Colour the world with
words
- Poetry -
Poetry Pretest ing – Testing – testing...
Define the following:
• Alliteration
• Assonance
• Sibilance
• Onomatopoeia
What do we call:
• Two lines of verse
• Eight lines of verse
• Four lines of verse
• Three lines of verse
Now do these:
Now answer these:
•
•
•
•
Metaphor
Simile
Personification
Symbol
•
•
•
•
What poetic form has 14 lines of verse?
What is first-person voice poetry called?
What is second person voice in poetry called?
What is third-person voice in poetry called?
Testing, testing, testing...2
• What is the difference between figurative and literal language?
Rewrite the following examples of figurative language into
literal language.
• “It is raining cats and dogs.”
• “He was walking on cloud nine”
• “My heart was beating like a drum.”
• How is imagery different from an image?
• Name four main methods of creating figurative imagery.
So ... What is Poetry?
• a written composition in which the words are chosen for their
sound and the images/ideas they suggest, not just their obvious
meaning. The words are arranged in separate lines which often,
but not always, end in rhyme.
GETTING STARTED ON POETRY
• To respond to poetry you need to have a considerable arsenal of
language tools and reading skills at your disposal. First we will
start by building a glossary of key knowledge, vocabulary and
skills.
Poetry...
has three basic “voices”:
• Lyric – first person
• Dramatic – second person
• Narrative – third person.
Lyric
• - this is the first person voice of poetry and uses first-person
singular or plural pronouns such as ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘mine’ (singular) or
‘us’, ‘we’, ‘our’, (plural). The content presents the thoughts and
feelings of a single speaker, and the poet and the poem’s speaker
seem almost the same. It is the most emotional voice. A lyric
expresses subjective feelings, the personal hopes, joy, sorrow,
fantasies of the author. These poems are often intense and short.
Dramatic
• - uses second person pronouns such as ‘you’, (thee), ‘your’
(thine) and presents the voice of an imaginary character speaking
directly to an imaginary audience. The writer does not intrude to
offer his comments, but allows the reader to decide what value to
place on the speaker’s words. It relies on irony, as more is
revealed to the reader about the speaker, than s/he intends.
Narrative
• tells a story and is usually told using third person pronouns –
‘they’, ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘them’, etc. This is the ‘eye-of-God’ objective
voice of poetry. There are three main classifications: Ballads,
Epics and Romance.
Sound Devices
There are four key types:
•
•
•
•
Alliteration
Assonance
Sibilance
Onomatopoeia
Alliteration
• The deliberate repetition of an initial consonant sound in a group of
closely connected words – at least two.
E.g. “Rifle’s rapid rattle” – from “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen.
Purposes:
1. To create an emotion, tone, attitude,
2. To mimic the sound of an aspect of content – such as the sound of
gunfire in the example above.
3. To link and reinforce ideas.
Assonance
• The deliberate repetition of vowel sounds in a group of nearby words.
It may occur at the start or within the words.
E.g. “fumbling”, “clumsy”, “stumbling” from “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen.
Purposes:
1. To create an emotion, tone, attitude.
2. To mimic the sound of an aspect of content.
3. To link and reinforce ideas, such as in the example above.
Sibilance
• The deliberate repetition of soft consonant sounds such as ‘s’, and ‘f’
in a group of closely connected words.
E.g. ‘in hearts at peace, under an English heaven” from “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke.
Purposes:
1. To create an emotion, tone, attitude, such as the serenity and
acceptance created in the example above.
2. To mimic the sound of an aspect of content.
3. To link and reinforce ideas.
Onomatopoeia
• A word which is written in such a way that it mimics the sound it
represents. The sound is associated with an action.
E.g. “You mumble, and sigh” from “The Dug-out” by Sigfried Sassoon.
Purpose:
1. To reinforce imagery (visual aspects of poems) with sound.
2. To give us a familiar sound we can relate to an action.
Metaphor
This is a direct comparison between two unlike
things which is used to point out their meanings
and, therefore, enrich the reader’s
understanding.
E.g. “The moon was a ghostly galleon” from “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes.
The moon is compared to a ghost, so it is pale and seethrough, floating in the sky and a bit scary.
Simile
This is a less direct comparison than a metaphor
because it uses the words “like” or “as” to connect the
two unlike things. However, it works in a similar way
and has the same purpose – to enrich the reader’s
Understanding of something.
E.g. “His eyes peer from his hair and beard like mice from a load of
hay” (source unknown). This compares the hair of someone to hay
(yellow, dry and messy), and his eyes to those of a mouse (small,
brown, shining).
Personification
This is a special kind of metaphor which compares
something to humans – it literally turns things and
Ideas into humans by giving them human
characteristics. It has a similar purpose to metaphor in
that it enrich the reader’s understanding.
E.g. “The mosterous anger of the guns...” From “Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen
The guns are seen as almightily powerful and destructive, just like the
Symbol
A symbol is a concrete (something we can touch)
representation of something abstract (an idea – something
We cannot touch, taste, see, hear, smell). It’s purpose is to
Help us to understand a lot about a concept by giving us
something familiar to compare it to. The difference between
a symbol and a metaphor or simile is that a comparison a
symbol makes always remains the same, whereas the others
are different.
Symbol...cont
E.g. Romantic love is always associated with a red rose.
The red of the rose suggests love’s energy and passion;
the thorns on the rose suggest it sometimes has
hidden pain. Roses do not last in full bloom for very
long, and this suggests that the first passion of
romantic love does not last very long either.