POETRY Poetry is a kind of rhythmic language that uses figures of speech and imagery designed to appeal to our emotions and imaginations.

3 TYPES OF POETRY 1. LYRIC - poetry focusing on expressing emotions or thoughts 2. EPIC - long narrative poem that tells of the great deeds of a hero 3. BALLAD - a song or song-like poem that tells a story

ELEMENTS IN POETRY Figurative Language - language that is based on a comparison that is not literally true. For example: literal language - “I’m going to bed.” figurative lang. - “I’m going to hit the hay.”

Simile - figure of speech that uses the words like or as to compare things that have little or nothing in common. Ex: She eats like a pig . Metaphor - A comparison between unlike things in which a connection is revealed. Ex: She is a pig.

Personification - Giving human qualities to nonhuman things or ideas. Ex: The computer is user-friendly.

Onomatopoeia - the use of words that sound like what they mean. Ex: Snap, Crackle, Pop

ALLITERATION The repetition of consonant sounds in words that appear close together. Ex: “Oh wild west wind of Windsor.....”

Synecdoche a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa. Example:  Cleveland won by six runs (meaning “Cleveland's baseball team”).

HYPERBOLE The use of exaggeration for effect: Example: “I have a million things to do.”

Assonance In poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel in non-rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible (e.g., penitence, reticence ).

Metonymy a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is called not by its own name but rather by the name of something associated in meaning with that thing or concept. They refer to their bosses as “the suits”

wrapped up like garbage sitting, surrounded by the smell “MISS ROSIE” by Lucille Clifton When I watch you wrapped up like garbage sitting, surrounded by the smell of too old potato peels or when I watch you in your old man’s shoes with the little toe cut out sitting, waiting for your mind like next week’s grocery I say when I watch you you wet brown bag of a woman who used to be the best looking gal in Georgia used to be called the Georgia Rose I stand up through your destruction

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, “MOTHER TO SON” by Langston Hughes Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor --- Bare. But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on, And reachin’ landin’s, And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark Where there ain’t been no light. So boy, don’t you turn back. Don’t set you down on the steps ‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard. Don’t you fall now--- For I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’, And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

THE SOUNDS OF POETRY Refrain - a word, phrase, line, or even a stanza that is repeated throughout the poem. Rhythm - an alternation of stressed and unstressed sounds that make the voice rise and fall.

2 Types of Rhythm A. Meter - a strict pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables B. Free Verse - a loose type of rhythm that sounds like natural speech

RHYME: The repetition of the accented (stressed) vowel sound and all subsequent sounds Ex: Time and Dime Symbol - A person, place, thing, or event that stands both for itself and for something beyond itself. Ex: The flag = freedom

End Rhyme - when rhymes occur at the end of lines Ex: Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. Everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go… Internal Rhyme - rhymes occur within a line Ex: Gabby bears and flabby bears were all around...

Image Poem—My Life as a ___ A filing cabinet of human lives Where people swarm like bees in tunneled hives, Each to his own cell in the covered comb, Identical and cramped—we call it home. WHAT AM I ?

Create an Image Poem Describe an object without naming it Use two poetic devices in the description (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, personification) Minimum of 6 lines