1. How and why do poets play with words?

2.  Space is limited, so poets carefully select words

3. Kinds of diction: Poetic diction—elevated language, common in older and/or traditional poetry Dialect—typical language spoken by a definable group of people (location, race, income-level, etc) Jargon—typical language spoken by a group of trade and/or professional members Levels of diction:  Formal diction—dignified, impersonal, elevated  Middle diction—spoken by most educated people  Informal diction/colloquial—conversational, often includes slang

4. Denotation—literal definition meaning Connotation—associations and social meanings that shade word why?

5. Persona—a speaker created by the poet Ambiguity—intentional freedom of interpreting a word, phrase, action, character, and/or situation in more than 1 way

6. Syntax—order of words and/or sentences

7. Onomatopoeia—words that sound like their meanings; examples: boom, buzz, crackle, gurgle, hiss, pop, sizzle, snap, swoosh, whir, zip Cliché—any figure of speech that once was clever and original but now is overused and/or outdated; examples: busy as a bee, time will tell

8. Oxymoron—a phrase that joins 2 opposite words: bittersweet, cold flame Pun—playing with meaning and sound; examples: I'm trying to find a rope tying class, should I look for a knot for profit organization?, He drove his expensive car into a tree and found out how the Mercedes bends., When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

9.  Synesthesia—an attempt to fuse different senses by describing one kind of sense impression in words that typically used to describe another; examples: The sound of her voice was sweet, a loud aroma, a velvety smile

10. Let’s practice!