Poetry Poetry Overview

The mode of expressing thought in writing or speaking by selecting and arranging words, giving consideration to clearness, effectiveness, and detailed descriptions.

Style:

Simile: A direct comparison between two different objects – using “like” or “as”

Example: The athlete was quick as a mouse as she ran through the obstacle course.

Figurative Language

Metaphor: A direct comparison between two different objects – without using “like” or “as”

Example: Her love was a fire that scorched his soul.

Imagery: Language that uses sensory details to create physical experiences.

Imagery appeals to sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.

Example: “The golden daffodil’s sweet scent was carried on the cool breeze.”

Personification: Giving inanimate objects life-like qualities and characteristics.

Example: The trees danced in the breeze as the leaves scurried along the ground.

Foreshadowing: Language that helps determine an incident or event beforehand.

Example: “Sailors have a curious dread of the place.” (The Most Dangerous Game)

Verbal Irony: words are used to suggest the opposite of what is meant.

Dramatic Irony: contradiction between what the character thinks and what the audience knows to be true.

Situational Irony: when an event occurs that directly contradicts the expectations of the characters, the reader, or the audience.

Irony

Symbolism: Any concrete thing or action that implies

meaning beyond its literal sense. This device demands that the reader supply abstract or general meanings to the specific concrete details of the work.

Example: In Lord of the Flies – the “conch” symbolizes “social order.”

Hyperbole: An overstatement, a comparison using conscious exaggeration.

Example: The pitcher threw the ball so fast, that the catcher’s mitt burst into flames!

Paradox: An apparent contradiction or illogical statement.

Example: “His hand hath made this noble work which stands, His Glorious Handiwork not made by hands.”

Oxymoron: A short paradox, usually consisting of an

adjective and noun with conflicting meanings.

Examples: “The touch of her lips was sweet agony” “Progress is a comfortable disease” “A terrible beauty is born”

Tone: Attitude implied by providing vocal

inflection. Example: Father to daughter on her wedding day:

“You look lovely this morning.” Wife to hung-over husband after a night

out with the guys: “You look lovely this morning.”

Stanza: A poetic paragraph. A grouping of verse-lines that are

in a poem and set off by a space printed in the text. Example:

Her love is like a blooming rose,It’s fragrance lingers where she goes.

Her sweet and gentle manner knows,That love is where her garden grows.

Alliteration: The repetition of the initial consonant sound. Example: “Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently

blows, and the smooth stream in smoother numbers flow.”

Assonance: The Repetition of similar vowel sounds. Example: steep, even, receive, veal – do not

confuse with rhyme. Consonance: The repetition of similar consonant sounds Example: Duck, torque, strike, trickle

Repetition - Sound

Onomatopoeia: Formation of a word based on the imitation of a sound made by or associated with its reference.

Example: Cuckoo, Boom, Tinkle

Rhyme: Repetition of sounds at the end of words.

Example: song/long, dove/love, eat/sweet Rhyme Scheme: A regular pattern of

rhyming words in a poem – identified by a letter of the alphabet for each new sound introduced.

Rhyme