And a bird flew up out of the turret,Above the Traveller’s head:And he smote upon the door again a second time;‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.But no one descended to the Traveller …

Narrative

A long narrative poem which tells of the adventures of heroic characters.

Covers a long period of time or describes some monumental task.

The Odyssey

Beowulf

Epic Poem

An elegy poem is a poem of mourning for a person or event.

Example “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman

O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done,The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. . . .

Elegy

A poem that formally addresses a person, place, thing, or idea; odes often praise or celebrate their subjects.

Example

“To Autumn” by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines . . .

ode

A free verse poem is a poem that does not follow a consistent meter or rhyme scheme in the structure.

Example “A Breakfast for Barbarians” by Gwendolyn Macewen

my friends, my sweet barbarians,there is that hunger which is not for food –but an eye at the navel turns the appetiteroundwith visions of some fabulous sandwich, the brain’s golden breakfast

eaten with beastswith books on plates . . .

Free verse

Prose poetry is poetry written in prose instead of using verse but still uses poetic techniques such as repetition, rhyme,

compression, fragmentation. Prose poetry look more like prose but reads more like poetry.

Example “Dog Boy” by Mathew Rohrer

……On Scott Road, in Pittsburgh, which is a steep and winding city,

full of good-natured people, just at the point where the road

bottoms out beside a gnarled and ancient cemetery, a very small,

an extremely small man ran across the road in front of my

brother-in-law’s car and scrambled into the tombstones….

Prose poetry