Unit 3: Lesson 3

LITERARY POETRY STYLISTICS

Language of Poetry
Written Report

Introduction
In the previous lesson, you have learned about the survey of the poetry
authors and their unique styles. Today, let’s move on the topic about the language of
poetry. The language of poetry is a distinctive form of literary expression that
employs language in a unique way to create meaning and emotion.

Language of Poetry
Poetry uses language in many different ways. By noticing the techniques
poets use with language, it becomes easier to understand and talk about a poem. If
you are a writer, consider using some of these language techniques to emphasize
certain ideas, themes or images.

What you’ll most likely notice first about a poem is its form, or the distinctive way the
words are arranged on the page. Included in a poem’s form are its graphic elements, such as
the length and placement of lines and the way they are grouped into stanzas. Similar to a
paragraph in narrative writing, each stanza conveys a unified idea and contributes to a poem’s
overall meaning.

2 Form of Poems
Traditional Follow fixed rules, such as specified numbers of lines.
Has a regular pattern of rhythm and rhyme.
Includes following forms: sonnet, ode, haiku, limerick, ballad and
epic.

Examples: Does the road wind-up hill all the way?

Yes, to the very end.
Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend. —from "Up-hill" by Christina Rossettie

Organic Does not have a regular pattern of rhythm and may not rhyme.
Use unconventional spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Includes following forms: free verse, and concrete poetry.

Examples: wear your colors like a present person

today is here & now
—from “Look Not to Memories” by Angela de Hoyos
 EL 115 - STYLISTICS AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 2

Sound Devices
Like music language has rhythm. In poetry, the pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables in each line creates the rhythm.
Rhyme, also enhances the musical quality of poem. It can occur at the ends of lines as
end rhyme or within lines as internal rhyme, perfect rhymes concluding consonant and vowel
sound rhyme and inexact (near) rhymes.

Repetition a sound, word, phrase, or line that is repeated

for emphasis and unity.
Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
—from “Break, Break, Break” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Assonance the repetition of vowel sounds in words
that do not end with the same consonant
The waves break fold on jewelled fold.
—from “Moonlight” by Sara Teasdale
Alliteration the repetition of consonant
sounds at the beginnings of words.
The scraggy rock spit shielding the town’s blue
bay
—from “Departure” by Sylvia Plath
Consonance the repetition of consonant
sounds at the within and at the ends of
words

And black are the waters that sparkled so green.

—from “Seal Lullaby” by Rudyard Kipling

Euphony combining words to create pleasing sound

Cacophony, opposite of euphony when the sounds of
(good sound).
words in a line create a discordant or jarring effect
"So long as men can breathe,
when heard. (bad sound)
or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this
Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and
gives life to thee." Sonnet 18," by Shakespeare's unobtainable dollars! “Howl” – by Allen Ginsberg

Onomatopoeia words that imitate a sound; a verbal echo of the action being described, such as buzz, hum,
slap.

“I hear quiet clicks, cups of black coffee, click, click like facts” “Sonrisas” Pat Mora

Figurative language and Imagery

An expression where certain words are arranged in a particular way
to achieve a particular effect. The following are the different figures of speech
commonly used in poetry:
1. Metaphor
A comparison device where two things are compared directly.
 Something will be described as though it is actually something else.
Example: I remember how you sang in your stone shoes light-voiced as dusk or feathers.
—from “Elegy for My Father” by Robert Winner

2. Simile
A comparison device where “like” or “as” is used as the clause.
Example: The door of winter is frozen shut.
—from “Wind Chill” by Linda Pastan
3. Apostrophe
Words that are addressed to an absent or imaginary person, an
object, or an abstract thought.

Example: “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”

-From Romeo and Juliet by William
Shakespeare

4. Personifications
A description of an object, an animal, a place, or an idea in human terms.
Example: Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.
—from “Sonnet 10” by John Donne
5. Hyperbole
an exaggeration for emphasis or humorous effect.
Example: Here once the embattled farmers stood

And fired the shot heard round the world.

—from “The Concord
Hymn” by Ralph Waldo
Emerson

Imagery Plain and simple, imagery is the word used to describe the
types of images a poet uses throughout the poem.

Example:

I can remember wind-swept streets of cities

on cold and blustery nights, on rainy days;

heads under shabby felts and parasols

and shoulders hunched against a sharp concern

. —from “Memory” by Margaret Walker

 Types of Imagery

Summary
Poetry is a unique style of literary expression that uses language to convey
meaning and emotion. It discusses how poetry uses language in a variety of ways,
including form, sound techniques, imagery, and figurative language. Metaphor,
simile, apostrophe, personification, and hyperbole are examples of figurative
language used in poetry. Furthermore, the use of imagery in poetry and how it
might contribute to the overall meaning of a poem are significant.
Overall, the study strives to improve the reader's understanding and
appreciation of poetry by providing insight into the particular ways in which
language is used in this form of literature.

References

Jakobson, R. (1960). Closing statement: Linguistics and poetics. In T. A. Sebeok (Ed.),

Style in Language (pp. 350-377). MIT Press.
Poetry’s language. (n.d). The Learning Center. Retrieved from May 6, 2023
https://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/learning-commons/files/2019/05/Poetrys-Language.pdf
The Language of Poetry. (n.d). Common Core. Retrieved from

https://ucps.instructure.com ›

Most, G. W. (1993). The Languages of Poetry. New Literary History, 24(3), 545.

https://doi.org/10.2307/469422

Prepared by:

Colon, Rea Jean C.

Dologuin, Rutchell M.