1. Introduction to Poetry (Figurative Language and Poetic Devices)

2. Figurative and Literal Language
Literal: words used exactly as their word definitions mean
Figurative: words used in an imaginative way, with a meaning that is different from the basic, literal meaning. Intended to help create a picture in the reader’s mind and/or make creative comparisons (A reader must figure out what the words mean)
Example: It rained cats and dogs.
Literal Meaning Figurative meaning
There were cats and dogs It rained very hard.
falling from the sky.

3. Simile Similes: X Is Like Y
In a simile, two unlike things are compared using a word such as like, as, than, or resembles.
Example: The dew on the leaves glistened like diamonds.
The dew on the leaves glistened like diamonds.
Using the word like, dew is compared to diamonds.

4. Important! Using “like” or “as” doesn’t make a simile.
A comparison between two (or more) things must be made.
Not a Simile: I like pizza.
Simile: The moon is like a pizza.

5. Metaphors do not contain a word such as like or as.
Metaphors: X Is Y
A metaphor is a comparison of two unlike things in which one thing is or becomes the other.
Metaphors do not contain a word such as like or as.
As the flood waters rose, the river became a monster consuming everything in its sight.
Example: As the flood waters rose, the river became a monster consuming everything in its sight.
Of course, the river didn’t really become a monster, but the metaphor creates a clear picture of the river’s power.

6. Example: Spring caresses the earth with her warm, delicate hands.
Personification
Person ification
In personification, human qualities are given to something that is not human.
Example: Spring caresses the earth with her warm, delicate hands.
Given human hands and the ability to caress, the season of spring is personified.

7. Imagery is one of a poet’s most powerful tools.
Imagery is a description that appeals to one or more of our five senses:
sight
touch
hearing
smell
taste

8. What sensory details does the following excerpt contain?
Imagery
Through imagery, poets use sensory details that help you imagine how something looks, sounds, smells, feels, or tastes.
What sensory details does the following excerpt contain?
Out on the land White Moon shines. Shines and glimmers against gnarled shadows, All silver to slow twisted shadows Falling across the long road that runs from the house.
from “Baby Face” by Carl Sandburg
Out on the land White Moon shines. Shines and glimmers against gnarled shadows, All silver to slow twisted shadows Falling across the long road that runs from the house.
from “Baby Face” by Carl Sandburg

9. Repetition Repetition is repeating a word or words for effect.
Example:
Nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody

10. Alliteration is repeating the same consonant sound in several words.
Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Listen to the alliteration in the following excerpt.
A bird sang sweet and strong In the top of the highest tree. He said, “I pour out my heart in song For the summer that soon shall be.”
from “Spring Song” by George William Curtis

11. Mood
Mood is the feeling the words evokes in the reader; the emotional atmosphere of the story.
Sample words used to discuss mood: mysterious, frightening, peaceful, eerie, joyful, gloomy.
Examples: What type mood do these examples evoke?
--A wild forest at night; wolves howling in the distance.
--A cozy cottage where the flower-filled garden is kissed by sunlight.
--The night sky was a soft blanket of blue.
--The night sky was an icy lake—clear, flat, and cold.

12. Tone Tone is the writer’s attitude towards the character or topic.
Sample words used to discuss tone: bitter, critical, sarcastic, admiring, nostalgic, humorous, serious, forgiving, and affectionate.
Example: from Charles Dickens’ novel, David Copperfield.
I observed that he had not such a thing as a smile about him, and that he could only widen his mouth and make two hard creases down his cheeks, one on each side to stand for one.
Do you hear the critical and bitter tone that the writer uses to describe this character?

13. Stanza Stanzas are essentially the paragraphs of poetry
When describing a poem, we discuss the separate sections as stanzas instead of paragraphs.
Stanza
Dreams by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly. 
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Stanza one
Stanza two

14. Types of Poetry: Elegy
An elegy is a poem that mourns the death or loss of a person, time period, or idea
Example:
The following poem is an elegy written after the death of Abraham Lincoln:
“O CAPTAIN! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! Heart! Heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.”
- O Captain, my Captain! By Walt Whitman

15. Example: Ode to My Hairspray
Types of Poetry: Ode
An ode is a lyrical poem that praises or addresses a particular subject
Example: Ode to My Hairspray

16. Types of Poetry: Free verse
Free verse is poetry that does not follow any specific rhyming pattern
Example:
Dreams by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly. 
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.