1. “Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.” ~Thomas Gray
Poetry Terms
“Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.” ~Thomas Gray
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” ~Robert Frost

2. Sound Devices
Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds at any place in a series of words
Do you like blue?
We viewed the movie about mooing rookies at the school.
“Well he seemed so low that I couldn’t say no” –Robert Service (“The Cremation of Sam McGee, pg. 709)

3. Sound Devices cont.
Alliteration: The repetition of a sound at the beginning of a series of words
“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers…”
“Rain races, ripping like wind. Its restless rage rattles like rocks ripping through the air.”
A fly and a flea flew up in a flue.
Said the fly to the flea, “What shall we do?”
“Let’s fly,” said the flea.
“Let’s flee,” said the fly.
So they fluttered and flew up a flaw in the flue.

4. Sound Devices cont.
Consonance: The repetition of a consonant sound at any place in a series of words.
I dropped the locket in the thick mud.
Eric liked the black book
“And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.” –Edgar Allen Poe

5. Sound Device cont.
Onomatopoeia: The use of words whose sound makes one think of its meaning
Wham! Bonk!
Ding-dong
“Cuckoo”
Tick-tock
“snap, crackle, pop”

6. Figurative Language
Idiom: An expression that is like a saying. When it’s translated literally, it makes no sense
“Easy as pie”

7. Figurative Language cont.
Hyperbole: Extreme exaggeration
The books weigh a ton.
I could sleep for a year.
I have a million things to do.
Personification: When a non-living object has been given qualities of a person
The wind whispered through the trees
The moon danced on the water
“Oreo: Milk’s favorite cookie.”

8. Figurative Language cont.
A Symbol: a person, place, thing, or event that stands for itself and for something beyond itself as well.
Examples: the American flag symbolizes freedom, liberty, and love for America.
A wedding band symbolizes_______.
A white flag symbolizes__________.

9. SYMBOLISM
The use of a word or object which represents a deeper meaning than the words themselves
It can be a material object or a written sign used to represent something invisible.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-from “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

10. Rhyme
End Rhyme: Rhyme that appears at the end of two or more lines of poetry
“I would not, could not, in a box.
I could not, would not, with a fox.
I will not eat them with a mouse.
I will not eat them in a house.
I will not eat them here or there.
I will not eat them anywhere.
I do not eat green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.”

11. Rhyme Internal Rhyme: The rhyming of words within one line of poetry
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…”
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping...”

12. Rhythm
Repetition: The repeating of a word or phrase to add rhythm or to emphasize an idea
“And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” –Robert Frost, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”
“The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor, And the highwayman came riding- Riding-riding- The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.” –Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”

13. Form
Stanza: A division in a poem named for the number of lines it contains, such as a couplet (2 lines), triplet (3 lines), quatrain (4 lines), and octave (8 lines)
This is as though the poem is broken up into “paragraphs”
“Gleaming in silver are the hills!
Blazing in silver is the sea!
And a silvery radiance spills
Where the moon drives royally!” –James Stevens, “Washed in Silver”

14. Form cont.
Verse: The name for a line of traditional poetry written in meter
A line of poetry

15. CONNOTATION vs DENOTATION
Connotation: an emotional or social association with a word, giving meaning beyond the literal definition
Denotation: the specific, literal image, idea, concept, or object that a word or phrase refers to
Word Denotation Connotation
a star ball of light/gas in the sky a wish
a family group of related individuals love, trust, closeness
a dog four legged mammal friend, protector, pet

16. SIMILE Comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as”
Friends are like chocolate cake,
you can never have too many. Chocolate cake is like heaven - always amazing you with each taste or feeling. Chocolate cake is like life
with so many different pieces. Chocolate cake is like happiness, you can never get enough of it.
- “Chocolate Cake” by Anonymous

17. METAPHOR
Comparison of two unlike things where one word is used to designate the other (one is the other)
A spider is a black dark midnight sky.
Its web is a Ferris wheel.
It has a fat moon body and legs of dangling string.
Its eyes are like little match ends.
- “Spider” by Anonymous

18. - “Crystal Cascades” by Mary Fumento
IMAGERY
Language that provides a sensory experience using sight, sound, smell, touch, taste
Soft upon my eyelashes Turning my cheeks to pink Softly falling, falling Not a sound in the air
Delicately designed in snow Fading away at my touch Leaving only a glistening drop And its memory
- “Crystal Cascades” by Mary Fumento

19. NARRATIVE POEMS
Longer and tells a story, with a beginning, middle, and end
Generally longer than the lyric styles of poetry because the poet needs to establish characters and a plot
Example: “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes

20. Example: See “Fog” by Carl Sandburg
FREE VERSE POEMS
Does NOT have any repeating patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables
Does NOT have rhyme
Very conversational - sounds like someone talking with you
Example: See “Fog” by Carl Sandburg

21. OTHER FORMS OF POETRY

22. COUPLET A poem of only two lines
Both lines have an end rhyme and the same meter
Often found at the end of a sonnet
Whether or not we find what we are seeking
is idle, biologically speaking.
-at the end of a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay

23. -from “The Mummy’s Smile” by Shelby K. Irons
PERSONA POEMS
a poem written in the 1st person point of view
writer imagines s/he is an animal, an object, a famous person - anything s/he is not
I still remember the sun on my bones. I ate pomegranates and barley cakes. I wore a necklace of purple stones. And sometimes I saw a crocodile Slither silently into the Nile.
-from “The Mummy’s Smile” by Shelby K. Irons

24. POINT OF VIEW
POET
the author of the poem, the person who actually wrote it VS
SPEAKER
the “narrator” of the poem, the voice telling us the thoughts/feelings/story