Poetic Elements Poetry Unit

Learning Targets for Literature Key Ideas and Details Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. Craft and Structure Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone). Integration of Knowledge and Ideas Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment

Alliteration The repetition of sounds at the beginning of words Example: “Babbling, bumbling, baboons”

Assonance Repeating internal vowel sounds in nearby words that do not end the same. Example: “All the night tide”

Connotation Associations and implications that go beyond the literal meaning of a word and the associations that people make with it. Example: The word “drugs” has a negative connotation, though some drugs can be useful to improve health.

Consonance A common type of near rhyme that consists of identical consonant sounds preceded by different vowel sounds. Example: My home is the same wherever I roam.

Denotation The dictionary meaning of a word. A word’s literal meaning. Example: Denotation – the dictionary definition of a word.

Diction A writer’s choice of words, phrases, and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning. Poetic diction: The way poets sometimes employ an elevated diction that deviates significantly from common speech and writing of their time.

Extended Metaphor A comparison of two unlike things without comparing words that continues throughout several lines of a work.

Figurative Language Ways of using language that deviate from the literal, denotative meanings of words in order to suggest additional meanings or effects. Saying one thing in terms of something else. Examples: Metaphors, similes, personification, hyperbole

Hyperbole A boldly exaggerated statement that adds emphasis without intending to be literally true. Example: He ate everything in the house.

Imagery A word, phrase, or figure of speech that addresses the senses, suggesting mental pictures of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings or actions. Example: The green, lush, rolling hills smelled of lavender on the spring morning.

Metaphor A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, without using words such as ‘like’ or ‘as’. Example: “Juliet is the sun.”

Meter A rhythmic pattern of stresses occurs in a poem. These are determined by type and number of feet in a line of verse. Types: Dimeter, Trimeter, Tetrameter, Pentameter, Hexameter, Heptameter, Octameter

Onomatopoeia A word that resembles the sound it denotes. Examples: Buzz, clang, click

Personification A form of metaphor in which human characteristics are attributed to nonhuman things. Example: The dancing trees swayed.

Refrain A phrase, line, or stanza repeated throughout a work. Example: In music, this is the chorus

Repetition The use of words or phrases that occur more than once in a work. Example: He is just perfect, perfect, perfect!

Rhyme The repetition of identical or similar concluding syllables in different words, most often at the ends of lines. Example: The cat wore a fancy hat.

Rhythm A term used to refer to the recurrence of stressed and unstressed sounds in poetry. Types: Iamb, trochee, spondee, dactyl, anapest

Simile A common figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between two unlike things using words such as ‘like’ or ‘as’ Example: “Her hair fell like a cascade of brown waters.”

Stanza A group of usually four or more lines that mark specific intervals in a poem. Example: Poetry paragraphs

Symbol A person, object, image, word, or event that evokes a range of additional meaning beyond and usually more abstract than the literal meaning. Example: The flag represents freedom.

Tone The author’s implicit attitude toward the reader or the people, places, and events in a work.

Theme The central meaning or dominant idea in a literary work. Topic + Vivid Verb + Tone = Theme statement

Volta A turn in thought (typically in a sonnet) often marked by the words “but” “yet” or “and yet.”