1. Sound Units, Words, and Sentences in Poetry
Alliteration, assonance, and Latin roots

2. Sound Units The sound units of a poem are its syllables
Remember syllables? Ex. “Metaphors” by Sylvia Plath had 9 syllables in every line
How many syllables in the word enemy?
Three! En-eh-mee
Poets think about all the sounds in their poems.
Alliteration
Repeating consonants
Assonance
Repeating vowels

3. Word Roots
These are the pieces of words that come from words in earlier languages
Usually Latin, Greek, and early Germanic English
These roots are retained in prefixes (the beginning part) of words Re
“again”
Return, revolve, repair, represent Ex
“out of”
Explain, expire, exhale
Pre
“in front of”
Precede, prefer, preclude
Com
“with”
Compare, commemorate, connote, colloquium De
“away from”
Delete, defer, delay, defend In
“not”
Inexplicable, innocent, immiscible

4. Sentences
Sometimes, in poetry, the grammatical structure of the sentence has been rearranged to fit the verse the poet has chosen to write in.
It can be helpful to identify the main subject and main verb in a poem and then rewrite the sentence in a normal English grammar structure to decipher the meaning.