POETRYDevices
Rhyme Recurring identical or similar final word
sounds within or at the ends of lines of verse. Rhyme scheme refers to rhyming pattern
such as: aabb, aacc, etc.
EXAMPLES …Meet, greetGander, meanderGrand, landWhere, fair, air, bear, glare
Rhyme Scheme The Germ by Ogden Nash
A mighty creature is the germ, Though smaller than the pachyderm.
His customary dwelling place Is deep within the human race.
His childish pride he often pleases By giving people strange diseases.
Do you, my poppet, feel infirm? You probably contain a germ.
A
A
B
B
C
C
A
A
Rhythm The recurring pattern of strong and weak
syllabic stresses. When words are arranged in such a way that
they make a pattern or beat.
EXAMPLE …There once was a girl from Chicago
Who dyed her hair pink in the bathtub
I’m making a pizza the size of the sun.
Hint: hum the words instead of saying them.
Meter and Feet
Meter is a fixed pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in lines of fixed length to create a rhythm.
A foot is the basic measuring unit in a line of poetry, composed of a certain number of stressed and unstressed syllables.
Types of Meter
Iambic Pentameter: A five measure-line with ten beats (10 syllables with rising and falling stress). Contains five feet.
Monometer: One foot Dimeter: Two feet Trimeter: Three feet Tetrameter: Four feet Heptameter: Seven feet Octometer: Eight feet
Types of Feet
Iambic: Contains one unstressed and one stressed syllable pair.
EXAMPLE (using Iambic Pentameter):
“To BE comMENC’D in STRONDS aFAR reMOTE.”
Shakespeare’s Henry IV
Types of Feet
Anapest: A foot consisting of three syllables in which the first two are short or unstressed and the final one is long or stressed.
“Twas the NIGHT before CHRISTMAS, when all THROUGH the HOUSE …”
Types of Feet
Trochee: A foot that has two syllables in which the first is long or stressed, and the second is short and unstressed.
EXAMPLE:
“DOUble, DOUble, TOIL and TROUble …”
Shakespeare’s MacBeth
Types of Feet
Dactyl: A foot of three syllables in which the first is long or stressed, and the next two are unstressed or short.
EXAMPLE:
“TAKE her up TENderly …”
Stanzas
Couplet = a two line stanza
Triplet (Tercet) = a three line stanza
Quatrain = a four line stanza
Quintet = a five line stanza
Sestet (Sextet) = a six line stanza
Septet = a seven line stanza
Octave = an eight line stanza
POETIC SOUNDS
Repetition
Repeated use of sounds, words, or ideas for effect and emphasis.
EXAMPLES …Refrains …
NobodyNo, nobodyCan make it out here alone.Alone, all aloneNobody, but nobodyCan make it out here alone.
Alliteration
When the first sounds of words repeat.
EXAMPLES …
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
Sam sold starfish by the seasideStone Hill school stingrays
Assonance
Repetition of vowels sounds.
EXAMPLES …
Mad hatterFive timerSake of fate
Consonance Repetition of consonant sounds in the
middle or end of words.
Vowels: a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.
Consonants: all other letters.
EXAMPLES …East/west, Fast/twist, Want/font, Hop/sapMammals named Sam are clammy.Curse, bless me now! With fierce tears I prey.
Onomatopoeia
When a word’s pronunciation imitates its sound.
EXAMPLES …Buzz Woof FizzSizzle Hiss BoomWhap Clink BeepVroom Zip Click
Practice I’ll put some lines of poetry on the board
and you write down what type of poetic device is being used:
Alliteration, Consonance, Assonance, Repetition, Rhythm, Rhyme, Onomatopoeia
NOTE: Some poems use more than one technique.
PRACTICE #1
The cuckoo in our cuckoo clock
was wedded to an octopus.
She laid a single wooden egg
and hatched a cuckoocloctopus
PRACTICE #2
They are building a house
half a block down
and I sit up here
with the shades down
listening to the sounds,
the hammers pounding in nails,
thack thack thack thack,
and then I hear birds,
and thack thack thack,
PRACTICE #3
very little love is not so bad
or very little life
what counts
is waiting on walls
I was born for this
I was born to hustle roses down the
avenues of the dead.
PRACTICE #4
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
PRACTICE #5
Homework! Oh, homework!I hate you! You stink!I wish I could wash youaway in the sink.
ANSWERS
1. Repetition, rhythm, rhyme, consonance, and light alliteration.
2. Onomatopoeia, consonance, repetition
3. Alliteration, repetition
4. Rhythm, rhyme, light alliteration
5. Repetition, rhyme, rhythm
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