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Poetic Terminology
What is Poetry?
“Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and
words that burn.” ~Thomas Gray
“Poetry is when an emotion has found
its thought and the thought has found
words.” ~Robert Frost
Sound Devices
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Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds
at any place in a series of words
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Do you like blue?
“Well he seemed so low that I couldn’t say no” –
Robert Service (“The Cremation of Sam McGee,
pg. 709)
Sound Devices cont.
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Alliteration: The repetition of a consonant
sound at the beginning of a series of words
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“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers…”
“Rain races, ripping like wind. Its restless rage
rattles like rocks ripping through the air.”
A fly and a flea flew up in a flue.
Said the fly to the flea, “What shall we do?”
“Let’s fly,” said the flea.
“Let’s flee,” said the fly.
So they fluttered and flew up a flaw in the flue.
Sound Devices cont.
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Consonance: The repetition of a consonant
sound at any place in a series of words.
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I dropped the locket in the thick mud.
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Eric liked the book
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“And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each
purple curtain.” –Edgar Allen Poe
Sound Device cont.
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Onomatopoeia: The use of words whose
sound makes one think of its meaning
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Wham! Bonk!
Ding-dong
“Cuckoo”
Tick-tock
“snap, crackle, pop”
Figurative Language
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Simile: A comparison of two nouns using the words
like or as
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Metaphor: A comparison of two nouns saying that
one thing is another
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“My love for you is like a red, red rose”
“All the world is a stage”
Idiom: An idiom is a word or phrase which means
something different from its literal meaning. Idioms are
common phrases or terms whose meaning is not real,
but can be understood by their popular use.
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Easy as pie
Chip off the old block
Figurative Language cont.
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Hyperbole: Extreme exaggeration
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The books weigh a ton.
I could sleep for a year.
I have a million things to do.
Personification: When a non-human object
has been given qualities of a person
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The wind whispered through the trees
The moon danced on the water
“Oreo: Milk’s favorite cookie.”
Figurative Language cont.
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Euphemism: the substitution of a mild or
pleasant expression for one that is too strong
or unpleasant
“Passed away” instead of died
“Correctional facility” instead of jail
“Letting someone go” instead of firing
Figurative Language cont.
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Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which
apparently contradictory terms appear in
conjunction
Jumbo shrimp
Original copy
Clearly confused
Figurative Language cont.
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Symbol: a person, place, thing, or
event that stands for itself and for
something beyond itself as well.
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Examples: the American flag symbolizes
freedom, liberty, and love for America.
A wedding band symbolizes_______.
A white flag symbolizes__________.
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Figurative Language cont.
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Prominent Symbols in Literature
The Four Seasons:
Spring: birth, rebirth, new beginnings, new life, etc.
Summer: the prime of life, youthful, energetic,
growing
Fall: the decline, the approach of death, getting old
Winter: death, the end of life, something comes to
an end
Day: life, goodness, knowledge, honesty,
happiness, energy, purity, positive, light,
understanding, clarity
Night: death, evil, darkness, mystery, bad, the end,
scary, uninformed, unknown
Figurative Language cont.
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Prominent Symbols in Literature cont.
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The Cycle of Life:
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Dawn: new beginning, birth, rebirth
Dusk: approach of the end, unknown
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Paths/Roads: journey, life’s journey, choices, obstacles
Bridges: movement from one place to another symbolically
Water: gives and takes life, thought to be the source of first life,
rebirth
Earth: mother, life giving, fertility
Gardens: fertility, life giving
Rocks/Doors/Weather: obstacles, problems (could be good or
bad)
Rhyme
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End Rhyme: Rhyme that appears at the end
of two or more lines of poetry
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“I would not, could not, in a box.
I could not, would not, with a fox.
I will not eat them with a mouse.
I will not eat them in a house.
I will not eat them here or there.
I will not eat them anywhere.
I do not eat green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.”
Rhyme Scheme
•Uses
the letters of the alphabet to represent sounds to be
able to visually “see” the pattern
•Are
labeled according to their rhyme sounds (aabbcc)
rhyme sound in a poem is “a” and each time the 1st
rhyme sound is heard, it is “a”
•1st
rhyme sound in a poem is “b” and each time the 2nd
rhyme sound is heard, it is “b”
•2nd
•The
pattern continues with “c”, “d”, etc.
Rhyme
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Internal Rhyme: The rhyming of words within one
line of poetry
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping...”
Rhythm
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Repetition: The repeating of a word or
phrase to add rhythm or to emphasize an
idea
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“And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.” –Robert Frost,
“Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”
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“The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple
moor, And the highwayman came riding- Riding-ridingThe highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.”
–Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”
Form
Line:
a unit of meaning
(1 word, a phrase, or even a sentence)
Stanza: lines that are grouped together
(usually each has the same number of lines). A
division in a poem named for the number of lines it
contains, such as a couplet (2 lines), triplet (3 lines),
quatrain (4 lines), and octave (8 lines)
Literal vs. Figurative
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Literal language means exactly what it says,
while figurative language uses similes,
metaphors, hyperbole, personification, etc. to
describe something often through
comparison with something different.
Literal
I’m tired and I’m going home.
This means “I’m tired and I’m going home.” There
is no other meaning other than what is said.
It means exactly what is
stated.
Figurative
To be figurative is to not mean what
you say but to imply something else.
For example: If I tell you, “You’re the apple of my eye…”
…I’m not saying that
you are a piece of fruit
in my eye.
Types of Poetry:
Haiku
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A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line
poem with seventeen syllables total.
It is written in a 5/7/5 syllable count.
Often focusing on images from nature, haiku
emphasizes simplicity, intensity, and
directness of expression.
An old silent pond...
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Line 1: 5 syllables
Line 2: 7 syllables
Line 3: 5 syllables
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
Limerick
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Composed of five lines, the limerick adheres
to a strict rhyme scheme and bouncy rhythm,
making it easy to memorize.
Typically, the first two lines rhyme with each
other, the third and fourth rhyme together,
and the fifth line either repeats the first line or
rhymes with it.
Rhyme Scheme:
aabba
Ode
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An ode is a poem that is about one specific
thing that you think is truly amazing and
praiseworthy.
This type of poem can be centered upon a
person, an object, or something abstract like
a feeling or an idea.
Ode to Olives
Oh Olive,
You are as precious to me as any gem,
With your beautiful, pure skin as smooth as silk
And as green as the grass in summertime.
I love your taste and the smell of your tender fruit
Which hides beneath your green armor.
Olive, sweet, tasty Olive,
How I love you so and my mealtimes wouldn't be the same
If you weren't in my life.
Oh Olive,
Nothing can compare to you, nothing at all,
You are food of the gods, a king's riches
And, most importantly, you are mine, oh Olive!
Elegy
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A poem of serious reflection, typically a
lament for the dead.
Towards the end the poet generally tries to
provide comfort to ease the pain of the
situation
The strongest of the tools elegy uses is its
reliance on memories of those who are no
more.
Bread and Music
Music I heard with you was more than music,
And bread I broke with you was more than bread;
Now that I am without you, all is desolate;
All that was once so beautiful is dead.
Your hands once touched this table and this silver,
And I have seen your fingers hold this glass.
These things do not remember you, belovèd,
And yet your touch upon them will not pass.
For it was in my heart you moved among them,
And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes;
And in my heart they will remember always,—
They knew you once, O beautiful and wise.
Cinquain
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The cinquain, also known as a quintain or
quintet, is a poem or stanza composed of five
lines.
Two main types:
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American cinquain: The most common cinquains
in English follow a rhyme scheme
of ababb, abaab or abccb.
“To Helen”
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o’er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.
Cinquain
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Didactic Cinquain
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The first line is a one-word title, the subject of the
poem;
The second line is a pair of adjectives describing that
title;
The third line is a three-word phrase that gives more
information about the subject (often a list of
three gerunds);
The fourth line consists of four words describing
feelings related to that subject;
Fifth line is a single word synonym or other reference
for the subject from line one.
Cinquain
Snow
Silent, white
Dancing, falling, drifting
Covering everything it touches
Blanket
Free Verse
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Written without any set rhyme or rhythm
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Is very conversational – sounds like someone
talking with you
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Some do not use punctuation or capitalization,
or other ways of breaking the rules of grammar.
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A more modern type of poetry
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Use your “senses” when writing
e.e. cummings
Acrostic
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type of poetry where the first, last or other
letters in a line spell out a particular word or
phrase.
The most common and simple form of an
acrostic poem is where the first letters of
each line spell out the word or phrase.
Acrostic (beginning of line)
Acrostic (end of line)
Acrostic (middle of line)
Shakespearean Sonnet
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Poem of expressive of thought, emotion or
idea.
It is 14 lines long which are formed by
three quatrains (4 lines) with a rhyming
couplet for the last two lines
Each line is 10 syllables long.
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Lines containing 10 syllables each are called
IAMBIC PENTAMETER
Shakespearean Sonnet