Transcript Poetry Terms 9th grade Pre

Poetry Terms/ Notes
9th grade
Mrs. Cook
“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read
and write poetry because we are members of the human
race. And the human race is filled with passion. And
medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble
pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty,
romance, love…these are what we stay alive for.”
-Keating- Dead Poet’s Society
Before we begin…
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Prose: Any written text that is not in poetic
form.
Poetry: A type of literature that expresses
ideas, feelings, or tells a story in a specific
form (usually using lines and stanzas).
Prosody: the study of the structure of
poetry.
Explication: the analysis of a poem.
Types of Poetry:
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There are several types of poetry. We
will look at three.
Note: Many poems fit in more than
one category- it is not always easy to
define a poem as just one type.
Types of Poetry:

Narrative poetry: narration of an event
or a story
– A form of narrative poetry would be a
ballad or an epic poem.
– Example of a ballad: “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven” by Edgar
Allan Poe
– Example of an epic poem: “The Odyssey”, “Beowulf”, “Dante’s
Inferno”.
Types of Poetry:
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Lyric Poetry:
– A short poem
– Usually written in first person point of
view and expresses personal
thoughts/feelings
– Expresses an emotion or an idea or
describes a scene
– Are often musical
Lyric poetry cont.
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A form of lyric poetry would be an elegy or
an ode.
– Elegy: a poem of lamentation or sorrow.
– Ode: a song-like poem that is serious, dignified,
and elaborate.
Types of Poetry:
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Dramatic Poetry: usually has one or
more characters who speak to other
characters, to themselves, or to the
reader.
– Some parts of “Romeo and Juliet” contain
examples of dramatic poetry.
– We will not work with dramatic poetry
that much this year.
NARRATIVE POEMS
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A poem that tells a
story.
Generally longer
than the lyric styles
of poetry b/c the
poet needs to
establish characters
and a plot.
Examples of Narrative
Poems
“The Raven”
“The Highwayman”
“Casey at the Bat”
“The Walrus and the
Carpenter”
Poetry Terms to Know:
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Speaker: Every poem has a speaker, or voice, that
talks to the reader. Like a narrator in prose, the
speaker of the poem is not necessarily the author.
The speaker can be a fictional person, an animal, or
even a living thing.
POET: The poet is the author of the poem.
SPEAKER: The speaker of the poem is the “narrator”
of the poem.
Lines & Stanzas
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Lines: a word or row of words that
may or may not make up a complete
sentence
Stanza: a group of words that may or
may not make up a complete
sentence. Stanzas are separated by a
space.
KINDS OF STANZAS
Couplet
Tercet
Quatrain
Quintet
Sestet
Septet
Octet
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=
=
=
=
=
a two line stanza
a three line stanza
a four line stanza
a five line stanza
a six line stanza
a seven line stanza
an eight line stanza
Rhythm:
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is the pattern of sound created by the
arrangement of stressed and
unstressed syllables
Meter: the organization of beats in regular patterns.
The basic unit of a meter is a foot which typically is
made up of at least one stressed and one
unstressed syllable.
Rhyme:
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Is the repetition of similar sounds in
words that appear close to each other
in a poem
LAMP
STAMP


Share the short “a” vowel sound
Share the combined “mp” consonant sound
Types of Rhyme:
1. Approximate Rhyme- when two
words’ sounds are very close to
rhyming but not exact
 Approximate Rhyme Example:
– wire-right, mind-sign, sound-down
Types of Rhyme
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2. End Rhyme- rhymes that occur at
the end of a line
Ex: How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand.
From “To Helen” by E. A. Poe
Types of Rhyme
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3. Internal Rhyme: rhyming words
that fall within a single line of poetry.
– Example:
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Judge tenderly of me
From “This is My Letter to the World” by Emily
Dickinson.
Rhyme Scheme
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The pattern of rhyme formed by the end
rhyme. It is identified by assigning a
different letter to the alphabet to each new
rhyme. (a,a,b,b) (a,b,a,b)
–
–
–
–
Ex: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
Old time is still a flying
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying

(a)
(b)
(a)
(b)
“To the Virgins Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick
Iambic Pentameter
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A poem that
contains exactly 10
syllables per line.
EX:
u
To
/
swell
u
the
/
gourd,
u
and
/
plump
u
/
the
ha-
u
zel
/
shells
Here’s a hint…
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When you are writing in Iambic
Pentameter, try sticking to ONE or
TWO syllable words. Remember this
hint. We will practice this later when
you write your own sonnet. 
Figurative Language:
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Is a category of literary terms that is
used for descriptive effect and is not
meant to be read literally. Usually,
figurative language expresses meaning
beyond the literal level.
– Literary Terms
 Figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole,
symbol)
– Sound Devices (rhythm, rhyme, repetition, onomatopoeia,
assonance, consonance, alliteration, anaphora, polysyndeton,
euphony, cacophony)
Types of Figurative Language:
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Simile: comparing seemingly unlike
things by using “like” or “as”
Example: “O, my love’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June-”
- Robert Burns
Types of Figurative Language:
Metaphor – compares or equates
seemingly unlike things by stating
one thing IS another. Metaphors do
not use like or as.
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–
Ex: The grass is the handkerchief of the Lord.
–
“All the world’s a stage, and we are merely
players”.
From “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman
William Shakespeare.
EXTENDED METAPHOR
A metaphor that goes several lines or
possible the entire length of a work.
Example “O Captain, My Captain” by
Walt Whitman
Types of Figurative Language:
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Personification: is a figure of speech in
which an animal, an object, or an idea
is given human characteristics.
–
I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
“The Clouds” Author unknown
– “Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
From “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
Types of Figurative Language:
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Hyperbole: an exaggeration, often for
a humorous effect
– EX:
My sister uses so much make-up that she has to
use a sandblaster to get it off at night.
– I had so much homework that I needed a pick up truck to
carry all my books home.
– "I have seen this river so wide it had only one bank."
Mark Twain
Sound Devices
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ONOMATOPOEIA
– Words that imitate the sound they are
naming
“Boom, boom, pow”
By The Black-Eyed Peas
ALLITERATION
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Consonant sounds repeated at the
beginnings of words
If Peter Piper picked a peck of
pickled peppers, how many pickled
peppers did Peter Piper pick?
CONSONANCE
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Repetition of consonant sounds at the
end of words.
– Example of consonance: The man in the
orange cumberbund ended his bland
speech with a bow.
ASSONANCE
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Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line or
lines of poetry.
(Often creates near rhyme.)
Lake
Fate
Base
Fade
(All share the long “a” sound.)
Assonance (cont.)
Examples of ASSONANCE:
“Slow the low gradual moan came in the
snowing.”
- John Masefield
“Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet
sleep.”
- William Shakespeare
Litotes
Understatement - basically the
opposite of hyperbole. Often it is
ironic.
Ex.
For example, rather than merely saying that a
person is attractive (or even very attractive), one
might say they are "not unattractive” .
Idiom
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An expression where the literal
meaning of the words is not the
meaning of the expression. It means
something other than what it actually
says.
Ex. It’s raining cats and dogs.
Anaphora
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The repetition of a word or expression
at the beginning of successive phrases
– Example: It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of
incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of
darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of
despair…”
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Anaphora
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The repetition of a word or expression
at the beginning of successive phrases
– Example: It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of
incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of
darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of
despair…”
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Anaphora cont.
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Another example of anaphora…
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey’s
blood? Be gone!”
from Julius Caesar- Shakespeare
Polysyndeton
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Repetition of a conjunction throughout
a piece.
Example: We all lived and laughed
and loved and left.
– What are conjunctions?
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Remember BOYSFAN
Pun
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A play on words often meant to be
humorous
Ex: I work as a baker because I knead
dough.
Oxymoron
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An adjective modifying a noun when
the two seem contradictory.
Ex: Hell’s Angels, jumbo shrimp, act
naturally, pretty ugly