POETRY
What is poetry?????
• Poetry- A piece of writing used to convey
images, feelings and emotions.
• Poetry can appear in many different forms.
Can be short or long.
• Poetry CAN rhyme, but does not have to.
What is Figurative Language?
• Figurative Language- Language
enriched by word meanings and figures of
speech – when you give something you say
a little extra
• The poet is trying to make you “figure”
something out.
Figurative Language
• Metaphor- compares two different things
without like or as
Ex.: For ever since that time you went away
I've been a rabbit burrowed in the wood
Simile- compares two different things
using like or as (sometimes than)
Ex.:
Joe is like an old bull
He is as cunning as a fox
Figurative Language
• Personification- giving human qualities to
things that are not human, like animals or
trees or rivers.
Ex- The wind whistled through the
trees
Bugs Bunny
Practice identifying figurative
language
On a starry winter night in Portugal
Where the ocean kissed the southern shore
There a dream I never thought would come to pass
Came and went like time spent through an hourglass
-Teena Marie, “Portuguese Love
Figurative Language
• Hyperbole- figure of speech which is
an exaggeration
- I nearly died laughing
- I tried a thousand times
• You’re so… jokes
-My dog is so ugly I have to tie a $100 bill on it so people
will pet it!
-My aunt is so fat you have to take 2 trains and a bus to
get on her good side.
Figurative Language
• Imagery – appeals to the reader’s senses;
can create mood or evoke emotions
Different senses:
Sight – visual imagery
Touch – tactile imagery
Sound – auditory imagery
Taste – gustatory imagery
Smell – olfactory imagery
Movement – kinesthetic imagery
Figurative Language: Examples
of Imagery
For the life of him, he couldn't figure why
these East Enders called themselves black.
He kept looking and looking, and the colors
he found were gingersnap and light fudge
and dark fudge and acorn and butter rum and
cinnamon and burnt orange. But never
licorice, which, to him, was real black.
(excerpt from Maniac Magee)
Figurative Language: Examples
of Imagery
• "....Which has its sounds, familiar, like the
roar Of trees and crack of branches,
common things, But nothing so like
beating on a box" (From 'An Old Mans
Winter Night' by Robert Frost)
Figurative Language: Examples
of Imagery
• "The clay oozed between Jeremy's fingers as he
let out a squeal of pure glee."
• "With a wild rattle and clatter, and an inhuman
abandonment of consideration not easy to be
understood in these days, the carriage dashed
through streets and swept round corners, with
women screaming before it, and men clutching
each other and clutching children out of its way.
(excerpt from 'A tale of two cities' by Charles
Dickens
Figurative Language: Examples
of Imagery
• "I was awakened by the strong smell of a
freshly brewed coffee."
• "Gio's socks, still soaked with sweat from
Tuesday's P.E. class, filled the classroom
with an aroma akin to that of salty, weekold, rotting fish"
Figurative Language: Examples
of Imagery
• "Tumbling through the ocean water after being
overtaken by the monstrous wave, Mark
unintentionally took a gulp of the briny, bitter
mass, causing him to cough and gag.“
• "I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox
and which you were probably saving for
breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so
sweet and so cold" (From the poem "This Is Just
to Say" by William Carlos Williams)
Figurative Language: Types of
Imagery
• 'The bed linens might just as well be ice
and the clothes snow.' From Robert Frost's
"The Witch of Coos"
• “The cold water felt like heaven as it
washed over her burning hand that sizzled
with heat and bubbled with blisters. She
basked in the temporary relief, but was
awakened to the stinging pain of the angry
burn.”
Figurative Language
• Symbolism- using a sign, word, sound or object
to represent a thing, quality or idea
• Example:
• Dove = peace
• Rain = cleansing/sadness
• Lion = bravery
Figurative Language
• Idiom – a figure of speech that does not
make sense if you take each individual
element literally
• “It’s raining cats and dogs”
• “Draw the line”
• “Icing on the cake”
• Cliché – overused figure of speech – one
hears/uses it often
Figurative Language
• Allusion- When a piece of work references
something that is popular in pop culture or
from another movie or book.
• Ex. Brian’s task required Herculean
strength.
• She was a modern day Sleeping Beauty.
Sound Devices in Poetry
Onomatopoeia- word that imitates the sound
it represents
Ex- Buzz, Tap, Zip
Sound Devices in Poetry
• Alliteration- repeating the same beginning
sounds throughout the lines of a poem
Ex.: I hear the lake water lapping with low
sounds by the shore...
Poetic Elements
• Refrain- Repetition of a word or phrase
• Lines- ONE line of a poem
• Stanza- One of the divisions of a poem,
composed of two or more lines usually
characterized by a common pattern of
meter, rhyme, and number of lines.
Poetic Elements
Rhyme Scheme- The pattern in which the
last word of the lines of a poem rhyme.
The first rhyming sound is labeled as “A”.
The second rhyming sound is labeled “B”
and so on and so forth.
Example:
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Sugar is sweet
And so are you
(A)
(B)
(C) Our love is dead…
(B)
Hula Eel
Take an eel,
Make a loop,
Use him as a hula hoop.
Feel him twist and twirl and spin,
Down your ankles, round your chin,
Tigher, tighter, tighter yet,
Ain't an eel a lovely pet?
Hey-answer when I talk to youDon't just stand there turning blue
Forms of Poetry
• As mentioned earlier, poetry can appear in
many different forms. These are the
following forms that we will study in class:
- Haiku
- Free Verse
- Limerick
- Sonnet
- Ballad or Narrative Poetry
Haiku
• a three line poem, typically dealing with
nature; 17 total syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern
• Originated in Japan
Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don’t make sense
Refrigerator
Examples of Haiku
The red blossom bends
and drips its dew to the ground.
Like a tear it falls
on the Chinese vase
the flowers retain brightness
- - pouring out water.
Limericks
• a humorous form consisting on five lines.
Lines 1, 2 and 5 are long and they all
rhyme. Lines 3 and 4 are short and they
rhyme.
• Rhyme scheme is AABBA
• Typically start with “There once was…”
• Originated in Ireland
Example of a Limerick
There was a farmer from Leeds,
Who ate six packets of seeds,
It soon came to pass,
He was covered with grass,
And he couldn't sit down for the weeds!
Example of a Limerick
There was a young hunter named Shepherd
Who was eaten for lunch by a leopard.
Said the leopard, "Egad!
You'd be tastier, lad
If you had been salted and peppered!"
Sonnet
• a 14 line poem with a set rhyme scheme and
metrical pattern
• Made famous by William Shakespeare
• A typical line of a sonnet has ten syllables and is
written in Iambic Pentameter. This means that
every other syllable is accented, so it sounds
sing-songy
• A basic Rhyme Scheme For a Shakespearean
Sonnet is as follows:
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
• SONNET 18
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.
Ballad or Narrative Poetry
• A ballad is a Narrative Poem (tells a story) and can be
sung, but doesn’t have to be.
• Often times has a refrain or some sort of repetition
• Usually rhymes in some way, but there is not set rhyming
pattern.
• An example of a ballad is “Casey at The Bat” By Ernest
Thayer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-2lXQQcXb8
Free Verse
• no set pattern; may or may not include
rhyme
• Usually follows some sort of metrical
pattern, but doesn’t have to