
a pattern or sequence where the rhyme
occurs

(abab cdcd for Two tramps)

Pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
established in a line
› Stressed syllable (‘) is the accented or long
›
›
›
›
syllable
Unstressed (u) is unaccented or short syllable
Meter signifies both TYPE of pattern and NUMBER
OF PATTERN
You will here more about this later
Shakespeare’s meter is Iambic Pentameter
 Iambic = type
 Pentameter= number

unit of meter (two or three syllables)
› Example: iam
› (stress, unstressed)
 Iambic-
two syllable foot with stress on
second syllable
› Below; delight; a muse
 A/ book /of /over/ seas
 A /jug / of /wine/ a /loaf/ of /bread /–and
/though/
 AS
OPPOSED TO-
 Dou/ ble, / dou / ble/ toil /and/ trou/ble
 Fire/ burn/ and /caul /dron /bub/ble

an implied comparison between two
usually unrelated things.

Example:
Fred’s a pig at the table
This is a comparison between Fred’s eating habits
and a pig. Since pig’s have a reputation for being
messy, disgusting, and slurping eaters, Fred might
similarly slurp, chew, and devour his food. Fred = gross
eater.




All the world’s a stage
she was peaches and cream
The screaming headlines announced the murder
Life’s a short summer, man a flower
But my love she is a kitten,
And my heart’s a ball of string
-Henry Leigh

Giving human characteristics to objects
ideas or animals




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


The wind whistled
Her heart cried out
Bright April shakes out her rain-drenched
hair
The screams of cut trees
The dusky night rides down the sky
The waves beside them danced
Time, the subtle thief of youth
Death, be not proud though some have
called thee Mighty and dreadful

An exaggeration for the sake of
emphasis and is not to be taken literally
› Sweat to death
› Rivers of blood
› As old as time
› A million times a day
› You make one…
Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world
-Edwin Markhan
Til a’ the seas go dry, my dear
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun!
And I will love thee still, me dear…
-Robert Burns

*Narrative poem*- a poem that tells a
story

*Ballad*- narrative poem; focuses
around one event. Typically rhymes and
has four stanzas.

http://robertfrostoutloud.com/TwoTramps
InMudTime.html
› Example of narrative/ballad


Not to be interpreted literally; creates vivid
impressions
Frequently uses poetic figures of speech
(metaphors, similes, personification)
His Countenance—a Billow—
His fingers, as He passed
Let go a music—as of tunes
Blown tremulous in Glass—
What do you think this figurative language
references? (answer on next slide)
Uses words in their ordinary sense.
 Opposite of figurative language

“GO TAKE A HIKE!”

A word or image that signifies something
other than what is literarily represented

A reference to a well-known person,
place, event, literary work, or work of art.
"Christy didn't like to spend money. She
was no Scrooge, but she seldom
purchased anything except the bare
necessities".
“You’re such a Romeo”
Figure of speech that contains two
normally contradictory words

Fun Greek etymological facts:
› Oxy – sharp; pointed
› Moros – dull
Often a writer will use an oxymoron in order to
deliberately call attention to a contradiction.

Wilfred Owen in his poem “The Send-off” refers to
soldiers leaving for the front line, who
“Lined the train with faces grimly gay."
› contradiction between how the soldiers feel and how they
act
› though putting on a brave face and acting gay, they
actually feel grim.

Some examples of deliberate oxymorons include:
›
›
›
›
Deafening silence
Sweet sorrow
Forward retreat
Accidentally on Purpose
(contradiction in terms..mostly without sense of paradox)

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









Bittersweet
Controlled chaos
Icy hot
Same difference
Living dead (i.e. the undead)
Open secret
Organized mess
Dry Ice
Oxymoron
Jumbo shrimp
Biggie Smalls
Sober Drunk
Black light
Unconscious thought
The use of a word to represent or imitate
natural sounds
(buzz, crunch, tinkle, gurgle, sizzle, hiss,
ribbit, cock-a-doodle-do)
Clang battleaxe and clash brand!
Let the king reign.
Identify Onomatopoeia
“The moan of doves in immemorial elms
And murmuring of innumerable bees”
Identify Onomatopoeia

*Rhyme* (the pairing of words that sound
the same)
*Onomatopoeia* (words which sound
like their meaning: snap, bang,
crack)…you just defined this
 Assonance
 Consonance
 Alliteration


The repetition of initial letter or sound in
two or more words
› “What a wonderful way to wash the
windows”
› How much dew could a dewdrop drop if a
dew drop did drop dew?
A Tutor who tooted the flute
Tried to teach two young tooters to toot:
?
Said the two to the Tutor,
“is it harder to toot, or
To tutor two tooters to toot?

the repetition of consonant sounds with
a line of verse.
› Consonance is similar to alliteration except
that consonance doesn’t limit the repeated
sound to the initial letter of a word
But such a tide as moving seems asleep
full for sound and foam
Oh yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill
To pangs of nature, sins of will
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood
The splendor falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story
The long light shakes across the lakes
And the wild cataract leaps in glory
the repetition of vowel sounds in two or
more words
 It’s sometimes called partial or near
rhyme

›
›
›
›
›
›
Lake & Stake = Rhyme
Lake & Fate = Assonance
Base & Face = Rhyme
Lake & Fate = Assonance
“The mule told you the truth”
fleet feet sweep by sleeping Greeks.
And stepping softly with her air of blooded ruin about
the glade in a frail agony of grace she trailed her
rags through dust and ashes, circling the dead fire,
the charred billets and chalk bones, the little
calcined ribcage.
The sentence abandons that sound as it continues, but returns to it for
the very last word of the sentence: "ribcage.“
 He's already emphasized this word by ending the sentence with it,
and through assonance, in the way the word chimes with those earlier
words, he further underlines its importance to this paragraph.

You might quickly be aware of alliteration or even consonance; however,
assonance tends to work more subtly, setting tone and mood in an almost
subconscious way, the way music does.
Higher sounds can increase the energy level in prose while longer vowel sounds,
long As and OOs, for instance, slow it down and provide a more somber feeling.



Rhyme (the pairing of words that sound the
same)
Onomatopoeia (words which sound like their
meaning: snap, bang, crack)
Alliteration - the repetition of a sound in the
beginning of a word
› “What a wonderful way to wash the windows”)

Assonance-the repetition of vowel sounds
› “The mule told you the truth”

Consonance -he repetition of consonants:
› “The dog waggled its goofy tail”

These terms should be under your belt—
(figuratively speaking….)
›
›
›
›
›
›
›
›
Metaphor
Personification
Symbol
Hyperbole
Literal
Figurative
Symbolic
Onomatopoeia
This ends “vocab unit one”
 Meaning, this is your homework due for
Wednesday. We will go over the
remainder in class. If you’d like to browse
through the words, go ahead.


Thanks for watching 
THIS IS A RECTANGLE:
it is a four-sided figured with
four right angles.
This one is also a
square……why?
THIS IS ALSO A
RECTANGLE:
it is a four-sided
figured with four right
angles.
THEREFOREA square is a more
specific kind of
rectangle.
Synecdoche has a similar relationship with Metonymy.
Stay tuned to find out more
The substitution of a word through naming an object
for another word closely associated with it.
Pay tribute to the crown

(crown substituted for king)
›
What word is crown a substitution for?
The white house has declared ….

White house = president
›
What word white house a
substitution for?
The pen is mightier than the sword

Pen = written word; sword= brawn
›
Identify metonymy

He had to sweat for his bread
1.
Sweat = hard work ; bread = food; livelihood
Damages
destructive effects
money paid in compensation
Word
a unit of language
a promise
(to give/keep/break one's word); a
conversation (to have a word
with)
Sweat
perspiration
hard work
Tongue
Oral Muscle
a language or dialect
The Press
Printing Press
The news media
Houston
largest city in the state of
Texas
NASA Mission Control. from the
phrase “Houston, we have a
problem”
Let’s pump some iron and make some paper
Mentioning a part of something to
represent the whole
All hands on deck
 Give us this day our daily bread
 "His parents bought him a new set of
wheels."

Select one and explain:
Why this is synecdoche? Why is it more than metonymy?
Ten thousand eyes were on him as he
rubbed his hands in the dirt
Five thousand tongues applaud when he
wiped the on his shirt
Identify Synecdoche

Synecdoche is closely related to metonymy
› Term where part of one thing is used to refer to the whole
› Term where one thing is used to refer to a related thing

Synecdoche is considered a subclass of metonymy.

It is more distantly related to other figures of speech, such
as metaphor

In some ways, metonymy and synecdoche may be
considered as sub-species of metaphor, intending
metaphor as a type of conceptual substitution
METAPHOR. METONYMY. SYNEDOCHE
Quadrilateral
Figures of Speech
=Parallelogram
(note this is a simile:
Quadrilateral
distinctions
are like figures of
Rectangle
speech)
Metaphor
Metaphor
Metonymy
Metonymy
Synecdoche
Square
Synecdoche

Apostrophe is the addressing of
someone or something usually not
present, as though present

O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is
done (Walt Whitman)

Death, be not proud, though some have
called thee mighty and dreadful
What poetic devices are used here?
…
YO, I GOT THAT HIT THAT BEAT THE BLOCK
…
THEM CHICKENS COPY MY STYLE
…
I GOT THAT BOOM BOOM POW!
Identify Apostrophe, Metonymy, and Synecdoche
AUGMENT YOUR NOTES
•
Flip to the back and write a summary of “Casey
and the Bat”
• Write one example of synecdoche and one example
of hyperbole
•
Write a block for Music I heard:
• Summary; example of metonymy and apostrophe

You should have a developing
knowledge of these terms:
› Synecdoche
› Metonymy
› The difference between the two and the
difference between those two and
metaphor
› Apostrophe

Understand responsibilities for library tomorrow
› (COME HERE FIRST…WE WILL BE GOING OVER
HOMEWORK)


Fully understand words from previous slides
Build an understanding of sound devices:
› Alliteration
› Consonance
› Assonance

Understand plot and poetic devices in “The
Wreck of the Hesperus”

The Wreck of the Hesperus – Longfellow

a pattern or sequence where the rhyme
occurs

(abab cdcd for Two tramps)

rhythm: the pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables in a line.
meter: the number of feet in a line.
scansion: Describing the rhythms of
poetry by dividing the lines into feet,
marking the locations of stressed and
unstressed syllables, and counting the
syllables.



Thus, when we describe the rhythm of a poem,
we “scan” the poem and mark the stresses (/)
and absences of stress (^) and count the
number of feet.
In English, the major feet are:
iamb (^/)
^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / The
falling out of faithful friends, renewing is of
love
trochee (/^)
/^/^/
^/^
Double, double toil and
trouble
anapest
(^^/)
^^/^^/^^/
I am
monarch of all I survey

Iambic and anapestic meters are called
rising meters because their movement
rises from unstressed syllable to stressed;
trochaic and dactylic meters are called
falling. In the twentieth century, the
bouncing meters--anapestic and
dactylic--have been used more often for
comic verse than for serious poetry.



A frequently heard metrical description is iambic
pentameter: a line of five iambs. This is a meter
especially familiar because it occurs in all blank verse
(such as Shakespeare’s plays), heroic couplets, and
sonnets.
Pentameter is one name for the number of feet in a
line. The commonly used names for line lengths are:
monometer one foot
pentameter five feet
dimeter two feet
hexameter six feet
trimeter three feet
heptameter seven feet
tetrameter four feet
octameter eight feet

The scansion of this quatrain from Shakespeare’s
Sonnet 73 shows the following accents and divisions
into feet (note the following words were split: behold,
yellow, upon, against, ruin'd):

^/^/^/^/^/
That time | of year | thou
mayst | in me | be hold | ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^
/
When yel | low leaves, | or none, | or few, |
do hang | ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /
Up on | those
boughs | which shake | a gainst | the cold,
|
^/^/^/^/^/
Bare ru | in'd choirs |
where late | the sweet birds sang |


From this, we see the rhythm of this quatrain is made up of one unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable,
called an iambic foot. We also see there are five feet per line, making the meter of the line pentameter. So, the rhythm and
meter are iambic pentameter.
Yes, that’s all very lovely, but why do we study rhythm? People have a basic need for rhythm, or for the effect produced by
it, as laboratory experiments in psychology have demonstrated, and as you can see by watching a crew of workers
digging or hammering, or by listening to chants and work songs. Rhythm gives pleasure and a more emotional response to
the listener or reader because it establishes a pattern of expectations, and rewards the listener or reader with the pleasure
that comes from having those expectations fulfilled, or the noted change in a rhythm, as in the Yeats example.
An argument might be raised against scanning: isn’t it too simple to expect that all language can be divided into neat
stressed and unstressed syllables? Of course it is. There are infinite levels of stress, from the loudest scream to the faintest
whisper. But, the idea in scanning a poem is not to reproduce the sound of a human voice. A tape recorder can do that.
To scan a poem is to make a diagram of the stresses and absence of stress we find in it. Studying rhythms, “scanning,” is not
just a way of pointing to syllables; it is also a matter of listening to a poem and making sense of it. To scan a poem is one
way to indicate how to read it aloud; in order to see where stresses fall, you have to see the places where the poet wishes
to put emphasis. That is why when scanning a poem you may find yourself suddenly understanding it.
In everyday life, nobody speaks or writes in perfect iambic rhythm, except at moments: “a HAM on RYE and HIT the MUStard
HARD!” Poets don’t even write in iambic very long, although when they do, they have chosen iambic because it is the
rhythm that most closely resemble everyday speech.
And even after this lengthy discussion of rhythm, it must be stated that most poems do not employ the same rhythm
throughout. Variety in rhythm is not merely desirable, it is a necessity. If the beat of its words slips into a mechanical pattern,
the poem marches robot-like right into its grave. Very few poets favor rhythms that go “a TROT a TROT a TROT a TROT” for
very long. Robert Frost told an audience one time that if when writing a poem he found its rhythm becoming monotonous,
he knew that the poem was going wrong and that he himself didn’t believe what it was saying.
 Pattern
of stressed and unstressed
syllables established in a line
› Stressed syllable (‘) is the accented or
long syllable
› Unstressed (u) is unaccented or short
syllable
› Meter signifies both TYPE of pattern and
NUMBER OF PATTERN

unit of meter (two or three syllables)

Iambic- two syllable foot with stress on
second syllable
› Below; delight; a muse
 A/ book /of /over/ seas/ un/ der/ neath /the/
bough
 A /jug / of /wine/ a /loaf/ of /bread /–and
/though/

AS OPPOSED TO Dou/ ble, / dou / ble/ toil /and/ trou/ble
 Fire/ burn/ and /caul /dron /bub/ble

Blank verse is a type of poetry,
distinguished by having a regular meter
but no rhyme.
› Like Shakespeare
Rhyme verse- poetry that has an
identifiable rhyme scheme
 Free Verse- poetry with no meter or
rhyme scheme; prose.
