1. Poetry 101

2. Poetic Devices
Poetic devices are special tricks of writing that allow poets and other writers to express their thoughts in creative ways, turning words into works of art.

3. Poetic Devices: Hyperbole
Hyperbole is an intentional exaggeration, not intended to be taken literally.
For example:
“It’s going to take me twenty years to finish all that homework!”

4. Poetic Devices: Simile
Simile is when two unlike things are compared using “like” or “as.”
For example:
“Hey eyes shine like the brightest summer sun”

5. Poetic Devices: Metaphor
Metaphor is a comparison of two unlike things without using “like” or “as.”
For example:
“Her eyes are the brightest summer sun”

6. Poetic Devices: Imagery
Imagery is when an author uses words that make you feel as if you could almost see/taste/feel/hear/smell exactly what they are talking about.
For example:
“The room smelled like warm, buttery biscuits fresh out of the oven.”

7. Poetic Devices: Alliteration
Alliteration is when the author combines two or more words with the same beginning sounds.
For example:
“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

8. Poetic Devices: Symbolism
Symbolism is when an author uses one thing to stand for or represent another.
For example:
“I took the road less travelled in life.”
(The “road” stands for the string of decisions one makes, not an actual road.)

9. Poetic Devices: Onomatopoeia
An onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like a sound.
For example:
“buzz”
“BING”
“pop”

10. Poetic Devices: Personification
Personification is when an author gives a non-human thing human qualities.
For example:
“The sea swallowed the small ship into it’s angry, gaping mouth.”

11. There are two categories that all poems fall into:
Lyric Poetry
Expresses the throughts and feelings of the poet
Narrative Poetry
Tells a story. or

12. The Anatomy of a Poem

13. The Anatomy of a Poem Title of poem Verse (a single line of poetry)
Stanza (a “paragraph” of poetry)
Poet/Author

14. Rhyme Scheme

15. Rhyme Scheme
Rhyme scheme is the use of letters to diagram the pattern of rhyming words in a poem. A B A B C D C D E F E F G H G H

16. Rhyme Scheme
Let’s try:

17. Types of Poetry

18. Types of Poetry: Diamante
A diamante poem is a poem in the shape of a diamond. Each line has a certain format, like all adjectives or all “-ing” words. It may be about one thing or two opposite things.
For example:

19. Types of Poetry: Cinquain
A five-lined poem usually following a set format.
For example:

20. Types of Poetry: Haiku
A form of Japanese poetry consisting of 17 syllables, usually about nature.
For example:

21. Types of Poetry: Acrostic
A poem in which the first letter of each line spells out a word or phrase.
For example:

22. Types of Poetry: Blank Verse
A style of poetry in which there is no rhyme.
For example:
“Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun”

23. Types of Poetry: Concrete
A style of poetry in which the poem creates a shape.
For example:

24. Types of Poetry: Couplet
Two rhyming lines of poetry.
For example:
My friend has eyes like mud.          He always chews his cud.

25. Types of Poetry: Sonnet
A lyric poem that consists of 14 lines which usually have one or more conventional rhyme schemes
For example:
With how sad steps...
With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies!
How silently, and with how wan a face!
What! may it be that even in heavenly place
That busy archer his sharp arrows tries?
Sure, if that long-with-love-acquainted eyes
Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case:
I read it in thy looks; thy languish'd grace
To me, that feel the like, thy state descries.
Then, even of fellowship, O Moon, tell me,
Is constant love deem'd there but want of wit?
Are beauties there as proud as here they be?
Do they above love to be loved, and yet
Those lovers scorn whom that love doth possess?
Do they call "virtue" there--ungratefulness?

26. Types of Poetry: Limerick
A five-lined poem (rhyme scheme AABBA), often humorous or bawdy
For example:
There was a young man from Darjeeling,
Who got on a bus bound for Ealing.
It said at the door:
"Don't spit on the floor."
So he carefully spat on the ceiling.