Important poetry terms

1. Important Poetry Terms By Katherine Campbell EDU 290 Technology in Education 1 March 2011 © Katherine Campbell, 2011

2. Basic Terms of Poetry Alliteration Allusion Assonance Conceit Haiku Hyperbole Imagery Metaphor Meter Onomatopoeia Oxymoron Personification Simile Sonnet Stanza © Katherine Campbell, 2011

3. Alliteration Repetition of consonant sounds throughout a group or series of words in a poem. Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. © Katherine Campbell, 2011

4. Allusion When a poem references to something from literature, history, mythology, or the Bible. An example of this would be when a poem says that a girl is as pretty of Helen of Troy. © Katherine Campbell, 2011

5. Assonance Repeating vowel sounds throughout a series or groups of words. Excerpt of God’s Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins All is seared with trade bleared, smeared with toil © Katherine Campbell, 2011

6. Conceit A metaphor that compares two objects that are nothing alike. Example of conceit: The mighty oaks are as abundant as the squirrels in the forest. © Katherine Campbell, 2011

7. Haiku A Japanese poem that consists of three lines and 5, 7, 5 syllables. Example a haiku: Haiku’s are easy (5) Some don’t make very much sense (7) Refrigerator (5) © Katherine Campbell, 2011

8. Haiku (cont.) Alternate example: Spring is in the Air by Kaitlyn Guenther Spring is in the air (5) Flowers are blooming sky high (7) Children are laughing (5) © Katherine Campbell, 2011

9. Hyperbole Intentional use of exaggeration or overstatement to make a statement or point. Example of a hyperbole: I would wait ten thousand years for my love to return to me! © Katherine Campbell, 2011

10. Imagery Words and phrases that appeal to experiences with your five senses. Example of imagery: The smell of fresh baked cookies wafted through the air of the large house. © Katherine Campbell, 2011

11. Metaphor A comparison between two things, not using “like” or “as”. Example of a metaphor: Her eyes were darting searchlights, scanning the room for her rival. © Katherine Campbell, 2011

12. Meter A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. There are multiple meter forms some include: Iambic Trochaic Spondaic © Katherine Campbell, 2011

13. Meter (cont.) Iambic (x /) : That time of year thou mayst in me be hold Trochaic (/ x): Tell me not in mourn ful num bers Spondaic (/ /): Break , break , break / On thy cold gray stones , O Sea ! © Katherine Campbell, 2011

14. Onomatopoeia Words that are spelt like they sound. Examples: Boom!! Splash!!! SPLAT!!! © Katherine Campbell, 2011

15. Personification Giving non human objects human like qualities and actions Example of personification: The mighty oak’s arms reached forcefully towards the sky. © Katherine Campbell, 2011

16. Simile A comparison between two objects using “like” or “as”. Examples: The penny was as shiny as a diamond! Her argument was solid like a rock. The snow fell like glitter from the sky. © Katherine Campbell, 2011

17. Sonnet A fourteen line poem that follows a strict rhyme scheme. There are two types of sonnets: Italian (Petrarchan ) English (Shakespearean ) © Katherine Campbell, 2011

18. Sonnet (cont.) SONNET 18 by Shakespeare Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd ; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd ; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest ; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest : So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. © Katherine Campbell, 2011

19. Stanza A group of lines that form a unit of the poem. Long poems are usually broken up into stanzas to make them easier to read and comprehend. © Katherine Campbell, 2011

20. References http:// www.kristisiegel.com/poetry.htm http:// www.dltk-holidays.com/spring/poem/mguenther-springisintheair.htm http:// www.funny-poems-for-free.com/metaphor-examples.html http://writing.upenn.edu/~ afilreis/88/meter.html http://writing.upenn.edu/~ afilreis/88/sonnet.html http:// www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/18.html © Katherine Campbell, 2011