Capturing the ordinary
in
an extraordinary way
“Poetry is a concentrated form of
writing; so much meaning is packed
into such a little space. Therefore,
each word in a poem is very important
and is chosen very carefully to convey
just the right meaning.”
 Verse – a poem, a piece of
poetry, a line of poetry
 Prose – the ordinary form of
spoken or written language,
without metrical structure
 The speaker is the voice talking to
the reader in a poem.
 The speaker is not always the poet.
 Think of the speaker as a character
the poet has created.
 The speaker may be an animal, an
object, or an idea.
SPEAKER
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The voice in a poem
Does not have to be the
poet
NARRATOR
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The person telling the story
in a short story or novel
Does not have to be the
writer
Example: Harry Potter and
J.K. Rowlings
 It could be playing a sport, sunning on a
beach, walking your dog, picnicking at
the park, snowboarding on the
mountain, etc.
 Write a paragraph describing your
favorite outdoor activity?
 Describe using your five senses (sights,
sounds, smells, taste, & touch).
 It’s a long narrative poem written in
formal, elegant language that tells
about a series of quests undertaken
by a great hero.
 In the ancient epics this hero is a
warrior who embodies the values
cherished by the culture that recites
the epic.
 “Casey at the Bat” is a short
narrative poem that imitates the old
epic tales, but in a comical way.
 A narrative poem tells a story and,
like fiction, contains characters,
settings, and plots.
Exposition – background information on the
characters and the present situation
 Conflict/complication – a struggle between
opposing characters or opposing forces
 Climax – the turning point in the story that
creates the greatest suspense or interest (right
before the story changes course)
 Resolution – the final part of the story in which
the conflict is resolved and the story is brought
to a close

 Stanza is a group of consecutive lines in
a poem that forms a single unit.
 A stanza in a poem is something like a
paragraph in prose.
 It often expresses a unit of thought.
 A stanza may consist of any number of
lines; it may even consist of a single
line.
Read “Casey at the Bat”
Note the exposition,
conflict/complication, climax, and
resolution of the poem.
How many lines in a stanza in this
poem?
Figurative Language
 These are expressions that are
not literally true.
 The purpose is to create fresh
and original descriptions.
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Metaphor
Simile
Personification
Hyperbole
 It directly compares two very
different things.
 The moon was a golden grapefruit
high up in the sky.
 It directly compares two very
different things using like, such as,
as, than, or resembles.
 The moon looked like a gleaming
new penny.
 Giving human qualities to an animal,
object, or idea
 The moon smiled down on all the
creatures of the forest.
 The wind tapped at my window.
 Poetry dances across the white
canvas with grace and beauty.
 Extreme exaggeration for the
purpose of emphasis or humor
 He was so hungry he ate the entire
Double-Double in five seconds.
 The sun blinded my eyes.
Figurative Language Practice
Write a poem on your
favorite outdoor activity
using figurative language
Symbolism - A symbol is a person, a
place, a thing, or an event that
stands for something beyond its
dictionary meaning.
 A tree
 Dictionary definition
It’s a plant having a permanently woody
main stem or trunk.
 Meaning beyond the dictionary
It could symbolize life or strength.
 The rain might symbolize sadness.
 What does this symbolize?
 Denotation – the dictionary
definition of a word
 Connotation – a meaning,
association, or emotion suggested
by a word, in addition to its
dictionary definition
 Connotation is important in
symbolism.
DENOTATION
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You could use either
“determined” or
“pigheaded” to describe a
person.
They both describe a person
who is very decided or
resolved on an idea.
CONNOTATION
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Determined – positive
association
Pigheaded – negative
association
DENOTATION

What is the denotation of
house and home?
CONNOTATION

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Is there a connotation for
house?
Is there a connotation for
home?
Is there an object in your life that
symbolizes something important to
you? It could be an old toy or a
favorite book or maybe a food that
brings back memories. Your object
may represent happy times or sad
times.
 Write a paragraph about your
favorite object. What does this
object symbolize?
 Describe your object and choose your
diction wisely. Think about
denotation and connotation of
certain words as you write.
Read “My Mother Pieced Quilts”
Pay attention to the symbolism,
diction, denotation, and connotation.
“My Mother Pieced Quilts” is written
in free verse
Free verse is poetry without a regular
meter or rhyme scheme.
Free verse imitates natural speech.
Write a poem about
your favorite object.
Imagery
 Language that appeals to the senses
 Use sensory details to help the
reader imagine how things look,
feel, smell, sound, and taste.
 “Succulent peaches we devour, dusty
skin and all” (Taste)
 “Her hair, heavy and black as
calligrapher’s ink” (Sight)
 “The long grain is softening in the
water, gurgling over a low stove flame”
(Sound)
Write a paragraph about the best gift
you could ever have.
The gift does not have to be a
material object.
It can be a special day spent at a
special place or it could be something
nice someone did for you.
What makes this gift so special?
Describe the gift using descriptive
and figurative language (i.e. simile,
metaphor, personification, hyperbole).
Read “The Gift”
Pay attention to the symbolism
and imagery
Write a poem about
the best gift you can ever receive.
Alliteration
 It is the repetition of consonant
sounds at the beginning of words.
 He sways his head from side to side,
with movements like a snake.
 It does NOT have to start with the
same letter!
CK
How would you describe yourself?
Write a paragraph about yourself
using descriptive and figurative
language (i.e. simile, metaphor,
personification, hyperbole).
Try adding alliteration.
Read “Identity”
Pay attention to the symbolism,
imagery, and alliteration.
Write a poem about
your identity.
What is love?
Write a paragraph describing what
love is. It does not have to be
romantic love. It can be love for
family, friends, humanity, or a
material object.
 Use similes and metaphors.
Onomatopoeia
 The use of words whose sounds
imitate or suggest their meaning.
 Buzz, rustle, boom, tick tock, tweet,
and bark
 “Outside, / A few cars hissing past”
Read “Oranges”
Pay attention to the symbolism,
imagery, and onomatopoeia.
 A fourteen-line poem, usually
written in iambic pentameter.
 There are two kinds of sonnets:
 English (a.k.a. Shakespearean or
Elizabethan)
 Italian (a.k.a. Petrarchan)
 A line of poetry that contains 5 beats
 Has the pattern of unstressed
syllable followed by a stressed
syllable
 Example:
 It has three quatrains
 It ends with a couplet
 Example:
 4 lines
 4 lines
 4 lines
 2 lines
 A quatrain is a four-line stanza
 A couplet is a two-line stanza
 Rhyme is the repetition of accented
vowel sounds and all sounds
following them in words that are
close together in a poem.
 “Mean” and “screen” are rhymes, as
are “crumble” and “tumble.”
 The pattern of end rhymes
 English sonnets have this rhyme
scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
 That means the end of these lines
rhyme: 1 & 3, 2 & 4, and so on
ENGLISH
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The 1st two quatrains
presents an idea.
The 3rd quatrain takes a
turn, sometimes
introducing something
unexpected.
The couplet summarizes
the point of the sonnet.
Rhyme scheme: abab
cdcd efef gg
ITALIAN
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The speaker poses a
question or makes a
point in the first eight
lines.
The response to the
question or point comes
in the last six lines.
Rhyme scheme
 abbaabba cdecde or
 abbaabba cdccdc
 Christina Rossetti’s “A Birthday”
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s
“Sonnet 43”
 William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130”
Write a poem that centers around the
concept of love.
It doesn’t have to be about romance. It
can be about your love for family,
friends, humanity, nature, God, an ideal,
or a material object.
 Elegy is a poem of mourning, usually
about someone who has died.
 What would the tone of this poem
be like?
 What would the mood of this poem
be like?
 The attitude a writer takes toward
his or her subject, characters, and
audience is the tone.
 In “Casey at the Bat,” the tone is
humorous.
 In “I Have a Dream” the tone is
passionate and sincere.
 The overall feeling of a work of
literature.
 It can be described in one or two
adjectives, such as scary, happy, sad,
or nostalgic.
 The writer’s or speaker’s choice of
words.
 Diction can create mood and tone.
 Slang words that would be suitable
for a humorous piece like “Casey at
the Bat” would not be appropriate
for a serious essay like “A Tragedy
Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days”.
 An extended metaphor is a
metaphor that is extended, or
developed, over several lines of
writing or even throughout an entire
work.
 The metaphor is referenced more
than once in the work.
 Read “O Captain! My Captain!” by
Walt Whitman (447).
 Pay attention to the tone, mood,
and extended metaphor in this
poem.
 Lyric poem is a poem that expresses
the feelings or thoughts of a speaker
rather than telling a story.
 Lyric poems are usually short and
imply, rather than directly state, a
single strong emotion or idea.
A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.
 Ode is a lyric poem, rhymed or
unrhymed, on a serious subject.
 Odes are usually addressed to one
person or thing. In “Oda a las
gracias/ Ode to Thanks” (437-438),
Pablo Neruda praises the word
thanks.
 Read “Oda a las gracias/ Ode to
Thanks” (437-438).
 What do you think would be the
tone and mood of this poem?
Write an elegy, ode, or lyric poem
about anything.
Let’s brainstorm some ideas!
 A ballad is a song or songlike poem
that tells a story.
 A narrative poem sounds like a
story.
 A ballad has a sing-song quality to it.
Read “The Cremation of Sam McGee”
Pay attention to the plot, the sing-
song quality of the poem, and the
rhyming.
The Land of the Midnight Sun
Write a ballad about a tall tale.
You can work alone, in pairs, or in
trios.