Traditional Techniques of Poetry
Name______Date______
Traditional Techniques of Poetry
Most traditional poems follow exact patterns of rhyme and/or rhythm. Consider thistraditional poem by Shel Silverstein:
SMART
My dad gave me one dollar bill(a)
‘Cause I’m his smartest son,(b)
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters(c)
‘Cause two is more than one!(b)
And then I took the quarters(c)
And traded them to Lou(d)
For three dimes- I guess he don’t know(e)
That three is more than two!(d)
Just then, along came old blind Bates(f)
And just ‘cause he can’t see(g)
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,(h)
And four is more than three!(g)
And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs(i)
Down at the seed-feed store,(j)
And the fool gave me five pennies for them,(k)
And five is more than four!(j)
And then I went and showed my dad,(l)
And he got red in the cheeks(m)
And closed his eyes and shook his head-(n)
Too proud of me to speak!(m)
Rhyme and Meter
In most traditional poetry, the rhyme is organized in patterns called rhyme schemes. In the poem above, rhyming lines are labeled with the same letter.
The rhyme scheme is abcb/ cded/ fghg/ ijkj/ lmnm
Meter is the rhythm or “pattern of accented ( ´ ) and unaccented ( ˇ ) syllables” in the lines of a poem. In the poem above, every other syllable is accented. This pattern of unaccented and accented syllables creates the poem’s meter.
Poetry Techniques/ Figurative Language
Imagery- Creating pictures through words by appealing to the senses, usually done with figurative language.
Example: Fog rolled across the valley.
Metaphor- A figure of speech that uses associates to state that two unlike things are similar.
Example: He’s the apple of my eye.
Onomatopoeia- Words that sound like what they mean.
Example: The snake hissed.
Personification- A figure of speech in which human qualities are given to non-human objects and concepts.
Example: The trees whispered in the wind.
Simile- A comparison of two unlike things using like or as.
Example: Her hair shines like the sun.
Sound Techniques
Alliteration- The repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of words, and, in some traditions, at the beginning of strongly stressed syllables.
Example: Rubber baby buggy bumpers.
Assonance- The repetition of vowel sounds, followed by different consonant sounds so that the words don’t rhyme.
Example: Lonely old bones.
Consonance- The repetition of middle or final consonant sound or sounds following different vowel sounds so that the words do not rhyme.
Example: Litter and letter. Skate and scoot.
End Rhyme- The rhyming of words at the ends of lines of poetry.
Example: Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
- from “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” by Adrienne Rich.
Foot- One unit of meter.
Example: Iambic: An unaccented syllable followed by an accented one (rĕ péat)
Internal Rhyme- The rhyming of words within one line of poetry.
Example: Jack Sprat could eat no fat.
Quatrain- A four-line stanza. Common rhyme schemes in quatrains are aabb, aaba, and abab.
Repetition- The repeating of a word or phrase to add rhythm or to focus on an idea.
Example: While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door-
-Poe’s “The Raven”
Stanza- A division in a poem named for the number of lines it contains.
Most common stanzas:
Couplettwo-line stanzaSestetsix-line stanza
Tripletthree-line stanzaSeptetseven-line stanza
Quatrainfour-line stanzaOctaveeight-line stanza
Verse- A name for a line of poetry written in meter. Verse is named according to the number of “feet” per line.