2. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Poetry Vocabulary
Poetry is literature that uses a few
words to tell about ideas, feelings and
paints a picture in the readers mind.
Most poems were written to be read
aloud.
Poems may or may not rhyme.
3. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Form
The form of a poem is the way that it
looks on the page.
4. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
What a poem looks like:
Bad Hair Day
I looked in the mirror
with shock and with dread
to discover two antlers
had sprung from my head.
Stanza
Rhyming words
line
5. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Lines
The way that poets arrange words into
lines.
The lines may or may not be sentences.
6. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Stanzas
Groups of lines in traditional poetry.
What Bugs Me
When my teacher tells me to write a poem.
When my mother tells me to clean up my room.
When my sister practices her violin while I’m watching TV.
When my father tells me to turn off the TV and do my
homework.
When my brother picks a fight with me and I have to go to
bed early.
When my teacher asks me to get up in front of the class and
read the poem I wrote on the school bus.
Stanza
7. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Free Verse
Poems that do not usually rhyme and
have no fixed rhythm or pattern. They
are written like a conversation.
8. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Sound Devices
Elements of poetry that use one type of
sound related characteristic.
Rhythm
Meter
Rhyme
Onomatopoeia
And more ...
9. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Rhythm
The beat of the poem.
These are made up patterns of strong
and weak syllables.
10. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Meter
A pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables.
Meter occurs when the stressed and
unstressed syllables of the words in a poem
are arranged in a repeating pattern.
When poets write in meter, they count out the
number of stressed (strong) syllables and
unstressed (weak) syllables for each line.
They repeat the pattern throughout the poem.
11. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Rhyme
Sounds that are alike at the end of
words, such as snow and crow.
There are several types of rhyme such
as end rhyme like run and fun,
internal rhyme as in:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak
and weary.
and near rhyme -- words that do not
exactly rhyme such as rose and lose.
12. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Sample Rhyme scheme
The Germ
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
13. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Alliteration
Consonant sounds repeated at the
beginnings of words
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
peppers, how many pickled peppers did
Peter Piper pick?
14. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Onomatopoeia
Words that imitate the sound they are
naming:
BUZZ
OR sounds that imitate another sound
“The silken, sad, uncertain, rustling of
each purple curtain . . .”
15. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Repetition
The repeating of sounds, words, phrases,
or lines in a poem.
I like popcorn!
I like candy!
I like chips!
I like ice cream!
I need to brush my teeth!
16. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Figurative Language and Other
Poetic Devices
Figurative language
Imagery
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Tone
Assonance
Symbolism
Idiom
Hyperbole
17. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Figurative Language
Words and phrases that help the reader
picture things in a new way.
Example:
She heard music when he kissed her.
18. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Imagery
Words or phrases that appeal to the five
senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and
touch.
Imagery is what helps you paint a
picture or imagine what is happening or
what the poet is feeling.
Example:
The hamburgers sizzled on the grill …
19. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Simile
A comparison of two things using the
words like or as.
e.g.
Her smile was bright like the sun!
The peach was as delicious as a kiss.
My dog is as mean as a snake.
20. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Metaphor
A comparison of two things WITHOUT
using “as or like”.
e.g.
His face is a puzzle to me, I can never
figure out what he is thinking.
21. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Personification
Giving an animal or an object human
qualities.
e.g.
My dog smiles at me.
The house glowed with happiness.
The car was irritated when she pumped it
full of cheap gas.
22. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Tone
The writer's attitude toward his readers
and his subject; his mood or moral view.
A writer can be formal, informal, playful,
ironic, and especially, optimistic or
pessimistic.
23. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Assonance
Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line or lines of
poetry.
Examples of ASSONANCE:
“Slow the low gradual moan came in the
snowing.”
-- John Masefield
“Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep.”
-- William Shakespeare
24. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Symbolism
When a person,
place, thing, or
event that has
meaning in itself
also represents, or
stands for,
something else,
usually something
bigger and more
important.
= Innocence
= America
=Peace
25. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Idiom
An expression where the literal
meaning of the words is not the
meaning of the expression. It means
something other than what it actually
says.
Ex. It’s raining cats and dogs.
26. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
Hyperbole
Obvious and intentional exaggeration.
e.g.
There are a million people in here!
I could sleep for a year!
I have a ton of homework tonight!
27. Lecture 9, American Literature (I)
Autumn 2008
No Where Near the End!
There is so much more to poetry ... we
have only scratched the surface ...
Refer to
Jack Lynch: Glossary of Literary and Rhetorical
Terms
