Literary Devices And Sound Effects

Literary Devices used by poets Figurative Language : symbol, simile, metaphor Extended Metaphor Hyperbole Personification Imagery

Figures of Speech or Figurative language: using words in a non-literal or unusual sense For example: “I am so hungry I could eat a cow.” - “That zit on your face is like a mountain” Literal –by the letter – the thing is the thing. For example: the literal meaning of “I am so hungry I could eat a cow” is you eat an entire cow. -How many burgers is that? Which ones do you know of ?

Symbolism – to make one thing represent another For example: represents what? Is a symbol of what?

Symoblism in poetry ‘The Road Not Taken’ –by Robert Frost http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15717 ‘Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night’ –by Dylan Thomas http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377 ‘Me Against the World’ – Tupac Shakur http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cjv7hEAytU

Simile: comparing two things using like or as Example: Tears flowed like a river. My love is like a red, red, rose. ‘A Simile’ by Navarre Scott Momaday   What did we say to each other that now we are as the deer who walk in single file with heads high with ears forward with eyes watchful with hooves always placed on firm ground in whose limbs there is latent flight

‘A Dream Deferred’ by Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? -‘Still I Rise’: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15623 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svnunOifOLk = Kweli

Metaphor: one thing is used in an unusual way to compare it to another Example: “ The world is a stage.” “ When I look at you my heart is a bird in flight.” I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings –Maya Angelou . . . ’The caged bird sings with fearful trill of the things unknown but longed for still and is tune is heard on the distant hillfor the caged bird sings of freedom’ . . . -Top 10 in Hip-Hop http://www.flocabulary.com/hiphopmetaphors.html -“The People” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7B2VgRShew

Extended Metaphor a metaphor that continues throughout a few lines, a page, chapter, or an entire poem or story. Hope as a "Little Bird" "Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune--without the words, And never stops at all,

"And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. "I've heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me.” -Emily Dickinson Check out: Diego spitting his poem

Personification – to give a thing human/person-like qualities “The fog comes on little cat feet it sits looking over the river and city on silent legs then moves on.” - C. Sandberg

My Life Stood – A Loaded Gun My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun - In Corners - till a Day The Owner passed - identified - And carried Me away - And now We roam in Sovereign Woods - And now We hunt the Doe - And every time I speak for Him - The Mountains straight reply - And do I smile, such cordial light Upon the Valley glow - It is as a Vesuvian face Had let its pleasure through - And when at Night - Our good Day done - I guard My Master's Head - . . . -Emily Dickenson -”I Gave You Power” -Nas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXAtUR80IOQ -Start at: 28 seconds into it

Hyperbole -extreme exaggeration “This book weighs a ton.” “I am so hungry I can eat a cow.”

Sound Effects used by poets Rhyme & Rhyme Scheme Alliteration Onomatopoeia

Rhyme Active Rhyme – identical recurring sounds in words i.e. – cat and hat Passive Rhyme – similar recurring sounds in words i.e. – eject and rechecked see rhyme zone

Rhyming Scheme - the pattern of rhyming lines abab= abba= the dog (a) the dog (a) and the cat (b) and the cat (b) the log (a) the bat (b) and the bat. (b) and the log (a)

Alliteration –repetition of an initial sound in two or more words “. . . What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!” -Poe “Swing low, sweet chariot, Comin for to carry me home. “ -Spiritual

Alliteration “. . . Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. . . .” -Dylan Thomas Daddy's Gone A Hunting Bye, baby bunting, Daddy's gone a - hunting, Gone to get a rabbit skin To wrap baby bunting in. -Mother Goose -Blackalicious http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvPnM2Q1nwU

Onomatopoeia – using words for sounds For example - Buzz, Pow, Ugh, Tick-tock, Bam! Horray for Halloween When cats howl “Meow” And howls hoot “Hoo” And witches fly up in the sky Horray for Halloween “Boo!”

Created by Joe Tedesco