Poetic Elements & Terms

English 9 Mr. Goatseay

Figurative Language

The way an author uses words in order

to describe something by comparing it

with something else.

Examples: metaphor, simile, personification

Similie

A comparison of two unlike things using

like or as

Examples:

The sun is like a yellow ball of fire in the sky.

He was as strong as an ox.

Metaphor

A comparison of two unlike things where

one is described directly as the other

WITHOUT using like or as

Examples:

A spider is a black dark midnight sky.

Its web is a Ferris wheel.

It has a fat moon body and legs of dangling string.

- Spider by Anonymous

Imagery

Language that provides a sensory experience using sight, sound, smell, touch, taste

Examples:

Soft upon my eyelashes Turning my cheeks to pink

Softly falling, falling Not a sound in the air

Delicately designed in snow Fading away at my touch

Leaving only a glistening drop And its memory

- Crystal Cascades by Mary Fumento

Personification

A metaphor in which human qualities are

given to non-human things

Examples:

The wind whispered through the trees.

The moon danced on the water.

The stuffed bear smiled as the little boy hugged him close.

Hyperbole

An intentional exaggeration or

overstatement, often used for emphasis

Examples:

My bookbag weighs a ton.

Im so tired, I could sleep for a year.

I have a million things to do before vacation.

Symbolism

Using a word or object to represent a deeper meaning than the words themselves. It can be a material object or a written sign used to represent something invisible.

Examples:

The American flag represents freedom

A wedding ring represents love and marriage

Allusion

A reference to well-known characters or

events from literature, or history.

Examples:

He has the Midas touch when picking stocks. (King Midas was a famous character from

Greek Mythology whose touch turned items

into gold.)

When your parents learn about your new plan to raise money, it's going to sink like the Titanic .

(referring to the famous ship that sank)

Sound Devices

Techniques used to give poetry a

musical quality that specifically deal with

how the words sound.

This is why poetry is meant to be

READ ALOUD!

Examples: rhyme, onomatopoeia, rhythm

Rhythm

The beat created by the sounds of the

words in a poem. Rhythm can be created

by using meter, rhymes, alliteration, and

refrain.

Example:

My mother ate an apple and my father ate a pear. (my MOTH-er ATE an AP-ple AND my

FATH-er ATE a PEAR).

Every other syllable is accented (stressed).

Rhyme

Words that share the same sound (i.e.

lamp and stamp)

END RHYME (words that rhyme at the

end of lines)

He collected bits of string And rusty bells that would not ring

INTERNAL RHYME (words that rhyme

within the same line

Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December

Repetition

The repeating of a word or phrase to add

rhythm or to emphasize an idea

Example:

And the highwayman came riding

Ridingriding

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-

door.

Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman

Assonance

Repeated VOWEL sounds in nearby words

Examples:

Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese (long E)

Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the oldest of living things. So old it is that no man

knows how and why the first poems came.

(long O)

Consonance

Repeated CONSONANT sounds in

nearby words

Examples:

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain (S sound)

Norm, the worm, took the garden by a storm this morn. (M sound)

The use of words whose sound makes

one think of its meaning

Examples:

Ding-dong went the clock

Crash! Splat! Pow!

Bees buzzed about

snap, crackle, pop

Onomatopoeia

Stanza

A group of lines arranged together

Poetrys version of a paragraph

Examples: couplet, quatrains, cinquains

I had no time to hate, because The grave would hinder me,

And life was not so ample It

Could finish enmity.

Stanza of

four lines }

Couplet

A stanza made up of two lines

Examples:

True wit is nature to advantage dress'd; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Quatrain

A stanza made up of four lines

Example:

Gleaming in silver are the hills!

Blazing in silver is the sea!

And a silvery radiance spills

Where the moon drives royally!

Alliteration (ADD THIS ONE!)

Another sound device!

Repeated consonant sounds at the

beginnings of nearby words

Examples:

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

(repeated P sound)

So they fluttered and flew up a flaw in the flue. (repeated F sound)