Upload
dangdien
View
215
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
THE POET’S
DICTIONARY
of Poetic Devices
WHAT IS POETRY?
Poetry is the kind of thing poets write. –
Robert Frost
Man, if you gotta ask, you’ll never know. –
Louis Armstrong
POETRY
A literary form that combines the precise
meanings of words with their emotional
associations and musical qualities, such as
rhythm and sounds.
3 MAIN TYPES OF POETRY
LYRIC
A short poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of a single
speaker
NARRATIVE
A poem that tells a story
DRAMATIC
A poem that presents the speech of one or more speakers in a dramatic
situation
LINES & STANZAS
Line
a series of metrical feet in a poem, usually
printed as one single line
Stanza
groupings of lines
RHYTHM & METER
Rhythm
the pattern or flow of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and
unstressed syllables in a line of poetry; a regular pattern of rhythm is
called meter
emphasis syllable
Meter
The rhythmic patterns built on the arrangement of stressed and
unstressed syllables.
Feet
The division of stressed and unstressed syllables
RHYTHM
the pattern or flow of sound created by the
arrangement of stressed and unstressed
syllables in a line of poetry; a regular pattern
of rhythm is called meter
emphasis syllable
iamb
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (beneath)
trochee
stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable
(twinkle)
spondee
two stressed syllables (schoolyard)
dactyl
one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables
(beautiful)
anapest
two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable
(comprehend)
SOUND DEVICES
Techniques that create musical effects
RHYME
A sound device commonly associated with poetry,
although many poems do not rhyme.
Exact Rhyme
Words that end in both the same vowel and same consonant
sounds (sun and run)
Slant Rhyme
Words that end in similar but not exact sounds
(prove and love)
End Rhyme
Rhyming words that fall at the ends of two or more lines
(crawls, walls, falls)
Internal Rhyme
Rhyming words placed within a line
(The mouse in the house woke the cat)
RHYME SCHEME
A set pattern of rhyme. The rhyme scheme of a poem is
identified by assigning a different letter of the alphabet to
each rhyme. Rhyme scheme helps shape the structure of a
stanza and clarifies the relationships among the lines.
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Repetition
The use of any language element more than once
(Above the town, above the lake, and high above the trees.)
Onomatopoeia
The use of words to imitate sounds
(The bees buzzed, and the brook gurgled.)
Parallelism
the use of similar grammatical constructions to express
ideas that are related or equal in importance
(parallelism is a type of repetition)
Alliteration
The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of
words.
(The snake sneaked past the snail.)
Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds followed by different
consonants in two or more stressed syllables
(The green leaves fluttered in the breeze.)
Consonance
The repetition of final consonant sounds in stressed
syllables with different vowel sounds
(The king sang a song.)
DENOTATION &
CONNOTATION
Denotation
The literal definition of a word
Connotation
The emotional associations of a word
(thrifty and penny-pinching)
MEANING & TONE
The connotative meanings of words help convey a poem’s
tone.
Tone
The poet’s emotional attitude toward his or her subject.
(formal, informal, lighthearted, solemn, etc.)
IMAGERY
Descriptive language that creates word pictures.
Through the use of details that appeal to the
senses of sight, touch, sound, taste, and smell,
poets re-create sensory experiences and
emotions in words.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Language that is not meant to be interpreted
literally (see handout)
TYPES OF FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE
simile
Compares two things using the word “like” or “as”
(Her visit was as unexpected and welcome as a flower in winter.)
metaphor
Compares two things by stating one thing in terms of something else
(Her visit was a flower in winter.)
personification
Gives human qualities or abilities to nonhuman things
(The alarm clock nagged me to get out of bed.)
FORMS OF POETRY
Formal Verse
A type of poetry that follows fixed, established
patterns (e.g. rhyme scheme, meter, line structure,
stanza structure).
Free Verse
A type of poetry that exhibits poetic language but
does not follow fixed patterns.
TYPES OF FORMAL VERSE
Ballad
A songlike narrative poem, usually written in rhymed stanzas of four to six lines
that feature repetition and strong meter
Haiku
An unrhymed three-line lyric poem, usually focused on images from nature, in
which lines 1 and 3 have five syllables and line 2 has seven syllables
English Sonnet
A fourteen-line lyric poem consisting of three quatrains and a couplet, usually
rhymed abab cdcd efef gg
TYPES OF FORMAL VERSE,
CONT.
Ode
A lyric poem on a serious subject, usually written in a precise structure
Concrete Poem
A poem with a shape that suggests its subject; the poet arranges letters,
words, punctuation, and lines to create a picture
TYPES OF FORMAL VERSE,
CONT.
Villanelle
Lyric poem consisting of five 3-line stanzas, and ending with a quatrain
and having only 2 rhymes; it ahs two refrain lines that appear initially in
the first and third lines of the first stanza, they then appear alternately
as the third line of subsequent stanzas and finally as the last two lines
of the poem
TYPES OF FORMAL VERSE,
CONT.
Ballad
Narrative poem that is meant to be sung or recited; form contains a
series of quatrains in which lines of iambic tetrameter alternate with
iambic trimeter; usually follows an A-B-C-B rhyme scheme with
frequent use of repetition and often including a refrain
TYPES OF FORMAL VERSE,
CONT.
Blank Verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter (e.g. Shakespearean plays)
Heroic Couplet
A pair of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter (traditional heroic epic
form)
TYPES OF FORMAL VERSE,
CONT.
Sonnet
A fourteen line poem in iambic pentameter with a prescribed
rhyme scheme; subject is traditionally love
Shakespearean Sonnet
Style of sonnet used by Shakespeare with a rhyme scheme of
A-B-A-B, C-D-C-D, E-F-E-F, G-G
TYPES OF FREE VERSE
Elegy
Poem written in response to the death of a person or group
Epic
Long narrative poem about the deeds of gods or heroes
THREE MAIN TYPES OF
POETRY
Narrative
poem that tells a story
Lyric
poem containing highly musical verse (through alliteration, rhythm, rhyme) that
expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker
Dramatic
poem that uses techniques of drama;