POETRYDevices

Rhyme Recurring identical or similar final word

sounds within or at the ends of lines of verse. Rhyme scheme refers to rhyming pattern

such as: aabb, aacc, etc.

EXAMPLES …Meet, greetGander, meanderGrand, landWhere, fair, air, bear, glare

Rhyme Scheme The Germ by Ogden Nash

A mighty creature is the germ, Though smaller than the pachyderm.

His customary dwelling place Is deep within the human race.

His childish pride he often pleases By giving people strange diseases.

Do you, my poppet, feel infirm? You probably contain a germ.

A

A

B

B

C

C

A

A

Rhythm The recurring pattern of strong and weak

syllabic stresses. When words are arranged in such a way that

they make a pattern or beat.

EXAMPLE …There once was a girl from Chicago

Who dyed her hair pink in the bathtub

I’m making a pizza the size of the sun.

Hint: hum the words instead of saying them.

Meter and Feet

Meter is a fixed pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in lines of fixed length to create a rhythm.

A foot is the basic measuring unit in a line of poetry, composed of a certain number of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Types of Meter

Iambic Pentameter: A five measure-line with ten beats (10 syllables with rising and falling stress). Contains five feet.

Monometer: One foot Dimeter: Two feet Trimeter: Three feet Tetrameter: Four feet Heptameter: Seven feet Octometer: Eight feet

Types of Feet

Iambic: Contains one unstressed and one stressed syllable pair.

EXAMPLE (using Iambic Pentameter):

“To BE comMENC’D in STRONDS aFAR reMOTE.”

Shakespeare’s Henry IV

Types of Feet

Anapest: A foot consisting of three syllables in which the first two are short or unstressed and the final one is long or stressed.

“Twas the NIGHT before CHRISTMAS, when all THROUGH the HOUSE …”

Types of Feet

Trochee: A foot that has two syllables in which the first is long or stressed, and the second is short and unstressed.

EXAMPLE:

“DOUble, DOUble, TOIL and TROUble …”

Shakespeare’s MacBeth

Types of Feet

Dactyl: A foot of three syllables in which the first is long or stressed, and the next two are unstressed or short.

EXAMPLE:

“TAKE her up TENderly …”

Stanzas

Couplet = a two line stanza

Triplet (Tercet) = a three line stanza

Quatrain = a four line stanza

Quintet = a five line stanza

Sestet (Sextet) = a six line stanza

Septet = a seven line stanza

Octave = an eight line stanza

POETIC SOUNDS

Repetition

Repeated use of sounds, words, or ideas for effect and emphasis.

EXAMPLES …Refrains …

NobodyNo, nobodyCan make it out here alone.Alone, all aloneNobody, but nobodyCan make it out here alone.

Alliteration

When the first sounds of words repeat.

EXAMPLES …

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

Sam sold starfish by the seasideStone Hill school stingrays

Assonance

Repetition of vowels sounds.

EXAMPLES …

Mad hatterFive timerSake of fate

Consonance Repetition of consonant sounds in the

middle or end of words.

Vowels: a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.

Consonants: all other letters.

EXAMPLES …East/west, Fast/twist, Want/font, Hop/sapMammals named Sam are clammy.Curse, bless me now! With fierce tears I prey.

Onomatopoeia

When a word’s pronunciation imitates its sound.

EXAMPLES …Buzz Woof FizzSizzle Hiss BoomWhap Clink BeepVroom Zip Click

Practice I’ll put some lines of poetry on the board

and you write down what type of poetic device is being used:

Alliteration, Consonance, Assonance, Repetition, Rhythm, Rhyme, Onomatopoeia

NOTE: Some poems use more than one technique.

PRACTICE #1

The cuckoo in our cuckoo clock

was wedded to an octopus.

She laid a single wooden egg

and hatched a cuckoocloctopus

PRACTICE #2

They are building a house

half a block down

and I sit up here

with the shades down

listening to the sounds,

the hammers pounding in nails,

thack thack thack thack,

and then I hear birds,

and thack thack thack,

PRACTICE #3

very little love is not so bad

or very little life

what counts

is waiting on walls

I was born for this

I was born to hustle roses down the

avenues of the dead.

PRACTICE #4

The whiskey on your breath

Could make a small boy dizzy;

But I hung on like death:

Such waltzing was not easy.

PRACTICE #5

Homework! Oh, homework!I hate you! You stink!I wish I could wash youaway in the sink.

ANSWERS

1. Repetition, rhythm, rhyme, consonance, and light alliteration.

2. Onomatopoeia, consonance, repetition

3. Alliteration, repetition

4. Rhythm, rhyme, light alliteration

5. Repetition, rhyme, rhythm