Style and structure of poetry Whitman and Dickinson

Style and structure of poetry Whitman and Dickinson

Whitman Free verse Cadence Parallelism Elliptical constructions Inversion Catalog Alliteration Assonance Imagery

Free verse Poetry without regular rhyme or meter. Repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures. Whitman uses this to unify his poems, build rhythm, and create other effects.

cadence Natural, rhythmic rise and fall of a language as it is normally spoken.

parallelism

Elliptical constructions Sentences or parts of sentences with words intentionally left out. The meaning can be inferred from nearby sentences or clauses.

inversion The reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase.

catalog Long list of related things, people, or events.

alliteration Repetition of initial consonant sound.

assonance Repetition of similar vowel sounds.

imagery Language that appeals to the senses.

Walt Whitman Free Verse creating rhythms and cadences Strong, direct, everyday language Diversity of the nation’s people and places reflects America’s identity Celebrations of self and nature support themes that explore the connectedness of all things.

Dickinson Rhyme Rhythm Irony Paradox Mood Images Metaphors

rhyme Exact rhyme occurs when the accented syllables and all following syllables of tow or more words share identical sounds. Slant rhyme is a close, but not exact, rhyming sound. Rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes.

rhythm The rise and fall of the voice, produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Meter is a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Writers also use rhyme, alliteration, and types of repetition to create rhythm. Dickinson used unconventional punctuation and slant rhyme to create rhythm.

irony A discrepancy between appearances and reality.

paradox A statement that appears to be selfcontradictory but actually reveals a kind of truth.

mood The overall feeling or emotion that it arouses.

images Language that appeals to the senses

metaphors Direct comparison between two unlike things. Simile compares two unlike things using words such as like or as. Personification is endowing human or living qualities to non-living or nonhuman things or ideas.

Emily Dickinson Strong images and metaphors Explorations of abstract concepts, such as truth and the soul Personified concepts Unusual points of view Reflections on tiny details reveal great life in the smallest of things Unconventional use of rhyme and punctuation