Poetry Forms of Poetry Aspects of Poetry

Forms of Poetry Ballad Free Verse Lyric Narrative Traditional

Forms of Poetry - Ballad Ballad A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is an example of a ballad.refrain

Forms of Poetry – Free Verse Free Verse Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set meter or rhythm. It is free of limitations in structure.rhymed meter

Forms of Poetry - Lyric Lyric A poem that may resemble a song in form or style. Lyrics express the thoughts and feelings of the poet. Lyrics are usually accompanied by a musical instrument.

Forms of Poetry - Narrative Narrative A poem that tells a story (The Odyssey by Homer). Ballads, epics, and lays are different kinds of narrative poems.

Forms of Poetry - Traditional Traditional A term used to describe all the poetry based on a regular metre, whether rhymed or not.

Aspects of Poetry Alliteration The repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words: “What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and wildness?”

Hyperbole A figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis. Many everyday expressions are examples of hyperbole:  tons of money,  waiting for ages,  a flood of tears, etc. A hyperbole is the opposite of an understatement. understatement

Imagery A representation of an object or experience. The author generally uses imagery to allow you to experience the image. Images are either literal – words used simply create the picture - or figurative. Figurative imagery does not follow the literal meaning of the words exactly. The most common type of figurative images are metaphors, similes, and symbols.metaphors similessymbols

Metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech in which two things are compared to create imagery. Some examples of metaphors: the world's a stage, he was a lion in battle, drowning in debt, and a sea of troubles.

Metre The arrangement of a line of poetry by the number of syllables and the rhythm of accented (or stressed) syllables. In short, the rhythm of the words in the poem. Some types of Metre: 1. monometer (1 foot) 2. dimeter (2 feet) 3. trimeter (3 feet) 4. tetrameter (4 feet) 5. pentameter (5 feet)

Onomatopoeia A figure of speech in which words are used to imitate sounds. Examples of onomatopoeic words are: buzz, hiss, zing, clippety- clop, cock-a-doodle-do, pop, splat, thump, and tick-tock.

Personification A figure of speech in which nonhuman things or abstract ideas are given human attributes: the sky is crying, dead leaves danced in the wind, blind justice. Refrain A line or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually after every stanza. Similar to a chorus in a song.

Rhyme The occurrence of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words. cat/hat, desire/fire, observe/deserve, pleasure/leisure, longing/yearning.

Simile A figure of speech in which two things are compared using the word "like" or "as." An example of a simile using like occurs in Langston Hughes’s poem Harlem: "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?"

Stanza Two or more lines of poetry that together form one of the divisions of a poem. The stanzas of a poem are usually of the same length and follow the same pattern of meter and rhyme. They can be compared to paragraphs in poetic form.

Symbol Something that suggests or stands for something else without losing its original meaning. Examples of symbols are: sunshine suggesting happiness, rain suggesting sorrow, and storm clouds suggesting despair.

Understatement Deliberately underplaying or undervaluing a thing to create emphasis. An understatement is the opposite of hyperbole.hyperbole “My students have shown no poor ability to learn poetry!”

Verse A single line of poetry.