POETRYStructure, Sound, and Figurative Language

Structure of a PoemThe rhyming pattern, meter, grammar and imagery used to convey the poet’s meaning

Rhyme

Occurs when the final accented syllables of words sound identical

Ex: flow/show, heard/bird/word Makes a poem “catchy” or musical…BUT

can also cause it to sound childish or sing-songy

Rhyme Scheme Shows the pattern of rhyme in a poem Important because:

1. Certain kinds of poems require a specific rhyming pattern (limerick)

2. A Break in the pattern could indicate something important

To complete a rhyme scheme:Roses are redViolets are pinkEddie might be cuteBut his feet really stink.

Lillies are whiteDaisies are yellowJohn is politeAnd a quiet fellow.

1. Look at last word in line 1.

2. Assign letter “A” 3. Look at last words

in following lines. 4. Rhyming words

receive same letter. 5. Non rhyming

words get next letter of the alphabet.

Quatrain A four-line stanza. Quatrains are the

most common stanzaic form in the English language; they can have various meters and rhyme schemes.

Couplet Two lines that rhyme; this pair often

end a poem with a conclusion

Internal Rhyme A poetic device in which a word in the

middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end of the same metrical line.

Internal rhyme appears in the first and third lines in this excerpt from Shelley's "The Cloud":1. I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,2. And out of the caverns of rain,3. Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the 4. tomb, 5. I arise and unbuild it again.

Other terms: STANZA: lines of poetry grouped

together (paragraphs in poems)

PERSONA: The narrator or speaker in a poem

SOUND TECHNIQUESMaking poetry sing

Meter Use MBC video http://

www.mybigcampus.com/library/425465 Uses music as examples to understand

rhythm and meter with examples from poetry read aloud ( 14 minutes)

Onomatopoeia

Words that replicate sounds Ex: meow, moo, crash, hiss, kaboom Adds emphasis and description

(Imagery)

Alliteration

Repetition of beginning sounds in a line of poetry

Ex: Freddy phoned Phoebe on Friday. Adds “flow” or musical sound, makes a

poem memorable

Consonance A common type of near rhyme that

consists of identical consonant sounds preceded by different vowel sounds: home, same; worth, breath.

Consonance Examples Her finger hungered for a ring.

The satin mittens were ancient.

You could paddle through the spittle in the bottle.

Assonance The repetition of internal vowel sounds

in nearby words that do not end the same; for example, "asleep under a tree," or "each evening." Similar endings result in rhyme, as in "asleep in the deep." Assonance is a strong means of emphasizing important words in a line.

Assonance: Examples He saw the cost and hauled off.

Will she read these cheap leaflets.

The snow in the rose garden groaned.

Figurative LanguageThese devices are also found on prose.

Also known as the "ornaments of language”

 does not mean exactly what it says, but instead forces the reader to make an imaginative leap in order to comprehend an author's point

Personification A form of metaphor in which human

characteristics are attributed to nonhuman things. Personification offers the writer a way to

give the world life and motion by assigning familiar human behaviors and emotions to animals, inanimate objects, and abstract ideas.

HyperboleHe ate everything in the

house."

Hyperbole (also called overstatement)

may be used for serious, comic, or ironic effect.

Metonymy (me-TAH-nah-me)  which substitutes one term with another

that is being associated with the that term In the book of Genesis 3:19, it refers to

Adam by saying that “by the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food.” Sweat represents the hard labor that Adam

will have to endure to produce the food that will sustain his life. The sweat on his brow is a vivid picture of how hard he is working to attain a goal.

Allusion  a reference in a literary work to a person,

place, or thing in history or another work of literature.

 used to summarize broad, complex ideas or emotions in one quick, powerful image Cain is an excellent example to convey

banishment, rejection, or evil, for he was cast out of his homeland by God (Genesis 4:12)

Enjambment The continuation of the sense of a phrase

beyond the end of a line of verse (run on).EXAMPLE: T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” April is the cruelest month, breedingLilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire,….

Problems in poems? Enjambment: the continuation of a

thought ACROSS a line break in poetry.

SOLUTION: Read like you would read anything else– keep going until you hit a punctuation mark (ignore rhyme for the time being!)

Problems and solutions:

REREAD! Most poems require multiple readings before you “get” it.

Be willing to TRY. Remember that words are NOT always

taken literally! (figurative language)

Problems in poems? Reversed word order! Sometimes poets

will change the “normal” order of words in a sentence to maintain rhyme scheme

Ex: It had begun, the heavy snow Through the air it started to blow To the store I will not go! Solution: think about the information,

NOT the order of it