Transcript Document 7216578

Basics
of Poetry
“Introduction to Poetry,” Literary
Terms, How to Read a Poem, and
Helpful Websites
Introduction to Poetry
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to water ski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
by Billy Collins
Literary Terms
 Allegory - sometimes called an extended metaphor, is the
representation of abstract ideas by characters or events in
narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form.
 Alliteration - Alliteration is the succession of similar consonant
sounds. They are not recognized by spelling, but rather by
sounds.
 Allusion - Referencing a person place or thing, usually indirectly,
that is believed to be known by the reader. Sometimes these
references are footnoted or glossed.
 Analogy - The use of words of phrases that share meaning but
are dissimilar.
 Anaphora - A word or expression used repeatedly at the
beginning of successive phrases. This is usually used for poetic
or rhetorical effect.
 Antithesis - Placing a pair of words, phrases, clauses, or
sentences side by side in contrast and opposition.
 Apostrophe - the addressing of an absent or imaginary person
 Assonance - The succession of similar vowel sounds that are
not recognized by spelling, rather by sound. Do not confuse this
with alliteration which is the repetition of consonants.
Literary Terms
 Ballad - A form of verse to be sung or recited and characterized
by its presentation of a dramatic or exciting EPISODE in simple
narrative form.
 Blank Verse - Simply defined as unrhymed verse or unrhymed
iambic pentameter.
 Close Rhyme - A rhyme of two close words.
 Conceit - An ingenious, logically complicated image, or an
elaborate metaphor.
 Consonance - The close repetition of the same end consonants
of stressed syllables with differing vowel sounds.
 Couplet - Two lines of VERSE with similar END-RHYMES.
Formally, the couplet is a two-line STANZA with both grammatical
structure and idea complete within itself.
 Diction - choice of words esp. with regard to correctness,
clearness, or effectiveness
 Dirge - A poem of grave meditation, or lament. The dirge is a
song of lamentation that is apt to be less meditative than the
elegy.
 Dramatic Poem - A composition of verse that portrays the story
of life or character, involving conflict and emotions.
Literary Terms
 End Rhyme – A rhyme occurring in the terminating word or
syllable of one line of poetry with that of another line, as
opposed to internal rhyme.
 Epic - An Epic is a long narrative poem celebrating the
adventures and achievements of a hero...epics deal with the
traditions, mythical or historical, of a nation.
 Epigram - Epigrams are short satirical poems ending with
either a humorous retort or a stinging punch-line.
 Extended Metaphor - A metaphor which is drawn-out
beyond the usual word or phrase to extend throughout a
stanza or an entire poem, usually by using multiple
comparisons between the unlike objects or ideas.
 Foot – A rhythmic or metrical unit; the division in verse of a
group of syllables, one of which is long or accented.
 Free Verse - Poetry that is based on the irregular rhythmic
CADENCE or the recurrence, with variations, of phrases,
images, and syntactical patterns rather than the conventional
use of METER. RHYME may or may not be present in free
verse, but when it is, it is used with great freedom.
Literary Terms
 Haiku - A form of Japanese poetry which states in three lines of
five, seven, and five syllables a clear picture designed to arouse
a distinct emotion and suggest a specific spiritual insight.
 Homonym - One of two or more words that have the same
sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning.
 Hyperbole - A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for
emphasis or effect
 Iambic - A metrical foot consisting of an unaccented syllable
(noted by "x") and an accented or stressed one.
 Imagery – Elements in literature used to evoke mental images of
the visual sense, and sometimes of sensation and emotion as
well.
 Internal Rhyme – a rhyme occurring in mid-line
 Line - A formal structural division of a poem, consisting of one or
more feet arranged as a separate rhythmical entity.
 Meter – A measure of rhythmic quantity organized into groups of
syllables at regular intervals in a line of poetry
 Metaphor - Used to suggest a relationship between an object or
idea
Literary Terms
 Ode - An elaborately composed verse that is enthusiastic in tone.
It often has varying iambic line lengths with no fixed system of
rhyme schemes. It often addresses a praised person or object.
 Onomatopoeia - Words used in place of where a reader should
hear sounds.
 Oxymoron - The joining of two words that seem to be
contradictory (opposites), but offer a unique effect.
 Pattern Poetry – Poetry written with words, letters, and lines to
produce a visual image to help convey the idea or topic of the
poem
 Personification - A form of metaphor where an inanimate object,
animal, or idea is given human-like characteristics
 Pun - A play on words that sound similar for a humorous effect.
 Repetition - Repetition of a sound, syllable, word, phrase, line,
stanza, or metrical pattern is a basic unifying device in all poetry.
It may reinforce, supplement, or even substitute for meter, the
other chief controlling factor in the arrangement of words into
poetry.
Literary Terms
 Rhetorical Question – A question asked for effect, but not demanding an
answer
 Rhyme - A recurrence of similar ending sounds at the ends of a poetic
line/verse
 Rhythm - The rise and fall of stress (stressed and unstressed syllables); a
metrical pattern or flow of sound in verse
 Sonnet - A lyric poem of fourteen lines, following one or another of several
set rhyme-schemes.
 Sight Rhyme - A rhyme consisting of words with similar spellings but
different sounds. Also called eye rhyme.
 Simile - A comparison between two unlike things using like or as, etc.
 Stanza - One of the divisions of a poem, composed of two or more lines of
verse usually characterized by a common pattern of meter, rhyme, or
number of lines.
 Style - The poet's individual creative process, through figurative language,
sounds, and rhythmic patterns
 Symbol - An image or icon that represents something else by association.
 Theme – The central idea, topic, or subject of artistic representation.
 Tone - the pitch of a word often used to express differences of meaning; a
particular pitch or change of pitch constituting an element in the intonation of
a phrase or sentence {high ~} {low ~} {mid ~} {low-rising) {falling ~}, style or
manner of expression in speaking or writing
How to Read a Poem
Read on –until there’s a punctuation mark.
A poem’s line breaks indicate thought groupings, but don’t
brake at the end of each line.
If you’re baffled, find the subject and verb.
Sometimes, when passages are difficult to understand, you
can clarify the meaning by finding the subject, verb, and
complement of each sentence. Try to paraphrase.
Look for figures of speech—and think about
them.
Figurative langue is part of what makes poetry, poetry.
Still Reading that Poem…
Listen to the sounds.
Always read a poem aloud to yourself. Poets choose
evocative words for their sound as well as their meaning.
One reading isn’t enough.
Respond to a poem on first meeting it, and then talk
about the poem with other readers before you read it
carefully again. On your second reading, you’ll notice
new details and develop new insights; and when you read
it for the third time, the poem will feel comfortably “yours.”
Perform the poem.
When you give a poem a dramatic reading for an
audience, you can emphasize the mood and feelings the
words and images evoke. Then the poem really comes
alive.
Helpful Websites
 http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/poetic-terms.html
Click on these terms for an excellent definition of these poetic terms,
some from the Oxford English Dictionary. Includes types of poetry as
well as terms.
 http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/handbook/a.html
This A-Z "poetry handbook" is really an extensive, online glossary of the
terminology used to describe and discuss the structure and content of
poetry.
 http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/a_glossary_of_terms.htm
An exhaustive list of literary terms and techniques with explanations that
often include examples. The terms are presented in the order in which
the author's students would be exposed to them in a semester of
English literature, so you would need to scroll or do a "Find" for a
specific term.
 http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/display_rpo/poetterm.cfm
The terms and definitions might seem different, as this is a British site, but
they are all easily understood, and it's a fairly extensive list. Scroll
down to view the long list of terms to choose from.
More Helpful Websites
 http://www.newi.ac.uk/englishresources/workunits/ks4/poetry/buzzword
s.html
Discover the definitions for the buzz words in poetry through this site.
 http://www.poeticbyway.com/glossary.html
Calling itself "unique," Bob's is easy to use, with cross-links throughout,
phonetic pronunciation guides when necessary, and many examples
and quotations. Click on the letter and scroll for the word.
 http://www.english.emory.edu/classes/Handbook/Handbook.html
This site, designed to help students who are writing about poetry, defines
many significant terms related to poetry, including figurative language,
poetic genres, and the mechanics of rhythm and meter. Examples are
also provided in addition to the definitions.
 http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Terms/
This glossary defines many common literary terms.
 http://www.gale.com/free_resources/glossary/index.htm
An extensive glossary of literary terms provided in alphabetical format with
hyperlink cross references from a major library publisher.