Review of Poetic Terms

1. Review of Poetic Terms 2011-2012

2. Day 1

3. What is poetry? • A type of literature that expresses ideas/ feelings or tells a story in a specific form (usually using lines and stanzas)

4. Poet The author of the poem Speaker The narrator of the poem Point of View in Poetry

5. Poetry Forms • Form • the way in which a poem is organized • Example: ballad, elegy, ode, haiku • Stanza • a division in a poem • a group of lines (usually four or more) arranged together

6. Rhythm • The repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables provides the poem’s beat • We hear it in the rise and fall of our voices For My Grandmother This lovely flower fell to seed; Work gently, sun and rain; She held it as her dying creed That she would grow again. -Countee Cullen

7. Meter • A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables • When poets write in meter, they count out the number of stressed (strong) syllables and unstressed (weak) syllables for each line; they repeat the pattern throughout the poem For My Grandmother This lovely flower fell to seed; Work gently, sun and rain; She held it as her dying creed That she would grow again. -Countee Cullen

8. Day 2

9. End Rhyme • The rhyming of words at the ends of lines of poetry Hector the Collector Collected bits of string. Collected dolls with broken heads And rusty bells that would not ring.

10. Internal Rhyme • The rhyming of words within one line of poetry Hector the Collector Collected bits of string. Collected dolls with broken heads And rusty bells that would not ring.

11. Exact Rhymes Hector—Collector string—ring Approximate Rhymes a.k.a. near rhymes, off rhymes, imperfect rhymes, slant rhymes use sounds that are similar but not exactly the same fellow—hollow cat—catch bat—bit Exact Rhymes vs. Approximate Rhymes

12. Rhyme Scheme • A pattern of rhyme (usually end rhyme) in a poem • Use the letters of the alphabet to visually see the pattern “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.

13. Free Verse Poetry • Does not have meter or a regular rhyme scheme • Poets still work to make their poems rhythmic From “Give me the Splendid Silent Sun” by Walt Whitman Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling, Give me juicy autumnal fruit ripe and red from the orchard, Give me a field where the unmowed grass grows, Give me an arbor, give me the trellised grape…

14. Alliteration • Consonant sounds repeated at the beginning of words If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

15. Consonance • Similar to alliteration, EXCEPT the repeated consonant sounds can be anywhere in the words “And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain”

16. Assonance • Repeated vowel sounds in a line or lines of poetry • Often creates approximate rhyme "Annabel Lee“ by Edgar Allan Poe “And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride.”

17. Refrain • A sound, word, phrase, or line repeated regularly in a poem • The chorus of a song Refrain by Allen Ginsberg The air is dark, the night is sad,I lie sleepless and I groan.Nobody cares when a man goes mad:He is sorry, God is glad.Shadow changes into bone.Every shadow has a name;When I think of mine I moan,I hear rumors of such fame.Not for pride, but only shame,Shadow changes into bone.When I blush I weep for joy,And laughter drops from me like a stone:The aging laughter of the boyTo see the ageless dead so coy.Shadow changes into bone.

18. Day 3

19. Onomatopoeia • Words that imitate the sound they are naming The Tempest, Act I, Scene II by William Shakespeare “Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell:Hark! Now I hear them - Ding, dong, bell.”

20. Simile • A comparison between two unlike things using “like,” “as,” “resemble,” or “than.” She is as beautiful as a sunrise. (Her beauty is being compared to the beauty of a sunrise.)

21. Metaphor • A comparison of two unlike things in which one thing becomes another thing “All the world’s a stage, and we are merely players.” --William Shakespeare (The world becomes a stage and the people become actors on this stage.) • Conceit-a sustained/extended metaphor

22. Hyperbole • An exaggeration often used for emphasis “The Concord Hymn” by Ralph Waldo Emerson “Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world.”

23. Idiom • An expression where the literal meaning of the words is not the meaning of the expression. “By the skin of your teeth” (to do something at the very last minute) “Between a rock and a hard place” (in a very difficult situation where no solution is pleasant)

24. Personification • Non-human or non-living things are given human-like qualities “Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room” by William Blake "Ah, William, we're weary of weather,"said the sunflowers, shining with dew."Our traveling habits have tired us.Can you give us a room with a view?" They arranged themselves at the windowand counted the steps of the sun,and they both took root in the carpetwhere the topaz tortoises run. What are the sunflowers (non-human) doing?

25. Symbolism • A person, place, thing, or an event that has meaning in itself and stands for something beyond itself as well The Road Not Takenby Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claimBecause it was grassy and wanted wear,Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I marked the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to wayI doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference. What do the “two roads” symbolize?

26. Allusion • Allusion comes from the verb “to allude” which means “to refer to” • It’s a reference to something famous: Biblical references, myths, fictional characters, events, etc. "Christy didn't like to spend money. She was no Scrooge, but she seldom purchased anything except the bare necessities." (Scrooge is a character from Charles Dickens’ story A Christmas Carol)

27. Imagery • Language that appeals to the senses • Most images are visual, but they can also appeal to the senses of sound, taste, touch, or smell Excerpt from “Ah, Ah” by Joy Harjo “Ah, ah calls the sun from a fishing boat with a pale, yellow sail. We fly by on our return, over the net of eternity thrown out for stars.”