1. Poetry Terms/ Notes 9th grade/Pre-AP Mrs. Cook
We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love…these are what we stay alive for.”
-Keating in Dead Poet’s Society

2. Before we begin… Prose: Any written text that is not in poetic form.
Poetry: A type of literature that expresses ideas, feelings, or tells a story in a specific form (usually using lines and stanzas).
Prosody: the study of a poem’s meter
Explication: the analysis of a poem.

3. Poetry Terms to Know:
Speaker: Every poem has a speaker, or voice, that talks to the reader. Like a narrator in prose, the speaker of the poem is not necessarily the author. The speaker can be a fictional person, an animal, or even a living thing.
POET: The poet is the author of the poem.
SPEAKER: The speaker of the poem is the “narrator” of the poem.

4. Lines & Stanzas
Lines: a word or row of words that may or may not make up a complete sentence
Stanza: a group of words that may or may not make up a complete sentence. Stanzas are separated by a space.

5. KINDS OF STANZAS Couplet = a two line stanza
Tercet = a three line stanza
Quatrain = a four line stanza
Quintet = a five line stanza
Sestet = a six line stanza
Septet = a seven line stanza
Octet = an eight line stanza

6. Rhythm:
Rhythm is the pattern of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables
Meter: the organization of beats in regular patterns. The basic unit of a meter is a foot which typically is made up of at least one stressed and one unstressed syllable.

7. Rhyme:
Is the repetition of similar sounds in words that appear close to each other in a poem
LAMP
STAMP
Share the short “a” vowel sound
Share the combined “mp” consonant sound

8. Types of Rhyme:
1. Approximate Rhyme- when two words’ sounds are very close to rhyming but not exact
Approximate Rhyme Example:
wire-right, mind-sign, sound-down

9. Types of Rhyme 2. End Rhyme- rhymes that occur at the end of a line
Ex: How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand.
From “To Helen” by E. A. Poe

10. Types of Rhyme
3. Internal Rhyme: rhyming words that fall within a single line of poetry.
Example:
Judge tenderly of me
From “This is My Letter to the World” by Emily Dickinson.

11. Rhyme Scheme
The pattern of rhyme formed by the end rhyme. It is identified by assigning a different letter to the alphabet to each new rhyme. (a,a,b,b) (a,b,a,b)
Ex: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may (a)
Old time is still a flying (b)
And this same flower that smiles today (a)
Tomorrow will be dying (b)
“To the Virgins Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick

12. Iambic Pentameter A poem that contains exactly 10 syllables per line.u / To
swell
the
gourd,
and
plump
ha-
zel
shells

13. Figurative Language:
Is a category of literary terms that is used for descriptive effect and is not meant to be read literally. Usually, figurative language expresses meaning beyond the literal level.
Literary Terms
Figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, symbol)
Sound Devices (rhythm, rhyme, repetition, onomatopoeia, assonance, consonance, alliteration, anaphora, polysyndeton, euphony, cacophony)

14. Types of Figurative Language:
Simile: comparing seemingly unlike things by using “like” or “as”
Example: “O, my love’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June-”
- Robert Burns

15. Types of Figurative Language:
Metaphor – compares or equates seemingly unlike things by stating one thing IS another. Metaphors do not use like or as.
Ex: The grass is the handkerchief of the Lord. From “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman
“All the world’s a stage, and we are merely players”.
William Shakespeare.

16. EXTENDED METAPHOR
A metaphor that goes several lines or possible the entire length of a work.
Example “O Captain, My Captain” by Walt Whitman

17. Types of Figurative Language:
Personification: is a figure of speech in which an animal, an object, or an idea is given human characteristics.
I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
“The Clouds” Author unknown
“Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
From “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

18. ALLITERATION
The repetition of consonant (non- vowel) letters or sounds in two or more words in a line. The repetition must begin the word.
May be known as “tongue-twisters”.
Example: How much dew would a dewdrop drop if a dewdrop did drop dew?

19. ASSONANCE & CONSONANCE
Assonance- Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line or lines of poetry.
EX. Lake Fate Base Fade
(All share the long “a” sound.)
Examples of ASSONANCE:
“Slow the low gradual moan came in the snowing.”
John Masefield
“Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep.”
William Shakespeare
Consonance- Repetition of consonant sounds at the middle or end of words.
EX.
The man in the orange cumberbund ended his bland speech with a bow.

20. Anaphora
The repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of lines
EX: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

21. Anaphora cont. Another example of anaphora…
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood? Be gone!”
from Julius Caesar- Shakespeare

22. Polysyndeton Repetition of a conjunction throughout a piece.
Example: We all lived and laughed and loved and left.
What are conjunctions?
Remember BOYSFAN

23. Onomatopoeia “The Fourth” by Shel SilversteinOh
CRASH! my
BASH!
it’s
BANG!
the
ZANG!
Fourth
WHOOSH! Of
BAROOM!
July
WHEW!
Use of words that sound like the noises they describe.
Poets use onomatopoeia to liven up their writing and add fun sounds to it.

24. Pun A play on words often meant to be humorous
Ex: I work as a baker because I knead dough.
A bank manager without anyone around may find himself a-loan.
A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired.

25. Other Poetry Terms: Oxymoron
Two or more words that are placed next to each other that contradict.
Ex.
Hell’s Angels
jumbo shrimp
act naturally
pretty ugly
Dodge ram

26. Idiom
An expression (or coded message) that means something other than what it actually says.
If you don’t know or understand the code, you will not get the message.
** Difficult for foreigners to comprehend
Ex. It’s raining cats and dogs, break a leg

27. Common Types of Poetry
Elegy- a poem saying goodbye to someone/something
Limerick – silly, 5 line poem… “There once was a”
has the rhyme scheme of aabba
Ode- a poem of praise
Ballad- lyrical poem that tells a story (usually historical)
Haiku- Japanese; 3 lines; in syllable count
Villanelle- motif of an urgent message/warning; 19 lines; Italian, 5 stanzas with 3 lines; repeated refrain
Sonnet- 14 lines; rhyming couplet at end; Shakespearean or Petrarchan are the two types– often about love

28. Technique to Analyze Poetry (We will use this in class)
Title
Paraphrase
Connotation
Attitude
Shift
Theme