ELEMENTS OF POETRY
What is poetry?
KWL
• Fill out the KNOW section of the KWL chart with a partner.
• What do you 100% know?
• Flip through the handouts and the textbook.
• What do you still need to know?
• Which terms have you heard of but are not sure about?
• What seems brand new that you definitely want me to go over?
What makes poetry different?
Poetry
• Lines – a single word,
phrase, part of a sentence
• Stanzas – a poem
paragraph or a grouping of
lines
• Sounds different - may
rhyme or have rhythm,
figurative language, sensory
language
• A poems has a speaker –
not necessarily the poet
Prose
• Sentences
• Paragraphs
• Traditional – what you
expect to read
RHYME SCHEME – a
rhyming pattern at the
end of each line of the
poem. You label each
word with a letter of the
alphabet, rhymes are
assigned the same letter.
The rhyme scheme starts
over with each stanza.
Example.
Line 1 – lettuce – A
Line 2 – romaine – B
Line 3 – cranium – C
Line 4 – brain – B
PUN – word play or a
verbal joke
Example.
“Lettuce alone” in the
last line sounds like “let
us alone” which is funny
because the lettuce says
he is “shy.”
Can you think of another
pun?
“A Fine Head of Lettuce”
What is different about the poem
v. the image I chose on the right?
What is different about this poem
compared to “A Fine Head of
Lettuce”?
How do you summarize a stanza,
especially for the STAAR test?
STEP 1. What had happened
was?
STEP 2. What was the result
of that?
Complete sentences amongst
incomplete sentences, italicized
words, capital letters, dialogue,
etc… that break the normal
pattern of the poem are done for
a reason. The STAAR test loves
to ask about this stuff. What are
some reasons?
1. Emphasis
2. Why do they want to
emphasize it?
3. It is usually connected to a
feeling.
“Losing Face”
Elements of Poetry
• Sound devices – rhyme, meter, rhythm, alliteration, refrain
• Figurative Language –simile, metaphor, personification,
hyperbole
• Imagery – Sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
• Poems are packed with these elements. Poems often
hold more meaning with less words because these
elements hold so much hidden information and the words
are so precisely chosen.
Sound Devices
• Rhyme – repetition of
accented vowel sounds
at the end of a line.
• Toe, bow, grow
• Cry, sky, try
• Can you think of a
rhyme?
• Meter – a regular
pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables. It
gives the poem/song a
beat.
• Rhythm – a musical
quality created by
alternating accented and
unaccented syllables.
• Meter and rhythm go
hand in hand. Think
about the song “Tick
Tock” by Ke$ha…
More Sound Devices
• Alliteration – repetition
of consonant sounds
close together at the
beginning or end of a
word.
• Sometimes alliteration
mimics natural sounds
like an onomatopoeia.
• Tick tock on the clock
• What does the
alliteration above imply?
Another Sound Device
• Refrain – a word or line
repeated in a poem to
create a certain effect.
Baby, baby, baby, oh!
Baby, baby, baby, no!
I’m like baby, baby, baby
no!
I thought you’d always be
mine, mine!
• What effect does Justin
Beiber create in his
refrain?
Do you remember how
to label the rhyme
scheme?
Can you read it with
rhyme and rhythm?
What is the big
question that this
speaker is
wondering?
“Pete at the Zoo”
“Fireworks”
What kinds of sounds
do you associate with
fireworks?
What sound devices
help you “hear” the
fireworks in this
poem?
What is an
onomatopoeia?
Figurative Language
• Use of imaginative
comparisons to help
see something
common in a new way.
• It is NOT literal.
• Did you know that
people use the word
“literally” wrong all the
time? What they actually
means in figuratively.
Figurative Language
• SIMILE – a
comparison between 2
unlike things using like
or as.
• What two things are
being compared in the
example poem? Use
the picture to help you.
• Can you think of a
simile?
Figurative Language
• Metaphor – a
comparison between
two unlike things
without like or as.
• Sometimes it just calls
one item by another
name
• Muffins, take out your
homework!
• Sometimes it uses a
“be” verb to call
something another
thing
• Love is a rose.
• What is the comparison
in the sample poem?
Figurative Language
• Personification –
description of an
object, animal, or idea
with human qualities
• What is being
compared using
personification in the
poem?
• Can you think of your
own example?
Figurative Language
• Hyperbole – uses
exaggeration to create
a certain effect
• What is being
exaggerated in the
example?
Imagery
• To use sensory
language and
sometimes figurative
language to appeal to
your senses of sight,
smell, taste, touch, and
smell.
• Most imagery is visual.
• Most often uses
adjectives. C-BAGS?
• What did you see or
hear in each of the
previous examples?
“Like Bookends”
• What poetic devices
do you immediately
notice?
• What is a bookend?
• Why is the poem titled
“Like Bookends”? Is it
about real bookends?
• Complete the rest of
the questions
independently.
KWL
• Complete the “Learned” section.
• For each word in the “what I need to know” section, you
must write at least one statement in the “Learned” section.
• You may add extra things that you learned in this lesson
to the “Learned” section.