1. Poetry
Vocabulary
Mrs. Gregg

2. For this unit...
You will be expected to know the poetry terms. In addition, you should be able to recognize examples of each term. Finally, you should be able to analyze a poem for the poetic devices and explain how each is used.

3. Figurative Language Imagery Metaphor Simile Allusion Personification
Apostrophe
Hyperbole
Understatement
Litotes
Metonymy
Synecdoche

4. Imagery
Creating a picture in the reader’s mind by making the reader see, hear, taste, smell, or touch what is being described

5. Metaphor My brother was boiling mad. (This implies he was too angry.)
The assignment was a breeze (This implies that the assignment was not difficult.)
It is going to be clear skies from now on (This implies that clear skies are not a threat and life is going to be without hardships.)
Her voice is music to his ears (This implies that her voice makes him feel happy.)
Metaphor
a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance

6. Our soldiers are as brave as lions.
Her cheeks are red like a rose.
He is as funny as a monkey.
The water well was as dry as a bone.
He is as cunning as a fox.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate”
(William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18)
This is not a metaphor. The use of the word “compare” makes the comparison a simile.
Simile
a figure of speech that expresses the resemblance of one thing to another of a different category, usually introduced by as or like

7. “Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her
“Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.” – “Romeo” is a reference to Shakespeare’s Romeo, a passionate lover of Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet.
The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandora’s box of crimes. – This is an allusion to one of Greek Mythology’s origin myth, “Pandora’s box”.
“This place is like a Garden of Eden.” – This is a biblical allusion to the “garden of God” in the Book of Genesis.
“Hey! Guess who the new Newton of our school is?” – “Newton”, means a genius student, alludes to a famous scientist Isaac Newton.
Allusion
An indirect reference to some piece of knowledge not actually mentioned. Allusions usually come from a body of information that the author presumes the reader will know.

8. Personification Look at my car. She is a beauty, isn’t it so?
The wind whispered through dry grass.
The flowers danced in the gentle breeze.
Time and tide waits for none.
The fire swallowed the entire forest.
Personification
the attribution of human characteristics to things, abstract ideas, etc, as for literary or artistic effect

9. Jane Taylor uses apostrophe in the well-known nursery rhyme “The Star”:
“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.”
In the above nursery rhyme, a child addresses a star (an imaginary idea). Hence, this is a classic example of apostrophe.
John Donne comes up with the use of an apostrophe in his poem “Death Be Not Proud”:
“Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,”
Apostrophe
a digression or deviation in the form of an address to an imaginary or absent person, or to a personified object or idea

10. Hyperbole My grandmother is as old as the hills.
Your suitcase weighs a ton!
I am dying of shame.
I am trying to solve a million issues these days.
From “The Adventures of Pinocchio” written by C. Colloid,
“He cried all night, and dawn found him still there, though his tears had dried and only hard, dry sobs shook his wooden frame. But these were so loud that they could be heard by the faraway hills…”
The crying of Pinocchio all night until his tears became dry is an example of Hyperbole.
Hyperbole
obvious and intentional exaggeration; an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally

11. Understatement
the act or an instance of stating something in restrained terms, or as less than it is
You win 10 million dollars in a lottery. When you tell a news reporter “I am delighted”, you are making an understatement.
Similarly, suppose a team loses to its opponent 50 to 0 in a soccer match and the captain of the team says in a post-match ceremony says, “We did not do well.”
It is an understatement because he is trying to decrease the intensity of the win or the loss.

12. Litotes He is not the cleverest person I have ever met.
She is not unlike her mother.
Ken Adams is not an ordinary man
A million dollars is not a little amount.
You are not doing badly at all.
Your apartment is not unclean.
Saying “She is not a beauty queen,” means “She is ugly” or saying “I am not as young as I used to be” in order to avoid saying “I am old”.
Litotes
understatement for rhetorical effect, esp when achieved by using negation with a term in place of using an antonym of that term, as in "She was not a little upset" for "She was extremely upset."

13. England decides to keep check on immigration
England decides to keep check on immigration (England refers to the government.)
The pen is mightier than the sword. (Pen refers to written words and sword to military force.)
Let me give you a hand (Hand means help.)
“Rifles were guarding the gate” is more concise than “The guards with rifles in their hands were guarding the gate.”
Metonymy
the substitution of a word referring to an attribute for the thing that is meant, as for example the use of the crown to refer to a monarch
(Using one word to represent many)

14. The word “bread” refers to food or money as in “Writing is my bread and butter” or “sole breadwinner”.
The phrase “gray beard” refers to an old man.
The word “suits” refers to businessmen.
The term “coke” is a common synecdoche for all carbonated drinks.
Synecdoche
a figure of speech in which a part is substituted for a whole or a whole for a part, as in 50 head of cattle for 50 cows, or the army for a soldier

15. Sound Devices Onomatopoeia Assonance Alliteration Consonance End Rhyme
Internal Rhyme
Perfect Rhyme
Slant Rhyme
Sound Devices

16. The Bells – Edgar Allan Poe
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
Onomatopoeia
the formation of words whose sound is imitative of the sound of the noise or action designated
The Highwayman – Alfred Noyes
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;

17. Assonance Robert Frosts poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”:
the use of the same vowel sound with different consonants or the same consonant with different vowels in successive words or stressed syllables, as in a line of verse
Robert Frosts poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”:
“He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dar and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

18. From William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” (prologue to Act 1)
“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes;
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.”
Alliteration
the use of the same consonant or of a vowel, at the beginning of each word or each stressed syllable in a line of verse

19. Consonance The ship has sailed to the far off shores.
the use of the repetition of consonant sounds or patterns of consonant sounds
The ship has sailed to the far off shores.
She ate seven sandwiches on a sunny Sunday last year.
She sells seashells by the seashore.
Rubber baby buggy bumpers

20. End Rhyme “Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night;”
(“The Tyger” by Willaim Blake)
End Rhyme
rhyme of the ending syllables of two successive lines of poetry

21. Internal Rhyme
a rhyme created by two or more words in the same line of verse (poetry) OR
a rhyme created by words within two or more lines of a verse.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door…..
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; – vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore…
(The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe)

22. Perfect Rhyme
two words rhyme in such a way that their final stressed vowel and all following sounds are identical e.g. sight and light, right and might, etc.
Mary had a little lamb its fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.
It followed her to school one day, which was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play, to see a lamb at school.
And so the teacher turned it out, but still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about till Mary did appear.

23. Slant Rhyme
rhyme in which either the vowels or the consonants of stressed syllables are identical, as in eyes, light; years, yours.
When have I last looked on
The round green eyes and the long wavering bodies
Of the dark leopards of the moon?
All the wild witches, those most noble ladies …
(W. B. Yeats “Lines written in Dejection”)

24. Measuring Poetry Meter Foot Iambic Pentameter Stanza E. Rhyme Scheme
Couplet
Quatrain
Sestet
Octave
E. Rhyme Scheme
F. Lines
Enjambment
End Stopped Rhyme
Caesura
G. Sonnet
Italian Sonnet
English Sonnet
Measuring Poetry

25. Meter
a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse or within the lines of a poem; it gives poetry a rhythmical and melodious sound.
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
(Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Iambic pentameter

26. Foot If music be the food of love, play on;
a single measuring unit in poetry, which is made up of stressed and unstressed syllables.
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall;
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound.
(Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare)

27. Iambic Pentameter
a line that consists of ten syllables, where the first syllable is stressed, the second is unstressed, the third is stressed and so on until it reaches the 10th line syllable.
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
(Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare)

28. Stanza
Couplet: having two successive rhyming lines in a verse and has the same meter to form a complete thought; it is marked by a usual rhythm and rhyme scheme.
Quatrain: a verse with four lines, or even a full poem containing four lines, having an independent and separate theme
“O, no, poor suff’ring Heart, no Change endeavour,
Choose to sustain the smart, rather than leave her;
My ravish’d eyes behold such charms about her,
I can die with her, but not live without her:
One tender Sigh of hers to see me languish,
Will more than pay the price of my past anguish:”
(One Happy Moment by John Dryden)
O, my luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
O, my luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.
(A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns)

29. And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love!-then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.
(“When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be” by John Keats)
Stanza
Sestet: It has six lines, and also refers to a poem of six lines, or a six-lined stanza in a poem that we could distinguish from other units with line breaks. It is the other part of an Italian sonnet.
Octave: The first part of an Italian sonnet is called an octave and is comprised of eight lines.
Being one day at my window all alone,
So manie strange things happened me to see,
As much as it grieveth me to thinke thereon.
At my right hand a hynde appear’d to mee,
So faire as mote the greatest god delite;
Two eager dogs did her pursue in chace.
Of which the one was blacke, the other white:
With deadly force so in their cruell race
They pincht the haunches of that gentle beast,
That at the last, and in short time, I spide,
Under a rocke, where she alas, opprest,
Fell to the ground, and there untimely dide.
Cruell death vanquishing so noble beautie
Oft makes me wayle so hard a desire.
(Visions by Francesco Petrarch)

30. The people along the sand (A)
All turn and look one way. (B)
They turn their back on the land. (A)
They look at the sea all day. (B)
As long as it takes to pass (C)
A ship keeps raising its hull; (C)
The wetter ground like glass (D)
Reflects a standing gull. (D)
(“Neither Out Far nor in Deep” by Robert Frost)
Rhyme Scheme
It is the structure or pattern of rhyme that comes at the end of each verse or line in poetry.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star, (A)
How I wonder what you are. (A)
Up above the world so high, (B)
Like a diamond in the sky. (B)
(“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” by Jane Taylor)

31. Enjambment
a thought or sense, phrase or clause in a line of poetry that does not come to an end at the line break but moves over to the next line
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and asleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.”
(Endymion by John Keats)

32. End Stopped Rhyme “Whose woods these are I think I know,
when last syllables or words in two or more lines rhyme with each other
“Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.”
(“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost)

33. It is for you we speak, || not for ourselves:
You are abused || and by some putter-on
That will be damn’d for’t; || would I knew the villain,
I would land-damn him. || Be she honour-flaw’d,
I have three daughters; || the eldest is eleven
(The Winter Tales by William Shakespeare)
Caesura
A rhythmical pause in a poetic line, it often occurs in the middle of a line, or sometimes at the beginning or the end. Poets indicate it with a parallel symbol thus: ||.
I’m nobody! ||Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us|| — don’t tell!
They’d banish ||– you know!
(From “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?”
by Emily Dickinson)

34. What guile is this, that those her golden tresses
She doth attire under a net of gold;
And with sly skill so cunningly them dresses,
That which is gold or hair, may scarce be told?
Is it that men’s frail eyes, which gaze too bold,
She may entangle in that golden snare;
And being caught may craftily enfold
Their weaker hearts, which are not yet well aware?
Take heed therefore, mine eyes, how ye do stare
Henceforth too rashly on that guileful net,
In which if ever ye entrapped are,
Out of her bands ye by no means shall get.
Folly it were for any being free,
To covet fetters, though they golden be.
(From Amoretti by Edmund Spenser)
Sonnet
a sonnet has 14 fourteen lines and is written in iambic pentameter. Each line has 10 syllables. It has a specific rhyme scheme and a “volta” or a specific turn.

35. Being one day at my window all alone,
So manie strange things happened me to see,
As much as it grieveth me to thinke thereon.
At my right hand a hynde appear’d to mee,
So faire as mote the greatest god delite;
Two eager dogs did her pursue in chace.
Of which the one was blacke, the other white:
With deadly force so in their cruell race
They pincht the haunches of that gentle beast,
That at the last, and in short time, I spide,
Under a rocke, where she alas, opprest,
Fell to the ground, and there untimely dide.
Cruell death vanquishing so noble beautie
Oft makes me wayle so hard a desire.
(Visions by Francesco Petrarch)
Italian Sonnet
This sonnet has fourteen lines and ten syllables pre line (iambic pentameter.) The rhyme scheme in Italian is usually abba-abba- cde-cde. It is made up of an octet and a sestet.

36. From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die.
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content
And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee
(William Shakespeare)
English Sonnet
This sonnet has fourteen lines and ten syllables pre line (iambic pentameter.) The rhyme scheme in English is usually abab-cdcd- efef-gg