Analyzing Poetry: Dissecting and taking apart poems
I
Alliteration
Alliteration: The repeating of beginning consonant sounds in a group of words.
-Alliteration refers to the first sound rather than the first letter
-So “city slicker” is an example of alliteration, while
cake city is not.
-Alliteration is common in slogans, cliché’s, and advertising
because it emphasizes groups of words.
-It is common in poetry because it adds a musical quality to the
work.
II Assonance
Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds at the beginning,
middle, or end of a word.
Examples from literature:
III Consonance
Consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds anywhere within the
word
Examples from literature:
IV Form
Form: The structure or shape of a written work. There are many forms of
poetry. Some are highly structured and follow specific guidelines about
syllables, rhymes, and rhythms. Other forms follow few or no specific rules.
Examples from literature:
V Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia: A word, such as plop, buzz, or snap, whose sound suggests
its meaning. Onomatopoeia provides sound effects, and appears most
frequently in poetry, advertising, and children’s tales.
WATCH OUT!!! Just because you can imagine it doesn’t make it a sound…
e.g.: Shattering – Thunder –
Examples from literature:
VI Parallelism
Parallelism: The repetition of words, phrases, or sentence structures.
Parallelism adds rhythm and emotional impact to writing. It appears in
poetry, speeches, and a variety of other literary forms.
Examples from literature:
VII Repetition
Repetition: Words or phrases repeated in writings to produce emphasis,
rhythm, and/or a sense of urgency.
Examples from literature:
Repetition
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
BY ROBERT FROST
VIII
Refrain
Refrain: The repetition of word, phrase, line, or lines in a poem, song, or
speech at regular intervals. Refrains often appear at the end of stanzas.
Examples from literature:
Refrain
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,'
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.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
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 surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore Nameless here for evermore.
Edgar Allan Poe
The Raven
Do Not Weep, Maiden, For War Is Kind
Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind.
Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky
And the affrighted steed ran on alone,
Do not weep.
War is kind.
Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment,
Little souls who thirst for fight,
These men were born to drill and die.
The unexplained glory flies above them,
Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom -A field where a thousand corpses lie.
Do not weep, babe, for war is kind.
Because your father tumbled in the yellow trenches,
Raged at his breast, gulped and died,
Do not weep.
War is kind.
Swift blazing flag of the regiment,
Eagle with crest of red and gold,
These men were born to drill and die.
Point for them the virtue of slaughter,
Make plain to them the excellence of killing
And a field where a thousand corpses lie.
Mother whose heart hung humble as a button
On the bright splendid shroud of your son,
Do not weep.
War is kind.
Stephen Crane
IX Rhyme
Rhyme: The repetition of end sounds in words.
a. Perfect rhyme: repeat stressed vowels sounds and the last consonant
sound.
b. Near rhymes: two words that almost sound alike. (home and bone) or
(home and same)
c. End rhymes: appear at the end of two or more lines of poetry.
d. Internal rhymes: appear within a single line of poetry.
e. Rhyme scheme: refers to the pattern of end rhymes in a poem
Examples from literature:
SONNET 18
Give it
a try
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
A
B
A
B
C
D
C
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
D
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
E
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest,
F
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
E
When in eternal lines to time thou growest.
F
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
G
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
G
X Rhythm
Rhythm: The pattern of beats or stresses in language.
The pattern can be
a. regular: found in many form poems
- pattern is called meter
- creates mood: fast/slow; calm/frenzied
b. random: rhythm in free verse and prose have no pattern
Scholars use symbols to indicate the patterns of rhythm.
(∪) indicates unstressed syllable
(/) indicates a stressed beat
Examples from literature:
Meter in Poetry = Number of Syllables
patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables
iamb: X /
trochee: / X
anapest: X X /
dactyl: / X X
spondee: / /
pyrrhic: X X
Used in Shakespearean
Sonnet
/ = a stressed syllable
X or υ = an unstressed syllable
terms indicate the number of feet per line
Used in Shakespearean
Sonnet
monometer: one foot per line
dimeter: two feet per line
trimeter: three feet per line
tetrameter: four feet per line
pentameter: five feet per line
hexameter: six feet per line
heptameter: seven feet per line
octameter: eight feet per line
SONNET 18
U
/ U /
U / U / U
/
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
XI Stanza
Stanza: A division in poetry equivalent to a paragraph in prose. Stanzas in
most poetry forms follow a prescribed pattern of rhyme and rhythm.
Free-verse poems follow no rules regarding where to divide stanzas.
Common stanza patterns include:
Examples from literature:
List of stanza names
according to number of
lines:
2 lines = Couplet
3 lines = Tercet or Triplets
4 lines = Quatrain
5 lines = Cinquain or quintet
6 lines = Sestet
7 lines = Septet
8 lines = Octave
9 lines = Spenserian
More about stanzas…
Term
Definition
couplet
two line stanza
triplet
three line stanza
quatrain
four line stanza
quintet
five line stanza
sestet
six line stanza
septet
seven line stanza
octave
eight line stanza
nine line stanza
nine line stanza
ten line stanza
ten line stanza
eleven line stanza
eleven line stanza
SONNET 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
A
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
B
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, A
And summer's lease hath all too short a date: B
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
C
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
D
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
C
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; D
E
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
quatrain
quatrain
F
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, E
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
F
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
G
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
G
quatrain
couplet
XII End-stopped
End-stopped: the end of a line of poetry that coincides with the end of a
thought.
Commas, periods, semicolons, and colons often clue readers that ta
line is end-stopped.
The reader should pause at an end-stopped line.
Examples from literature:
XIII
Run-on
Run-on: Lines of poetry that continue forward in sense and punctuation
into the next line. Reading on though run-on lines helps vary the
rhythm of a poem.
Examples from literature: