Poetry uses elements like figurative language, sound devices, rhythm, style, and mood to express thoughts and emotions through creative use of words. Figurative language includes similes, metaphors and personification. Sound devices include alliteration and onomatopoeia. Rhythm creates patterns through repetition and timing. Style depends on the type of poem such as free verse, rhyming couplets or limericks. Mood conveys the overall feeling or tone. Examples are provided to illustrate these elements in poems about friendship, animals sounds, book reports, and seasons.

1. What is poetry?
rhythm, style, mood, sound devices, haiku, limericks, rhyming,
thoughts, emotions, similes, metaphors, personification, tone,
shapes, colors, beat, pattern, movement, imagery, alliteration,
hyperbole, punctuation, onomatopoeia, laughter, tears,
an expression of art through words

2. Although poems can take many forms, they do have some
elements in common.
• Figurative Language
• Sound Devices
• Mood
• Rhythm
• Style

3. Figurative language includes similes, metaphors,
personification, and hyperbole.
Friendship by Emma Guest
A friend is like a flower,
a rose to be exact,
Or maybe like a brand new gate
That never come unlatched.
A friend is like an owl,
Both beautiful and wise.
Or perhaps a friend is like a ghost,
Whose spirit never dies.
A friend is like a heart that goes
Strong until the end.
Where would we be in this world
If we didn’t have a friend.

4. Some sound devices used in poetry are
alliteration and onomatopoeia.
Poems by Mother Goose
Animals Daddy’s Gone A Hunting
Bow-wow, says the dog Bye, baby bunting
Mew, mew says the cat Daddy’s gone a-hunting
Grunt, grunt, goes the hog Gone to get a rabbit skin
And squeak goes the rat. To wrap baby bunting in.
Tu, whu, says the owl,
Quack, quack says the duck,
And what the cuckoo says you know.

5. Mood refers to the feeling, spirit or
tone of the poem.
My Book Report Is Due Today I’d hustle to the movie store
My book report is due today. And rent the DVD,
I haven’t finished yet. But I don’t even have the time
In fact, I haven’t started , To watch it on TV.
which I’m coming to regret.
I guess I’ll have to fake it
I haven’t even read the book. And pretend I read the book.
I put it off so long. Then write a bunch of nonsense
I thought I’d have a lot of time. And assorted Gobblyedygook.
It looks like I was wrong.
It’s either that, or do the thing
I’d ask my older brother My conscience knows is right:
What this book is all about, I’ll claim I’m sick and stay at home
But he’s already left for school and finish it tonight!
and cannot help me out.
-Kenn Nesbitt

6. Rhythm is the effect of certain patterns in repetition,
timing, spacing, and accenting of words.
A Limerick
There was a young man from Peru
Who found a large fly in his stew.
Said the waiter, “Don’t shout
And wave it about
Or the rest will be wanting one too!”

7. Style is characterized by the type of poem such as
free verse, rhyming couplets, limerick, haiku, acrostic,
etc.
Day
Bright, sunny,
Laughing, playing, doing,
Up in the east, down in the west-
Talking, resting, sleeping.
Quiet, dark
Night

8. Writing an original poem gives you a chance to share your feelings and
create pictures in the minds of readers with carefully chosen words.
Winter Poem- by Nikki Giovanni
once a snowflake fell
on my brow and I loved
it so much I kissed
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me then
I reached to love them all
and I squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and I stood perfectly
still and was a flower

9. Winter
Winter has arrived
Trees are empty sticks
Waiting for the spring

10. What is poetry?