Overview of Poetic Elements 5 Poetic Elements o

Overview of Poetic Elements

5 Poetic Elements: o o Denotation Connotation Imagery Figurative language n n Simile Metaphor Personification Apostrophe o Metonymy and Synechdoche

Denotation o The dictionary meaning of a word n Useful in poetry when words have multiple meanings n Examples: o “Naming of Parts” by Henry Reed p. 692 o “Cross” by Langston Hughes p. 693 o “A Hymn to God the Father” by John Donne p. 697

Connotation o Overtones of meaning beyond a word’s literal meaning n “Cross” by Langston Hughes n “When my love swears that she is made of truth” by William Shakespeare

Imagery o The representation through language of sense experience (Perrine’s p. 700) o Appeals to the five senses o Most often suggests a mental picture o Examples in poetry: n “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen (p. 652) n “Spring” by Gerard Manley Hopkins (p. 703)

Figurative Language Part I o Figure of Speech n Any way of saying something other than the ordinary way n Includes o o Simile and Metaphor Personification Apostrophe Metonymy and Synechdoche o Figurative Language n Language that uses figures of speech

Simile and Metaphor o Ways of comparing things that are essentially unlike n Simile uses like, as, resembles, or seems: “The pond is like a mirror. ” n Metaphor substitutes the figurative term for the literal: “You are a peach. ” o Examples: n “Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes (p. 732) n “The Widow’s Lament in Springtime” by William Carlos Williams (p. 704)

Personification o Giving the attributes of a human being to an animal, object, or concept o Examples in poetry: n “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath (p. 680) n “It Sifts from Leaden Sieves” by Emily Dickinson p. 717 n “Let me not to the marriage of true minds” by William Shakespeare (p. 1001) “Love’s not Time’s fool…”

Apostrophe o Addressing someone absent or dead or nonhuman as if that person or thing were present and alive and capable of responding o Examples in poetry: n “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall (p. 658) n “Tiger! burning bright” by William Blake (p. 947) n “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats (p. 918)

Metonymy and Synechdoche o Metonymy n The use of something closely related for the thing actually meant o Example: “The White House” means the U. S. government o Synechdoche n The use of the part for the whole o “a hired hand” really means a whole person o “lend an ear” means give your whole attention

Metonymy and Synechdoche are basically interchangeable o Examples of metonymy: Please keep your mouth shut about it. I can’t stomach another movie like that. I stuck my head in. He has a wandering eye. What does your heart say? They’re rednecks. He drinks.

A poem for analysis o “Introduction to poetry” by Billy Collins o Discuss and enjoy the figurative elements. o See a screen version of the poem on the next slide.

Introduction to Poetry Billy Collins 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 waterski 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.