1. Characteristics and Forms
Poetry
Characteristics and Forms

2. Poetry
Poems are divided into lines and then grouped into stanzas, or verses. *Stanzas: poetry’s paragraphs: this is the way that the lines in a poem are grouped.

3. Characteristics of Poetry
Figurative Language and Sound Devices

4. Figurative Language writing or speech not meant to be taken literally.
Metaphor: describes one thing as if it were something else.
Personification: gives human qualities to a non-human object.
Simile: uses like or as to compare two apparently unlike things.
Symbol: anything that represents something else.

5. Figurative Language Review
Identify each of the following as either a simile, metaphor, symbol, or personification.
He sits there like a lump on a log.
The dog screamed in excitement.
The bus lot is a zoo this morning!
Thumbs up means everything is good.

6. Figurative Language
Create an example of each: simile, metaphor, personification and symbol.

7. Sound Devices Meant to enhance a poem’s mood and meaning
Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds in the beginning of words: slippery slick slope
Repetition: the use of any element of language – a sound, word, phrase, clause, or sentence – more than once.
Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonants in stressed syllables: blade and maze

8. Sound Devices Meant to enhance a poem’s mood and meaning
Consonance: the repetition of similar consonant sounds a the ends of accented syllables: wind and sand
Onomatopoeia: the use of words that imitate sounds. Crash, bang, hiss
Rhyme: repetition of sounds at the ends of words: speech, teach
Rhyme scheme: a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem – labeled using lowercase letters. First line ALWAYS starts with an A. Rhyming is identified by the last word on each line.
-twinkle twinkle little star – a
how I wonder what you are – a
up above the world so high – b
like a diamond in the sky – b
Rhyme scheme: aabb

9. Sound Devices Meant to enhance a poem’s mood and meaning
Meter: The rhythmical pattern in a poem.
Imagery: the use of vivid vocabulary and specific details that appeal to the senses.
Examples: hear, touch, taste, smell, sight.

10. Flo-cab Figurative Language

11. Forms of Poetry
Brainstorm: complete the bubble map on your handout naming any/all types of poetry you know.

12. Narrative Tells a story in verse.
Has elements similar to a short story
Plot, characters, etc.

13. Haiku Three line Japanese form – typically focuses on nature.
First and third lines have 5 syllables
Second line has seven.

14. Free Verse Lacks strict structure.
No regular meter, rhyme, fixed length, or stanza size.

15. Lyric
Expresses thoughts and feeling of a single speaker, often in music.

16. Ballad Songlike poems that tell a story
Often deal with adventure and romance

17. Concrete Shaped to look like their subject.
Lines are shaped to create an image.

18. Limerick
Humerous rhyming five-line poem with a specific rhythm pattern and rhyme scheme.
Example:
“Hickory, dickory, dock,
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
And down he run,
Hickory, dickory, dock.”

19. Rhyming couplets
Pairs of rhyming lines, usually of same meter or length.
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall/
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall/
Syllable count?
All the king's horses and all the king's men/
Couldn't put Humpty together again!“

20. Others
Cinquain – five line poem using designated parts of speech to describe a topic.
Acrostic – uses the topic and each line must start with the first letter of the line.
Alphabet poem – Uses A-Z: write like an acrostic.
Found poem – a collage of a text: read text, highlight words/phrases that stand out to you, compile them in a poem that describes text.
Autobio/bio poem– describes yourself/ someone else