Terms and Concepts Important for Poetry Analysis
denotation – dictionary definition of a word
connotation – what the word suggests: its overtones of meaning.
For example, when Billy Collins used the word “manufacture” rather than “create” in
“Fishing on the Susquehanna” to talk about the process of creating poetry, he conveys the
sense of the artificiality of his project. Both words mean to make, but they have different
connotations. Poets use connotation to increase their economy…to express a lot with one or a
few words.
imagery – representation through language of sense experience (sight (visual), sound (auditory),
taste (gustatory), touch (kinesthetic), smell (olfactory).) Poetic language is richer in imagery than
ordinary language because it is trying to recreate or create an experience for the reader…it is more
sensuous.
Below Frost uses kinesthetic and auditory imagery, along with other techniques, to convey the
experience of apple-picking to the reader.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,’
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
Robert Frost, “After Apple-Picking”
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Figurative speech, such as “raining cats and dogs” or “my umbrella’s like a sieve,” is more forceful
and vivid than ordinary speech. Poets can say more in a smaller space by using figurative language,
because figurative language adds an extra dimension. A figure of speech says one thing and means
another. Figurative language should not (and sometimes cannot) be taken only literally, but mined
for deeper meaning.
Below are some types of figurative language.
simile – along with metaphor, used to compare things that are essentially unlike. The only
difference is that in simile the comparison is expressed explicitly using a word or phrase such as like,
as, than, similar to, resembles, or seems. In metaphor, the comparison is not expressed, but created
when a figurative term is substituted for or identified with the literal term.
Below, Hughes uses a list of similes to discuss the dream deferred, that of equality with whites. He
ends with a metaphor…the dream as a bomb about to explode. Since metaphors are more condensed
than similes, they tend to be more powerful. In some metaphors, the literal terms are named, in
some just implied. In this poem, the literal term “dream” is named, the figurative term “bomb” is
implied.
Harlem
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore –
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Langston Hughes
personification – giving attributes of a human being to an animal, object or concept. A subtype of
metaphor. Anne Bradstreet’s poem “The Author to her Book” is an extended personification
addressing her book as a child. Personification has an enlivening effect.
apostrophe – closely related to personification. Addressing someone absent or dead or something
nonhuman as if that person or thing were present and alive and could reply. In Twelfth Night, Viola
addresses time in the apostrophe below, making time, in a sense, into a character in the play.
Viola: O time, thou must untangle this, not I.
‘Tis too hard a know for me t’untie.
metonymy – substituting some significant detail or quality of an experience for the experience
itself. Frost uses metonymy in “Out, Out—“ when he substitutes “life” for “blood.” This adds greater
meaning to the poem, as the poem is about a life that was cut short too early. Metonymy can give a
poem compactness, vividness and meaning.
The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling.
symbol – something that means more than what it is. It functions literally and figuratively at the
same time. Interpretations of symbols can vary, but must be grounded in the text. In “Birches” the
birch trees can be interpreted as a symbol of the power of imagination.
paradox – an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true. May be either a situation
or a statement. Paradoxes have shock value and demand the reader’s attention. They also emphasize
the truth of what they present. In the poem below, Dickinson presents the paradox that insanity is
good sense, and good sense is insane. It all has to do with mob mentality (think Huck Finn.) Wasn’t
it insane that Huck thought he was doing wrong when he was doing right? Paradox!
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
To a discerning Eye—
Much Sense—the starkest Madness—
‘Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail –
Assent—and you are sane—
Demur—you’re straightway dangerous—
And handled with a Chain—
Emily Dickinson
hyperbole (or overstatement) – exaggeration in the service of truth. Adds emphasis to what is being
said. In “Ego Tripping” Nikki Giovanni writes:
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
that only glows every one hundred years falls
into the center giving divine perfect light…
She uses hyperbole to make a humorous point about feeling okay with who she is.
understatement – saying less than one means. May exist in what is said or in how it is said. Frost
uses understatement below in Fire and Ice, when he says that ice “would suffice” to destroy the
world.
Fire and Ice
By Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Effects of all the types of figurative language above: stimulates imagination; brings additional
imagery and makes the abstract concrete; adds emotional intensity; says a lot in a small number of
words.
allusion – reference to something in history or previous literature. Can suggest far more than it
says. For example, “Out, Out –“ , Robert Frost’s poem, alludes to Macbeth in the title. It alludes to
the speech “Out, out, brief candle…” which is about Macbeth’s despair when Lady Macbeth commits
suicide, and helps develop the theme in Frost’s poem of life being cut prematurely short.
tone – the writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject, the reader, or herself or himself. The
emotional coloring or meaning of the work, extremely important in considering the full meaning.
Twain’s tone changes in Huck Finn from satirical to serious and back again. From his tone the reader
can deduce his attitude toward what he presents. Some examples of tone could be playful, solemn,
mocking, reverent, calm, or excited. All the other elements discussed above contribute to tone.
mood or atmosphere – feeling created in the reader by the poet.
irony – always be on the lookout for irony in poems. Students tend to take poems at face value and
forget that most likely we should be digging beneath the surface. Ask yourself: Can I find any irony
here? A quick definition of irony is ‘contrast between what is stated and what is implied.’
SOUND DEVICES
Poetry makes greater use of the “music” of language than language that isn’t poetry. Poets choose
words for both sound and meaning, and use sound to reinforce meaning. Pay attention to how the
sound and sense of the poem go together.
repetition – poets use repetition of sounds to add musical meaning to verse. Some types of
repetition are listed here.
alliteration – repetition of initial consonant sounds.
assonance – repetition of vowel sounds
The phrase “time and tide” combines both alliteration (t) and assonance (long i).
consonance – repetition of final consonant sounds
“good as gold” combines both alliteration and consonance.
rhyme – repetition of the accented vowel sound and any succeeding consonant sounds
Types of rhyme:
masculine – rhyme involves only one syllable: “more” and “door”
feminine – rhyme sounds involve two or more syllables: “turtle” and “fertile”
internal rhyme – one or more rhyming words are within the line
Sister, my sister, O fleet sweet swallow.
end rhyme – rhyming words are at the ends of lines
Viola’s apostrophe, above, does this, rhyming “I” and “untie.”
slant rhyme – words with any kind of sound similarity, from close to fairly
remote. Dickinson used this often. In “Much Madness” above, she pairs “Eye”
with “Majority.” The effect of this can be edginess/dissonance.
rhythm – In speech, the natural rise and fall of language. Involves alternations between accented
and unaccented syllables. In every word of more than one syllable, one or more syllables are accented
or stressed – given more prominence in pronunciation than the rest. We say toDAY, toMORrow,
YESterday. We do the same thing when arranging words into a sentence, giving certain words or
syllables more prominence than others: “ANN is DRIving her CAR.” “I LOVE it when you SING to
me.” In verse, the poet may arrange these stresses to occur at regular intervals.
Rhythm is also based on pauses. Since poetry is written in lines, the poetic line creates pauses in
the flow of speech, sometimes slight and sometimes large.
end-stopped line: the end of the line corresponds with a natural speech pause
enjambment: the sense of the line moves on into the next line without a pause
caesuras: pauses within lines
Ask yourself what effect the arrangement of lines in a poem has on the poem’s meaning.
free verse: In free verse, the poetic line is the basic unit of rhythm because there is no set pattern of
rhythm. Paying attention to where the lines end and the types of pauses poets are using can help you
understand the rhythm and meaning of the poem.
meter and metrical verse: accents are arranged so that they occur at apparently equal intervals of
time. Most poetry today is free verse, not metrical. Meter is complex, and we may look at it more in
depth later. For now, one type of metric verse that is important to know is “blank verse.” Blank
verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter, is the principal English meter, used by both Shakespeare and
Frost, and many others.