1. Poetry Terms You Need to Know
These will appear on tests.
I know this isn’t exciting.
Sometimes school’s like that.

2. Alliteration: The repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close to each other
“Where the quail is whistling betwixt the woods and the wheat-lot” – Walt Whitman
Allusion: A reference in one text to another character, person, place, or thing from another text
“Like Midas, I guess everything we touch turns to a poem when the spell is on” – Linda Pastan
Assonance: The repetition of similar vowel sounds with different consonant sounds…thus not rhyming
“And so all the night-tide, I lie down by the side, of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride” – Edgar Allen Poe

3. Connotation: Feelings associated with a word
Denotation: Dictionary definition of a word
Imagery: language that appeals to the 5 senses
Metaphor: Comparison between two unlikely things without using like, as, than, or resembles
“Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” – Langston Hughes
Meter: A generally regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” - Shakespeare
Onomatopoeia: The use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning
Buzz, splash, boom

4. Personification: A kind of metaphor in which a nonhuman thing is given human qualities
“The trees are undressing, and fling in many places…on the gray road, the roof, the window sill…their radiant robes and ribbons and yellow laces” – Thomas Hardy
Poetry: A kind of rhythmic, compressed language that uses figures of speech and imagery designed to appeal to our emotions and imaginations
Refrain: a repeated word, phrase, or line in a poem
“Quoth the raven, ‘nevermore.’”

5. Repetition: when stuff repeats.
Rhyme: The repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them in words that are close together in a poem
When she I loved looked every day, Fresh as a rose in June, I to her cottage bent my way, Beneath the evening moon
Rhythm: The alteration of stressed and unstressed syllables in language – not meter
Simile: comparison between to UNLIKE things using like, as, resembles
“She looks like a rainbow.”
NOT “She looks like my aunt Beatrice.”

6. Sonnet: a 14 line lyric poem, typically in iambic pentameter
Stanza: A group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit …a poetry paragraph
A couplet = two lines…a quatrain = four lines
Symbol: A person, place, thing, or event that stands for itself and for something deeper, beyond itself
Mushrooms = the unbeatable rising of women’s rights
A poison tree = the growing grudge / hatred between enemies
Tone: the attitude a writer takes toward its subject
In “Bedtime Story,” there is a bitter tone toward the human race as everything it does is violent

7. Verbal Irony: When you say one thing and mean the opposite
You will be responsible for knowing both the definitions of these terms, and how to recognize their application.
For example, if I wrote the Shakespearean line, “My mistress’s eyes were nothing like the sun,” what literary element would you say?

8. About “Bedtime Story”
Yes, the speaker is a giant ant, and yes, the listener is a baby ant, but once readers get over the weirdness, they can think about the tone and the theme…
The tone is angry. Why? Humanity has destroyed itself and warped the world… I mean, GIANT ANTS! It’s our fault, due to our taste for violence. And what happens when we—represented by that last man— get a chance to survive? We lash out and get ourselves killed.
In short, the poem paints people (alliteration) as violent, reckless beings who need to be put down…to be put to bed. It’s our bedtime story.