Devices

Rhyme  Recurring identical or similar final word sounds within or at the ends of lines of verse.  Rhyme scheme refers to rhyming pattern such as: aabb, aacc, etc.  EXAMPLES … Meet, greet Gander, meander Grand, land Where, fair, air, bear, glare

Rhyme Scheme The Germ by Ogden Nash A mighty creature is the germ, Though smaller than the pachyderm. His customary dwelling place Is deep within the human race. His childish pride he often pleases By giving people strange diseases. Do you, my poppet, feel infirm? You probably contain a germ. AABBCCAAAABBCCAA

Rhythm  The recurring pattern of strong and weak syllabic stresses.  When words are arranged in such a way that they make a pattern or beat.  EXAMPLE … There once was a girl from Chicago Who dyed her hair pink in the bathtub I’m making a pizza the size of the sun. Hint: hum the words instead of saying them.

Meter and Feet  Meter is a fixed pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in lines of fixed length to create a rhythm.  A foot is the basic measuring unit in a line of poetry, composed of a certain number of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Types of Meter  Iambic Pentameter: A five measure-line with ten beats (10 syllables with rising and falling stress). Contains five feet.  Monometer: One foot  Dimeter: Two feet  Trimeter: Three feet  Tetrameter: Four feet  Heptameter: Seven feet  Octometer: Eight feet

Types of Feet  Iambic: Contains one unstressed and one stressed syllable pair. EXAMPLE (using Iambic Pentameter): “To BE comMENC’D in STRONDS aFAR reMOTE.” Shakespeare’s Henry IV

Types of Feet  Anapest: A foot consisting of three syllables in which the first two are short or unstressed and the final one is long or stressed. “Twas the NIGHT before CHRISTMAS, when all THROUGH the HOUSE …”

Types of Feet  Trochee: A foot that has two syllables in which the first is long or stressed, and the second is short and unstressed. EXAMPLE: “DOUble, DOUble, TOIL and TROUble …” Shakespeare’s MacBeth

Types of Feet  Dactyl: A foot of three syllables in which the first is long or stressed, and the next two are unstressed or short. EXAMPLE: “TAKE her up TENderly …”

Stanzas Couplet=a two line stanza Triplet (Tercet)=a three line stanza Quatrain=a four line stanza Quintet=a five line stanza Sestet (Sextet)=a six line stanza Septet=a seven line stanza Octave=an eight line stanza

POETIC SOUNDS

Repetition  Repeated use of sounds, words, or ideas for effect and emphasis.  EXAMPLES … Refrains … Nobody No, nobody Can make it out here alone. Alone, all alone Nobody, but nobody Can make it out here alone.

Alliteration  When the first sounds of words repeat.  EXAMPLES … Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers Sam sold starfish by the seaside Stone Hill school stingrays

Assonance  Repetition of vowels sounds.  EXAMPLES … Mad hatter Five timer Sake of fate

Consonance  Repetition of consonant sounds in the middle or end of words. Vowels: a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. Consonants: all other letters.  EXAMPLES … East/west, Fast/twist, Want/font, Hop/sap Mammals named Sam are clammy. Curse, bless me now! With fierce tears I prey.

Onomatopoeia  When a word’s pronunciation imitates its sound.  EXAMPLES … BuzzWoofFizz SizzleHissBoom WhapClinkBeep VroomZipClick

Practice  I’ll put some lines of poetry on the board and you write down what type of poetic device is being used: Alliteration, Consonance, Assonance, Repetition, Rhythm, Rhyme, Onomatopoeia NOTE: Some poems use more than one technique.

PRACTICE #1 The cuckoo in our cuckoo clock was wedded to an octopus. She laid a single wooden egg and hatched a cuckoocloctopus

PRACTICE #2 They are building a house half a block down and I sit up here with the shades down listening to the sounds, the hammers pounding in nails, thack thack thack thack, and then I hear birds, and thack thack thack,

PRACTICE #3 very little love is not so bad or very little life what counts is waiting on walls I was born for this I was born to hustle roses down the avenues of the dead.

PRACTICE #4 The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy.

PRACTICE #5 Homework! Oh, homework! I hate you! You stink! I wish I could wash you away in the sink.

ANSWERS 1. Repetition, rhythm, rhyme, consonance, and light alliteration. 2. Onomatopoeia, consonance, repetition 3. Alliteration, repetition 4. Rhythm, rhyme, light alliteration 5. Repetition, rhyme, rhythm