STAAR STRATEGIES for Poetry Analysis

ELEMENTS OF POETRY

• • • • • • Sound Devices Figurative Language Imagery Structure Rhyme Rhythm and Meter

•

Sound Devices

Sound Devices are a method of adding music and mood to writing. They are very common in poetry but can be found in prose writing also. The sounds are meant to sound pleasant or unpleasant to the ear, depending on the mood the writer wants to create.

Alliteration: Repetition of beginning consonants sounds

•

Examples:

–

ten tiny tin men tumbled from the shelf

–

a mighty man managed to mend the sail Consonance:

Repetition of consonant sounds anywhere within the words.

•

Examples:

–

the silky sounds of silence

–

*(“ce” makes the “s” sound, too) the bomb blasted and bombarded the buildings Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds within words Examples:

–

jingle bells tinkle and clink as we sing (short I vowel)

–

Ease into sleep and enjoy the sweet peace (long e vowel)

•

Onomatopoeia

: Words that are spelled so as to imitate noises and sounds we hear.

Examples:

–

The old rusty truck clanked and chugged down the road.

–

The lonely owl hooted from his perch in the tree.

–

All the dishes fell to the floor with a loud clatter.

Figurative Language

Figurative language achieves a level of creativity not possible with literal language. Students must go beyond recognizing that the figurative language is there to what the figurative language achieves in the written work.

• •

FIGURTIVE LANGUAGE

Simile:

a comparison between two seemingly unlike things using Like or As.

Metaphor:

a comparison of two unlike things without the use of Like or As. The statement will say something IS the other thing rather than saying it is LIKE it.

• • • •

Personification:

giving human qualities or abilities to nonhuman things.

Hyperbole: Oxymoron: Paradox:

exaggeration for the purpose of impact or emphasis word pair or combination that expresses a contradiction a statement that expresses a contradiction

What is this an example of?

Don’t go near water until you’ve learned to swim.

Imagery or Sensory Languages

TYPE

Visual Imagery Example: The horizon glowed a deep red orange.

SENSE

Sight Hearing Auditory Imagery Example: A cat screeched and wailed in the alley. Tactile Imagery Grandpa’s beard was scratchy on my cheek. Olfactory imagery Example: I smell fresh baked buttery bread!

Touch Smell Gustatory imagery Example: The creamy vanilla ice cream melted Taste

Imagery or Sensory Language

• There are two more types of imagery that deals with movement that we can perceive. Here are their types and examples • Kinetic Imagery: This is movement of objects through another force like gravity, being thrown, pushed, moved by electrical or engine power etc… • Example: The loosened boulder

down the hillside.

Kinesthetic imagery:

This is

movement of living thing

. They choose when and how to move, and under their own power. Examples: The

gymnast ran twirling

down the mat, as she went.

flipping

and A

panther leaped

from the cavern edge and

pounced

on the deer.

• • • •

The Structure of Poetry

Lines

of poetry can be any length… one word or all the way across the page.

Line breaks

occur wen a line of poetry does not extend into remaining space on the page but instead begins again on the line beneath.

Enjambmen

punctuation. t occurs when one line and its meaning flow into another with no stopping A

Stanza

is a group of poetic lines much like a paragraph is a group of prose sentences.

The Structure of Poetry

The use of the above devices, their placement, their number, etc., I entirely decided by the author or it can be dictated by the

form

of the poetry. Next are some common

poetry types

.

TYPES OF POEMS

• • Haiku: a three line poem with a 5,7,5 syllable pattern usually written on a subject from nature. Cinquain: a five line poem where – Line 1 is one word (the title), – Line 2 is two words that describe the title, – Line 3 is three words that tell the action, – Line 4 is four words that express the feeling, – Line 5 is one word that recalls the title.

TYPES OF POEMS

• • Limerick is a kind of humorous, or nonsense poem especially one in five-line structure, including a specific rhythm and a strict rhyme scheme (aabba) Narrative poetry: A narrative poem tells a story and may be long or brief. They usually have a tight structure of stanzas and a rhyme pattern that is determined by the author. Two common types are epics and ballads.

Types of Poems Ballads are narrative poems that are

usually not very long They have a strict rhyme scheme and often have a refrain or repeated line that may occur at the end of the beginning of each stanza. Ballads originated as songs with the lines of the poem put to music.

Types of Poems

Epic poems are long, formal narrative poems that can be the length of a short novel they are usually written about the deeds of a hero. The rhyme and meter differs depending on the author This form of poetry dates back to the origins of poetry when the form was only spoken and passed down form generation to generation by retelling and memorization. Two very famous epic poems are The Iliad and The Odyssey by the Greek poet Homer.

Types of Poems

Lyrics

poem are poems that express personal emotions on a subject. They are structured with meter and rhyme, but no set type is required, nor is there any specific length. It is determined by the author. This form of poem is quite open in the sense that it is suited to any emotional or reflective topic

Types of Poems

• • Sonnets are lyric poems exactly 14 lines long with a strict rhyme scheme and rhythm patter. Sonnet means little song, and they were often written to express love or admiration for another. Free Verse This is a modern form of poetry where anything goes. There is no pattern in rhyme, rhythm, or line length. There is the use of poetic elements and poetic lines of varying lengths, but there is no pattern, allowing for an open expression.

Rhythm and Meter in Poetry

Poetic lines have a rhythm made up of accented and unaccented syllables in words. When combined in a line they make a pattern with the voice. Many nursery rhymes are noted for the rhythm created in the lines. Different patterns (feet) have names and the number of groupings of patterns (called meter) have names as well. Below is a chart showing the pattern of the rhythm and what we call that foot.

Rhythm and Meter in Poetry

•

Iamb

/Iambic/Unstressed + Stressed

I saw a ship a-sailing, A-sailing on the sea.

And, oh, but it was laden With pretty things for thee

•

Trochee

/Trochaic/Stressed + Unstressed

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star How I wonder what you are?

• •

Anapest

/Anapestic/Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed

Ride a fine horse to Banbury Cross To see a fine lady upon a white horse. Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, She shall have music wherever she goes.

Dactyl

/Dactylic/Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed

Hickory, dickory dock, The mouse ran up the clock.

The clock struck one, The mouse ran down!

Hickory, dickory, dock

Rhythm and Meter in Poetry

• • • Two Less common feet….

Spondee

/Spondaic/Stressed + Stressed

Pyrrhic

/Pyrrhic/Unstressed + Unstressed • Depending how many groupings of accented; unaccented syllables of a certain foot tat you have in a line, this will determine the meter.

Meter

Below is a listing of names of the different meter lengths. Many of the prefixes help indicate the number of feet in the line.

• • • • •

Mono

meter = one foot

Di

meter = two feet

Tri

meter = three feet

Tetra

mete = four feet

Penta

meter = five feet • • •

Hexa

mete r = six feet

Hepta

meter = seven feet

Octa

meter = eight feet

Help for Scanning Poetic Lines

• • • • Say the line as naturally as you can and listen for the emphasized syllables.

Mark the accented syllables first. (/) Read the line again and see if your emphasis I really happening as you marked it. Adjust if necessary.

Then mark the unstressed syllables with a scoop mark.

Help for Scanning Poetic Lines

•

If the poem has a regular and very “hearable” rhythm, this will work. But what if it doesn’t, and you can’t hear it?

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Here are Mrs. Moore’s CHEAT TIPS for Scanning Poetry!

Help for Scanning Poetic Lines • • • • • • Mark the natural rhythm of any multi-syllable words with accented and unaccented marks. (Just like when you marked accents in our own name.) Following, mark any single syllable words with an accent by prioritizing in the following order.

Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs

Help for Scanning Poetic Lines

• • This system makes sense because the CONTENT of the line will be found in its nouns and verbs, and then in lesser priority, the adjectives and adverbs that describe them.

The next step is to mark the less important words with an unaccented mark. These include the articles, conjunctions and prepositions.

Help for Scanning Poetic Lines

• • After marking the line, try to read it with the accents where you have marked them. If he line does not sound awkward or unnatural, then you probably have it marked correctly. Another hint will be if you can easily see one of the patterns and groupings of feet.

If you cannot see a regular pattern, you till may be correct, but you have an irregular line where the writer had to break his/her pattern.

Help for Scanning Poetic Lines

• • • Remember, read naturally! Don’t try to FORCE the pattern you have marked by altering how you pronounce the words. Also, depending on which words come before or after a single syllable word, this can cause it to be accented in one line and unaccented in another line. You take them as they are within the line

Finally, with scansion of poetry, the more you do it, the better you get!

Practice makes perfect!!

Examples of Rhythm and Meter

•

“To be or not to be, that is the question.”

• • • • • • • (/ (U / U / U / U / U /) Iambic (type of foot) Pentameter (number of feet in the line)

Iambic Pentameter Trochaic Tetrameter

Twink-le twink-le u / lit-tle star u (/ U U / U U / U U / u /)* • • An accent, *, alone will count as one more single foot.

Dactylic Tetrameter “Take her up ten-der-y, Dar-ling my love.” /)

Anapestic Trimeter So I walk by the edge of a lake.

(U U / U U / U U /)

RHYME IN POETRY

Rhyme occurs when the ends of lines have the same sound in the ending vowels or in the ending vowel/ consonant combination usually found at the end of poetic lines where a rhyme pattern occurs. Below re some types of rhyme that are used in poetry.

TYPES OF RHYMES

• End Rhyme: rhyming words found at the ends of poetic lines Example: “You used to think monsters hid under your bed. Now we think so too, but it smells like they’re dead.”

TYPES OF RHYMES

Alternating Rhyme: rhyming words that occur every other line, like they are taking turns (a,b, a,b, c,d c,d etc… ) Example: “All I have I give to

you

You mean the world to

me

And everything I say or

do

I do so willing

ly

” (a) (b) (a) (d)

TYPES OF RHYMES

• Internal Rhyme: This occurs when words within a line of poetry rhyme.

• • • •

Example I stepped in blue goo and it made me so sick, What else could I do But turn a men green

TYPES OF RHYMES

Near Rhyme:

This occurs when there is a pair of words that nearly, or almost rhyme. The author cannot always find a perfect rhyme to grammatically fit into the grammar and meaning of the line, so sometimes they have to work with something close instead.

RHYME SCHEME

• Examples We said, “We can’t, we can’t!” • So he turned and away he went! My eyes, my ears, they cannot tell, The sights and sounds beyond the wall.

RHYME SCHEME

• • • In order to analyze a pattern of rhyme, one needs a way to mark the pattern. By assigning letters of the alphabet to each pair of rhyming and any that rhyme with them following, one can see the pattern of the rhyme.

Each unique sound gets its own letter.

Some poems follow a very specific, predetermined rhyme scheme, like sonnets.

RHYME SCHEME

• • Other rhyme schemes are created by the authors when they create the poem with their own pattern of rhyme.

Poems like free verse, do not have a pattern of rhyme.