THE POET S DICTIONARY of Poetic Devices
WHAT IS POETRY? Poetry is the kind of thing poets write. Robert Frost Man, if you gotta ask, you ll never know. Louis Armstrong
POETRY A literary form that combines the precise meanings of words with their emotional associations and musical qualities, such as rhythm and sounds.
3 MAIN TYPES OF POETRY LYRIC A short poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker NARRATIVE A poem that tells a story DRAMATIC A poem that presents the speech of one or more speakers in a dramatic situation
LINES & STANZAS Line a series of metrical feet in a poem, usually printed as one single line Stanza groupings of lines
RHYTHM & METER Rhythm the pattern or flow of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry; a regular pattern of rhythm is called meter emphasis syllable Meter The rhythmic patterns built on the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables. Feet The division of stressed and unstressed syllables
RHYTHM the pattern or flow of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry; a regular pattern of rhythm is called meter emphasis syllable
iamb unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (beneath) trochee stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (twinkle) spondee two stressed syllables (schoolyard) dactyl one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (beautiful) anapest two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable (comprehend)
SOUND DEVICES Techniques that create musical effects
RHYME A sound device commonly associated with poetry, although many poems do not rhyme.
Exact Rhyme Words that end in both the same vowel and same consonant sounds (sun and run) Slant Rhyme Words that end in similar but not exact sounds (prove and love) End Rhyme Rhyming words that fall at the ends of two or more lines (crawls, walls, falls) Internal Rhyme Rhyming words placed within a line (The mouse in the house woke the cat)
RHYME SCHEME A set pattern of rhyme. The rhyme scheme of a poem is identified by assigning a different letter of the alphabet to each rhyme. Rhyme scheme helps shape the structure of a stanza and clarifies the relationships among the lines. For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.
Repetition The use of any language element more than once (Above the town, above the lake, and high above the trees.) Onomatopoeia The use of words to imitate sounds (The bees buzzed, and the brook gurgled.) Parallelism the use of similar grammatical constructions to express ideas that are related or equal in importance (parallelism is a type of repetition)
Alliteration The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. (The snake sneaked past the snail.) Assonance The repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonants in two or more stressed syllables (The green leaves fluttered in the breeze.) Consonance The repetition of final consonant sounds in stressed syllables with different vowel sounds (The king sang a song.)
DENOTATION & CONNOTATION Denotation The literal definition of a word Connotation The emotional associations of a word (thrifty and penny-pinching)
MEANING & TONE The connotative meanings of words help convey a poem s tone. Tone The poet s emotional attitude toward his or her subject. (formal, informal, lighthearted, solemn, etc.)
IMAGERY Descriptive language that creates word pictures. Through the use of details that appeal to the senses of sight, touch, sound, taste, and smell, poets re-create sensory experiences and emotions in words.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE Language that is not meant to be interpreted literally (see handout)
TYPES OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE simile Compares two things using the word like or as (Her visit was as unexpected and welcome as a flower in winter.) metaphor Compares two things by stating one thing in terms of something else (Her visit was a flower in winter.) personification Gives human qualities or abilities to nonhuman things (The alarm clock nagged me to get out of bed.)
FORMS OF POETRY Formal Verse A type of poetry that follows fixed, established patterns (e.g. rhyme scheme, meter, line structure, stanza structure). Free Verse A type of poetry that exhibits poetic language but does not follow fixed patterns.
TYPES OF FORMAL VERSE Ballad A songlike narrative poem, usually written in rhymed stanzas of four to six lines that feature repetition and strong meter Haiku An unrhymed three-line lyric poem, usually focused on images from nature, in which lines 1 and 3 have five syllables and line 2 has seven syllables English Sonnet A fourteen-line lyric poem consisting of three quatrains and a couplet, usually rhymed abab cdcd efef gg
TYPES OF FORMAL VERSE, CONT. Ode A lyric poem on a serious subject, usually written in a precise structure Concrete Poem A poem with a shape that suggests its subject; the poet arranges letters, words, punctuation, and lines to create a picture
TYPES OF FORMAL VERSE, CONT. Villanelle Lyric poem consisting of five 3-line stanzas, and ending with a quatrain and having only 2 rhymes; it ahs two refrain lines that appear initially in the first and third lines of the first stanza, they then appear alternately as the third line of subsequent stanzas and finally as the last two lines of the poem
TYPES OF FORMAL VERSE, CONT. Ballad Narrative poem that is meant to be sung or recited; form contains a series of quatrains in which lines of iambic tetrameter alternate with iambic trimeter; usually follows an A-B-C-B rhyme scheme with frequent use of repetition and often including a refrain
TYPES OF FORMAL VERSE, CONT. Blank Verse Unrhymed iambic pentameter (e.g. Shakespearean plays) Heroic Couplet A pair of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter (traditional heroic epic form)
TYPES OF FORMAL VERSE, CONT. Sonnet A fourteen line poem in iambic pentameter with a prescribed rhyme scheme; subject is traditionally love Shakespearean Sonnet Style of sonnet used by Shakespeare with a rhyme scheme of A-B-A-B, C-D-C-D, E-F-E-F, G-G
TYPES OF FREE VERSE Elegy Poem written in response to the death of a person or group Epic Long narrative poem about the deeds of gods or heroes
THREE MAIN TYPES OF POETRY Narrative poem that tells a story Lyric poem containing highly musical verse (through alliteration, rhythm, rhyme) that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker Dramatic poem that uses techniques of drama;