Poetry Terms

General Elements

Figurative Language

Sound Devices

Forms of Poetry

Types of Poetry

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Elements: Stanza

Formal division of lines in a

poem

Considered a unit

Separated by spaces

Couplets: two lines

Quatrains: four lines

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Speaker

Imaginary voice assumed by poet

Often not identified by name

May be person, animal, thing, or

abstraction

E.g.: Dickinson as dead person:

“Because I could not stop for

Death-He kindly stopped for me-”

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Tone

Writer’s attitude to

audience and subject

E.g.: formal or informal

serious, playful, pompous

bitter, ironic, personal

sympathetic, friendly

grieving, sarcastic, harsh

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Allusion

Reference to well-known person,

place, event, literary work, or art

Usually to the Bible or to

mythology

E.g.: “The Magi . . . were wise men

. . . who brought gifts to the Babe

in the manger.”

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Connotation

Ideas or meanings associated with

a word (in addition to dictionary

definition)

E.g.: “caged bird” = sad, trapped

creature

“previously owned vehicle” = used car

“vacation spot” = lake

Compare: fragrance, smell, stench

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Denotation

Dictionary definition of a word

Independent of other associations

(connotations)

E.g.: lake

Denotation: inland body of water

Connotation: vacation or fishing spot

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Paradox

Statement that seems

contradictory but may be true

Surprising, catches reader’s

attention

E.g.: “Youth is wasted on the young.”

“The more things change, the

more they stay the same.”

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Symbol

Object has own meaning but also

represents abstract idea

Stands for something else

E.g.:

Flag symbolizes country

Scarlet ibis symbolizes Doodle and

other people who struggle

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Figurative Language

Writing not meant to interpret literally

Compares dissimilar things

Creates vivid impressions

Metaphors, similes, personifications

E.g.:

“My black eyes are coals burning

Like a low, full jungle moon

Through the darkness of being”

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Fig Lang: Metaphor

Figure of speech

A comparison

One thing spoken of as if

it is something else

E.g.: “Poetry is a river.”

“The sky is a patchwork quilt.”

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Fig Lang: Simile

Figure of speech, comparison

Uses like or as to compare

two unlike ideas

E.g.:

“The morning sun is like a red

rubber ball.”

“Does it dry up, like a raisin in the

sun?”

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Fig Lang: Imagery

Descriptive or figurative language

Creates word pictures (images)

Details of sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, or movement

E.g.: “ghostly marching on pavement

stones”

“wind-tanned skin”

“wise black pools”

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Fig Lang: Personification Figurative language

Nonhuman subject given human

characteristics

E.g.: “The wind danced in the trees.”

Daffodils “tossing their heads in sprightly

dance”

Storm “tosses her hair, throws back her

head, and closes her eyes”

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Fig Lang: Extended Metaphor

Writing about a subject as if it were

something else

Comparison several lines long or

entire poem

E.g.: “caged bird” becomes

person who is not free

“broken-winged bird that cannot fly”

becomes life without a dream

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Fig Lang: Sensory Words/Lang

Writing that appeals to the senses -

images

Provides details related to senses

E.g.: feeling the sun beating

down on one’s head

Sound Devices: Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate sounds

E.g.: murmur, thud, sizzle, hiss,

buzz, bang, pop, cuckoo

E.g.: Poe’s “Bells”

“Of the bells, bells, bells, bells”

ringing, chiming, jangling,

rangling, clang, clash, roar”

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Sound Devices: Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds

followed by different consonants in

2 or more stressed syllables

E.g.: “weak and weary”

“child of silence”

“so rolling…a stone”

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Sound Devices: Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds

Emphasizes words, imitates sounds, creates musical effects

E.g.: “I grew like a thin, stubborn weed, watering myself whatever way I could.”

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary.”

“The fair breeze blew, the white foam

flew.”

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Sound Devices: Rhyme Repetition of sounds at ends of words

End rhyme vs. internal rhyme

E.g.: “Swans sing before they die—’twere no bad thing

Should certain persons die before they sing.” (end)

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.”

(internal)

Exact rhyme vs. slant rhyme (slant rhyme – similar but

not identical sounds)

E.g.: ball and hall (exact)

hold and bald (slant)

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Sound Devices: Repetition Use of any language element – a sound,

word, phrase, clause, or sentence –

more than once

Used for musical effects and for

emphasis

E.g.:

Alliteration, assonance, rhyme, rhythm

repeat sounds

Refrain repeats line/s

“You liked winning…You liked

writing…You liked all the faces…”

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Sound Devices: Refrain Regularly repeated line

or group of lines

In music: a chorus

E.g.: Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”

“Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one

like Macavity.”

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Sound Devices: Rhythm Pattern of beats or stresses

Some poems have a specific pattern or

meter

E.g.:

“There was a young lady named bright

Whose speed was far faster than light;”

Prose and free verse use natural

rhythms of everyday speech

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Forms of Poetry: Fixed Form

Stanzas have repeated or predictable patterns

Words in each stanza may rhyme or sound alike

Length and rhythm of stanzas are related

Number of syllables in line may be fixed

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Forms of Poetry: Free Form or Free Verse

Lacks structure or pattern

Words may not rhyme

Lines do not match in number of

syllables, length, or rhythm

Types of Poetry: Sonnet

14-line lyric poem

Formal patterns of rhyme, rhythm

and line structure

Two types:

English, or Shakespearean

(3 quatrains + couplet)

Italian, or Petrarchan

(octave + sestet)26

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Types of Poetry: Haiku 3-line verse form

1st and 3rd lines: 5 syllables (?)

2nd line: 7 syllables (?)

Single vivid emotion

Images from nature

E.g.: Basho:

“furu-ike ya “An old pond

kawazu tobi-komu A frog jumps in

Mizu-no-oto” The sound of water”

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Types of Poetry: Lyric Poem

Brief poem

Musical verse: uses rhythm,

alliteration, and rhyme

Observations and feelings of

one speaker

Sung with lyre in ancient times

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Types of Poetry: Narrative Poem

Tells a story in verse

May be an epic or a ballad

E.g.:

“Casey at the Bat”: humorous

narrative poem

Poe’s “Raven”: serious narrative

poem

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Types of Poetry: Ballad

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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Types of Poetry: Limerick

Humorous, rhyming, five-line poem

Specific meter and rhyme scheme

E.g.: Edward Lear:

“There was an Old Person whose habits,

Induced him to feed upon rabbits;

When he'd eaten eighteen,

He turned perfectly green,

Upon which he relinquished those habits.”

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Types of Poetry: Concrete Poem

Poem with shape that suggests

subject

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Types of Poetry: Dramatic Poem

Uses techniques of drama

Writer tells a story

Character’s own thoughts/words

E.g.: Poe’s “Raven” uses dramatic

dialogue

Dramatic monologue: 1 person

speaks to silent listener