PoetryNumber from 1-8 in your notebook. If you

agree with the following statements, write A. If you disagree, write D.

1. A poem looks different from a short story or play.

2. A poem always has some type of rhyme.

3. Poems are hard to read and rarely make sense.

4. A poem always conforms to the standard rules of punctuation.

5. A poem always has a hidden meaning.

6. Poems are pointless.

7. All poems can be read to the same rhythmic pattern.

8. Studying poetry is frustrating and boring.

Why poetry?

Hope is a bird

That stands inside a person

And hums

And doesn’t stop

This…?

Or this…

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all..

Poetry is the best thing written in the best way.

Figurative Language

IdiomExpression peculiar to a particular language

that means something different from the literal meaning of the words.

One of the difficulties of translating a work from another language is translating idioms.

Ex: “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

“Chip on your shoulder.”

“Piece of cake.”

Metaphor

Compares two things directly without using the words like or as

Ex: “My mother is a rock.”

“Time is a thief.”

“I’m a night owl.”

SimileFigure of speech that makes a comparison

between two seemingly unlike things by using a connective word such as like, as, than, or resembles.

Ex: "Good coffee is like friendship: rich and warm and strong."

Shrek: “Ogres are like onions.”

“Smile as bright as the sun.”

“He is faster than a cheetah.”

PersonificationA figure of speech (generally considered a

type of metaphor) in which an inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or abilities.

In other words…giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to non-living objects.

Ex: The sun-light off of the lake winked at me.

“My computer hates me.”

HyperboleA figure of speech in which exaggeration is

used for emphasis or effect.

Ex:

“I have told you a million times not to lie!”

“He has tons of money.”

“I love this class more than anything ever in my entire life.” –Ms. Rathmann’s students

ImageryLanguage that appeals to the senses.

Most images are visual, but some may also appeal to the senses of sound, smell, touch, and taste.

Ex: It smelled of rust and mold in the old shed.

Pun

The usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound. A “play on words.”

Ex: I used to be a doctor, but then I lost patients.

I used to be a Velcro salesman, but couldn't stick with it.

Sound and Metric Devices

Alliteration

Repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together.

Ex:

“Whereat with blade, with bloody blameful blade, He bravely broached his boiling bloody breast.”

-- Prolouge, Act 5, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Onomatopoeia

A word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning

Vroom

Sizzle

Swoosh

Buzz

Grrr

Crackle

plop

Fizz

Pow

Repetition

Repetition of a sound, syllable, word, phrase, line, stanza, or metrical pattern.

Ex:

“But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.”

-Robert Frost

Rhyme: End and InternalInternal Rhyme: Rhyming words found within a line

of poetry

Ex:“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary…”

End Rhyme: Words at the ends of lines that rhyme.

Ex:“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep...”

Slant Rhyme

Slant: Words that sound similar but do not rhyme exactly. In most of these instances, either the vowel segments are different while the consonants are identical, or vice versa.

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all.

Meter

A generally regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry. Meter is measured in units called feet.

Rythm

Musical quality in language, produced by repetition. Poems written in meter create rhythm by a strict pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Blank Verse

Poetry written in unrhymed meter (iambic pentameter). Blank verse means that the poetry is unrhymed.

Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in blank verse.

Free Verse

Poetry that is written without form, rhyme, rhythm, meter, etc.

Types of Poetry

Lyric PoetryA short poem about personal feelings and emotions. Uses

language to suggest (rather than state directly) a single, strong emotion.

Ex: i love you much(most beautiful darling)

more than anyone on the earth and i

like you better than everything in the sky

-sunlight and singing welcome your coming

although winter may be everywhere

with such a silence and such a darkness

noone can quite begin to guess

(except my life)the true time of year-

and if what calls itself a world should have

the luck to hear such singing(or glimpse such

sunlight as will leap higher than high

through gayer than gayest someone's heart at your each

nearness)everyone certainly would(my

most beautiful darling)believe in nothing but love

-ee cummings

Epic

A long narrative poem detailing a hero’s deeds.

Ex: The Iliad and The Odessy (Homer)

Beowulf

Don Quixote (Miguel Cervantes)

Sonnet14 lines! 2 kinds: Petrarchan (Italian) or

Shakespearean (English). It has three quatrains (four-line units) followed by a concluding couplet (two-line unit). A type of lyric poem.

Ex: Sonnet 18-(Will)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 is his gold complexion dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;

But thy 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.

Ballad

Narrative (tells a story) intended to be sung or recited. A form of narrative poetry.

Ballad too long to type...

You’re a poet…didn’t you know it!?!

• Starting small…we are going write acrostic poems!

• You can use either your name or the word of an activity or someone else’s name (pet, family member, etc.)

SIMON

Smiles at me when he is happy

Interesting and smart

Makes me happy when skies are grey

Only a dog, but don’t tell him that

Not just a dog to me.