The World of Poetry

Poetry Terms and Techniques

Why do we study poetry?

The poet doesn’t invent. He listens.

~Jean Cocteau

Poetry is important because it reflects the emotions and character of society. It is a mirror to humanity, just like all literature and fine art.

Meaning + Sound + Form = Poetry

A collage of images, thoughts, and sounds that

evoke feeling and meaning.

You must look at form, meaning, and sound elements to truly take meaning

from a poem.

Why is poetry difficult to read and understand?

Denotation (the literal)

vs.

Connotation (the understood)

Meaning Denotative (Literal)

Language: A basic, strict

dictionary meaning of a word or phrase.

This is my home. This is where I live, sleep and eat. This is my shelter from the elements.

Connotative (Figurative) Language:

Using language that is not meant to be taken literally, but has underlying meaning.

This is my home.

It feels natural to be here and this is where my heart belongs.

Imagery: Language that evokes the senses.

Visual – Sight

Aural – Hearing

Tactile – Touch

Gustatory – Taste

Olfactory – Smell

Similes and Metaphors Simile : A figure of speech likening one thing to

another by the use of “like” or “as”.

Metaphor: A figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as if it were another.

Extended Metaphor: A metaphor in which the initial comparison between two unlike things is made, and then additional comparisons are made based on that initial comparison.

Personification: Giving living characteristics to non-living things.

Fog The fog comes

On little cat feet. It sits looking

Over harbor and cityOn silent haunches

And then moves on.

~Carl Sandburg

Symbolism

Symbolism: When a thing or object actually represents a concept, emotion or idea.

What might the following image symbolize for you?

Mood: The feeling the reader gets from the poem.

Tone: The tone of voice the author is using.

VagabondsWe are the desperate

Who do not care, The hungry

Who have nowhere To eat,

No place to sleep, The tearlessWho cannot

Weep. Langston Hughes

Theme:

Theme: the universal message about humanity and human nature that the poem explores.

Like every novel, short story, and film each poem has many themes that you can relate to. It makes you feel and connect.

Have you ever experienced loss, first love, fear of death, the tragedies of war? So has the poet.

What is the main subject of the work?

+

What is the author saying about the subject? __________________

= Theme Statement

Theme:

Other ways to make meaning:

Apostrophe:a digression in the form of an address to someone not present, or to a personified object or idea, as “O Death, where is thy sting?”

Paradox:Oxymoron:

Sound In many ways,

poetry is like music. A poet will use and manipulate the language to make certain sound qualities that are not usually found in prose. (Prose is any form of writing that is not poetry or drama. )

Two Types of Basic Sound

Cacophony: A harsh discordance of sounds; a mixture of sounds unpleasant or unpleasing sounds.

Jabberwocky (Lewis Carroll )'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

EUPHONY

The quality of having a pleasing sound: a combination of agreeable sounds.To Autumn (John Keats)

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

CACOPHANY

Cacophony: A harsh discordance of sounds; a mixture of sounds unpleasant or unpleasing sounds.

Jabberwocky (Lewis Carroll )'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

RhymeInternal vs. End Line

Internal: Two or more words found inside one line that rhyme.

End Line: Words at the end of lines that rhyme.

My mind is not kind.

My name I have signed.

Perfect vs. SlantPerfect: Words that have the same

end sound. Smart/Heart

Slant: Words that are have the same first and last sounds but different vowels in the middle.

Ball/Bell

Rhyme

Rhyme PatternThe pattern of rhyme is determined

and labeled using letters.

So sweet, A

My love, B

My dove, B

When we meet. A

Meter and RhythmMeter: The counted syllables in a

line. Poems without a set pattern are

called free verse. Meter can be used to help set mood

or feeling. Is the beat strong and fast or soft and slow?

Meter and RhythmWe Real Cool

We real cool. WeLeft school. WeLurk late. We

Strike Straight. WeSing sin. WeThin gin. We

Jazz June. WeDie Soon.~ Gwendolyn Brooks

Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance and Onomatopoeia

Alliteration: the repetition of the same beginning consonants

Assonance: the repetition of the same vowel sounds in the middle of words

Consonance: the repetition of the same ending consonants

Onomatopoeia: words that are spelled much like how they sound.

What sound techniques are used in the following lines?

I heard the crunch of bones.

My dinner was decidedly delicious.

I think we should crank up the funk.

She is tall, gaunt and always around.

FormStanzaCoupletQuatrainCinquainSestetOctetLyric PoetrySonnetsNarrative

TPCASSSTTTitle – What do you think the poem will be about?Paraphrase – What basically happens in the poem?Connotation – What figurative language exists in the

poem?Attitude – Describe the mood and tone. Shift – Is there a shift in subject or tone?Sound – Does the poet use any sound devices?Structure – What form does the poem take?Title – After reading the poem, what does the title mean?

Does it have new meaning?Theme – What is one common human experience that this

poem explores?

“Interior”Her mind lives in a quiet room,

A narrow room and tall, With pretty lamps to quench the gloom

And mottos on the wall.There all things are waxen neat

And set in decorous lines;And there are posies round and sweet ,

And little straightened vines. Her mind lives tidily; apart

From cold and noise and pain, And bolts the door against her heart,

Out wailing in the rain.

Dorothy Parker 1893 - 1967

TPCASTT Title – I think the poem will be about the inside of something. Paraphrase – In the poem, a person’s mind is personified by being able to

live in a beautiful room. The heart is also personified and is stuck outside of the beautiful room in a cold and dark environment.

Connotation – Positive and comforting imagery is offered with words like “pretty”, “decorous”, “sweet”, and “straightened”. However, these are contradicted by words like “cold” and “noise” and “pain” in the second ½ of the poem.

Attitude – The tone is confusion and isolation, and the mood is worried and/or fearful.

Shift – There is a definite shift in tone in line 9 beginning with the word “apart”.

Sound – There is end line rhyme used throughout the poem. This is pleasant at first, but it switches to being more intense in the latter ½. The beginning is more euphonic while the ending is more cacophonic.

Structure – It’s one stanza of 12 lines; 6 couplets, and has a meter of between 6 & 8 syllables per line.

Title – “Interior” refers to what is going on inside a young girl’s mind. Theme – There is a common human tendency to not let our emotions

impair our judgment in logical decision making, but there is a fine line between that and living in denial.

Explication for “Interior”“Interior”, by Dorothy Parker, is a poem that explores the

relationship between our heartfelt emotions and our mind. Parker uses an abundance to personification to characterize the heart and the mind. The mind “lives in a quiet room” and the heart is “out wailing in the rain”. The pretty room and the rainy environment are juxtaposed against one another to show a separation between the heart and mind. There is an identifiable meter and rhythm in the poem which starts out euphonic. This is appropriate to match the “pretty” interior of the room. The tone shifts towards the end with more cacophonic sounds to match the darker imagery that Parker presents. Essentially, Parker is trying to show that there is a common human tendency to not let our emotions impair our judgment in logical decision making, but there is a fine line between that and living in denial.