Poetry Vocabulary
Poetry Poetry is literature that uses a few words to tell about ideas, feelings and paints a picture in the readers mind. Most poems were written to be read aloud. Poems may or may not rhyme.
Form The form of a poem is the way that it looks on the page.
What a poem looks like: Bad Hair Day I looked in the mirror with shock and with dread to discover two antlers had sprung from my head. line Stanza Rhyming words
Lines The way that poets arrange words into lines. The lines may or may not be sentences.
Stanzas Groups of lines in traditional poetry. Stanza What Bugs Me When my teacher tells me to write a poem. When my mother tells me to clean up my room. When my sister practices her violin while I’m watching TV. When my father tells me to turn off the TV and do my homework. When my brother picks a fight with me and I have to go to bed early. When my teacher asks me to get up in front of the class and read the poem I wrote on the school bus. Stanza
Free Verse Poems that do not usually rhyme and have no fixed rhythm or pattern. They are written like a conversation.
Sound Devices Elements of poetry that use one type of sound related characteristic. Rhyme Rhythm Onomatopoeia Meter and more.......
Meter A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Meter occurs when the stressed and unstressed syllables of the words in a poem are arranged in a repeating pattern. When poets write in meter, they count out the number of stressed (strong) syllables and unstressed (weak) syllables for each line. They repeat the pattern throughout the poem.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary. Rhyme Sounds that are alike at the end of words, such as snow and crow. There are several types of rhyme such as end rhyme like “run and fun.” Internal rhyme such as: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary. Near Rhyme- words that do not exactly rhyme such as “rose and lose.”
Sample Rhyme scheme The Germ by Ogden Nash A mighty creature is the germ, Though smaller than the pachyderm. His customary dwelling place Is deep within the human race. His childish pride he often pleases By giving people strange diseases. Do you, my poppet, feel infirm? You probably contain a germ. A B C a
Alliteration Consonant sounds repeated at the beginnings of words If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?
Onomatopoeia Words that imitate the sound they are naming BUZZ OR sounds that imitate another sound “The silken, sad, uncertain, rustling of each purple curtain . . .”
Rhythm The beat of the poem. These are made up patterns of strong and weak syllables.
Repetition The repeating of sounds, words, phrases, or lines in a poem. I like popcorn! I like candy! I like chips! I like ice cream! I need to brush my teeth!
Figurative Language and other poetic devices Simile Metaphor Hyperbole Idiom Personification
Figurative Language Words and phrases that help the reader picture things in a new way. Example: She heard music when he kissed her.
Imagery Words or phrases that appeal to the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Imagery is what helps you paint a picture or imagine what is happening or what the poet is feeling. Example: The hamburgers sizzled on the grill……
Simile A comparison of two things using the words like or as. Her smile was bright like the sun! The peach was as delicious as a kiss. My dog is as mean as a snake.
Metaphor A comparison of two things WITHOUT using “as or like” His face is a puzzle to me, I can never figure out what he is thinking.
Personification Giving an animal or an object human qualities. My dog smiles at me. The house glowed with happiness. The car was irritated when she pumped it full of cheap gas.
Tone The writer's attitude toward his readers and his subject; his mood or moral view. A writer can be formal, informal, playful, ironic, and especially, optimistic or pessimistic.
Assonance Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line or lines of poetry Examples of ASSONANCE: “Slow the low gradual moan came in the snowing.” John Masefield “Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep.” - William Shakespeare
Symbolism When a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself also represents, or stands for, something else. = Innocence = America =Peace
Idiom An expression where the literal meaning of the words is not the meaning of the expression. It means something other than what it actually says. Ex. It’s raining cats and dogs.
Hyperbole obvious and intentional exaggeration EX: There are a million people in here! I could sleep for a year! I have a ton of homework tongight!
No Where Near the End!!! There is so much more to poetry....we have only scratched the surface.....