2. Vocabulary for Poetry Unit and Figurative Language Sometimes words mean more than what they say… “Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes.” Joseph Roux

3. Alliteration The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or within words. Example “…after life’s fitful fever.” William Shakespeare / Macbeth

4. Alliteration Example Betty Botter bought some butter, But, said she, the butter’s bitter; If I put it in my batter It will make my batter bitter, But a bit of better butter, That would make my batter better.

5. Onomatopoeia Words that imitate or suggest the sound of what they describe. Example Bam Meow RingRuff, Ruff Boom

6. Simile Compares two unlike things using “like”, “as”, “as if” Examples “This room is like a freezer.” “He is as fast as a cheetah.”

7. Metaphor Compares two unlike things without using “like” or “as” Examples The room is a freezer. She is a cheetah.

8. Metaphor Examples Metaphor Examples “morning is / a new sheet of paper / for you to write on.” Eve Merriam “Metaphor” “the beautiful uncut hair of graves.” Walt Whitman Song of Myself

9. Personification When human qualities or actions are given to non- human objects. Examples The cd player is singing to me. The warm room invited me in.

10. A little riddle…What is the speaker of the poem? By Sylvia Path I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. I am not cruel, only truthful--

11. Hyperbole An obvious overly exaggerated statement. Examples -My teacher is so old, he edited the Bible.

12. Hyperbole Examples "I could eat a horse." "If I've told you once, I've told you a million times.“ "I nearly died laughing."

13. Now let’s see if you’ve learned anything. Decide what vocabulary word each example is illustrating.

14. Buzz Onomatopoeia

15. He was a lion on the soccer field. Metaphor

16. “Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait,” -John James Ingalls “Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait,” -Alliteration

17. “The quality of mercy is not strained; / It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven” -William Shakespeare -Simile -It compares the “quality of mercy” to “rain from heaven.”

18. “The waves beside them danced…” -William Wordsworth Personification –Waves don’t dance, people dance.

19. “I wandered lonely as a cloud” -William Wordsworth Simile -It compares the speaker to a lonely cloud.

20. “Poetry is truth.” Metaphor

21. “How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!” -William Shakespeare Personification –T–The moonlight is sleeping like a person would.

22. It’s a billion degrees in here. Hyperbole

23. “An hundred years should go to praise / Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze,” -Andrew Marvell Translation: “I’ll praise your eyes and look at your forehead for 100 years b/c you’re so beautiful. Hyperbole

24. The leaves played tag in the yard. Personification

25. “ Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly.” -Langston Hughes Metaphor