Poetry The poet s eye in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, and as imagination bodies forth the forms of thing unknown, the poet s pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name. -William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night s Dream
Poet Marianne Moore once said that poems are imaginary gardens with real toads in them. To create these imaginary gardens, or as Shakespeare put it, to give to airy nothing a local habitation and a name, poets use the most powerful tool in the world language. The twist it, bend it, stretch it, and shape it to reveal something new each time they put pen to paper.
Percy Byssch Shelley said it another way: Poetry lifts the veil from hidden beauty. It makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar and creates anew the universe. What do I see? A tree in the autumn. I see dead leaves varnished with color like blood..
Some of the devices poets use are imagery (through figurative language and sound devices), rhythm, rhyme, and form.
Simile Her eyes sparkled like diamonds. He was as cool as a cucumber.
Metaphor He slithered into town quietly so no one would notice when he dug his fangs in and slowly poisoned their minds. Love is a fragile flower opening to the warmth of Spring He was drowning in paperwork.
Personification Cars dance across the icy road. The thunder grumbled like an old man.
Hyperbole My teacher is so old she considers Shakespeare to be 'new-fangled modern art'! I had a ton of homework
Apostrophe Hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again... Science! True daughter of Old Time thou art! Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art
Synecdoche I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. Friends, Romans, countrymen: lend me your ears.
Metonymy By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat thy bread. Detroit is still hard at work on an SUV that runs on rain forest trees and panda blood.
Litote Perhaps he s a little sleepy. They aren't the happiest couple around.
Symbol
Allusion She was no Scrooge, but she seldom purchased anything except the bare necessities. She was breathtakingly beautiful, but he knew that she was forbidden fruit. His wife was his Achilles' heel.
Antonomasia Where did you put the stapler, Dilbert? Hey, Casanova, keep your hands to yourself.
Oxymoron Deafening silence Small crowd Original copies Definite maybe Virtual reality Only choice Silent scream Seriously funny Cold fire Controlled chaos Expressive silence
Alliteration Nature s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Betty Butter bought some butter, but, she said, the butter s bitter
Assonance Hear the lark and harken to the barking of the dark fox gone to ground. The spider skins lie on their sides, translucent and ragged, their legs drying in knots.
Consonance A Quietness distilled A silent listening wave Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here, To watch his woods fill up with snow.
Onomatopoeia I'm getting married in the morning! Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime.
Repetition Rain The rain is falling all around It falls on field and tree, It rains on the umbrellas here, And on the ships at sea. Refrain O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
Meter is the rhythm or pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry Scan the following: Ashore a shore Father Content Beautiful Unlawful Interviewer photographer
=unstressed =stressed Foot=the particular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Each of the following is the name of a foot used in poetry: iambic dactylic trochaic spondaic anapestic pyrrhic
Iambic: She went to town To buy a gown. Trochaic: Double, double, toil and trouble Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Anapestic: I will walk with an air Of a man with green hair. Dactylic: Angels were singing in unison, Basking in light from the holy one. Your turn: He bought a fancy car Your turn: Listen to your waiter Your turn: It was dark Your turn: Write a line that rhymes with the line above it and has the same meter (pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Nobody likes to see
monometer pattern appears once dimeter - pattern appears two times trimeter- pattern appears three times tetrameter - pattern appears four times pentameter five times hexameter six times heptameter seven times octameter eight times Practice: Write the sentences, mark the syllables and write the meter (Remember, the meter is two parts, pattern and line, e.g. trochaic tetrameter) 1. Pigs were running back to shelter. 2. It was cold in the fall of the year. 3. Parting is sorrowful, always so terrible. 4. Peaceful breezes brushed my window. 5. I wished upon a lucky star. 6. From the North came the chill of his breath. 7. If I could be a movie star in love. 8. Listen to everyone quietly whispering.
Rhyme Single one syllable rhyme boat/float Double two syllable rhyme waiter/alligator Triple three syllable rhyme, glorious/victorious End comes at the end of the lines Internal comes within line or in the middle of two lines example: the voice of death ends choice of sleep Scheme first line is A, second line is A if it rhymes or B if it doesn t He sang A He sang A A tune B And rang A Of love C A bell B In June B So swell B
Lyrical Poetry Free verse no rhyme, no meter Rhymed verse rhyme and meter Blank verse no rhyme, iambic pentameter Stanza division of poetry couplet two lines triplet three lines quatrain four lines quintet five lines sestet six lines septet seven lines octave eight lines
Types of Poems Ballad tells a story formal ballad stanza = four line stanzas, ABCB, first and third lines iambic tetrameter, second and fourth lines iambic trimeter Italian sonnet 14 lines, ABBA,ABBA, CDCDCD or CDECDE sets up a problem or situation, then solves or explains English sonnet 14 lines, ABAB,CDCD,EFEF,GG, iambic pentameter Ode profound treatment of a subject, rhyme scheme and meter up to writer