1 poetry terms. 2 stanza a group of lines in a poem considered a unit separated by spaces
TRANSCRIPT
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Poetry Terms
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Stanza
A group of lines in a poem
Considered a unit
Separated by spaces
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Figurative Language Writing that is not meant to be
interpreted literally
Creates vivid impressions by comparing dissimilar things
Ex: metaphors, similes, personifications
Example: The people that I love the best jump into work head first, Without dallying in the shallows.
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Metaphor A figure of speech in which one
thing is spoken of as though it were something else
Implies comparison
Example: Juliet is the sun.
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Simile
A figure of speech that uses like or as to compare 2 unlike ideas
Examples: John is as red as a beet. Claire is as flighty as a sparrow.
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Personification The use of figurative language in
which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics
Example: the cry of the guitar the laughter of the hyenas
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Onomatopoeia
The use of words that imitate sounds
Examples: whirl, thud, sizzle, hiss
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Tone
The writer’s attitude toward the readers and the subject
Examples: formal or informalserious or playful
bitter or ironic
sympathetic
grieving
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Imagery The use of descriptive or figurative
language to appeal to the reader’s senses.
Creates word pictures (images)
Uses details of sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, or movement
Example: hearing ghostly marching on pavement stones
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Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonants in 2 or more stressed syllables
Example: “weak and weary”
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Speaker
The imaginary voice assumed by the writer of a poem.
Often not identified by name
May be person, animal, thing, or abstraction
Ex: Dickinson as dead person
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Alliteration
The repetition of beginning consonant sounds
Emphasizes words, imitates sounds, creates musical effects
Example: I grew like a thin, stubborn weed, watering myself whatever way I could.
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Allusion
A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work or work of art
Example of biblical allusion: “The Magi . . . were wise men . . . who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger.”
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Connotation
This refers to the set of ideas associated with a word in addition to its dictionary meaning
Example: Dunbar’s “caged bird” connotes sad, trapped creature
Example: “previously owned vehicle” instead of “used car”
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Denotation
The dictionary meaning of a word
Independent of other associations
Example: lake Denotes inland body of water Connotes vacation or fishing spot
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Rhyme
The repetition of sounds at the ends of words
Example: Poe: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered/ weak and weary.”
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Symbol A sign, word, phrase, image, or
other object that stands for or represents something else
Object has own meaning but represents abstract ideas
Examples: Flag symbolizes country Scarlet ibis symbolizes Doodle and
other people who struggle
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Repetition
Use of any language element – a sound, word, phrase, clause, or sentence – more than once
Used for musical effects and for emphasis
Examples: alliteration, assonance, rhyme, rhythm
repeat sounds Refrain repeats line or lines
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Refrain
Regularly repeated line or group of lines
Seen in songs often (the chorus)
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Rhythm The pattern of beats or stresses in
language
Some poems have a specific pattern or meter
Example: There was a young lady named brightWhose speed was far faster than light
Prose and free verse use natural rhythms of everyday speech
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Fixed Form These are stanzas with a repeated
or predictable pattern
Words in each stanza may rhyme or sound alike
The length and rhythm of the stanzas are related
The number of syllables in a line can be fixed
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Free Form or Free Verse
Lacks structure or pattern
Words may not rhyme
Lines do not match in number of syllables, length, or rhythm
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Lyric Poem
This is writing that is musical verse: uses rhythm, alliteration, and rhyme
Observations and feelings of
1 speaker
Sung with lyre in ancient times
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Sonnets
A fourteen line lyric poem with a theme
Usually written in iambic pentameter
Shakespeare wrote some very famous sonnets
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Narrative Poem
This poem tells a story
Examples: “Casey at the Bat”: humorous
narrative poem Poe’s “Raven”: serious narrative
poem
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Ballad
This is a songlike poem that tells a story
Often adventure and romance
Most written in 4 to 6-line stanzas, regular rhythms and rhyme schemes, often a refrain
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Limerick
This is a humorous, rhyming, five-line poem
Specific meter and rhyme scheme
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Concrete Poem
This is a poem with a shape that suggests the subject
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Haiku 3-line verse form
1st and 3rd lines have 5 syllables
2nd line has 7 syllables
Single vivid emotion with images from nature