Poetry Notes Figurative Language Figurative Language A Figure

Poetry Notes

Figurative Language

Figurative Language Ø A “Figure of Speech” is always based on a comparison. Ø Figurative Language – Expressions which put aside literal language in favor of imaginative connections.

Simile Ø Simile – A comparison between two unlike things using the words like or as, and sometimes than and resembled. “Life is like a box of chocolates” – Forest Gump

Metaphor Ø Metaphor – a comparison between two unlike things without using like, as, than, or resembles. Ø Direct Metaphor – Compares using “is”. “Life is a journey” Ø Implied Metaphor – Compares without using “is”. “The city sleeps peacefully. ”

Personification Ø Personification – Giving human characteristics to something non-human: an animal, an object, or idea. “The car coughed and hiccupped. ”

Hyperbole Ø Hyperbole - A figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis. Many everyday expressions are examples of hyperbole. tons of money, waiting for ages, a flood of tears, etc.

Understatement Ø Understatement - The opposite of hyperbole, understatement is used to make something appear smaller or less important than it really is. It can be used to entertain or to reduce the importance of the truth. “It only hurts a little bit” after getting an arm chopped off

Oxymoron Ø Oxymoron - a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. "deafening silence", “quick stop”, “jumbo shrimp”

The Sounds of Poetry

Alliteration – The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words or accented syllables. Tongue Twisters: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Assonance – The repetition of vowel sounds in adjoining words. “The molten golden notes” E. A. Poe

Consonance – repetition of consonant sounds within words. “And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain" E. A. Poe

Onomatopoeia – The use of words that sound like what they are describing. Snap, Crackle, and Pop.

Rhyme and Rhyme Scheme

Rhyme RHYME - the associating of two words in a poem through the way they sound. Ø Rhyme usually occurs at the end of a line in a poem, but it is not a rule or law. There are many kinds of rhyme:

True Rhyme - two words whose last syllables sound the same. True Blue

Assonant Rhyme - the rhyming of vowels only. Bought and Sock

Consonant Rhyme - the rhyming on consonants only. Tick and Tock

Sight Rhyme - words that are spelled similarly, but do not rhyme. (sight rhymes are frequently also assonant or consonant rhymes) Thought and Though

Rhyme Scheme Rhyme scheme: The pattern of rhyme, usually indicated by assigning a letter of the alphabet to each rhyme at the end of a line of poetry.

Rhyme Scheme 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 oft' 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 wanderest 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. William Shakespeare - Sonnet #18

Rhythm and Meter

Rhythm and Meter All languages consist of words with both stressed (louder) and unstressed (softer) syllables, and all words with more than one syllable will only stress one of those syllables.

Rhythm English poetry employs five basic rhythms or patterns of stressed (/) and unstressed (U) syllables. Each unit of rhythm is called a "foot" of poetry.

Two-Syllable Rhythms The meters with two-syllable feet are: Ø IAMBIC (U /): ta TUM That time of year thou mayst in me behold Ø TROCHAIC (/ U): TUM ta Tell me not in mournful numbers Ø SPONDAIC (/ /): TUM Break, break On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

Three-Syllable Rhythms Meters with three-syllable feet are: Ø ANAPESTIC (UU/): ta ta TUM And the sound of a voice that is still Ø DACTYLIC (/UU): TUM ta ta Ø This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlock (a trochee replaces the final dactyl)

Meter is the number of times the rhythm pattern (or foot) repeats itself in a line of poetry.

Meter Names The following are the terms used for every foot: Ø monometer a line of 1 foot Ø dimeter 2 feet Ø trimeter 3 feet Ø tetrameter 4 feet Ø pentameter 5 feet Ø hexameter 6 feet Ø heptameter 7 feet Ø octameter 8 feet

Practice… In the still of the night ________ Rhythm Meter In times of old when I was new And Hogwarts barely started The founders of our noble school Thought never to be parted “Sorting Hat’s Song” ________ Rhythm Meter

Stanza Structure

Stanza - Two or more lines of poetry that together form one of the divisions of a poem. The stanzas of a poem are usually of the same length and follow the same pattern of meter and rhyme.

Couplet - In a poem, a pair of lines that are the same length and usually rhyme and form a complete thought. Heroic Couplet - A stanza composed of two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter. Shakespearean sonnets usually end in a couplet.

Quatrain, Sextain, Octave Tercet- A stanza or poem of three lines. Quatrain - four lines Quintain- five lines Sextain- six lines (sometimes sestet) Septet- seven lines Octave- eight lines

Refrain - A phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually after every stanza.

Types of Poetry

Free Verse - No Rules! It doesn't have to rhyme, it doesn't have to be in any sort of meter, or about anything in particular- just write what you feel.

Acrostic - A poem in which certain letters of the lines, usually the first letters, form a word or message relating to the subject Waits quietly On his prey Living Only For the next Meal. Zach Hume Former Student

Concrete – Where the poem is arranged to look like, or suggest something about, its subject

Diamante- a seven line poem, shaped like a diamond Line 1: one word (subject/noun that is contrasting to line 7) Teenager Line 2: two words Powerful, noisy (adjectives) that describe line 1 Dancing, dating, consuming Line 3: three words (action verbs) that relate to line 1 Explosion, energetic, maturity, senility Working, earning, saving Line 4: four words (nouns) Quiet, peaceful first 2 words relate to line 1 Retired last 2 words relate to line 7 Line 5: three words (action verbs) that relate to line 7 Line 6: two words (adjectives) that describe line 7 Line 7: one word ( subject/noun that is contrasting to line 1)

Haiku – a Japanese poem with three unrhymed lines in a 5 -7 -5 syllabic meterthe first line has 5 syllables, the second seven, and the last 5. 古池 や Translated: 蛙 飛込む Old Pond 水 の 音 fu/ru/i/ke ya: 5 ka/wa/zu to/bi/ko/mu: 7 mi/zu no o/to: 5 Frog jump In Sound of Water

Narratives Narrative - Telling a story. Ballads and epics are different kinds of narrative poems. Ballad - a poem that tells a story, usually about a hero, that can be passed down through generations, most are suitable for singing. Epic - a long narrative poem usually about the adventures and bravery of a hero. The Iliad and the Odyssey are Epic poems.

Lyric Poems Lyric – A poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet. A lyric poem may resemble a song in form or style. Ode - a long, serious lyric poem which is focused on a single subject.

Lyric Poems cont’: Sonnet - A lyric poem that is 14 lines long. Ø Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are divided into two quatrains and a six-line "sestet, " with the rhyme scheme abba cdecde (or cdcdcd). Ø English (or Shakespearean) sonnets are composed of three quatrains and a final couplet, with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. English sonnets are written generally in iambic pentameter

Elegy - A poem that laments the death of a person, or one that is simply sad and thoughtful.

Limerick – A 5 -line anapestic poem with a rhyme scheme of (aabba) that is often humorous in nature. There was an old man from Peru, (A) Who dreamed he was eating his shoe. He awoke in the night With a terrible fright, 5. and found out that it was quite true. The first line explains the situation, the second tells what happened, the third and fourth tell what went wrong, and the fifth tells the significance (the so what? !)