1. Elements of Poetry Speaker and tone Setting and context
Figurative language
Sights and sounds

2. Speaker and Tone Speaker Tone Character who narrates
Voice assumed by the writer
Way the writer uses language to reflect personality and attitude
Tone
Emotional attitude
Creates mood and emotion
Examples: ironic, playful, sarcastic, sincere

3. Speaker and Tone
To assess: -read aloud -notice words that stand out -consider speaker as character -compare and contrast with poems of similar themes

4. Setting and context
Setting - time and place AND what creates sense of time and place
Context – like setting but more as environment of the time
To assess:
Look at sensory details and mood
Visualize background information
Clarify questions/answers to historical and cultural background

5. Figurative Language
Meant to be understood imaginatively instead of literally
Examples:
Simile/metaphor/analogy
Personification
Symbolism
Hyperbole

6. Sight and sound
Sight – imagery – descriptive language creating vivid pictures, appealing to the senses
Sound
rhythm / meter – patterns of beats – regular or irregular
Rhyme / rhyme scheme
Assonance (repetition of vowel sounds)
Consonance (repetition of consonant sounds)
Alliteration – usually beginning of words
Onomatopoeia
Repetition

7. Things to think about as you not only analyze but also create/shape poems
Dramatic Situation
Who is speaking?
To whom is he speaking?
What is the situation?
What is the speaker’s tone?
Imagery
Theme

8. But don’t forget about…
Diction (word choice of words, and the force, accuracy, and distinction with which they are used )
Connotation (suggested meaning of words / associations)
Denotation (dictionary definition)
Abstract (can only be understood intellectually)
Concrete (words describing physical objects)
Figurative Language
Metaphor (implied or direct comparisons)
Simile (comparisons using like or as)
Personification

9. And… Rhetorical Language Syntax (arrangement) Irony Hyperbole Allusion
Pun (play on words)
Paradox (contradiction)
Oxymoron (self contradiction)
Syntax (arrangement)
Length
“Unusual” elements