Poetry Terms
On the page, in the ear and with
the tools
On the page—STANZAS
One of the primary
organizers of poetry
(the paragraphs of
poetry)

Couplet 2 Sestet 6
Triplet 3 Septet 7
Quatrain 4 Octave 8
Quintet 5
On the page—Line Breaks
Creates rhythm or sound
 Signals meaning
 Sometimes gives
poems a particular
appearance

On the page—Indentations
Foregrounds
different words/ideas
 Signals meaning
 Sometimes gives
poems a particular
appearance

On the page—White Space
Signals meaning
 “I also liked the way
poetry looked on the
page—all that white
space around the
words suggested that
each word had honor.”
-- Shihab Nye

On the page—Punctuation
Signals meaning
 Signals pause
 Signals breath
 Shapes meaning

Dawkins Hierarchy of Punctuation
In the Ear—Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds
in words

Example

“We wear the mask that grins and lies,/”
Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask”
In the Ear—Consonance
The repetition of consonant sounds in
words
 Similar to alliteration, but not limited to
first letter of words
 Example


“We wear the mask that grins and lies,/
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--/”
Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask”
In the ear—Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds without
repeating consonants
 Example:
“Like stalks of tall, dry straw
At poor peace I sing”

Dylan Thomas, “Prologue”
In the Ear—Onomatopoeia

The use of a word whose sound
suggests its meaning

Examples:
Clang
 Buzz
 Twang
 swoosh

In the Ear—Repetition

The repeating
of a word, a
phrase, or an
idea for
emphasis or
effect
We Real Cool
By Gwendolyn Brooks
The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
In the Ear—End Rhyme /Rhyme
Scheme
•The rhyming of
words that
appear at the
ends of two lines
of poetry
The Storm
James K. McAlister
Wind rustled crunching leaves
a
That on the sidewalk lay.
b
There was a big storm coming
c
On a windy Autumn day.
b
Thunder rumbled overhead
d
And shook me through and through.
e
A jagged bolt of lightning struck!
f
The sky then cracked in two!
e
Rain washed down the dirty road.
g
It hissed, and gushed, and muttered.
h
The downpour swept dead leaves away i
Into the bubbling gutter.
h
In the Ear—Internal Rhyme

Occurs when the
rhyming words
appear in the
same line of
poetry
We Real Cool
By Gwendolyn Brooks
The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
In the Ear—Rhythm

Regular or random occurrence of sound
in poetry
Regular is called meter
 Random is called Free Verse


Contemporary poetry often uses free
verse
Tools—Metaphor

comparison between
essentially unlike
things without using
words OR
application of a
name or description
to something to
which it is not literally
applicable
A Three Point Shot From Andromeda
By Paul Beatty
rain rusted orange
ring of saturn
in urban orbit
over an outdoor gym
What two things are being
compared?
Tools—Simile

comparison between two essentially unlike
things using words such as "like," as," or "as
though”

Example:
“Of asphodel, that greeny flower,
like a buttercup
upon its branching stem-”
William Carlos Williams, “Asphodel, that Greeny Flower”
Tools—Hyperbole

An exaggeration
for emphasis
The Storm
James K. McAlister
Wind rustled crunching leaves
That on the sidewalk lay.
There was a big storm coming
On a windy Autumn day.
Thunder rumbled overhead
And shook me through and through.
A jagged bolt of lightning struck!
The sky then cracked in two!
Rain washed down the dirty road.
It hissed, and gushed, and muttered.
The downpour swept dead leaves away
Into the bubbling gutter.
Tools—Imagery

A word or sequence of words representing a
sensory experience (visual, auditory, olfactory,
tactile, and gustatory)

Example: Billy Collins, “Litany”
“You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.”
Tools—Allusion

A a reference to the person, event, or work
outside the poem or literary piece

Example: Dylan Thomas’s “Fern Hill”
And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all
Shining, it was Adam and maiden,
The sky gathered again
And the sun grew round that very day.
Tools—Symbol

An object or action
that stands
for something
beyond itself
Green Light and Gamma Ways
By Thylias Moss
Miss Liberty is green, the horizon and sky
plus yellow skin.
She is a minority too, color
of ridiculous Martian fable
and not a man.
Handicapped, disabled.
Another immigrant.
Tools—Metonymy

An idea associated with something substituted
for the whole
The Big Apple = New York
The Crown = Royalty
Land of the Free and Home of the Brave = USA
The Suits = stuffy, upper middle class, bosses