poetry

1. POETRY
UNIT

2. WHAT IS POETRY????
 One of the three major
types of literature (with
prose and drama)
 Most poems make use
of concise, musical,
and emotionally
charged language
 Alive with imagery,
figurative language,
and sound devises.

3. POETRY TERMS
Verse – a line of poetry; often
numbered
Stanza – a group of verses (or lines
of poetry)
Stanzas are similar to
paragraphs in prose.
Shape – the way a poem looks on a
page

4. VERSE
 Poetry written in
unrhymed iambic
pentameter (a series
of stressed and
unstressed syllables)
 Used by Shakespeare
 No rules!
 Mimics spoken word
 Many opportunities
for interpretation!
 Uses imagery
 Most modern poetry
is written in free
verse
Blank Verse Free Verse

5. TYPES OF POEMS
LYRIC – musical; expresses
observations and feelings of a
single person
NARRATIVE – tells a story
DRAMATIC – a poem that uses
the techniques of drams (such
as dialogue)

6. TYPES OF POEMS, CON’T.
 FIXED – poems that follow a specific
form
 Ballad – songlike poem that tells a story;
written in stanza form with regular rhythms
and rhyme schemes and featuring a refrain
 Haiku – Japanese poem that conveys a vivid
emotion or captures a moment in time; 5-7-5
syllables
 Sonnet – 14 line lyric poem

7. MUSICAL DEVICES……
 Alliteration – repetition of
beginning consonant
sounds
 Assonance – repetition of
same vowel sound within
words
 Consonance – repetition of
final consonant sounds
 Onomatopoeia – words
that imitate sound
 Wet, windy, weather on
Wednesday
 I feel alive in the sunlight.
 Do not sit on the hat,
please.
 The bells went “ding dong
ding”

8. The repetition
of the initial
consonant
sounds or words

9. Vowel rhyme; the
repetition of
vowel sounds in
nearby words
Ex: date, fade
Repetition of consonants
within nearby words in
which the preceding
vowels differ
Ex: milk, walk

10. The use of a word whose sound imitates its

11. POETRY TERMS – MUSICAL DEVICES
 Meter – the rhythmical pattern of a poem, determined by
the number and types of stresses, or beats, in each line.
 Rhyme – words that sound alike: hat/cat
 Rhyme Scheme – the pattern of rhyme
Jack and Jill a
Went up the Hill a
To fetch a pail of water b

12. TERMS….CON’T
 Repetition – repeating
a word, several words,
or whole lines:
“And miles to go
before I sleep.
And miles to go
before I sleep.”
 Rhythm – brings out
the musical quality of
the language; can
create mood and
empathize ideas

13. TITION
Use of any
language element
more than once
Repetition
Repetition

14. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Words NOT meant to be taken
literally!
 Simile – comparison using “like” or “as”
“Life is like a box of chocolates.”
 Metaphor – a direct comparison of two unlike
things
“He was a raging bull, screaming loudly”

15. SIMILE
A comparison
between two
things using like
or as

16. To compare two things
(without using like or
as), suggesting a
commonality between
the two
METAPHOR

17. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, CONT.
 Personification – when an animal is given human
qualities or an inanimate object is given living
characteristics
Mickey Mouse
The sun smiled gently down on us.

18. MORE……
 Hyperbole – exaggeration for a special effect (for
emphasis or humor)
They cried buckets over the loss of their pet.
They fell out of their seats laughing.

19. Language that attributes
human qualities to non-
human things.
The tree stretched its
limbs to reach the sky

20. EXAGGERATION FOR THE
SAKE OF EMPHASIS

21. Imagery
Words that appeal to the senses that “paint” a
picture….uses Sensory Language, words that appeal
to the five senses….
“Imagine a luxurious, less complicated lifestyle.
Imagine open fields and cool running water. Imagine
hearing the soft chirping of birds outside your
window. Now, this is living!”

22. Descriptive language used
to create word pictures or
images (paint a picture in
your mind)

23. THEME
 The message of the poem
 The lesson the poet is teaching the reader