Poetry definitions
Alliteration - repeating consonant sounds Ex. Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
Allusion- making a casual reference to something
Analogy- a comparison made to show a similarity
Audience – this is who the speaker is speaking to. It can be the reader or another character in the poem.
Connotation- the emotions and associations that go with a word
Denotation- the actual dictionary definition of a word
Diction- a writer’s choice of words
Figurative language (also known as figure of speech) – Expresses an idea through an imaginative use of word - meanings are not literally true. Examples: Metaphor, simile, personification, etc.
Hyperbole – figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for explanation or effect. Ex. I could sleep for a year
Idiom – Idioms are groups of words whose meaning is different from the ordinary meaning of the words. The context can help you understand what an idiom means. For example: "Put a lid on it." Our teacher tells us to put a lid on it. She's not really telling us to put a lid on something but to be quiet and pay attention.
Imagery – sights or sounds imagined; draws the reader into poetic experiences by touching on the images and senses which the reader already knows. This helps you ‘see’ the poem. Touch, taste, smell, hear, and sight.
Literal language- the actual meaning of a word; not exaggerated
Metaphor – a comparison of two unlikely things Ex.: I was a lonely wandering cloud
Meter – patterns of accented and unaccented syllables in lines of poetry.
Mood - the feeling that a literary work conveys to readers. Mood is created through the use of plot, character, the author’s descriptions, etc. The mood might be comical, somber, thought-provoking, etc.
Onomatopoeia – the use of words with sounds that echo their sense. Example: words like hiss, boom, crash
Personification – figure of speech in which a nonhuman thing or quality is talked about as if it were human.
Ex: the soft gray hand of sheep
Poetry – one of the three kinds of literature; written in lines/verses
Poetry Types:
Free verse - poetry without a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.; it is characterized by the irregularity in the length of lines and the lack of a regular metrical pattern and rhyme.
Lyric – poetry with a songlike style or form like a sonnet or an ode, that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet. The term lyric is now generally referred to as the words to a song.
Ode – a type of poem that is similar to lyric, but is serious and thoughtful. It is in the form of verses that are framed in three parts.Usually a serious poem on an exalted subject, but can be a more lighthearted work, such as Neruda's "Ode to My Socks."
Sonnet – In simple terms, a sonnet can be defined as a poem of 14 lines. Sonnets are further divided as Shakespearean sonnets (3 quatrains and 1 couplet) and Italian sonnets (2 quatrains and a sestet)
Narrative - poetry which tells a story (ballads and epics)
Ballad - A narrative poem written in four-line stanzas, characterized by swift action and narrated in a direct style.
Epic - A long narrative poem that records the adventures of a hero. Epics typically chronicle the origins of a civilization and embody its central values
Refrain- a line of poetry that is repeated for effect
Rhyme – the repetition of accented vowel sounds following them in words close together in a poem.
Ex.: words like skate-plate-weight
Internal Rhyme – the rhyme comes in the middle of the line rather than the end.
Example: rubbery blubbery macaroni
A good example of this is in the first stanza of Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Raven":
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
Note that in lines 1 and 3 you get an internal rhyme with "dreary" and "weary," and "napping" and "tapping." This technique can sometimes be used to de-emphasize a rhyme that would otherwise be too obvious.
Rhyme Scheme – the pattern of rhyme found at the end of the poem’s lines. Uses capital letters at the end of each line. A – all end words that rhyme with that word; B – all end words that rhyme with that word, etc.
Rhythm – the rise and fall of our voices as we use language. A variable pattern in the beat of stresses in the stream of sound (the beat of the poem)
Simile – a comparison between two unlike things, using a word such as like, as, than, or resembles
Ex.: he shirt was as yellow as a school bus
I wandered lonely as a cloud
Speaker – the voice that speaks to the reader; (i.e. the person the reader is supposed to imagine is talking). The speaker is NOT necessarily the poet. When the poet creates another character to be the speaker, that character is called the persona. Persona - A character created by the poet to narrate the poem. By creating a persona, the poet imagines what it is like to enter someone else's personality.
Stanza – a group of consecutive lines that forms a single unit
Subject – who or what the poem is about
Symbol/ symbolism – A person, place, object, or activity that represents something else. Ex. The US flag symbolizes country or freedom; autumn could symbolize maturity.
Tone – the poet's attitude to the poem's subject, sometimes through the tone of the persona or speaker
Theme- The underlying message or lesson learned from the poem