Poetry Terms/ Notes 9th grade/Pre

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Poetry Terms/ Notes

9

th

grade/Pre-AP

Mrs. Cook

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.

And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love…these are what we stay alive for.”

-Keating in Dead Poet’s Society

Before we begin…

Prose: Any written text that is not in poetic form.

Poetry: A type of literature that expresses ideas, feelings, or tells a story in a specific form (usually using lines and stanzas).

Prosody: the study of a poem’s meter

Explication: the analysis of a poem.

Poetry Terms to Know:

Speaker: Every poem has a speaker, or voice, that talks to the reader. Like a narrator in prose, the speaker of the poem is not necessarily the author. The speaker can be a fictional person, an animal, or even a living thing.

POET: The poet is the author of the poem.

SPEAKER: The speaker of the poem is the

“narrator” of the poem.

Lines & Stanzas

Lines: a word or row of words that may or may not make up a complete sentence

Stanza: a group of words that may or may not make up a complete sentence.

Stanzas are separated by a space.

KINDS OF STANZAS

Couplet

Tercet

Quatrain

Quintet

= a two line stanza

= a three line stanza

= a four line stanza

= a five line stanza

Sestet = a six line stanza

Septet = a seven line stanza

Octet = an eight line stanza

Rhythm:

Rhythm is the pattern of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables

Meter: the organization of beats in regular patterns. The basic unit of a meter is a foot which typically is made up of at least one stressed and one unstressed syllable.

Rhyme:

Is the repetition of similar sounds in words that appear close to each other in a poem

LAMP

STAMP

Share the short “a” vowel sound

Share the combined “mp” consonant sound

Types of Rhyme

:

1. Approximate Rhyme- when two words’ sounds are very close to rhyming but not exact

Approximate Rhyme Example:

– wire-right, mind-sign, sound-down

Types of Rhyme

2. End Rhyme- rhymes that occur at the end of a line

Ex: How statue-like I see thee stand,

The agate lamp within thy hand.

From “To Helen” by E. A. Poe

Types of Rhyme

3. Internal Rhyme: rhyming words that fall within a single line of poetry.

– Example:

Judge tenderly of me

From “This is My Letter to the World” by Emily

Dickinson.

Rhyme Scheme

The pattern of rhyme formed by the end rhyme. It is identified by assigning a different letter to the alphabet to each new rhyme.

(a,a,b,b) (a,b,a,b)

– Ex: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may (a)

– Old time is still a flying (b)

– And this same flower that smiles today (a)

– Tomorrow will be dying (b)

“To the Virgins Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick

Iambic Pentameter

A poem that contains exactly 10 syllables per line.

EX:

To u / swell the u / gourd, and u / plump the u ha-

/ zel u / shells

Figurative Language:

Is a category of literary terms that is used for descriptive effect and is not meant to be read literally. Usually, figurative language expresses meaning beyond the literal level.

– Literary Terms

Figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, symbol)

– Sound Devices (rhythm, rhyme, repetition, onomatopoeia, assonance, consonance, alliteration, anaphora, polysyndeton, euphony, cacophony)

Types of Figurative Language:

Simile: comparing seemingly unlike things by using “like” or “as”

Example: “O, my love’s like a red, red rose,

That’s newly sprung in June-”

- Robert Burns

Types of Figurative Language:

Metaphor – compares or equates seemingly unlike things by stating one thing IS another. Metaphors do not use like or as.

– Ex: The grass is the handkerchief of the Lord.

From “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman

– “All the world’s a stage, and we are merely players”.

William Shakespeare.

EXTENDED METAPHOR

A metaphor that goes several lines or possible the entire length of a work.

Example “O Captain, My Captain” by

Walt Whitman

Types of Figurative Language:

Personification: is a figure of speech in which an animal, an object, or an idea is given human characteristics.

– I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,

From the seas and the streams;

I bear light shade for the leaves when laid

In their noonday dreams.

“The Clouds” Author unknown

– “Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

From “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

ALLITERATION

The repetition of consonant (non- vowel) letters or sounds in two or more words in a line. The repetition must begin the word.

May be known as “tongue-twisters”.

Example: How much dew would a dewdrop drop if a dewdrop did drop dew?

ASSONANCE & CONSONANCE

Assonance- Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line or lines of poetry.

EX. Lake Fate Base

(All share the long “a” sound.)

Fade

Examples of ASSONANCE:

“Slow the low gradual moan came in the snowing.”

John Masefield

“Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep.”

William Shakespeare

Consonance- Repetition of consonant sounds at the middle or end of words.

EX.

The man in the orange cumberbund ended his bland speech with a bow.

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of lines

– EX: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”

- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Anaphora cont.

Another example of anaphora…

And do you now put on your best attire?

And do you now cull out a holiday?

And do you now strew flowers in his way

That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood?

Be gone!” from Julius Caesar- Shakespeare

Polysyndeton

Repetition of a conjunction throughout a piece.

Example: We all lived and laughed and loved and left.

– What are conjunctions?

Remember BOYSFAN

Onomatopoeia

• Use of words that sound like the noises they describe.

• Poets use onomatopoeia to liven up their writing and add fun sounds to it.

“The Fourth” by Shel Silverstein

Oh

CRASH!

my

BASH!

it’s

BANG!

the

ZANG!

Fourth

WHOOSH!

Of

BAROOM!

July

WHEW!

Pun

A play on words often meant to be humorous

Ex: I work as a baker because I knead dough.

A bank manager without anyone around may find himself a-loan.

A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired.

Other Poetry Terms:

Oxymoron

Two or more words that are placed next to each other that contradict.

Ex.

Hell’s Angels jumbo shrimp act naturally pretty ugly

Dodge ram

Idiom

An expression (or coded message) that means something other than what it actually says.

If you don’t know or understand the code, you will not get the message.

** Difficult for foreigners to comprehend

Ex. It’s raining cats and dogs, break a leg

Common Types of Poetry

Elegy- a poem saying goodbye to someone/something

Limerick – silly, 5 line poem… “There once was a” has the rhyme scheme of aabba

Ode- a poem of praise

Ballad- lyrical poem that tells a story (usually historical)

Haiku- Japanese; 3 lines; 5-7-5 in syllable count

Villanelle- motif of an urgent message/warning; 19 lines; Italian,

5 stanzas with 3 lines; repeated refrain

Sonnet- 14 lines; rhyming couplet at end; Shakespearean or

Petrarchan are the two types– often about love

Technique to Analyze Poetry

(We will use this in class)

T itle

P araphrase

C onnotation

A ttitude

S hift

T heme

T itle

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