Painting with Words

Poetry

Form- the structure of the writing (what it looks like on the page)

Innocent

If love were a crime,And you were jailed because you claimed

that you loved me,And evidence was sought of your guilt or

innocence,You’d get away scott free.

Style—way of using language to express ideas

Nature's first green is gold,Her hardest hue to hold.Her early leaf's a flower;But only so an hour.Then leaf subsides to leaf.So Eden sank to grief,So dawn goes down to day.Nothing gold can stay. --Robert Frost

TreeStrong, Tall

Swaying, swinging, sighingMemories of summer

Oak

My set is the latest HDwhich means very little to meit’s modern and coolbut I’m such a foolI can’t even spell LCD!

All poems are broken up into lines. The length of each line and where it breaks, or ends, contributes to the poem’s meaning and sounds.

Lunchroom

I was so hungryI could have eaten my algebra book.

I smelled what we were havingbefore I even saw it.

Mystery Meat, green mushy peas,instant potatoes with lumpy gravy,

bread pudding, and milk.It’s a good thing I like milk.

A stanza is a group of lines. Stanzas work together to convey the overall message of the poem.

Fog

The fog comes on little cat feet.

It sits lookingover harbor and cityon silent haunchesand then moves on.

Just as a story has a narrator, a poem has a Speaker --sometimes a fictional character rather than the poet.

Mother to Son

Well, son, I’ll tell you:Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.It’s had tacks in it.And splinters,And boards torn up,And places with no carpet on the floor-Bare. -Langston Hughes

Sound Devices

Rhythm is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in each line.

A regular pattern of rhythm is called meter.

The sun did not shine;It was too wet to play,So we sat in the house

All that cold, cold, wet day.-Dr. Seuss

Rhyme is the repetition of sounds at the ends of words, as in sun and one.

Rhyme scheme is the pattern that the end-rhyming words follow. To identify rhyme scheme, assign a letter to each sound.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, AWhen all through the house BNot a creature was stirring, C

Not even a mouse; B

Repetition is a technique in which a sound, word, phrase, or line is repeated for emphasis or unity. Repetition often helps to reinforce meaning or create an appealing rhythm.

Mi Madre

I say feed me.She serves red prickly pear on a spike cactus.

I say tease me.She sprinkles raindrops in my face on a sunny day.

I say frighten me.She shouts thunder, flashes lightning.

I say comfort me,She invites me to lay on her firm body.

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.

“Over a Bunsen burner bubbled a big earthenware dish of stew” -A Wrinkle in Time

The repetition of the “b” sound reproduces the motion of the stew simmering in its pot.

Say to them,Say to the down-keepers.The sun-slappers,The self-spoilers, -Gwendolyn Brooks

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words: e.g., the words “cry” and “side” have the same vowel sound so they are said to be in assonance.

“It’s had tacks in it,” -Langston Hughes

“True, I do like Sue.”

“Afternoon on a Hill”

I will be the gladdest thing-aUnder the sun!-b

I will touch a hundred flowers-cAnd not pick one.-b

I will look at cliffs and clouds-dWith quiet eyes,-e

Watch the wind bow down the grass,-fAnd the grass rise.-e

And when lights begin to show-gUp from the town,-h

I will mark which must be mine, -iAnd then start down!-h

Imagery and

Figurative Language

Imagery is defined as language that appeals to one or more of our senses-sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Vivid images help readers more clearly understand what a poet does.

“They were standing in a sunlit field, and the air was moving about them with the delicious air that comes only on the rarest of spring days when the sun’s touch is gentle and the apple blossoms are just beginning to unfold.” (sight and smell)

“’Oh, my dears,’ came the new voice, a rich voice with the warmth of a woodwind, the clarity of a trumpet, the mystery of an English horn.” (sound)

A simile is a comparison of two things using the words like or as.

The sun spun likeA tossed coin.It whirled on the azure blue sky,It clattered into the horizon,It clicked in the slot,And neon-lights poppedAnd blinked “Time expired,”As on a parking meter.

-Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali

Metaphors are comparisons of two things that do not use the words like or as.

In the pond in the parkall things are doubled:Long buildings hang andwriggle gently. Chimneysare bent legs bouncing on clouds below.

-May Swensen

Extended metaphor refers to a metaphor that extends over several lines, stanzas, or an entire poem.

But all they want to dois tie the poem to a chair with ropeand torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hoseto find out what it really means.

-Billy Collins

The poem is compared to a person being tortured.

Personification is a description of an object, animal, or idea as if it has human qualities and emotions.

Directly ahead of her was the circular building, its walls glowing with violet flame, its silvery roof pulsing with a light that seemed to Meg to be insane.

“The little waves with their soft, white hands.”