Transcript Poetry Terms Miss Nabeta’s 8 Grade

Poetry Terms
Miss Nabeta’s
8th Grade
THEME
THEME
 Meaning, moral, or message.
 Example: One of the many themes S.E.
Hinton explored in The Outsiders was to
“Stay Gold” (148).
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FORM
FORM
 The way a poem’s lines and words are
arranged on a page.
 Forms of poems include: ballad, epic, ode,
sonnet, and free verse.
 We will be exploring all these types of
poetry throughout the unit!
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Form (continued)
Read the following poem:
“Green” by Betty Ann Whitney
bright
early spring and
the oak tree's beauty
shimmers the eye of sunshine
through her high waving branches
revealing the squirrel's bushy tail
and the robin red breast
perched on twigs deep inside
a glowing mass of green
singing a sweet lullaby
to her young
oh
how
we
love
the time of spring
Question:
What’s so special
about this poem?
Answer:
FORM! It is
written in the
form of a tree,
and it’s about a
tree.
LINE
LINE
Lines are used to write poems.
Example:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, }Line
And sorry I could not travel both }Line
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
 -Robert Frost, excerpt from The Road Not Taken
 Lines can vary in length and order to express
specific rhythm, feelings, or thoughts.
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STANZAS
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STANZAS
Groupings of two or more lines.
Think Paragraphs:
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Little Fly
Thy summers play,
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.
Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
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-Robert Frost, excerpt from The Fly
RHYME
RHYME
 Repetition of sound at the end of words.
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Example:
 What words rhyme with:
 FATE
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ORANGE
RHYTHM
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RHYTHM
Pattern or flow of sound created by an arrangement of
stressed and unstressed syllables in a line.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIYzalNlhq8
Example: Try to find all the stressed syllables (the words
or parts of words that are read with emphasis).
 Whose woods these are I think I know
 His house is in the village though;
 -Robert Frost, from Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
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Evening
RHYTHM CONTINUED
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Red = Stressed syllables
Black = Unstressed syllables
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Whose woods these are I think I know
His house is in the village though;
-Robert Frost, from Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening
Notice that parts of some words can be stressed while
the rest of it is unstressed, like the word
 “vill age”
 “Village” has two syllables, the first is stressed while the
second is not.
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REPETITION
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REPETITION
A technique in which sounds, words, or phrases are
repeated.

Repetition is used for effect or emphasis.

Example:
Find'st not thyself, nor mee the weaker now;
'Tis true, then learne how false, feares bee;
Just so much honor, when thou yeeld'st to mee,
Will wast, as this flea's death tooke life from thee
- Jon Donne, from The Flee
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ALLITERATION
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ALLITERATION
Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of
words.
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Think of Alliteration as a specific type of Repetition.
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Alliteration is also used for effect or emphasis – it gets
the reader to pay attention to a specific part of the
poem!
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Examples:
Miss Hawkins happily hailed the helicopter.
Alliteration is used throughout the fantastic
book Animalia, by Graeme Base.
Here’s an example of the page representing
the letter “C.”
Here’s another example for the letter
“L”.
ANALOGY
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ANALOGY
A comparison between two seemingly dissimilar
things.
Think: How is a dog similar to a human?
- Different breeds, like different cultures
- Each has his or her own name
- Both have eyes, ears, feet, noses, mouths
Analogies often show a relationship between two
things.
IMAGERY
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IMAGERY
Words that appeal or evoke readers’ five senses.
Example:
After two days of gentle winter rains, the
small pond behind my house is lapping at its
banks, content as a well-fed kitten.
-Barbara Kingsolver, from High Tide in Tucson
What kinds of senses (sight, sound, feel, hear, or
taste) do you “feel” as you read this?
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
 Expressions that are not literally true
 Types of figurative language include:
 Simile
 Metaphor
 Personification
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SIMILE
SIMILE
 Comparison of two things that have
something in common.
 Similes use to the words “like” or “as.”
 Example:
The willow is sleek as a velvet-nosed calf;
 - Eve Merriam, from Simile: Willow and
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Ginkgo
METAPHOR
METAPHOR
 Comparison of two things that have
something in common.
 Unlike similes Metaphors DO NOT use the
words like or as.
 Example:
My sister has a heart of stone!
 Think: Why would a writer choose to use
a metaphor instead of a simile?
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PERSONIFICATION
PERSONIFICATION
 Giving human like qualities to an animal,
object, or idea.
 Example:
Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered.
There was no one there.
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You should have the following terms
on your first list of poetry terms:
1. Theme
2. Form
3. Line
4. Stanza
5. Rhyme
6. Rhythm
7. Repetition
8. Alliteration
9. Analogy
10. Imagery
11. Figurative Language
12. Simile
13. Metaphor
14. Personification
Poetry Terms List 2
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Lyric/Advice poem
Dialect
Symbol
Speaker
Audience
6. Voice
7. Ode
8. Epic
9. Sonnet
10. Haiku
Types of Poetry
1.
Lyric/Advice Poetry: These poems
present thoughts and feelings of a single
speaker. This is what most poems are,
and how we often think of poetry.
“Mother to Son”
Read “Mother to Son,” by Langston Hughes.
 On a fresh sheet of paper, answer the following
prompts:
1. What imagery does the word crystal bring to your
mind?
2. What kind of life do you think this mother has
lived?
3. How has this mother handled the difficulties in her
life?
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“Speech to the Young”
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1.
2.
3.
Read “Speech to the Young,” by Gwendolyn
Brooks.
On your same sheet of paper, answer the
following prompts:
What do you think about the advice given by
the speaker in the poem?
What phrases in the poem refer to people who
have a negative effect on others?
According to the speaker, what should you, the
reader, say to such people?
Comparing Poems
After reading both “Mother to Son” and
“Speech to the Young,” which poem seems
more hopeful? Explain your choice.
 Which of the two poems do you think
offers the best advice for teenagers today?
Give reasons for your choice.
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DIALECT
DIALECT
 Language that is spoken in a specific place
or by a specific group of people.
 Example: I constantly make fun of my
sister because she has picked up some
specific pronunciations from living in
South Dakota.
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SYMBOL
SYMBOL
 A person, place, object, or action that stands for
something more than what it is.
 Think: What are some symbols people typically
use for strong like or love?
Ring
Roses
Cards
Pictures
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SPEAKER
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SPEAKER
The voice that talks to a reader.
The speaker is NOT necessarily the author.
Sometimes the speaker is someone who the
author has created.
Example:
“Well, son, I’ll tell you”
**We can infer from these lines the speaker is
either the son’s mother or father.
AUDIENCE
AUDIENCE
 A particular group of people who the
author is addressing.
 Think: How would you write to a friend? a
teacher? your Grandma?
 **This is why it is important to consider
who you are writing to before you begin.
You write/speak differently depending on
who you are addressing.
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VOICE
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VOICE
The author’s distinctive style or manner of expression.
Voice is brought out in the way the author writes.
Example:
Grandmothers are special. They talk funny; they think
differently; and they are always telling us how much
easier we have it. I’m not so sure.
-Nikki Giovanni, from Grand Mothers
After two days of gentle winter rains, the small pond
behind my house is lapping at its banks, content as a
well-fed kitten.
Barbara Kingsolver, from High Tide in Tucson
Types of Poems (continued)
Ode: A type of lyric poetry that addresses
serious themes such as: justice, truth, or
beauty.
 Epic: A long narrative poem about
adventures of a hero. These kinds of
poems are meant to be recited or sung
aloud. In these poems you can find:
setting, plot, and characters. Think Story!
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Types of Poems (continued)
Sonnet: Has a formal structure,
containing fourteen lines and a specific
rhyme scheme and meter
 means “little song”
 can be used for a variety of topics
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Sonnet 18
by William Shakespeare
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 dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Types of Poems (continued)
HAIKU:
 traditional form of Japanese poetry
 describes a single moment, feeling, or
thing
 3 lines
 first and third lines = 5 syllables
 second line = 7 syllables
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Haikus
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Dry leaves on the ground }5
Summer now a memory - }7
Time for egg nog soon. }5
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Leaves are falling down,
Oak tree acorns all around Life turns green again.