1. Elements of Poetry
“POETRY IS WHEN AN EMOTION HAS FOUND ITS THOUGHT AND THE THOUGHT HAS FOUND WORDS.”
- ROBERT FROST

2. Elements of Poetry Stanza
Example- “Doing Business” by Babs Bell Hajdusiewicz
My Daddy’s on the phone right now.
He says he’s almost done.
My Daddy’s doing business with
A man from Washington.
My mother’s doing business, too.
She’s not at home today.
My mother’s doing business at
Her office far away.
And I’ll be doing business with
Our brand new pooper-scoop,
‘Cause my puppy’s doing business on
Our newly painted stoop!
Stanza 1
Stanza 2
Stanza 3

3. Definition:
Stanza: lines of a poem grouped into a unit

4. Elements of Poetry Speaker of a poem~ Example – “Annabelle Lee”
by Edgar Allen Poe
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
~this is just the first stanza of the poem
(Edgar Allan Poe’s real wife was Virginia Clemm)

5. Definition
Speaker: The voice talking in the poem, not necessarily the author.
In stories/novels there is always a narrator, but in poetry, we use the term “speaker.”

6. Forms of Poetry
Narrative: A poem that tells a story with plot, setting, and characters
Example: The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes
Sonnet: A poem that has a formal structure of 14 lines and a specific rhyme scheme
Example: “Sonnet 43” by William Shakespeare
Free Verse: A poem without regular patterns of rhyme and rhythm, capturing the sound of everyday speech.
Example “Arithmetic” by Carl Sandburg

7. Forms of Poetry Lyric: expresses personal and emotional feelings.
Ex. Love poems/songs
Ode: poem addressing a particular person or thing.
Ex. “Ode to a Grecian Urn”

8. Connotation
Ex. Mom and Dad when used in place of mother and father connote loving parents.

9. Definition
Connotation: The implied emotional meaning of a word, not just the exact meaning.

10. Figurative Language Figurative language is used in poetry.
It is not to be taken literally.
Figurative language adds creativity, visualization, and connections.

11. Poetic Devices Simile is underlined below Anna Nalick – “Breathe”
2 AM and she calls me 'cause I'm still awake, "Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?, I don't love him. Winter just wasn't my season" Yeah we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes Like they have any right at all to criticize, Hypocrites. You're all here for the very same reason 'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table No one can find the rewind button, girl. So cradle your head in your hands And breathe... just breathe, Oh breathe, just breathe

12. Definition
Simile: a comparison of two things using “like,” “as,” or “than”

13. Poetic Devices
Metaphor- try to find the two metaphors below in the short part of the song.
“I am a Rock” by Simon & Garfunkel
Gazing from my window to the streets below  On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.  I am a rock,  I am an island.

14. Definition
Metaphor: a comparison of two things without using “like” or “as”

15. Here are a few examples:
Idiom-
Here are a few examples:
A chip on your shoulder - means you are holding a grudge
Sick as a dog - means you are very ill
Jump the gun - would mean to be doing something
early

16. Definition
Idiom: a commonly used expression that is not literally true.
~These expressions are passed down in a culture. In order to understand an idiom, one should know the culture the idiom comes from.
Example of different idioms for a heavy rain:
English-raining cats and dogs.
Africa- it’s raining old women with clubs
Irish- it’s throwing cobblers’ knives
Norway- it’s raining female trolls

17. Poetic Devices Hyperbole: examples My backpack weighs a ton!
My backpack weighs a ton!
This is taking forever!

18. Definition
Hyperbole: an extreme exaggeration

19. Poetic Devices Personification: Story example “Song of the Trees”
“Dear, dear trees…will you ever sing again?”
Other examples:
The computer screamed at me, “Fix me!”
Rustling leaves whispered in my ear, inviting me to play.

20. Definition
Personification: when the author gives human characteristics to nonhuman objects

21. What does a closed door symbolize? An open door?
Poetic Devices
Symbolism~
Doors in the movie Frozen
“We’ll close the gates”
“Don’t let them in. Don’t let them see”
“ Please don’t shut me out again, please
don’t slam the door”
“Tell the guards to open up the gate”
“The window is open, so’s that door”
“Love is an open door”
What does a closed door symbolize? An open door?

22. Definition
Symbolism: when a person, place, object or action stands for something beyond itself

23. Poetic Devices Imagery: look to the underlined parts of the poem
“Playing Outfield”
– by Isabel Joshlin Glaser
The baseball drops into your glove,
Sounds like…. Thunk! (Or Plunk?
Or Plop? Whop?) But stays,
Sounds like Another sunny day,
Dust, sweat shivering down,
Clothes plastered to your skin,
THIRST
Sounds like you caught a flier,
The other side’s out,
And your team leads,
Everybody’s yelling like crazy,
HOORAY!
water, please . . .

24. Definition
Imagery: when the poet tries to appeal to the reader using the five senses

25. Poetic Devices Irony: Read and view examples
The Crocodile – by Lewis Carroll
How doth the crocodile,
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!

26. Definition
Irony: the contrast between expectation and reality

27. Poetic Devices Pun: a play on the multiple meaning of words
“I Just Can’t Wait to be King
– On The Lion King
[Simba:] I'm gonna be a mighty king So enemies beware! [Zazu:] Well, I've never seen a king of beasts With quite so little hair [Simba:] I'm gonna be the mane event Like no king was before I'm brushing up on looking down I'm working on my ROAR [Zazu:] Thus far, a rather uninspiring thing [Simba:] Oh, I just can't wait to be king!

28. Poetic Devices Allusion~ Papa’s shoe store closed after
only a year, and he lost money.
Papa worked hard, but he just
didn’t have the Midas touch.

29. Definition
Allusion: A reference to a statement, person, place or event (especially from literature, mythology or the Bible)

30. Sound Devices Alliteration Examples:
Peter Piper Picked a Pickled Pepper
Dr. Seuss’s ABC Book
The Flea and the Fly
“The Flea and the Fly”
The flea and the fly got caught in the flue.
Said the fly, “Let us Flee.” Said the Flea, “Let us fly.”
So together they flew through the flaw in the flue.

31. Alliteration~ repetition of the consonant sound at the beginning of words in a line

32. “Skinny” by Shel Silverstein
Sound Devices
Onomatopoeia: words that make sound effects
“Skinny” by Shel Silverstein
Skinny McGuinn
Was so terribly thin
What while taking his bath
Sunday night,
Out popped the plug
And sloosh-swoosh
And glug-glug
It washed Skinny
Right down the drain
Out of sight.
And where is our dear Skinny
Bathing tonight?
In some underground pool
Down below?
Or up there so high
In that tub in the sky
Where all of
The clean people go?

33. Sound Devices Repetition~ Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too
Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too Went for a ride in a flying shoe. "Hooray!" "What fun!" "It's time we flew!" Said Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too. Ickle was captain, and Pickle was crew And Tickle served coffee and mulligan stew As higher And higher And higher they flew, Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.
Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too, Over the sun and beyond the blue. "Hold on!" "Stay in!" "I hope we do!" Cried Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too. Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle too Never returned to the world they knew, And nobody Knows what's Happened to Dear Ickle Me, Pickle Me,
Tickle Me too.
Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too
– by Shel Silverstein

34. Definition
Repetition: when specific words or phrases are repeated two or more times throughout a poem

35. Sound Devices Rhyme: the repetition of sounds in words close together
“Sick” by Shel Silverstein
"I cannot go to school today" Said little Peggy Ann McKay. "I have the measles and the mumps, A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry. I'm going blind in my right eye. My tonsils are as big as rocks, I've counted sixteen chicken pox.
And there's one more - that's seventeen, And don't you think my face looks green? My leg is cut, my eyes are blue, It might be the instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke, I'm sure that my left leg is broke.
My hip hurts when I move my chin, My belly button's caving in.
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained, My 'pendix pains each time it rains. My toes are cold, my toes are numb,
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak, I hardly whisper when I speak. My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight, My temperature is one-o-eight. My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There's a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is ... What? What's that? What's that you say? You say today is Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!"
Internal
Rhyme
Slant
End

36. Sound Devices Rhyme Scheme: a pattern of end rhymes
There once was a man from Peru (A)
Who dreamed he was eating his shoe (A)
He woke with a fright (B)
In the middle of the night (B)
To find that his dream had come true (A)

37. Sound Devices Rhythm~ Listen for it…
the musical quality produced by repeated sounds
I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;
Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.
The fault must partly have been in me
The bird was not to blame for his key
And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.
“A Minor Bird” by Robert Frost

38. Literary Devices Watch the video about Tone & Mood:
ndtone

39. Tone: the attitude the writer takes on a subject or character
Mood: the overall emotion created in the reader.