Poetry and figurative language

Types of Poems: A NARRATIVE POEM tells a story. An EPIC POEM is kind of a long narrative poem that has a HERO and often FANTASTIC CREATURES. A LYRIC POEM expresses THOUGHTS and FEELINGS.

How to read a poem You need to SET a PURPOSE. What is the poem ABOUT? What‘s the MOOD or FEELING of the poem?

Poems have LINES and STANZAS. Let them be as flowers, always watered, fed, guarded, admired, but harnessed to a pot of dirt. I’d rather be a tall, ugly weed, 5 clinging on cliffs, like an eagle wind-wavering above high, jagged rocks.

Plan for reading a poem FIRST reading- read the poem straight through for ENJOYMENT. Try not to worry about UNDERSTANDING everything—just enjoy the experience of reading it.

SECOND reading- read for MEANING SECOND reading- read for MEANING. Be on the lookout for CLUES that will help you understand the poem, esp WORDS or PHRASES that suggest emotion or feeling. Those words will help you understand the poem’s MOOD.

THIRD reading- pay attention to the STRUCTURE THIRD reading- pay attention to the STRUCTURE. Look for RHYME, WORD POSITION, LINE LENGTH, and CAPITAL LETTERS.

FOURTH reading- put all the pieces together and read the poem for ENJOYMENT. The Poem should make more sense to you now.

Figurative Language FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE is when you don’t say exactly what you mean. The opposite of figurative language is LITERAL language. LITERAL language is when you say EXACTLY what you MEAN. Literal: I’m exhausted. Figurative: I’m dead.

More Examples: Which one of these is figurative? (1) The graceful ballerina floated across the stage. (2) The leaf floated on the water. Another way to say figurative language is to say A FIGURE OF SPEECH.

IMAGERY is the words writers use to create MENTAL pictures. White sheep, white sheep, On a blue hill, When the wind stops You all stand still. That poem seems like straightforward, but when you know the poem is “Clouds,” you can see how it is using imagery.

Simile and MEtaphor A SIMILE is a figure of speech that COMPARES unlike things by using the words LIKE or AS. A METAPHOR COMPARES to unlike things WITHOUT using LIKE or AS. He’s stubborn as a mule. ___________ He’s a mule. ___________

SYMbols A SYMBOL is something that stands for or suggests something else beyond itself.

personification PERSONIFICATION is giving a NON-LIVING thing/object QUALITIES of a HUMAN. In the poem “Trees,” the tree “lifts her leafy arms” and wears a “nest of robins in her hair.”

ONOMATOPOEIA refers to words that SOUND like the things they describe.

alliteration ALLITERATION means STARTING several words in a row with the SAME SOUND. He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Sensory details are words that appeal to your 5 senses: WRTIE THE FOLLOWING ON THE BOTTOM OF YOUR NOTES PAGE: Sensory details are words that appeal to your 5 senses: Sight Hearing Taste Touch Smell