Download Poetry Unit What is poetry????

POETRY
UNIT
WHAT IS POETRY????
One of the three major
types of literature
(with prose and
drama)
 Most poems make use
of concise, musical,
and emotionally
charged language
 Alive with imagery,
figurative language,
and sound devises.

POETRY TERMS
Verse
– a line of poetry; often
numbered
Stanza – a group of verses (or lines
of poetry)
Stanzas are similar to
paragraphs in prose.
Shape – the way a poem looks on a
page
VERSE
Blank Verse


Poetry written in
unrhymed iambic
pentameter (a
series of stressed
and unstressed
syllables)
Used by
Shakespeare
Free Verse
No rules!
 Mimics spoken
word
 Many opportunities
for interpretation!
 Uses imagery
 Most modern
poetry is written in
free verse

TYPES OF POEMS
LYRIC
– musical; expresses
observations and feelings of
a single person
NARRATIVE – tells a story
DRAMATIC – a poem that
uses the techniques of drams
(such as dialogue)
TYPES OF POEMS, CON’T.
 FIXED
– poems that follow a specific
form
 Ballad
– songlike poem that tells a story;
written in stanza form with regular
rhythms and rhyme schemes and
featuring a refrain
 Haiku – Japanese poem that conveys a
vivid emotion or captures a moment in
time; 5-7-5 syllables
 Sonnet – 14 line lyric poem
MUSICAL DEVICES……

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Alliteration – repetition
of beginning consonant
sounds
Assonance – repetition of
same vowel sound within
words
Consonance – repetition
of final consonant sounds
Onomatopoeia – words
that imitate sound

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Wet, windy, weather on
Wednesday
I feel alive in the sunlight.
Do not sit on the hat,
please.
The bells went “ding
dong ding”
The repetition
of the initial
consonant
sounds or words
Vowel rhyme; the
repetition of
vowel sounds in
nearby words
Ex: date, fade
Repetition of consonants
within nearby words in
which the preceding
vowels differ
Ex: milk, walk
The use of a word whose sound imitates its
POETRY TERMS – MUSICAL DEVICES
Meter – the rhythmical pattern of a poem, determined
by the number and types of stresses, or beats, in each
line.
 Rhyme – words that sound alike: hat/cat
 Rhyme Scheme – the pattern of rhyme
Jack and Jill
a
Went up the Hill
a
To fetch a pail of water
b

TERMS….CON’T

Repetition –
repeating a word,
several words, or
whole lines:
“And miles to go
before I sleep.
And miles to go
before I sleep.”

Rhythm – brings out
the musical quality of
the language; can
create mood and
empathize ideas
TITION
Repetition
Repetition
Use of any
language element
more than once
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Words NOT meant to be taken
literally!


Simile – comparison using “like” or “as”
“Life is like a box of chocolates.”
Metaphor – a direct comparison of two unlike
things
“He was a raging bull, screaming loudly”
A comparison
between two
things using like
or as
SIMILE
METAPHOR
To compare two things
(without using like or
as), suggesting a
commonality between
the two
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, CONT.

Personification – when an animal is given
human qualities or an inanimate object is given
living characteristics
Mickey Mouse
The sun smiled gently down on us.
MORE……

Hyperbole – exaggeration for a special effect (for
emphasis or humor)
They cried buckets over the loss of their pet.
They fell out of their seats laughing.
Language that attributes
human qualities to nonhuman things.
The tree stretched its
limbs to reach the sky
EXAGGERATION FOR THE
SAKE OF EMPHASIS
Imagery
Words that appeal to the senses that “paint” a
picture….uses Sensory Language, words that
appeal to the five senses….
“Imagine a luxurious, less complicated lifestyle.
Imagine open fields and cool running water.
Imagine hearing the soft chirping of birds
outside your window. Now, this is living!”
Descriptive language used
to create word pictures or
images (paint a picture in
your mind)
THEME
The message of the poem
 The lesson the poet is teaching the reader
