1/18/11 Language Arts Ms.

Bakie

Poetry

POETRY TERMS (& Examples)

Alliteration The repetition of the same or similar consonant (non-vowel) sounds at the beginning of words. Examples of Alliteration: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers & She sells seashells by the sea shore. Assonance The repetition or a pattern of similar vowel (a e i o u y) sounds, as in the tongue twister Examples of Assosance: "Moses supposes his toeses are roses. Also, A land laid waste with all its young men slain" repeats the same "a" sound in "laid," "waste," and "slain." Ballad A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain. Example of Ballad: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Figure of speech A verbal expression in which words or sounds are arranged in a particular way to achieve a particular effect. Examples/Types: Hyperbole, metaphor, onomatopoeia, simile, metonymy, and synecdoche. Free verse Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set meter. Although it is not written in a traditional meter, it is still rhythmical. Example of Free Verse:
After the Sea-Shipafter the whistling winds; After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars and ropes, Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening, lifting up their necks, Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship: Waves of the ocean, bubbling and gurgling, blithely prying, Waves, undulating wavesliquid, uneven, emulous waves, Toward that whirling current, laughing and buoyant, with curves, Where the great Vessel, sailing and tacking, displaced the surface; Larger and smaller waves, in the spread of the ocean, yearnfully flowing; The wake of the Sea-Ship, after she passesflashing and frolicsome, under the sun, A motley procession, with many a fleck of foam, and many fragments, Following the stately and rapid Shipin the wake following. ~Walt Whitman

Haiku A Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Haiku often reflect on some aspect of nature. Example Haiku:
Light of the moon Moves west, flowers' shadows Creep eastward. (5 syllables) (7 syllables) (5 syllables)

1/18/11 Language Arts Ms. Bakie Hyperbole

Poetry

A figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis. Examples of Hyperbole: The strongest man in the world, the best teacher ever, so hungry I could eat a horse. Metaphor A figure of speech in which two things are compared, usually by saying one thing is another, or by substituting a more descriptive word for the more common or usual word that would be expected. Examples of metaphors: The world is a stage, He was a lion in battle, Life is a sea of troubles. Meter The pattern of repetition of stressed (or accented) and unstressed (or unaccented) syllables in a line of verse. Onomatopoeia A figure of speech in which words are used to imitate sounds; their sounds suggests their meaning. Examples of Onomatopoeia: Buzz, Hiss, Zing, Bam, Clippety-clop, Cock-a-doodle-do, Pop, Splat, Thump, and Tick-tock. Another example of onomatopoeia is found in this line from Tennyson's Come Down, O Maid: "The moan of doves in immemorial elms,/And murmuring of innumerable bees." The repeated "m/n" sounds reinforce the idea of "murmuring" by imitating the hum of insects on a warm summer day. Personification A figurative use of language that gives nonhuman things (ideas, inanimate objects, animals, abstractions) human characteristics. Examples of Personification: The sky is crying, Dead leaves danced in the wind, Justice is blind. Rhyme The occurrence of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words. When the rhyme occurs in a final stressed syllable, it is said to be masculine: cat/hat, behave/shave, observe/deserve. When the rhyme ends with one or more unstressed syllables, it is said to be feminine: vacation/sensation, reliable/viable. The pattern of rhyme in a stanza or poem is shown usually by using a different letter for each final sound. In a poem with an aabba rhyme scheme, the first, second, and fifth lines end in one sound, and the third and fourth lines end in another. Examples of Rhyme: How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? ~Dr. Suess

1/18/11 Language Arts Ms. Bakie Simile

Poetry

A figure of speech in which two things are compared using the word "like" or "as." Example of Simile: From Langston Hughes's poem Harlem: "What happens to a dream deferred?/ Does it dry up/ like a raisin in the sun?" 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. Example of Stanzas:
Congratulations! Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off and away! You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go. You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care. About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there." With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street. ~Dr. Suess

Stress The prominence or emphasis given to particular syllables. Stressed syllables usually stand out because they have long, rather than short, vowels, or because they have a different pitch or are louder than other syllables.
Example of Stressed Syllables: SOfa TELephone celEBrity comPUter aWARD maTURE