Poetry and Figurative Language Terms

We need a way to talk about poetry!

(and sound smart doing it…)

Each day we review terms, add the definitions to the sheet given to you. Also record examples of poems we review in class.

Poetry and Figurative Language

Figurative Language: Language that is not used in its literal or exact sense. It is used to represent something else or suggest additional meanings.

Imagery: Language that creates mental pictures that appeal to the senses Stanza: Group of consecutive lines that form a single unit in a poem Tone: The attitude a writer takes toward a subject, a character, or the reader Speaker: The voice that is talking to us in a poem. May or may not the author .

Poetry and Figurative Language

Simile: A comparison using like or as.

Ex. Her lips are as red as a rose.

Metaphor: A comparison between two unlike things that does not use like or as.

Ex. His comment was a knife in my back.

Extended Metaphor (also called a conceit): lines in a poem or story. A metaphor that extends over a number of

Poetry and Figurative Language

• Alliteration: Repetition of the same consonant sounds in a sequence of words, usually at the beginning or on a stressed syllable. Based on sound, not spelling – Ex. Kite/Car – Not an example: Car/Cite • Assonance: Repetition of the vowel sounds in nearby words that do not end the same.

– Ex. “Family Tree” by Tupac “…the tree who grew from weeds” • Consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the end of words.

– Ex. “Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes “Or rust and sugar over-“

Poetry and Figurative Language

• Rhyme Scheme: The pattern of rhymed lines in a poem. Indicate a rhyme scheme by giving each new end rhyme a letter of the alphabet.

– Ex. ABAB *Near Rhymes: words that sound similar do not rhyme exactly • Internal Rhyme: Rhyming that occurs within the line/lines of a poem.

• Sonnet: A fixed form of lyric poetry that consists of fourteen lines, usually written in iambic pentameter. There are two basic types of sonnets, the Italian (Petrarchan) and the English (Shakespearean).

Poetry and Figurative Language

• Diction: The author/poet’s choice of words • Hyperbole: exaggeration for effect EX. “I’m so hungry I could eat 20 pizzas!” • Anaphora: Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of consecutive lines.

• Onomatopoeia: The use of words that imitate sounds, such as zip, hiss and buzz.

• Personification: objects.

The attribution of human feelings or characteristics to abstractions or to inanimate Ex. “But time did beckon to the flowers, and they by noon most cunningly did steal away.”

Poetry and Figurative Language

• Mood: A story or poem’s atmosphere or the feeling it evokes • Allusion: a reference in one text to another; may be a reference from history, literature, popular culture, art, myths, the Bible, geography, etc.

• End stop vs. enjambment: End stop is when the sentence or thought of the poem stops at the end of the line; enjambment is the continuation of a sentence or clause over a line-break.

• Symbol: when one represents or stands for something else; may be universal (like flying for freedom) or constructed (like the strange fruit for a lynched man)