POETRY Personification, Onomatopoeia and Oxymoron With Ballad, Limerick and Sonnets

LITERARY DEVICES  We are going to look at three different type of literary devices and how they relate to poetry. Personification Onomatopoeia Oxymoron

PERSONIFICATION  Personification gives human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, or ideas. It is widely used in many forms of literature, especially poetry.  The idea is to write a poem that is about an inanimate object, animal or idea – like a spoon, or a dog – and give it human characteristics.

PERSONIFICATION EXAMPLE “Hey Diddle Diddle” Hey diddle, Diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughed To see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon.  In this example, the dog laughed (human characteristic) and the dish and the spoon ran away together (human characteristic).

ONOMATOPOEIA  Onomatopoeia is defined as a word, which imitates the natural sounds of a thing.  It creates a sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting.  For instance, saying, “The gushing stream flows in the forest” is a more meaningful description than just saying, “The stream flows in the forest.” The reader is drawn to hear the sound of a “gushing stream” which makes the expression more effective.

EXAMPLES OF ONOMATOPOEIA  The buzzing bee flew away.  The sack fell into the river with a splash.  The books fell on the table with a loud thump.  He looked at the roaring sky.  The rustling leaves kept me awake.  The sounds are used to emphasize the action that is taking place.

ONOMATOPOEIA POEMS  “The Marvellous Toy” by Tom Paxton It went zip when it moved and bop when it stopped, And whirr when it stood still. I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.  “Cynthia in the Snow” by unknown The snow softly falling as it hushes and shushes the cars that drive in the street. The snow flitter-twitters around in the girl’s mind, before it whitely whirs away. She even personifies the snow, describing it as it laughs.

OXYMORON  Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect.  The common oxymoron phrase is a combination of an adjective proceeded by a noun with contrasting meanings e.g. “cruel kindness” or “living death” or “true lies.”  However, the contrasting words/phrases are not always glued together. The contrasting ideas may be spaced out in a sentence e.g. “In order to lead, you must walk behind.”

OXYMORON EXAMPLES  Open secret  Tragic comedy  Seriously funny  Awfully pretty  Foolish wisdom  Original copies  Liquid gas

OXYMORON POEM  “134 th Sonnet” by Sir Thomas Wyatt I find no peace, and all my war is done I fear and hope, I burn and freeze like ice, I flee above the wind, yet can I not arise  From line one - peace and war, from line two -burns and freeze, and from line three - Above the win and not arise

BALLAD  A Ballad is a poem that tells a story, which are often used in songs because of their rhyme. A ballad is a poetic story, often a love story.  It usually has four lines in each stanza (quatrain).  It also tends to have a distinctive rhyming pattern that is constant throughout the poem - a,b,c,b d,e,f,e, g,h,i,h j,k,l,k

LIMERICK  Limericks usually come in two forms: a five-line stanza, or a four- line stanza.  Traditionally, the first, and last lines ended in the same word – but they do not always have to.  Thus in a five line stanza the rhyming pattern has to be aabba, and if there is a second stanza the rhyming pattern would be ccddc.

FIVE LINE LIMERICK “Nantucket” by Anonymous There once was a man from Nantucket Who kept all his cash in a bucket; But his daughter named Nan Ran away with a man, And as for the bucket, Nantucket.  Note line one and five are the same words, and the rhyming pattern is aabba.

FIVE LINE LIMERICK There was a young lady of Lynn Who was so excessively thin That when she essayed To drink lemonade She slipped through the straw and fell in.

FOUR LINE LIMERICK  The other form is a four-line stanza.  The 3rd and 4th lines are combined, but there is now an internal rhyme. “Old Man” By: Edward Lear There was an old man with a beard, Who said, "It is just as I feared! Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and a Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard!"

SONNET  A sonnet has 14 fourteen lines and is written in iambic pentameter.  It has a specific rhyme pattern.  We will focus on the English Sonnet (Shakespearian)  There are 14 lines in the stanza, it is written in iambic pentameter and the rhyme patter is abab cdcd efef gg.

ASSIGNMENT  You are to choose two of the types of poems (Ballad, Sonnet or Limerick) and write a poem about anything you like.  In each of the poems one line needs to have one of the three literary devices studied today (Personification, Onomatopoeia or Oxymoron); you can use more if you so choose.  Example: Poem #1 – you are writing a Limerick and will use a personification Poem # 2 – you are writing a Sonnet and will use an oxymoron