POETRY TERMS
Literary devices and terms associated with poetry.
Persona
•
•
The speaker or narrator in the poem.
The voice in the poem is not necessarily
the poet’s.
Tone
•
•
The attitude or feeling of the poem.
Like tone of voice, the tone of the poem
communicates attitude and feeling.
“Dreams” (p. 1)
Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
1951
“A Dream Deferred” (p. 1)
Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
1951
Diction
The writer’s choice of words, phrases, sentence
structures, and figurative language all help to
create meaning.
Denotation and Connotation
DENOTATION

Dictionary definition of the
word.
CONNOTATION



Overtones, suggestions,
implications, additional
meanings.
The emotions, thoughts and
ideas associated with and
evoked by the word.
What the word makes you
think of or feel or what you
associate with the word.
Abstract and Concrete Words
CONCRETE

Tangible persons,
places, or things; who
or what we can
immediately perceive
with our senses.
ABSTRACT

Intangible ideas,
concepts, emotions, or
generalities.
Allusion


Indirect historical, cultural, or literary references that
enrich the meaning of a poem.
The reader brings his/her knowledge and
understanding of the reference to the poem.
“Grass” (p. 1)
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work—
I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg.
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
1918
Figurative Language
“Figures of speech” appeal to the imagination,
create images, and describe through the use of
interesting and unusual comparisons. Figurative
language gives us new ways to look at the world.
Imagery & Figurative Language



Imagery: Vivid, descriptive language that appeals to the
senses.
Simile: An explicit comparison between two things by
using the words “like,” “as,” “than,” “appears,” or
“seems.”
Metaphor: A direct comparison between two unlike
things, saying one thing is another, using the “to be” verb,
not “like” or “as.”
Imagery & Figurative Language


Personification: Giving animals, nature, inanimate
objects, or ideas human characteristics, abilities, reactions,
or emotions.
Anthropomorphism: Making animals, nature, inanimate
objects, or ideas into human-like figures that speak, walk
upright, wear clothes, and so on.
“Because I could not stop for Death” (712) (p. 1)
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
Or rather – He passed us –
The Dews drew quivering and chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –
We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –
We paused before a house that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Grazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –
Since then –’tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day,
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity –
1890
“
” (p. 2)
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see, I swallow immediately.
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike
I am not cruel, only truthful –
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me.
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
Written 1961, Published 1963 and 1971
“Root Cellar” (p. 1)
Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)
Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch,
Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark,
Shoots dangled and drooped,
Lolling obscenely from mildewed crates,
Hung down long yellow evil necks, like tropical snakes.
And what a congress of stinks!—
Roots ripe as old bait,
Pulpy stems, rank, silo-rich,
Leaf-mold, manure, lime, piled against slippery planks.
Nothing would give up life:
Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath.
1943
“Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter” (p. 2)
Robert Bly (b. 1926)
It is a cold and snowy night. The main street is deserted.
The only things moving are swirls of snow.
As I lift the mailbox door, I feel its cold iron.
There is a privacy I love in this snowy night.
Driving around, I will waste more time.
1962
Sound



Onomatopoeia: A word that imitates the sounds associated
with the objects or actions they refer to; words that sound like
what they describe or name; words that sound like their
meaning.
Alliteration: Repetition of the same consonant sounds in a
series of words, usually at the beginning of the words.
Assonance: The repetition of the same vowel sounds in
nearby words that do not end the same.
 "asleep under a tree" or "each evening"
 The same internal vowel sound and the same ending is
rhyme! “asleep in the deep”
“Jabberwocky” (p. 3)
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
One, two! One, two! And through and through
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
All mimsy were the borogoves,
He left it dead, and with its head
And the mome raths outgrabe.
He went galumping back.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He chortled in his joy.
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And stood awhile in thought.
And the mome raths outgrabe.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
1871
RHYME
But let’s be perfectly clear on this – not all poems
rhyme! And that’s a good thing!
Rhyme

Rhyme: Words or
phrases with an identical
or similar sound.

Exact: Identical sounds.

Near: Similar sounds.
(Also called “slant
rhyme.”)


End Rhyme: Words at the
end of the lines rhyme.
Internal Rhyme: Words
within the lines rhyme.
“To see the world in a grain of sand” (p. 2)
William Blake (1757-1827)
To see the world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
1803
Rhyme Scheme



Rhyme Scheme: The pattern of end rhyme in a
poem.
May mark the rhyme scheme of internal rhyme in a
poem, but usually refers to the pattern of end
rhyme.
Notated with lowercase letters of the alphabet,
each different letter representing a different
rhyme.
Punctuation
ENDSTOP

Line ends with some
mark of punctuation;
we pause at the end
of the line.
ENJAMBMENT

Line does not end with
punctuation; we
continue to read on to
the next line in order
to complete the
thought.
“Fire and Ice” (p. 2)
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
1923
“The Eagle” (p. 2)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
1851
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (p. 2)
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
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.
1923
From “The Raven”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
" 'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door
That I scarce was sure I heard you" — here I opened wide the door; —
Only this, and nothing more."
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
Eagerly I wished the morrow; — vainly I had tried to borrow
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for the lost Lenore
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!“
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore —
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!“
Nameless here for evermore.
Merely this, and nothing more.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Then into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Thrilled me — filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
Soon I heard again a tapping somewhat louder than before.
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;
" 'Tis some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door —
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore —
Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door; —
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;—
This it is, and nothing more."
'Tis the wind, and nothing more!"
RHYTHM
The recurrence of stressed and unstressed sounds in
poetry create the rhythm or the flow of the poem.
Rhythm
STRESS

Accented or
emphasized syllable.
UNSTRESS

Not accented or not
emphasized syllable.
Rhythm
FOOT

A unit of two or three
syllables that contains
at least one stress.
METER

The pattern of stressed
and unstressed
syllables.
Rhythm








Monometer
Dimeter
Trimeter
Tetrameter
Pentameter
Hexameter
Heptameter
Octameter
Rhythm

Iambic: Unstress Stress
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
from Romeo and Juliet

Anapestic: Unstress Unstress Stress
It was many and many a year ago
In a kingdom by the sea
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee.
from “Annabel Lee” by Poe
Rhythm

Trochaic: Stress Unstress
Tyger, tyger, burning bright
In the forest of the night
from “The Tiger” by Blake

Dactylic: Stress Unstress Unstress
This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlock,
from “Evangeline” by Longfellow
“When I was one-and-twenty” (p. 3)
A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
“Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free.”
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
“The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
‘Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.”
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, ‘tis true, ‘tis true.
1896
POETRY FORMS
Open and Closed Forms of Poetry
Poetry Forms
CLOSED FORM

Follows specific,
established pattern.
OPEN FORM


Does not attempt to
follow established
pattern.
Also called “free
verse.”
OPEN FORM
“Free verse” has no distinct rules or boundaries.
“America” (p. 2)
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Center of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
Chair’d in the adamant of Time.
1855-56
From “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” (p. 4)
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
1
When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,
And though of him I love.
2
O powerful western fallen star!
O shades of night – O moody, tearful night!
O great star disappear’d – O the black murk that hides the star!
O cruel hands that hold me powerless – O helpless soul of me!
O harsh sounding cloud that will not free my soul.
1865
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r (p. 5)
by e. e. cummings (1894-1962)
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
who
a)s w(e loo)k
upnowgath
PPEGORHRASS
eringint(oaThe):l
eA
!p:
S
a
(r
rIvInG
.gRrEaPsPhOs)
to
rea(be)rran(com)gi(e)ngly
,grasshopper;
1935
l(a) (p. 5)
e. e. cummings (1894-1962)
1(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
1958
jn Just- (p. 5)
e. e. cummings (1894-1962)
in Just-
the queer
spring
when the world is mud-
old balloonman whistles
luscious the little
far
lame balloonman
and bettyandisbel come dancing
whistles
far
and wee
and
wee
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
and eddieandbill come
it's
running from marbles and
spring
piracies and it's
and
spring
the
when the world is puddle-wonderful
goat-footed
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far
and
wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
balloonMan
whistles
far
and
wee
1923
CLOSED FORM
“Formal patterns” establish a poem’s number of
lines or stanzas, rhyme scheme, meter, syllabic
pattern, and so on.
Stanza


Stanza: The group of lines, like a paragraph or
verse, in poetry.
Type of stanza is determined by number of lines.
Types of Stanzas
TWO LINES

Couplet: 2 lines of about
the same length (about the
same number of syllables)
that work together as a
unit, whether they make up
a single stanza or are part
of a larger stanza.


Most rhyme, but they don’t
have to. (aa, bb, cc…)
Many different specific kinds
of couplets.
THREE LINES



Tercet: 3 lines that work
together as a unit, either as
a stanza or as a complete
poem.
Triplet: 3 lines that rhyme
(aaa, bbb, ccc)
Terza rima: 3 lines with
interlocking rhyme scheme
(aba, bcb, cdc, ded, efe,
etc.)
Types of Stanzas
FOUR LINES

Quatrain: 4 lines that work
together as a unit, either as
a stanza or as a complete
poem.


As a complete poem,
rhyme scheme is usually
abab
Many different kinds of
quatrains.
MORE…

Cinquain: 5 lines that work
together as a unit, either as
a stanza or as a complete
poem; many different kinds
of cinquains.

Sestet: 6 line stanza

Octet: 8 line stanza
“Three Things to Remember” (p. 3)
William Blake (1757-1827)
A Robin Redbreast in a cage,
Puts all Heaven in a rage.
A skylark wounded on the wing
Doth make a cherub cease to sing.
He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be beloved by men.
“We Real Cool” (p. 3)
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
1960
From “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” (p. 3)
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)
I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.
II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.
1917
“I have been one acquainted with the night” (p. 4)
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain - and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
1928
“This Is Just to Say” (p. 4)
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
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
1934
“The Road Not Taken” (p. 4)
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
1920
HAIKU
What is the pattern?
“Frog” (p. 5)
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto
translated by Allen Ginsberg
The old pond
A frog jumped in,
Kerplunk!
translated by Earl Miner & Hiroko Odagiri
The old pond is still
a frog leaps right into it
splashing the water
“Won’t you come and see” (p. 5)
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
淋しさを
とうてくれぬか
きりひとは
Sabishisa wo
toute kurenu ka
kiri hito ha
Won't you come and see
loneliness? Just one leaf
from the kiri tree.
“Along a mountain path” (p. 5)
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
Along a mountain path
Somehow sweet and charming –
A violet in bloom.
translated by Takafumi Saito and William R. Nelson
“The falling flower” (p. 5)
Arakida Moritake (1473-1549)
The falling flower
I saw drift back to the branch
Was a butterfly.
translated by Babette Duetsch
“Clinging to the bell” (p. 5)
Yosa Buson (1716-1783)
Clinging to the bell
he dozes so peacefully,
this new butterfly
translated by Sam Hamill
Haiku



Capture the moment; capture the intensity of a specific
moment, not a general time.
Focus on the concrete, real world, not the abstract realm
of inner thoughts and feelings.
Traditionally involve nature and suggest a season. World
view is one in which nature and the observer are one, not
separate.
HAIKU
What is the pattern?
3 lines, 19 syllables

1st line – 5 syllables

2nd line – 7 syllables

3rd line – 5 syllables
THE SONNET
What are the patterns?
Italian – “Petrarchan”
English – “Shakespearean”
“Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part” (p. 6)
Michael Drayton (1563-1631)
Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part;
Nay, I have done, you get no more of me,
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart
That thus so cleanly I myself can be free;
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of Love’s latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies,
When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And Innocence is closing up his eyes,
Now if thou wouldst, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou mightst him yet recover.
Sonnet 18 “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” (p. 6)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
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 in his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed.
But they eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet 130 “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (p. 6)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes there is more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
English Sonnets

14 lines total.

3 quatrains and 1 couplet.


Meter: Iambic Pentameter – five feet of unstress,
stress (U /). Lines are about 10 syllables long.
Rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Volta

Volta: the jump or change in direction of thought or
emotion of poem.
 In
Italian sonnet, happens in sestet.
 In
English sonnet, happens in couplet.
 For
perfect example, see Michael Drayton’s sonnet
“Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part” or
Shakespeare’s “My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the
sun.”