Poetry Study Guide
What would you like to learn about
poetry?
Metaphor
• Comparison of two seemingly unlike things
without using like, as, than, or resembles.
• Almost as if a statement of fact.
• Example: The forest is a loud marketplace.
• The fog comes on little cat feet.
Simile
• A comparison of two seemingly unlike things
using a connecting word. (Like, as, than,
resembles)
• Example: The class is like a crowd at a
concert.
• Do dreams dry up like raisins in the sun?
Personification
• Language attributed to nonhuman things.
• Example: The trees yawned in the strong
breeze.
• The sky hollered with a thunderous clap.
Onomatopoeia
• The use of a word whose sound imitates its
meaning.
• Example: The bee buzzed around the flower.
• The snake hissed in the grass.
• We heard a honk right before the car accident.
Imagery
• Descriptive language
writers use to make
word pictures or
images.
• Example: Describe the
picture to the right in
your own words.
Rhythm, Rhyme, Rhyme Scheme,
Meter
• Rhythm is the pattern
created by the stressed
and unstressed syllables
of words in sequence.
• Rhyme is the repetition
of identical or similar
sounds in stressed
syllables.
• Rhyme scheme- a
pattern of end rhymes.
• Meter- controlled
pattern of rhythm.
• Free verse- no set
meter or rhyme
scheme.
• We will explore these
sound devices on
Wednesday.
Alliteration, Consonance, Assonance
• Alliteration- repetition
of initial consonant
sounds.
• Example: Sometimes,
super salmon sing
songs.
• Assonance- repetition
of vowel sounds.
• Example: I love gloves
from the oven.
• Consonance- repetition
of consonants within
nearby words in which
the separating vowels
differ.
• Examples: live/love,
lift/loft, sift/soft,
tame/time
Foreshadow
• Suggestion that something may happen
• Indication of events/actions to come
Hyperbole
• Exaggeration
• Example: This is taking forever.
• I could eat a horse.
Allusion
• A casual reference
• Example: Melinda speaks of Cubism and
Picasso.
Repetition
• Repetition- the use of
any language element
more than once.
• Example: Hughes’s
repetition of “Let
America be America
again”
Types of Poetry
• Narrative- A story is told in
verse.
• Epic- a long narrative poem
about gods and heroes.
• Ballad- songlike narrative
about an adventure or
romance.
• Lyric- a brief poem is which
the author expresses the
feelings of a single speaker.
• Dramatic- writer tells a
story using a character’s
own thoughts or
statements.
Elements of Poetry
• Stanza- groupings of lines.
• Couplets- groupings of
two lines
• Tercets- three-line stanzas
• Quatrains- four-line
stanzas
• Sestet- six-line stanza
• Octave- eight-line stanza
Sonnet and Haiku
• Sonnet- fourteen-line
lyric poem with formal
patterns of rhyme,
rhythm, and line
structure.
• See assignment for
Wednesday and
Thursday
• Haiku- poem containing
three unrhymed lines of
five, seven, and five
syllables.
• Usually used to convey
a single, vivid emotion
using imagery.
Iambic Pentameter
• Iamb- short - long
• Pentameter- five feet