Poetry TermsEnglish I – Miss Michel

PoetryWriting that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm

SpeakerThe voice that is talking to us in a

poem.Sometimes the speaker is

identical with the poet, but often the speaker and the poet are not the same.

The poet may be speaking as a child, a woman, a man, a whole people, an animal, or even as an object.

“GEORGE GRAY”By : Edgar Lee Masters

I have studied many timesThe marble which was chiseled for me –A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harborIn truth it pictures not my destinationBut my life.For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.And now I know that we must lift the sailAnd catch the winds of destinyWherever they drive the boat.To put meaning in one's life may end in madness,But life without meaning is the tortureOf restlessness and vague desire --It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

ThemeThe central idea of a work of

literatureA theme is not the same as a

subject.The subject of a work can usually

be expressed in a word or two: love, childhood, death, etc.

The theme is the idea that a writer wishes to reveal about the subject. The theme is something that can be expressed in at least one complete sentence.

WHAT’S THE THEME?Finding Nemo?

ToneTone is the attitude a writer takes

toward an audience, a subject, or a character.

Tone is conveyed through a writer’s choice of words and details.

What’s the tone of this picture?

Sitting outside the principal’s office…

Denotation and Connotation

Denotation ConnotationThe dictionary definition of a word.

All of the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests.

StanzaA group of consecutive lines in a

poem that form a single unit.A stanza in a poem is something

like a paragraph in prose.It often expresses one unit of

thought.Two lines are called a “couplet.”Four lines are called a “quatrain.”

ImageryLanguage that appeals to the senses.Most images are visual—that is, they

create pictures in the reader’s mind by appealing to the sense of sight.

Images can also appeal to the sense of sound, touch, taste, or smell (or many senses all at once).

Imagery is an element in all typed of writing, but it is particularly important in poetry.

FROM “MEETING AT NIGHT”

By: Robert Browning

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;Three fields to cross till a farm appears;A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratchAnd blue spurt of a lighted match…

Figurative LanguageWord or phrase that describes one

things in terms of anotherLanguage that is not meant to be taken

literallyFigures of speech always involve some

sort of imaginative comparison between seemingly unlike things.

The most common types of figurative language (though there are 250) are the simile, metaphor, and personification.

LITERAL IS THE OPPOSITE OF FIGURATIVE !

To remember:

MetaphorA figure of speech that makes a

comparison between two unlike things, in which one thing becomes another thing without the words like, as, than, or resembles.

Example: Fame is a fickle friend.Example: My mother is a

monster.Example: Time is a gift we

should not waste.

METAPHOR“Stabbed in the back”

SimileFigure of speech that makes a

comparison between two unlike things, using a word such as like, as, resembles, or than.

Example: “I wandered as lonely as a cloud.”

Example: “I love you like a fat kid loves cake.”

SimilesH

e

sleep

slik

e a

lo

g.

AllusionA reference to a statement, a

person, a place, or an event from literature, history, religion, mythology, politics, sports, science, or pop culture.

In calling one of his stories “The Gift of the Magi,” O Henry used an allusion to the wise men from the East called the Magi who presented the infant Jesus with the first Christmas gifts.

PersonificationA kind of metaphor in which a

nonhuman things or quality is talked about as if it were human.

=

WHAT IS PERSONIFIED?It’s the poetry itself!

This poetry gets bored of being alone,it wants to go outdoors to chew on the

winds,to fill its commas with the keels of

rowboats . . .

POETRY SOUNDSAnd now:

AlliterationRepetition of the same or very

similar consonant sounds in words that are close together in poems.

FROM “THE RAVEN”By: Edgar Allan Poe

In this example, the sounds “fl,” “t,” “n,” and “w” are repeated in lines 1 and 2, and the “s” sound is repeated in lines 3 and 4:

“Open here I flung the shutter, when with many a flirt and flutter,In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.”

OnomatopoeiaThe use of a word whose sound

imitates or suggests its meaning.Onomatopoeia is so natural to us

that we begin using it instinctively as children.

Crackle, pop, fizz, click, zoom, and chirp are all examples of onomatopoeia.

Onomatopoeia is an important element in poetry.

ONOMATOPOEIA

RhymeRepetition of accented vowel

sounds, and all sounds following them, in words that are close together in a poem.

Choice and Voice are rhymes.Tingle and Jingle are rhymes.

OLD MARYBy Gwendolyn Brooks

My last defenseIs the present tense.It little hurts me now to knowI shall not goCathedral-hunting in SpainNor cherrying in Michigan or Maine.

Exact and Approximate Rhyme

Exact RhymeApproximate

RhymeWhen words rhyme

perfectly.Examples: cat and

hat,Examples: doggy and

soggyExamples: trial and

mileExamples: lighter and

fighter

When two words have some sound in common but do not rhyme exactly, they are approximate rhymes.

These are also called slant rhymes or near rhymes.

Examples: now and know

Examples: buoy and truly

Internal and End Rhyme

Internal Rhyme End Rhyme Internal rhymes occur in the

middle of a line.Example:

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I

Pondered, weak and weary…”

(from “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe)

End rhymes occur at the end of lines.

Example:

“My last defense

Is the present tense.

It little hurts me now to know

I shall not go

Cathedral-hunting in Spain

Nor cherrying in Michigan or Maine.

Meter (the beat)The generally regular pattern of

stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.

Indicating the metrical pattern in poetry is called scanning the poem (or scansion).

SonnetFourteen-line lyric poem that is

usually written in iambic pentameter and that has one of several potential rhyme schemes.

The oldest kind of poem is the Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet.

Another famous sonnet type is the Shakespearean sonnet, named after William Shakespeare.

A Sample Sonnet: My college life has left me without sleep. I study every night locked in my room. The walls at times feel almost like a tomb; The loneliness causes my soul to weep. Great tears of sadness flow from eyes that keep Returning to the text where answers loom, Enshrouded in a chapter like a womb, My eyes throughout the words do futilely creep. I must a Big Mac eat or I will die Of hunger gnawing at my fragile mind That cannot read another word of this. I also want a piece of apple pie That Ronald has so patiently refined. I must these eat or I will be a mess.

Sonnets are usually about LOVE <3

Click icon to add picture

RefrainA repeated word, phrase, line, or

group of lines.Though refrains are usually

associated with songs and poems, they are used in speeches and other forms of literature.

Refrains are most often used to build rhythm, but they may also provide commentary or build suspense.

Refrain"In my shoes, just to seeWhat it's like, to be meI'll be you, let's trade shoesJust to see what it'd be likeTo feel your pain, you feel mineGo inside each other's mindsJust to see, what we'd findLook at stuff through each other's eyesDon't let 'em say you ain't beautifulThey can all get it, just stay true to youDon't let 'em say you ain't beautifulThey can all get it, just stay true to

you.“

By: Eminem

Haikus and Tankas

HAIKU TANKA Japanese verse form

consisting of three lines and seventeen syllables.

There are five syllables in the first line, seven in the second line, and five in the third line.

A haiku often presents an image of daily life that relates to a particular season.

Japanese form with five unrhymed lines and a total of thirty-one syllables.

Lines 1 and 3 have five syllables each.

Lines 2, 4, and 5 have seven syllables each.

A tanka evokes a strong feeling with a single image.

NarrativeThe story of a poem.

THE END!