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Poetry Terms - Coggle Diagram
Poetry Terms
Types of Poems
Ballad
- A "ballad" is a long poem that tells a story in rhyme. This can be found in the form of music.
Example, "John Henry" by Anonymous
Concrete
- A "concrete" poem is the arrangement of words to match the context of the poem.
Example, "Beauty of Trees" by Jennifer Betts
Elegy
- An "elegy" written to mourn someone or something that has passed.
Example, "On my First Sonne" by Ben Jonson
Epic
- An "epic" poem is longer then an narrative and is often a book-length story that retells the heroic journey of one, or many individuals.
Example, "The Odyssey" by poet Homer
Epitaph
- An "epitaph" is a short poem that has been written about someone else's life; someone who has passed away. Can be found as inscriptions on tombstones.
Example, "I had a lover's quarre with the world" by Robert Frost
Epigram
- An "epigram" is a very short and pithy saying, often with a quick, satirical twist at the end. The subject is a single thought.
Example, "Sonnet 76" by William Shakespeare
Free Verse
- This style of poetry has no rhythm or rhyme, or follows any other criteria for a different type of poem.
Example, "After the Sea-Ship" by Walt Whitman
Lyric
- A "lyric" is a short and musical verse that conveys powerful feelings.
*Example, "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning
“That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands…
“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,”
Narrative
- A "narrative" poem is one that tells a story, but it doesn't necessarily need a rhyme scheme.
Example, "On Dinosaur Island" by - Kenn Nesbitt
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Ode
- An "ode" poem is a formal lyric that addresses a serious/dignified or celebratory topic. It's more a statement that sheds light on a person/place/thing/idea.
Example, "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sonnet
- A "sonnet" is a fourteen line poem, often with iambic pentameters, linked by an intricate rhyme scheme. Sonnets were invented by the Italian poet Giacomo da Lentini in the 1200s.
Example, "Death, be not proud" by John Donne
Verse Forms
Couplet
- A "couplet" is only two lines that rhyme.
Example, "double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble."
Octave
- An "octave" is only 8 lines that has a pattern of rhyme.
Example, the first 8 lines of "Death Be Not Proud" by John Donne
Quatrain
- A "quatrain" is a stanza of four lines that contains alternating rhymes.
Example, "The Chimney Sweeper" by William Blake
Sestet
- A "sestet" is a poem of 6 lines that also has a rhyme scheme.
Example, "When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be" by John Keats
“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.”
Stanza
- A "stanza" refers to one group or chunk of lines in the poem. It is a form of a verse.
Verse
- A "verse" is a paragraph of poetry that is made up of rhymes, poetic devices, and set in certain forms.
Rhythm and Rhyme
Blank Verse
- A "blank verse" is a verse without rhyme and will more often then not use an iambic pentameter.
Example, "Birches" by Robert Frost
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.
But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay
As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them…
Iambic Pentameter
- An "iambic" can be firstly understood as a smaller syllable which is then proceeded by a longer syllable. For example, compARE, deLIGHT. A "pentameter" has 5 feet, so an "iambic pentameter" is a set of 5 stressed or unstressed syllables.
Example
, Shall I | compARE | thee To | a SUM | mers DAY? -
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Rhyme
- A "rhyme" is when you have words that sound alike.
Example, "vein, pain, lane, rain, reign."
Rhythm
- The "rhythm" is an arrangement of sound that can be understood as a pattern that repeats throughout the poem or song.
Example, "T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."
- by Cement Clark Moore
Rhyme Scheme
- A "rhyme scheme" is particular set pattern of words that sound alike. They are most commonly found at the end of poetry lines and the pattern follows as so, for example "a-b-a-b", hence the A rhyme would be on line 1 &3, while B rhyme would be on line 2 & 4. *Example, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost.
Poetic Devices
Comparison
Metaphor
- A metaphor is a direct comparison between two dissimilar items.
Example, "time is money" or "his heart of stone surprised me"
Metonymy
- This is a type of metaphor in which the reference point is substituted for the thing in which reference is actually made.
Example, "there is a mountain of work on my desk" - mountain is referring to a pile
Personification
- The comparison between a non human and a human so that the non human item is given human characteristics.
Example, "lightning danced across the sky" or "the phone cried, waiting to be heard"
Simile
- A comparison between two dissimilar items using "like" or "as" to make the comparison.
Example, "this house is as clean as a whistle" or "you were as brave as a lion"
Synechdoche
[suh - nek - duh - kee] - Similar to a metonymy, but a synechdoche occurs when the significant part is used for the whole.
Example, "she hired hands to help assist the process" or "the heads work tirelessly to finish"
Word Play
Allusion
- A reference in one piece of literature to something from another piece of literature. They can also make reference to a person/place/events in history, religion, or myth.
Example, "Then leaf subsides to leaf, So Eden sank to grief, Soo dawn goes down to day... Nothing gold can stay." by Robert Frost, referring to the Biblical Garden of Eden.
Apostrophe
- A figure in which the speaker addresses a dead or absent person, or an abstraction or abstraction or inanimate object. Tends to speak of death.
Example, " Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"
Cliché
- A phrase, line or expression that has been so overused, it is boring and commonplace.
Example, "every cloud has a silver lining"
Connotation
- The unspoken, unwritten series of associations made with a particular word.
Example, "that woman is a dove at heart" - dove = peace, tranquility, grace
Denotation
- The literal meaning of the word that a person would find in the dictionary.
Example, The colour blue, literally is referring to the colour blue; or the name "Hollywood" connotes such things as glitz, glamour, celebrity, and dreams.
Figurative Language
- The imaginative language that makes a poem rich to a reader. It replies on comparison devices like simile, metaphor, and personification to make a point.
Example. Honestly any poem is most likely to be using figurative language, but for instance "fierce tears" [personification] and the tears can't really be fierce, so its speaking figuratively.
Hyperbole
- A deliberate exaggeration to make a point.
Example, "I have a million things to do" or "I am drowning in paperwork"
Imagery
- Poets create pictures in the mind of the reader, which appeal to the sense of sight; they also create descriptions to appeal to the other four senses. This collection of appeals to the five senses is called the imagery of the poem.
Example, "fluttering and dancing in the breeze"
Literal Language
- The literal meaning of the poem, which ignores imagery, sybolism, figurative language and any imagination. Literal language is to figurative language what denotation is to connotation.
Example, "it was raining a lot, so I rode the bus home"
Mood
- The emotion of the poem. The atmosphere. The predominant feeling created by or in the poem, usually through word choice or description. MOOD IS
NOT THE SAME AS TONE.
Example, the mood in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" has a whimsical, lighthearted, curious and cheerful mood.
Oxymorin
- Placing single word opposites beside each other for dramatic effect is called oxymoron.
Example, "seriously funny", "original copy", "clearly confused"
Paradox
- A large oxymoron. An apparently contradictory statement that, despite the contradiction, has an element of truth in it.
Example, "if I know one thing, it's that I know nothing"
Repetition
- Deliberately repeated words, sounds, phrases, or whole stanzas. Repetition is used to make a point in the poem.
Example, "time after time", "over and over", "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow"
Symbol
- Something that represents something else.
Example, water can represent neutrality, tranquility, calm, ect.
Syntax
- the way words are put together to form phrases, clauses or sentences in a poem. Sometimes poets play with syntax to increase the richness of their figurative language.
Example, "the boy ran hurriedly" would read differently than "hurriedly, the boy ran."
Tone
- The narrator’s attitude toward the subject of the poem and, sometimes, toward the reader of the poem. TONE IS NOT THE SAME AS MOOD.
Example, the tone of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is playful with innocence.
Understatment
- The opposite of hyperbole. Understatement achieves its effect through stating less than what is necessary.
Example, if you 10 million dollars, to say "I was surprised by this outcome" would be an understatement, "you were completely blindsided!"
Sound Devices
Alliteration
- Alliteration is the string of the same sounding consonants at the beginning of words and is normally used to grab the reader's attention.
Example, "questions make for quite quick-witted responses."
Assonance
- Instead of the repetition of consonants, like Alliteration, assonance is the repetition of the vowels in a line of poetry.
Example, "I am reminded to line the lid of my eye." - the repetition of the long "i" sound.
Cacophony
- This is the opposite of a euphony. These are more unpleasant, harsh, or explosive sounds, like "ch".
Example, "The people chattering and barking in streets gave me a pounding headache."
Consonance
- Consonance is the reputation of consonant sounds in the middle of the words; rather then the beginning, like alliteration.
Example, "he struc
k
a strea
k
of bad luc
k
."
Euphony
- They are sounds that are pleasing to the ear or have soothing qualities. For example, "
Season
of
mists
and
mellow
fruitfulness, ..." - Ode to Autumn by John Keats
Onomatopoeia
- This is when the intended sound to be heard in context is written out and used by a word that sound like the "noise/sound" itself.
Example, "
drip
,
drop
goes the rain."
