Transcript Poetic Elements - Riverdale High School

Poetry
Number from 1-8 in your notebook. If you
agree with the following statements, write A.
If you disagree, write D.
1. A poem looks different from a short story or play.
2. A poem always has some type of rhyme.
3. Poems are hard to read and rarely make sense.
4. A poem always conforms to the standard rules of
punctuation.
5. A poem always has a hidden meaning.
6. Poems are pointless.
7. All poems can be read to the same rhythmic pattern.
8. Studying poetry is frustrating and boring.
Why poetry?
Hope is a bird
That stands inside a person
And hums
And doesn’t stop
This…?
Or this…
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all..
Poetry is the best thing written in the best way.
Figurative Language
Idiom
Expression peculiar to a particular language
that means something different from the
literal meaning of the words.
One of the difficulties of translating a work
from another language is translating
idioms.
Ex:
“It’s raining cats and dogs.”
“Chip on your shoulder.”
“Piece of cake.”
Metaphor
Compares two things directly without using
the words like or as
Ex: “My mother is a rock.”
“Time is a thief.”
“I’m a night owl.”
Simile
Figure of speech that makes a comparison
between two seemingly unlike things by
using a connective word such as like, as,
than, or resembles.
Ex: "Good coffee is like friendship: rich and
warm and strong."
Shrek: “Ogres are like onions.”
“Smile as bright as the sun.”
“He is faster than a cheetah.”
Personification
A figure of speech (generally considered a
type of metaphor) in which an inanimate
object or abstraction is given human
qualities or abilities.
In other words…giving human traits
(qualities, feelings, action, or
characteristics) to non-living objects.
Ex: The sun-light off of the lake winked at
me.
“My computer hates me.”
Hyperbole
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is
used for emphasis or effect.
Ex:
“I have told you a million times not to lie!”
“He has tons of money.”
“I love this class more than anything ever in
my entire life.” –Ms. Rathmann’s students
Imagery
Language that appeals to the senses.
Most images are visual, but some may also
appeal to the senses of sound, smell,
touch, and taste.
Ex: It smelled of rust and mold in the old
shed.
Pun
The usually humorous use of a word in such
a way as to suggest two or more of its
meanings or the meaning of another word
similar in sound. A “play on words.”
Ex: I used to be a doctor, but then I lost
patients.
I used to be a Velcro salesman, but couldn't
stick with it.
Sound and Metric Devices
Alliteration
Repetition of the same or similar consonant
sounds in words that are close together.
Ex:
“Whereat with blade, with bloody blameful
blade, He bravely broached his boiling
bloody breast.”
-- Prolouge, Act 5, A Midsummer Night’s
Dream
Onomatopoeia
A word whose sound imitates or suggests its
meaning
Repetition
Repetition of a sound, syllable, word,
phrase, line, stanza, or metrical pattern.
Ex:
“But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
-Robert Frost
Rhyme: End and Internal
Internal Rhyme: Rhyming words found within a
line of poetry
Ex:
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary…”
End Rhyme: Words at the ends of lines that
rhyme.
Ex:
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep...”
Slant Rhyme
Slant: Words that sound similar but do not
rhyme exactly. In most of these instances,
either the vowel segments are different
while the consonants are identical, or vice
versa.
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.
Meter
A generally regular pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables in poetry. Meter is
measured in units called feet.
Rythm
Musical quality in language, produced by
repetition. Poems written in meter create
rhythm by a strict pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables.
Blank Verse
Poetry written in unrhymed meter (iambic
pentameter). Blank verse means that the
poetry is unrhymed.
Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in
blank verse.
Free Verse
Poetry that is written without form, rhyme,
rhythm, meter, etc.
Types of Poetry
Lyric Poetry
A short poem about personal feelings and emotions. Uses
language to suggest (rather than state directly) a single,
strong emotion.
Ex:
i love you much(most beautiful darling)
more than anyone on the earth and i
like you better than everything in the sky
-sunlight and singing welcome your coming
although winter may be everywhere
with such a silence and such a darkness
noone can quite begin to guess
(except my life)the true time of yearand if what calls itself a world should have
the luck to hear such singing(or glimpse such
sunlight as will leap higher than high
through gayer than gayest someone's heart at your each
nearness)everyone certainly would(my
most beautiful darling)believe in nothing but love
-ee cummings
Epic
A long narrative poem detailing a hero’s
deeds.
Ex: The Iliad and The Odessy (Homer)
Beowulf
Don Quixote (Miguel Cervantes)
Sonnet
14 lines! 2 kinds: Petrarchan (Italian) or
Shakespearean (English). It has three quatrains
(four-line units) followed by a concluding couplet
(two-line unit). A type of lyric poem.
Ex: Sonnet 18-(Will)
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Ballad
Narrative (tells a story) intended to be sung
or recited. A form of narrative poetry.
Ballad too long to type...
You’re a poet…didn’t you know
it!?!
• Starting small…we are going write acrostic
poems!
• You can use either your name or the word
of an activity or someone else’s name
(pet, family member, etc.)
SIMON
Smiles at me when he is happy
Interesting and smart
Makes me happy when skies are grey
Only a dog, but don’t tell him that
Not just a dog to me.