Rhyme Scheme Review
How to figure out the rhyme scheme of a poem: Rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming
words in a poem. The rhyme scheme of a poem is indicated by using different letters of the
alphabet for each new rhyme. For example:
Mary had a little lamb
Her fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go
A
B
C
B
It followed her to school one day,
Which was against the rules.
It made the children laugh and play,
To see a lamb at school
And so the teacher turned it out
But still it lingered near
And waited patiently about,
Till Mary did appear
"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
The eager children cry
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."
The teacher did reply
(every line ending with a word that rhymes with “lamb” gets an “A”)
(does not rhyme with “lamb”)
(does not rhyme with “lamb” or “snow”)
(because “go” rhymes with “snow,” this gets a B)
D (everything that rhymes with “day” gets a D)
E (everything that rhymes with “rules” gets a E)
D
E
F (everything that rhymes with “out” gets an F)
G (everything that rhymes with “near” gets a G)
F
G
B (rhymes with “snow” from line 2)
H
B
H
Practice: Determine the rhyme scheme for this poem.
Acquainted with the Night
by Robert Frost
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-by;
And further still at an unearthly height
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
1
Meter Review
The meter of a poem is its rhythmical pattern. This pattern is determined by the number and types of
stresses, or beats, in each line. How do we determine meter? Follow the steps below.
1. Count the number of syllables in each line. You can do this by clapping on each syllable or by
placing your hand under your chin and counting the “hits”. Try numbering each syllable in the
line below.
T h e o u t l o o k w a s n ’t b r i l l i a n t f o r t h e M u d v i l l e N i n e t h a t d a y
2. Find the first two-syllable word in the line and figure out which syllable has the stress on it. In the
above line, the word “outlook” has the stress on the word OUT, so you would mark that syllable with
the
over it. The syllable LOOK is unstressed, which is indicated by the
symbol. Based on this, you should be able to notice a pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables throughout the line.
3. Divide the stressed and unstressed syllables into groups using a parenthesis between each set of
syllables. Each of these groups is called a foot.
4. Figure out what type of feet the line contains. Below are the most common types of feet in English
poetry:
iamb: a foot with one unstressed and one stressed syllable, as in the word
(
)
“be/fore”
This foot is IAMBIC
trochee: a foot with a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, as in
the word
(
“glo/ry”
)
This foot is TROCHAIC
anapest: a foot with two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable,
as in the phrase
)
(
“a/ra/besque”
This foot is ANAPESTIC
dactyl: a foot with on stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables,
as in the word (
)
“won/der/ful”
This foot is DACTYLIC
(
)
spondee: a foot with two strong stresses, as in the word “space/walk”
This foot is SPONDAIC
2
Lines are also described in terms of the number of feet in each line, such as:
1: Monometer: a line with one foot
Example: All things/ Must pass/ Away
2: Dimeter: a line with two feet
Example: When up aloft/ I fly and fly
3: Trimeter: three foot lines
Example: I know not whom I meet/ I know not where I go
4: Tetrameter: four foot lines
Example: Had we but World enough, and Time,/This coyness Lady were no crime.
5: Pentameter: five foot lines
Example: But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
6: Hexameter: six foot lines
Example: To think how they may ache in icy hoods and mails
7: Heptameter: seven foot lines
Example: O could I feel as I have felt, or be what I have been,
8: Octometer: eight foot lines
Example: Once upon a midnight dreary,while I pondered, weak and weary
9: Nonometer: nine foot lines
10: Decameter: ten foot lines
3
Scansion Homework
Scan each line below to determine the meter. Remember, first you count the syllables, then you figure
out which syllables are stressed (check the two syllable words first), then divide into feet. Determine
which type of foot the poem contains, and then count the feet to determine the name of the meter. You
only have to scan the first line of each, as both lines will have the same meter. All meters below are
either iambic or trochaic (the most common types).
1.
He thrusts his fists against the post
2.
Workers earn it.
3.
Double, double, toil and trouble
4.
There they are, my fifty men and women
5.
When I consider how my life was spent
6.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
7.
Much more the bird must dare a dash at something good.
8.
Dark behind it rose the forest,
4
DIRECTIONS: Scan the following poems and then determine how the meter and rhythm contributes to
the tone / meaning.
1. The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry’s cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town. --Emily Dickinson
2. Bats have webby wings that fold up;
Bats from ceilings hang down rolled up;
Bats when flying undismayed are;
Bats are careful; bats use radar; --Frank Jacobs, “The Bat”
3. For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea. --Edgar Allan Poe, “Annabel Lee”
5
The Raven
by Edgar Allan Poe
In the box below each stanza, write a summary of what is happening in your own words.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore1—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease2 of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;
This it is and nothing more."
1
2
5
10
15
quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore: old, strange book of ancient learning
surcease: end
6
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"—here I opened wide the door—
Darkness there and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"—
Merely this and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping something louder than before.
"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then, what thereat is and this mystery explore—
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;—
'Tis the wind and nothing more.
20
25
30
35
7
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore3.
Not the least obeisance4 made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he,
But, with mien5 of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door—
Perched upon a bust of Pallas6 just above my chamber door—
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then the ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore7,
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven8,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore—
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore9!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning—little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door—
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore."
But the Raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if its soul in that one word he did outpour
40
45
50
55
3
days of yore: times long ago
obeisance: a bow as a sign of respect
5
mien: manner
6
bust of Pallas: a statue of the head and shoulders of Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom
7
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore: By the serious and stern expression it had
8
craven: coward
9
Night’s Plutonian shore: comparing Night to the underworld, ruled by the god Pluto
4
8
Nothing farther then he uttered; not a feather then he fluttered—
Till I scarcely more than muttered: "Other friends have flown before—
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before."
Then the bird said "Nevermore."
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster — so, when Hope he would adjure10,
Stern Despair returned, instead of the sweet Hope he dared adjure —
Of 'Never—nevermore.'"
But the Raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore—
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore."
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining11, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er
She shall press, ah, nevermore!
10
11
60
65
70
75
adjure: to beg
divining: guessing
9
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer12
Swung by Seraphim13 whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite—respite and nepenthe14 from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!—
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate, yet all undaunted15, on this desert land enchanted—
On this home by Horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore—
Is there—is there balm in Gilead16?—tell me—tell me, I implore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore—
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn17,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
80
85
90
95
12
censer: incense burner
Seraphim: angel
14
respite and Nepenthe: relief and forgetfulness (nepethe was a drug used in ancient times to cause a person to forget his
sorrows)
15
Desolate, yet all undaunted: In a hopeless situation, yet not discouraged
16
balm in Gilead: cure for suffering (refers to Genesis Chapter 7)
17
Aidenn: Eden
13
10
"Be that our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting—
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul has spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadows on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!
100
105
implore (verb) to beg:
grim (adj) harsh, forbidding, and morbid
ominous (adj): threatening or warning of something negative; a bad omen
quaff (verb) to drink
11
tempest (noun): a violent storm
1. Describe the speaker’s situation at the start of the poem: what is the setting (time and place) and what
is he doing?
2. Who is Lenore? What do you think was the speaker’s relationship to her? What happened to her?
3. How does the speaker’s reaction change each time the bird says “Nevermore”? Why does it change?
4. What does the raven symbolize in this poem?
5. In this poem, how much of what happens is real and how much the narrator’s imagination? How can
you tell?
12
6. Give two examples of allusion in this poem. Why does Poe use each of these allusions?
7. What is the rhyme scheme of The Raven? Write the rhyme scheme for the first two stanzas below.
8. What is the meter of The Raven? Scan the line below to prove it.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary
What effect does this meter have on the reader, and why do you think Poe used it?
9. What is Poe’s tone in this poem? How can you tell?
13
10. Give an example of how each of the following literary devices is used in the poem and why it is
used:
alliteration:
assonance:
internal rhyme:
personification:
repetition:
refrain:
14
Dramatic Poetry
Dramatic poetry is poetry where the speaker is clearly someone other than the poet. Frequently
dramatic poetry is in the form of a dialogue, where more than one character speaks. Often there is also a
setting and a plot. You will read more dramatic poetry when you read Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Incident in a Rose Garden
by Donald Justice
Gardener: Sir, I encountered Death
Just now among our roses
Thin as a scythe he stood there.
I knew him by his pictures
He had on his black coat
Black gloves, and broad black hat.
1
5
I think he would have spoken,
Seeing his mouth stood open.
Big it was, with white teeth.
As soon as he beckoned, I ran.
I ran until I found you.
Sir, I'm quitting my job.
I want to see my sons
Once more before I die.
I want to see California.
Master:
Death:
10
15
Sir, you must be that stranger
Who threatened my gardener.
This is my property, sir.
I welcome only friends here.
Sir, I knew your father.
And we were friends at the end.
20
As for your gardener,
I did not threaten him.
Old men mistake my gestures.
I only meant to ask him
To show me to his master.
I take it you are he?
25
scythe (n) an implement consisting of a long, curved single-edged blade with a long bent handle, used
for mowing or reaping
15
1. How does the gardener recognize Death? Why does he run away?
2. Describe Death’s personality. Interpret the lines “Sir, I knew your father,/ And we were friends at
the end.”
3. How is the ending of the poem ironic?
4. Give an example of each of the following in the poem and why that technique was used in that
particular example:
personification:
repetition:
simile:
16
Lyric Poetry
Lyric poetry expresses thoughts and feelings about a subject in a musical, and usually brief, way. Of
all the different types of poetry, lyrics are the most closely related to song. The word “lyric” comes
from the word “lyre,” which is a stringed instrument which was played as an accompaniment to the sung
words, or lyrics. Not all lyric poetry is set to music, but a lyric poem often uses musical devices and has
other song-like qualities that distinguish it from other types of poems.
Sympathy
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—
I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain18 would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting—
I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—
I know why the caged bird sings!
5
10
15
20
chalice (n): a bowl-shaped drinking vessel or goblet
bosom (n): the chest; especially when considered as the source of emotion
18
fain (adv) gladly; willingly
17
1. Why is the poem called “Sympathy”? How does the title connect to the theme of the poem?
2. How is the bird used as a symbol? How is it personified? Why did Dunbar choose a bird to
express his feelings?
3. What is the poem’s rhyme scheme? Note it below. How does the rhyme scheme reinforce the poem’s
theme?
4. Give an example of each of the following in the poem and why that technique was used in that
particular example:
alliteration:
metaphor:
simile:
18
CXXVIII
by Emily Dickinson
I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.
The eyes beside had wrung them dry,
And breaths were gathering sure
For that last onset, when the king
Be witnessed in his power.
I willed my keepsakes, signed away
What portion of me I
Could make assignable,-and then
There interposed a fly,
With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,
Between the light and me;
And then the windows failed, and then
I could not see to see.
5
10
15
1. Find the meter of the following two lines:
I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
How would you describe the meter of this poem?
2. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem? Write it on the poem. Note the lines that use slant rhyme
with a star. What effect does slant rhyme have on the poem?
19
3. What is happening to the narrator of this poem? How is she dealing with it?
4. What is the narrator expecting to see? What happens instead?
5. How is the fly used as a symbol in this poem?
6. Find an example of the following:
metaphor
onomatopoeia
oxymoron
simile
The Shakespearean Sonnet
20
The Shakespearean sonnet is a type of lyric poem with a specific form:
 has 14 lines, three quatrains (four line stanzas) and a couplet (two line stanza)
 the final couplet usually reveals the underlying message of the poem
 The meter, or pattern of stresses or beats, is iambic pentameter
M y m i s t r e s s' e y e s a r e n o t h i n g l i k e t h e s u n

The pattern of rhyming words is:
ABAB
CDCD
EFEF
GG
-First quatrain
-Second quatrain
-Third quatrain
-Final couplet
130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked19, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.
5
10
dun (adj) a neutral brownish gray to dull grayish brown
reek (v) to smell strongly unpleasant
belie (v) to show to be false; misrepresent; contradict
1. To what kinds of things is the speaker of the poem comparing his mistress? Are his comparisons
flattering? Why or why not?
19
damasked: of the pink color of the damask rose
21
2. Shakespeare use similes and metaphors throughout this poem. List the things to which the speaker
of the poem mentions and how they compare to his mistress.
Her feature
Compared to...
Metaphor
or simile?
What is the purpose of this
comparison?
3. What is the purpose behind Shakespeare’s use of metaphors and similes in the poem?
4. What is the theme, or message of the poem as stated in final couplet? How is it ironic?
Free Verse
Free verse is also known as “open form” verse. It is different from other forms of poetry because its
rhythmic pattern is not organized into meter; also, it often has irregular line lengths, and usually does not
rhyme. Within the broad category of free verse there are many different types, and it has evolved over
the years.
22
The Fish
by Elizabeth Bishop
I caught a tremendous fish
and held him beside the boat
half out of water, with my hook
fast in a corner of its mouth.
He didn’t fight.
He hadn’t fought at all.
He hung a grunting weight,
battered and venerable
and homely. Here and there
his brown skin hung in strips
like ancient wallpaper,
and its pattern of darker brown
was like wallpaper:
shapes like full-blown roses
stained and lost through age.
He was speckled with barnacles,
fine rosettes of lime,
and infested
with tiny white sea-lice,
and underneath two or three
rags of green weed hung down.
While his gills were breathing in
the terrible oxygen
— the frightening gills,
fresh and crisp with blood,
that can cut so badly —
I thought of the coarse white flesh
packed in like feathers,
the big bones and the little bones,
the dramatic reds and blacks
of his shiny entrails,
and the pink swim-bladder
like a big peony.
I looked into his eyes
which were far larger than mine
but shallower, and yellowed,
the irises backed and packed
with tarnished tinfoil
seen through the lenses
of old scratched isinglass.20
They shifted a little, but not
to return my stare.
20
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
isinglass (noun) thin, transparent sheets of mica used as windows or in lanterns
23
— It was more like the tipping
of an object toward the light.
I admired his sullen face,
the mechanism of his jaw,
and then I saw
that from his lower lip
— if you could call it a lip —
grim, wet, and weaponlike,
hung five old pieces of fish-line,
or four and a wire leader
with the swivel still attached,
with all their five big hooks
grown firmly in his mouth.
A green line, frayed at the end
where he broke it, two heavier lines,
and a fine black thread
still crimped from the strain and snap
when it broke and he got away.
Like medals with their ribbons
frayed and wavering,
a five-haired beard of wisdom
trailing from his aching jaw.
I stared and stared
and victory filled up
the little rented boat,
from the pool of bilge
where oil had spread a rainbow
around the rusted engine
to the bailer rusted orange,
the sun-cracked thwarts,
the oarlocks on their strings,
the gunnels — until everything
was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!
And I let the fish go.
venerable
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
(adj) worthy of respect due to great age or impressive dignity
entrails (noun) intestines; guts
sullen (adj) showing irritation or bad mood by a gloomy silence or reserve
24
1. Describe the fish caught in this poem. What does it look like? Give at least 3 examples.
2. What is the speaker’s tone, or attitude toward the fish? How do you know? Give 3 specific lines that
indicate this.
3. Find three similes used in this poem. Explain what two things are being compared in each one and
what the simile is trying to express.
4. Find two metaphors in this poem. Explain what two things are being compared in each one and
what the metaphor is trying to express.
25
5. What is ironic about the situation in this poem? The ending?
6. This is an example of a free verse poem. How does its structure differ from the other poems in this
packet you’ve read so far?
Slam Dunk and Hook
by Yusef Komunyakaa
Fast breaks. Lay ups. With Mercury’s
Insignia on our sneakers,
We outmaneuvered the footwork
Of bad angels. Nothing but a hot
Swish of strings like silk
Ten feet out. In the roundhouse
Labyrinth our bodies
Created, we could almost
Last forever, poised in midair
5
26
Like storybook sea monsters.
A high note hung there
A long second. Off
The rim. We’d corkscrew
Up & dunk balls that exploded
The skullcap of hope & good
Intention. Bug-eyed, lanky,
All hands & feet…sprung rhythm.
We were metaphysical when girls
Cheered on the sidelines.
Tangled up in a falling.
Muscles were a bright motor
Double-flashing to the metal hoop
Nailed to our oak.
When Sonny Boy’s mama died
He played nonstop all day, so hard
Our backboard splintered.
Glistening with sweat, we jibed
& rolled the ball off our
fingertips. Trouble
Was there slapping a blackjack21
Against an open palm.
Dribble, drive to the inside, feint,
& glide like a sparrow-hawk.
Lay ups. Fast breaks.
We had moves we didn’t know
We had. Our bodies spun
On swivels of bone & faith,
Through a lyric slipknot
Of joy, & we knew we were
Beautiful & dangerous...
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
insignia (noun) a distinguishing mark or sign of authority
labyrinth (noun): a maze
lanky (adj): slender, tall and thin
21
blackjack (noun): a hand weapon made of leather-enclosed metal with a strap
27
1. Find two similes in the first stanza. What things are being compared and why?
2. Find two metaphors and explain their meanings.
3. How are the players described physically? Give examples.
4. What happened to Sonny Boy? How did he deal with it?
5. How is alliteration used in lines 5, 10, and 32? Write down the phrases where the alliteration is
used. What purpose does it serve?
28
6. Which two literary devices are used in the lines, “Trouble/ Was there slapping a blackjack/ Against
an open palm.”? Explain what Komunyakaa is trying to depict here.
7. What is the tone of the poet towards playing basketball? How do you know?
29
Poetic Terms and Devices Worksheet
alliteration
allusion
apostrophe
assonance
figurative language
hyperbole
imagery
30
internal rhyme
metaphor
musical devices
onomatopoeia
oxymoron
personification
refrain
repetition
31
rhythm
rhyme scheme
simile
slant rhyme, aka half-rhyme
stanza
symbolism
tone
32