Alliteration The effect created when words with the same initial letter (usually consonants) are used in close proximity Examples: “To laugh and love and watch with wonder-eyes.” “And sails of silk, as soft as milk, and silvern shrouds had she.”

Poetry Unit Literary Terms and Examples 9th Grade Language Arts

Assonance The effect created when words with the same vowel sound are used in close proximity - but where the consonants in these words are different Example: “…to need neither to eat nor breathe nor sleep…”

Onomatopoeia A word that imitates the sound it represents Examples: “Pitter-patter” Wham Bang Crunch Boom Pow

Figurative Language Writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally Implied or underlying meaning Example: She is about to kick the bucket.

Metaphor A figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common Example: “Life is a broken-winged bird”

Simile A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by like or as Example: “The forest is spread across the land Like a casually thrown run…”

Denotation The dictionary definition of a word Example: Cold- having little or no warmth

Connotation The emotional association with a word Example: Cold- sickness, runny nose, cool temperatures, evil

Diction A writer’s choice of words Example: Ominous Glow Beaming Light

Tone The writer’s attitude towards his or her audience and subject

Personification Giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to non-living objects (things, colors, qualities, or ideas) Example: “And this same flower that smiles today, Tomorrow will be dying.” --Robert Herrick

Symbolism When something represents itself, and something more than itself Example: American Flag -United States of America -Freedom

Rhyme Scheme A regular pattern of rhyme, one that is consistent throughout the extent of the poem

Rhyme Scheme Example: “If We Must Die” By: Claude McKay If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot. If we must die, O let us nobly die So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe! Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one death blow! What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! A B C D E F G

Internal Rhyme A word in the middle of a line of poetry rhymes with the word at the end of the line Two words in mid sentence rhyme Examples: “A simple chime, that served to time…” “The times you rhyme inside each line The way you play with the things you say…”

Couplet A pair of rhyming lines Examples: “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…” “There was a little hermit crab Who thought his tank was rather drab…”

Iambic Pentameter Follows the “weak STRONG” pattern 5 “weak STRONG” sections per line To be or not to that is the ques- -tion da Dum Da weak STRONG

Blank Verse A poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter Example: The Ball Poem By: John Berryman What is the boy now, who has lost his ball, What, what is he to do? I saw it go Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then Merrily over-there it is in the water!

Free Verse A poem that does not have a regular rhyme scheme or meter Example: “Fog” By: Carl Sandburg The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.

Sonnet Must have 14 Lines Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGG

Sonnet Example: “To Fanny” John Keats (1795-1821) I cry your mercy–pity–love!–aye, love! Merciful love that tantalizes not, One-thoughted, never-wandering, guileless love, Unmasked, and being seen–without a blot! O! let me have thee whole,–all–all–be mine! That shape, that fairness, that sweet minor zest Of love, your kiss,–those hands, those eyes divine, That warm, white, lucent, million-pleasured breast,– Yourself–your soul–in pity give me all. Withhold no atom’s atom or I die, Or living on perhaps, your wretched thrall, Forget, in the mist of idle misery, Life’s purposes,–the palate of my mind Losing its gist, and my ambition blind!

Haiku Seventeen Syllables Five Syllables in Line ONE Seven Syllables in Line TWO Five Syllables in Line THREE

Haiku Example: Now the swinging bridge Is quieted with creepers… Like our tendrilled life. -- Basho

Lyric Poem Poetry that does not tell a story but is aimed at expressing a speaker’s emotions or thoughts

Lyric Poem “How Do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith I love thee with a love I seem to love With my lost saints, - I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.