POETRY, page 470
Poetry is a kind of rhythmic language
that uses figures of speech and imagery
designed to appeal to our emotions and
imaginations.
1. LYRIC - poetry focusing on
expressing emotions or thoughts
2. EPIC - long narrative poem that tells of
the great deeds of a hero
3. BALLAD - a song or song-like poem that
tells a story
ELEMENTS IN POETRY
Figurative Language - language that is
based on a comparison that is
not literally true.
For example:
literal language - “I’m going to bed.”
figurative lang. - “I’m going to hit the
hay.”
Simile
- figure of speech that uses the
words like or as to compare things that
have little or nothing in common.
Ex: She eats like a pig .
Metaphor- A comparison between unlike
things in which a connection is
revealed.
Ex: She is a pig.
Personification - Giving human qualities to
nonhuman things or ideas.
Ex: The computer is user-friendly.
The waves danced.
Symbol A person, place, thing, or event that
stands both for itself and for something beyond
itself.
Ex: The flag = freedom
“MISS ROSIE” by Lucille Clifton
When I watch you
wrapped up like garbage
sitting, surrounded by the smell
of too old potato peels
or
when I watch you in your old man’s shoes
with the little toe cut out
sitting, waiting for your mind
like next week’s grocery
I say
when I watch you
you wet brown bag of a woman
who used to be the best looking gal
in Georgia
used to be called the Georgia Rose
I stand up
through your destruction
I stand up
“MOTHER TO SON” by Langston Hughes
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --Bare.
But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t set you down on the steps
‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now--For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
THE SOUNDS OF POETRY
Refrain - a word, phrase, line, or even a
stanza that is repeated throughout the
poem.
Rhythm - an alternation of stressed and
unstressed sounds that make the voice
rise and fall.
2 Types of Rhythm
• A. Meter - a strict pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables
• B. Free Verse –
a loose type of rhythm
that sounds like natural speech
End Rhyme - when rhymes occur at the end
of lines: “Roses are red, violets are blue,
sugar is sweet, and so are you!”
Internal Rhyme - rhymes occur within a line
Ex: Gabby bears and flabby bears were all
around the forest...
Alliteration - The repetition of consonant
sounds in words that appear close
together.
Ex: “Oh wild west wind of Windsor.....”
Onomatopoeia - the use of words that
sound like what they mean.
Ex: Snap,
Crackle, Pop

The use of exaggeration for effect:

Example:”I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!”
 Connotation:
Any positive or negative
associations as well as the dictionary
meaning attached to a word
 Denotation:
The dictionary meaning
The old house was a handyman’s dream.
The old house was run down with disrepair.
Mrs. Fisher is eccentric and one of a kind.
Mrs. Fisher is crazy and weird.
The supermodel was extremely skinny.
The supermodel was much too thin.
A filing cabinet of human lives
Where people swarm like bees in tunneled hives,
Each to his own cell in the covered comb,
Identical and cramped—we call it home.
WHAT AM I ?
Create an Image Poem
 Describe an object without naming it
 Use three poetic devices in the description
(alliteration, simile, metaphor, hyperbole,
onomatopoeia, personification) and
underline or highlight them
 Minimum of 8 lines