Poetry Concepts
Poetry Concepts
Key Words We Will Be Looking At
• Alliteration• Allusion• Cliché• Connotation• Couplet• Imagery• Irony• Metaphor• Mood• Oxymoron
• Onomatopoeia• Persona• Personification• Pun• Refrain• Rhyme Scheme• Rhythm• Simile• Stanza• Symbol
Alliteration
• Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds usually at the beginning of the word two or more times in a line of poetry.
• Tongue twisters are extreme examples of alliteration
• She sells seashells by the seashore• Tommy turned timidly toward Timmy• It can just be two words• Jacob just asked a good question.• Jacob asked a good question just now.
Allusion
• Allusions are references to words, phrases, people, etc. from literature ,history, art, or politics.
• An allusion connects a piece of writing to real life or to an aspect of culture.
• Example- In The Gift of the Magi the story and the title itself allude to the story of the wise men from the Bible.
Cliché
• A cliché is an overused expression or phrase
• You mean the world to me• You’re making me crazy• I love you more than anything• Comparing love or beauty to
inanimate object• Flowers and candy
Connotation
• The emotion that you associate with a word the non-dictionary definition
• A writer may choose to use a particular word in order to get a certain response from a reader.
• These are words that when you hear them make you have an emotional response
Couplet• A pair of lines that rhyme• The girl had purple hair/She acted
like she didn’t care• The internet is really really
great/I’ve got a fast connection so I don’t have to wait
• Chillin’ out, take it slow/Then you rock out the show
Euphemism
• A polite or less blunt way of saying something that might be offensive or bad.
• He’s a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
• He passed away last night.
Imagery
• Imagery is something you read that relates to and calls upon our five senses.
• The way things sound look smell taste feel.
• It helps us to fully experience a piece of writing and brings us closer to understanding its plot (if there is one) and the mood.
Irony
• Verbal- when you say one thing but mean something else (sarcasm)
• Situational- when the reader expects one thing to happen and then something different happens
• Dramatic- when the reader knows something the characters do not
Metaphor
• Speaking about one thing as though it were another unrelated thing
• States the comparison as if it were a fact.
• What light through yonder window breaks It is the east and Juliet is the sun.
Mood
• The general feeling or atmosphere that a poem creates
• Are you supposed to feel happy, depressed, scared, excited, suspicious, or confused
• What does the author want you to feel
Oxymoron
• Two words that don’t seem to go together but do to create a new meaning.
• Jumbo shrimp• A fine mess• Act naturally• Deafening silence• Girly man
Onomatopoeia
• A word that sounds like what it means
• Splat• Bang• Knock• Burp• Crash• Boom
Persona
• The person who is speaking in a poem
• Sometimes its a person an animal a rock or anything else
• Who’s telling us the information is often times as important as the words
Personification
• Giving something non-human, human qualities
• The wind whistled through the trees
• The stars blinked rapidly• The sunset reached down and
enfolded the horizon• Her heart broke into a thousand
pieces
Pun
• Using words that have multiple meanings
• That’s a nice gun you’ve got there• There was once a cross-eyed
teacher who couldn't control his pupils.
• To write with a broken pencil is pointless.
Refrain
• One or more lines that are repeated in a poem or song is also often referred to as the chorus
• Usually the part that gets stuck in your head
• Quoth The Raven Nevermore.• Maybe next time hell think before
he cheats.
Rhyme Scheme
• A pattern of rhyming sounds at the ends of lines in a poem.
Every who down in Who-ville like Christmas a lot ---------------A
But the Grinch who lived just north of Who-ville did not.-------A
The Grinch hated Christmas the whole Christmas season.---B
Now please dont ask why no one quite knows the reason.---B
It could be his head wasnt screwed on just right.----------------C
It could be perhaps that his shoes were too tight.---------------C
But I think that the most likely reason of all-----------------------D
May have been that his heart was two sizes to small.---------D
Rhythm
• Pattern of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry
• Basically it’s how the poem sounds
• Just like songs are supposed to be played a certain way poems are supposed to be read a certain way
Simile
• A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two different things, usually by using the words “like” or “as”.
• It is different from a metaphor, which compares two unlike things by saying that the one thing is the other thing.
• Flopping like a fish• Dumb as a post
Symbol
• An object that represents something else
• Usually something simple or ordinary that represents a bigger concept
• A heart = love• A ring = marriage
Theme
• The main idea of the poem• Love- Love conquers all• Death- You cant escape death• Carpe Diem- Seize the day because life is short• War- War tears families apart• Youth- Youth is impulsive• Choices- Make good choices because you
have to live with them• Themes are the authors opinions on those
subjects.
Shakespearean Syntax
• I ate the sandwich.• I the sandwich ate.• Ate the sandwich I.• Ate I the sandwich.• The sandwich I ate. • The sandwich ate I.