Poetry
Terms
Take notes and add
examples!

Alliteration
 Repetition
of consonant sounds at
the beginning or in the middle of
successive words
 Tongue
Twister
 Sue Sang Songs
 Picture Perfect Play
Alliteration - Eat Wisely
Alan Loren
Franks and fries, and French fondue
Beans and burgers and biscuits too
Chicken, chili, and cheddar cheese
When I munch too much, I always sneeze!
Assonance
Repeating
of vowel sounds
beat/week
light/mine
icky
igloos
Assonance
The Bells ~ Edgar Allen Poe
Hear the mellow wedding bells Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And all in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Consonance
Repetition
of consonant sounds
 Consonance
is the repetition of two or
more consonant sounds within a line.
 Often the consonant sounds come at the
very end of the word, but they come in
the middle as well.
Up/drip
Free Verse
 Poetry
that has not set structure or
pattern
 Rhythm does not come from rhyme
 Rhythm comes from repetition
 “April
Rain Song” – Langston Hughes
April Rain Song
Langston Hughes
Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver
liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our
roof at night
And I love the rain.
Hyperbole
Big
exaggeration, usually with
humor
 These
17-day weeks are a killer! 
 Mile high ice cream cone – yum!
Hyperbole
My Dog ~ Sharon Hendricks
His bark breaks the sound barrier
His nose is as cold as an ice box.
A wag of his tail causes hurricanes
His jumping causes falling rocks.
He eats a mountain of dog food
And drinks a water fall dry.
But though he breaks the bank
He’s the apple of my eye.
Imagery
Words
a poet uses that appeal
to our senses
Help create a mental picture
The fog comes in on little cat
feet (Carl Sandburg)
“The Red Wheelbarrow”
The Red Wheelbarrow
William Carlos Williams
so much depends
upon a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white chickens.
The Way I Play Soccer~ Natasha Niemi
Imagery
Sweat streams down my face,
And my skin turns red under the watchful eye of
the sun.
The sound of cleats pounding the earth is deafening
As my enemies charge down the field towards me.
I can sense the shooter is going to miss;
All at once, the ball collides into my chest.
Screams of victory roar across the field.
The grass stained, game ball rests
Rests lovingly between my two hands.
Line Info…



Line–single row of words appearing together in a line
Line Break – place where line of poetry stops
Line Length –



number of words in a line,
can be 1 word, 5 words, etc.
helps create a rhythmic pattern
Poetry
is a boatload of fun
Metaphor
without using like or as
 One thing is another
 Comparison
The
 My
cat is a shadow.
Reading teachers are geniuses!!
Onomatopoia
Naming
a thing or an action by
imitating the sound associated
with it
buzz,
hiss, roar, woof
The Game
Natasha Niemi
Clap! Clap!
Stomp! Stomp!
Swish! Swish!
This is the way we get through
Our games.
The crowd shouts,
”Yahoo!”
The ball soars through the air.
Then, bounce, bounce, bounce.
The audience holds its breath.
SWISH!
The ball goes in;
We win!
Personification
Giving
The
something human qualities
room exhaled a sigh of
relief when the ugly carpet was
ripped off the walls!
Personification –
Dinnertime Chorus ~ Sharon Hendricks
 The
teapot sang as the water boiled
The ice cubes cackled in their glass
the teacups chattered to one another.
While the chairs were passing gas
The gravy gurgled merrily
As the oil danced in a pan.
Oh my dinnertime chorus
What a lovely, lovely clan!
Repetition
The
repeating of words, sounds,
phrases or lines
Used to emphasize an idea and
establish a rhythm
Yesterday,
all my troubles
seemed so far away…
Mayfly
MaryAnn Hoberman
Think how fast a year flies by
A month flies by
A week flies by
Think how fast a day flies by
A Mayfly’s life lasts but a day
A single day
To live and die
A single day
How fast it goes
The day
The Mayfly
Both of those.
A Mayfly flies a single day
The daylight dies and darkness grows
A single day
How fast it flies
A Mayfly’s life
How fast it goes.
Rhythm/Meter
 Rhythm
– the steady beat of the
poem which makes the poem flow
 Meter – the rhythmic pattern in a
poem
 Poetry
is a boatload of fun
Nothing’s better under the sun
Rhyme Scheme/End Rhyme
Rhyme Verse

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




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
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Rhyme Scheme ~
The pattern of rhyme scheme in a poem
Makes a stanza
Identified by lower case letters
End Rhyme ~
Rhyming at the end of the line
Makes a rhyme scheme
Creates rhythm in rhyme verse
Rhyme Verse ~
Form of poetry whose rhythm is established by rhyme
Has a set structure and pattern
Rhyme Scheme, End Rhyme
Rhyme Verse
Rain Poem
Elizabeth Coatsworth
 The
rain was like a little mouse,
Quiet, small, and gray,
It pattered all around the house
And then it went away.
It did not come, I understand,
Indoors at all, until,
It found an open window and
Left tracks across the sill.
Simile
Comparison
of two things using
like or as
Shows that one thing is similar
to another
 The
cat’s fur is as black as night!
Stanza
Couplet, Quatrain, Sestet
 Stanza
~
 Grouping of lines in a poem
 Usually 2-6 lines
 Spaces separate stanzas

Couplet (2 lines), Quatrain (4 lines), Sestet (6 lines)
 Named for the number of lines in them
 Set up based on rhyme scheme