Poetic Terminology

Grade Nine Edition

There are several aspects of poetry that make it unique. Some of these include: 1- Repetition 2- Rhyme Scheme 3- Rhythm 4- Style 5- Theme 6- Tone 7- Diction 8- Other literary devices

Please view PP to find definitions.

1- Repetitions

repeating a word or a phrase in a poem to

give that word or phrase extra meaning or

emphasis. And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep. Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Because I do not hope to turn againBecause I do not hopeBecause I do not hope to turn....

T.S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

2- Rhyme Scheme

be similar in sound, especially with respect to

the last syllable. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.All the King's horses, And all the King's menCouldn't put Humpty together again!

3- Rhythm

the arrangement of spoken words alternating

stressed and unstressed elements.

When IN / dis GRACE / with FOR / tune AND /

men’s EYES

I ALL / a LONE / be WEEP / my OUT/ cast STATE William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29

4- Style

the way in which a poem is written. It includes

the length of meters, number of stanzas,

subject matter, rhyming technique, rhythm etc.

Haiku: A three-line poem in any language, with five

syllables in the first and last lines and seven

syllables in the second, usually with an emphasis on

the season or a naturalistic theme. Haiku, a poem

five beats, then seven, then five ends as it began.

5- Theme

a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in

literary work. The controlling message or idea

of a poem. It may be suggested by a title or

repetition, but it is almost never explicitly

stated.

A theme in Wordsworth’s poems are

innocence and the loss of innocence.

6- Tone

the mood a poem creates within the reader. Much of the

tone depends on the interpretation of the poem. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and

weary,Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -Only this, and nothing more.‘

Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven

7- Diction

the manner in which something is expressed in words. 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

William Carlos Williams, This is Just to Say

8- Literary Devices The following slides are a list of common

literary devices.

Alliteration

use of the same initial sound at the beginning

of each stressed syllable in a line of verse.

Around the rock the ragged rascal ran.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Sally sells seashells by the seashore.

How much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a

woodchuck could chuck wood?

Allusion

is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of a place,

event, literary work, myth, or work of art, either directly or by implication.

M.H. Abrams defined allusion as “a brief reference, explicit or indirect, to a

person, place or event, or to another literary work or passage”.

It is left to the reader or hearer to make the connection where the

connection is detailed in depth by the author, it is preferable to call it “a

reference”

April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing /

Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain.

The Wasteland, T.S. Eliot

Hyperbole

extreme exaggeration or overstatement;

especially as a literary or rhetorical device;

deliberate exaggeration.

I could eat a horse.

I have a million things to do today.

Imagery

an iconic, mental representation. Let us go then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells.

T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock

Irony

a figure of speech referring to a difference

between the way something appears and what

is actually true. It allows us to say something

but to mean something else, whether we are

being sarcastic, exaggerating, or understating. Water, water, every where,

And all the boards did shrink;Water, water, every where,Nor any drop to drink.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Metaphor

a figure of speech in which an expression is

used to refer to something that it does not

literally denote in order to suggest a similarity.

Time is flying/running out/money.

Onomatopoeia

using words that imitate the sound they

denote.

Pow, bam, kerplunk, splash

Oxymoron conjoining contradictory terms; a paradox. Deafening silence Virtual reality Definitely maybe

Personification

the act of attributing human characteristics to

abstract

ideas, etc. I am silver and exact. I have no

preconceptions.Whatever I see, I swallow immediately.Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislikeI am not cruel, only truthful –

Sylvia Plath, Mirror

Pun

an expression that uses a homonym (two different

words spelled identically) to deliver two or more

meanings at the same time. (it’s usually pretty punny)

I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. It's impossible

to put down.

I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then

it hit me.

The psychotic florist created many flower

derangements.

Simile

a figure of speech that expresses a

resemblance between things of different

kinds. (usually formed with `like' or `as')

As pretty as a picture, as red as a rose, quiet

as a mouse

Symbol

something visible that by association or

convention represents something else that is

invisible. Some symbols are widespread others

are more fluid and change along with society. Pumpkin representing Hallowe’en Black indicating a sad, dark, morose feeling Dove representing purity and peace Lamb representing innocence and sacrifice

One last piece of info… Found on next slide

Stanza A subdivision of a poem consisting of lines grouped together, often in

recurring patterns of rhyme, line length, and meter. Stanzas may also

serve as units of thought in a poem much like paragraphs in prose.

"WHY, William, on that old grey stone,

Thus for the length of half a day,

Why, William, sit you thus alone,

And dream your time away?

"Where are your books?--that light bequeathed

To Beings else forlorn and blind!

Up! up! and drink the spirit breathed

From dead men to their kind. William Wordsworth, Expostulation and Reply