Poetry

Vocabulary
 Poetry Vocabulary
Poetry is literature that uses a few
words to tell about ideas, feelings and
paints a picture in the readers mind.
Most poems were written to be read
aloud.
Poems may or may not rhyme.
Form
The form of a poem is the way that it
looks on the page.
 What a poem looks like:

Bad Hair Day

I looked in the mirror verse

with shock and with dread

Stanza
to discover two antlers Rhyming words

had sprung from my head.

Verses
The way that poets arrange words into
lines.
The verses may or may not be
sentences.
 Stanzas
Groups of verses in traditional poetry.

What Bugs Me

When my teacher tells me to write a poem.

When my mother tells me to clean up my room.
When my sister practices her violin while I’m watching TV. Stanza
When my father tells me to turn off the TV and do my
homework.
Free Verse / Formal
Poems that do not usually rhyme and
have no fixed rhythm or pattern. They
are written like a conversation

Formal is when a poet follows a

conventional structure and/or rhyming
scheme.
Sound Devices
Elements of poetry that use one type of
sound related characteristic.
Rhythm
Meter
Rhyme
Onomatopoeia
And more ...
Rhythm
The beat of the poem.
These are made up patterns of strong
and weak syllables.
Rhyme
There are several types of rhymes such as
end rhymes like run and fun
Mary likes to run
Because it is so much fun

Hence it is called an end rhyme. end of the

verses rhyme
Rhyme
Internal rhymes as in:
Take place within the verse.

Once upon a midnight dreary weak and weary.

 Imperfect rhyme -- words that do not

exactly rhyme such as bat and map.
 Can be internal, or end rhyme.
Sample Rhyme Scheme
 The Germ
 Ogden Nash

 A mighty creature is the germ,

A
 Though smaller than the pachyderm.
A
 His customary dwelling place B
 Is deep within the human race. B
 His childish pride he often pleases C
 By giving people strange diseases. C
 Do you, my poppet, feel infirm? A
 You probably contain a germ. A
Alliteration
Consonant sounds repeated at the
beginnings of words

 If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled

peppers, how many pickled peppers did
Peter Piper pick?
Onomatopoeia
Words that imitate the sound they are
naming:
 BUZZ

OR sounds that imitate another sound

“The silken, sad, uncertain, rustling of

each purple curtain . . .”
Repetition and Anaphora
The repeating of sounds, words, phrases, or lines in a poem.
Repetition
The best kinds of people are warm and kind.
They are always there and they never mind.
The best kinds of people smile and embrace.
They support you with strength and grace.
Anaphora
The repeating of a word or words that are at the beginning of a verse and in
the following one(s)
From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease,
From the myriad thence-arous'd words,
From the word stronger and more delicious than any,
Figurative Language and Other
Poetic Devices

Figurative language Tone

Imagery Assonance
Simile Symbolism
Metaphor Idiom
Personification Hyperbole
Imagery
Words or phrases that appeal to the five
senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and
touch.
Imagery is what helps you paint a
picture or imagine what is happening or
what the poet is feeling.
Example:
The hamburgers sizzled on the grill …
Simile
A comparison of two things using the
words like or as.
e.g.
Her smile was bright like the sun!
The peach was as delicious as a kiss.
My dog is as mean as a snake.
Metaphor
A comparison of two things WITHOUT
using “as or like”.
e.g.
His face is a puzzle to me, I can never
figure out what he is thinking.
Personification
Giving an animal or an object human
qualities.
e.g.
My dog smiles at me.
The house glowed with happiness.
The car was irritated when she pumped it
full of cheap gas.
Tone
The writer's attitude toward his readers
and his subject; his mood or moral
view.

A writer can be formal, informal, playful,

ironic, and especially, optimistic or
pessimistic.
 Assonance
Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line or lines of
poetry.

Examples of ASSONANCE:
“Slow the low gradual moan came in the
snowing.”
-- John Masefield

“Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep.”

-- William Shakespeare
Symbolism
When a person, = Innocence
place, thing, or
event that has
meaning in itself
also represents, or = America
stands for,
something else,
usually something
bigger and more =Peace
important.
 Idiom

An expression where the literal

meaning of the words is not the
meaning of the expression. It means
something other than what it actually
says.
Ex. It’s raining cats and dogs.
Hyperbole
Obvious and intentional exaggeration.
e.g.
There are a million people in here!
I could sleep for a year!
I have a ton of homework tonight!
Double-entendre
A phrase or a figure of speech that might have multiple senses,
interpretations, or two different meanings, or which might be understood in
two different ways. The first meaning in double entendre is usually
straightforward, while the second meaning is ironic, risqué, or
inappropriate.
“Marriage is a fine institution, but I’m not ready for an institution.” (Mae
West)
The word “institution” in connection with marriage has two meanings in
here. One, it refers to marriage as an important custom of a society. Two,
marriage is something that will cause an individual to go to a mental
institution.