Poetry Study Guide What would you like to learn about poetry?
Metaphor Comparison of two seemingly unlike things without using like, as, than, or resembles. Almost as if a statement of fact. Example: The forest is a loud marketplace. The fog comes on little cat feet.
Simile A comparison of two seemingly unlike things using a connecting word. (Like, as, than, resembles) Example: The class is like a crowd at a concert. Do dreams dry up like raisins in the sun?
Personification Language attributed to nonhuman things. Example: The trees yawned in the strong breeze. The sky hollered with a thunderous clap.
Onomatopoeia The use of a word whose sound imitates its meaning. Example: The bee buzzed around the flower. The snake hissed in the grass. We heard a honk right before the car accident.
Imagery Descriptive language writers use to make word pictures or images. Example: Describe the picture to the right in your own words.
Rhythm, Rhyme, Rhyme Scheme, Meter Rhythm is the pattern created by the stressed and unstressed syllables of words in sequence. Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar sounds in stressed syllables. Rhyme scheme- a pattern of end rhymes. Meter- controlled pattern of rhythm. Free verse- no set meter or rhyme scheme. We will explore these sound devices on Wednesday.
Alliteration, Consonance, Assonance Alliteration- repetition of initial consonant sounds. Example: Sometimes, super salmon sing songs. Assonance- repetition of vowel sounds. Example: I love gloves from the oven. Consonance- repetition of consonants within nearby words in which the separating vowels differ. Examples: live/love, lift/loft, sift/soft, tame/time
Repetition Repetition- the use of any language element more than once. Example: Hughes’s repetition of “Let America be America again”
Types of Poetry Narrative- A story is told in verse. Epic- a long narrative poem about gods and heroes. Ballad- songlike narrative about an adventure or romance. Lyric- a brief poem is which the author expresses the feelings of a single speaker. Dramatic- writer tells a story using a character’s own thoughts or statements.
Elements of Poetry Stanza- groupings of lines. Couplets- groupings of two lines Tercets- three-line stanzas Quatrains- four-line stanzas Sestet- six-line stanza Octave- eight-line stanza
Sonnet and Haiku Sonnet- fourteen-line lyric poem with formal patterns of rhyme, rhythm, and line structure. See assignment for Wednesday and Thursday Haiku- poem containing three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Usually used to convey a single, vivid emotion using imagery.
Iambic Pentameter Iamb- short - long Pentameter- five feet