Elements of Elements of PoetryPoetry

Elements of Elements of PoetryPoetry

Definition of Poetry• Literature in verse form (a

controlled arrangement of lines and stanzas)

• Uses language to express layers of meaning

Literary Elements•Figurative language

–Language that is used imaginatively rather than literally to express ideas/feelings

Examples:• Simile: uses “like” or “as” to

compare 2 essentially unlike things

• Ex./She runs like the wind.

Metaphor• Compares 2 like things

describing one as if it were the other

• ex./ My brother’s room is a pigpen.

Personification• A figure of speech in which human

qualities are given to a non-human subject

• Ex./ The feather tickled my face.

Imagery• Descriptive language that

creates vivid impressions.

• Uses sensory language; appeals to the 5 senses

Musical qualities• Poets often use sound devices

to achieve a musical quality

• They do this by the language that they use

Rhythm• Pattern created by stressed and

unstressed syllables

• Ordered pattern of rhythm is called meter

Rhyme• Repetition of identical sounds

in the last syllables of words

• Pattern of rhyme at end of lines in a poem is called rhyme scheme

Alliteration• Initial rhyme

• Repetition of first consonant

• Ex./the light lemon lollipop

Assonance• Vowel rhyme

• Repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words

• Ex./ date and fade

Consonance• Repetition of consonants

within nearby words in which the separating vowels differ

• Ex./ milk and walk