1. Poetry Unit Review

2. Poetry terms Literal: dictionary meaning of a word
Figurative language: using language to create a comparison or image
Denotative: literal meaning of a word (stubborn)
Connotative: suggestion or implication in addition to the literal meaning of a word (strong-willed vs. pig-headed)
Imagery: creating ‘pictures’ with words

3. Purpose: author’s reason for writing a poem
Topic: general idea of a poem
Theme: idea about life or what it means to be human that is drawn from a poem
Tone: author’s attitude toward the subject of a poem
Effect: the way a poem makes you feel; its impact

4. Form: the way the words are arranged
Stanza: like a ‘paragraph’ grouping of lines
Rhythm: series of beats or metrical units in a line
Rhyme: final words of a line sound the same
Symbol: concrete person, place, thing or action that represents an abstract idea or emotion

5. Sound devices Alliteration: repetition of same consonant sound
Pirouettes of professional players
Repetition: repeating phrase or word
I came, I saw, I conquered; on and on and on
Assonance: repeating sounds: do you like blue? ou-ou-ou or the continuing conversation (con-con)
Onomatopoeia: words that sound like the sound they represent
Buzzing, bubbling, sputtering, tinkling

6. Hyperbole: exaggeration (this book weighs a ton)
Metaphor: comparing without saying ‘as’ or ‘like’
Simile: comparing using ‘as’ or ‘like’
Personification: giving human like qualities to inanimate objects

7. Irony
Situational irony: Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs
in Sucker the story begins when Pete says, ‘it was always my room’ and, in the end, Sucker takes over the room.
Dramatic irony: when the reader knows something that the main characters do not
the reader knows that Maybelle is using Pete for his homework, when he thinks she finally likes him.

8. Imagery: Mrs. Reece Laughs
Metaphors:
Laughter = a sudden wave that… (a wave)
= it germinates, it spreads (a growing seed)
= clusters of subterranean chuckles (an earthquake)
Simile: all the woman heaves as a great elm
Personification: volcanic forces takes her and shakes her
Imagery: Mrs Reece as a great elm whose leaves wallow…; clusters of subterranean chuckles; a visage that expands in scarlet ridge ….
Alliteration: huge hands, hanging head
Assonance: takes her and shakes her
Repetition: dimple by dimple, takes her and shakes her
Rhyme scheme: a-a-b-b-c-c, etc.
Tone: joyful, comical
Purpose: observation of how laughter can physically move a person
Effect: makes the reader feel the power of Mrs. Reece’s laughter

9. Narrative: Metaphor: Irony: The Cremation of Sam McGee
My Sealed Aquarium
Dreams
Waves
Inuit Poem
To Hold in a Poem
Mother to Son
Irony:
Richard Cory, Warren Pryor
Last Lesson of the Afternoon, Did I Miss Anything?
July 15, 1986

10. Unit Test 50 questions multiple choice
You will need an HB pencil for the Scantron
Three sections:
Poetic terms
Applying poetic terms to poems we studied
A sight poem which you will interpret