POETIC TERMS

ONOMATOPOEIA

Onomatopoeia is the use of words that imitate sounds.

Writers can deliberately choose words that contribute to a desired sound effect

HYPERBOLE

Hyperbole is a deliberate exaggeration or overstatement.

Hyperboles are often used for comedic effect.

I think this is the most extraordinary

collection of human talent, of human

knowledge, that has ever been gathered at

the White House--with the possible

exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined

alone.

(President John F. Kennedy at a White House dinner

honoring 49 Nobel Prize winners, April 29, 1962)

ALLITERATION

Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds.

Writers use alliteration to give emphasis to words, to imitate sounds, and to create musical effects.

“I'm an anarchist and an angry academic activist/Axe and assassinate the alphabet in an ambulance/Ahki I'm aggy and I'm actually anti-arrogant/Artists that ask in American accents by accident”(Lowkey, “Alphabet Assassin”)

https://youtu.be/7WtpIPqndHg

METAPHOR

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else.

Unlike a simile, which compares two things using like or as, a metaphor implies a comparison between them.

‘Cause, baby, you‘re a fireworkCome on, show ’em what you‘re worth

(Katy Perry, “Firework”)

https://youtu.be/QGJuMBdaqIw

SIMILIE

A simile is a figure of speech in which like or asis used to make a comparison between two basically unlike ideas.

“You, with your words like knivesAnd swords and weapons that you use against meYou, have knocked me off my feet again,Got me feeling like a nothingYou, with your voice like nailsOn a chalk board, calling me out when I'm woundedYou, picking on the weaker man”

(Taylor Swift, “Mean”)

https://youtu.be/jYa1eI1hpDE

PERSONIFICATION

Personification is a type of figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics.

RHYME SCHEME

A rhyme scheme is a regular pattern on rhyming words in a poem. The rhyme scheme of a poem is indicated by using different letters of the alphabet for each new rhyme. In an aabb stanza, for example, line 1 rhymes with l line 2 and line 3 rhymes with line 4.

Since I'm in a position to talk to these kids and they listen (A)

I ain't no politician but I'll kick it with 'em a minute (B)

Cause see they call me a menace; and if the shoe fits I'll wear it (B)

But if it don't, then y'all'll swallow the truth grin and bear it (B)

Now who's these king of these rude ludicrous lucrative lyrics (B)

Who could inherit the title, put the youth in hysterics (B)

Usin’ his music to steer it, sharin’ his views and his merits (B)

But there's a huge interference - they're sayin’ you shouldn't hear it (B)

Maybe it's hatred I spew, maybe it's food for the spirit (B)

Maybe it's beautiful music I made for you to just cherish (C)

(Eminem, “Renegade”)

FREE VERSE

Free verse is poetry not written in a regular rhythmical pattern or meter.

Free verse seeks to capture the rhythms of speech.

After the Sea-Ship—after the whistling winds;

After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars and ropes,

Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening, lifting up their necks,

Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship.

(Walt Whitman, “After the Sea-Ship”)

LYRIC POEM

A lyric poem is a highly musical verse that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker. In ancient times, lyric poems were sung to the accompaniment of the lyre, a type of stringed instrument. Modern lyric poems are not usually sung. However, they still have a musical quality that is achieved through rhythm and other devices such as alliteration and rhyme.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red than her lips' red;If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,But no such roses see I in her cheeks;And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing sound;I grant I never saw a goddess go;My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rareAs any she belied with false compare.

(William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 130”)

RHYME

Rhyme is the repetition of sounds at the ends of words.

End rhyme occurs when the rhyming words come at the ends of lines

You have brains in your head.You have feet in your shoes.You can steer yourselfAny direction you choose.

(Dr. Seuss, “Oh the Places You’ll Go!”)

INTERNAL RHYME

Internal rhyme occurs when the rhyming words appear in the same line

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,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

“Tis some visitor, I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door-

Only this, and nothing more.”

(Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”)

HAIKU

A formulaic poem following this form:

Five syllables

Seven syllables

Five syllables

NARRATIVE POETRY

A narrative poem is one that tells a story.

The Odyssey by Homer is a really long poem that tells a story about a man trying to get back home to his wife and son after the Trojan war.

ALLUSION

A reference to a well-known piece of artistic or literary work.

(Fallout 4 references TONS of pop culture! You guys just miss every single one. For instance… see next slide!)

BLANK VERSE

Consists of unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter (ten syllables with the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth syllables accented).

But, soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

A-rise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief

That thou her maid art far more fair thashe.

(William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)

ASSONANCE

Repetition of vowel sounds

“Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight,Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

(Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into the Good Night”)

BALLAD

Songlike narrative about adventure or romance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=40&v=zpOULjyy-n8 (REO Speedwagon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qps-B_0efWI (Avett Brothers)

Justin Beiber Love Yourself

Adele Hello

Taylor Swift Blank Space

CONSONANCE

Repetition of consonant sounds

Shelly sells seashells by the seashore.

DICTION

Deliberate word choices made by the author to give a specific feeling

I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

The Stillness in the Room

Was like the Stillness in the Air -

Between the Heaves of Storm -

The Eyes around - had wrung them dry -

And Breaths were gathering firm

For that last Onset - when the King

Be witnessed - in the Room -

I willed my Keepsakes -

Signed away

What portion of me be

Assignable - and then it was

There interposed a Fly -

With Blue - uncertain -stumbling Buzz -

Between the light - and me -

And then the Windows failed - and then

I could not see to see –

Emily Dickinson “I heard a Fly buzz- when I died”

ENJAMBMENT

When a line from a poem continues to the next line without using a natural or grammatical pause

How wrong I was. What had summerto do with sorrow in full spate?Every rosebush, every flowerI passed, stood at a stranger's gate.

SONNET

A fourteen-line lyric poem with formal patterns of rhyme rhythm, and line structure.

-3 quatrains

-Final couplet

-ababcdcdefefgg

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red than her lips' red;If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,But no such roses see I in her cheeks;And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing sound;I grant I never saw a goddess go;My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rareAs any she belied with false compare.

(William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 130”)

IMAGERY

Descriptive language used to create word pictures or images (paints a picture in your mind using words and phrases appealing to the five senses)

“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!It seems she hangs upon the cheek of nightLike a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear;” Romeo and Juliet

IRONY

The opposite of what is expected occurs

Sick? Need medicine?

Market Pharmacy at rear-

Cigarettes at front

Paul Geiger-2016