POETRY
Figurative Language Review
Alliteration repeating the first sound in words Ex. the splendid silent sun
Hyperbole an exaggeration used to make a point EX. a mountain of work
Personification giving human characteristics to
nonhuman things EX. Is the moon tired?
Onomatopoeia words in which sound suggests their
meaning EX. boom, buzz, zip, zap, squeak
Metaphor a comparison between two unlike
things EX. He is a star.
Simile a comparison that uses like or as EX. hard as a rock; eats like a bird
The Moonby Robert Louis Stevenson
The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;
She shines on thieves on the garden wall,
On streets and fields and harbor quays,
And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees.
The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse,
The howling dog by the door of the house,
The bat that lies in bed at noon,
All love to be out by the light of the moon.
PRACTICE
Which words from the poem are the BEST examples of onomatopoeia?
a. “face,” “clock”b. “thieves,” “garden”c. “squeaking,” “howling”d. “noon,” “light”
ANSWER: C. “Squeaking,” “howling”
PRACTICE Read this line from the poem.
The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;
The figurative language used here is a. hyperbole.b. repetition.c. personification.d. simile.
ANSWER: D. Simile
Mood and Tone
Mood: the feeling the author has created within you
A writer often wants the readers to get a certain emotional feeling while they are reading.
The setting and the description of the setting is one of the common methods a writer uses to set the mood.
Mood and Tone
Tone: the writer’s attitude toward a topic
The writer uses words to covey his/her attitude towards a topic or character.
a writer can have different tones toward different characters
Excerpt from “Two Friends”by Guy de Maupassant
Paris was blockaded, starved, in its death agony. Sparrows were becoming scarcer and scarcer on the rooftops and the sewers were being depopulated. One ate whatever one could get.
As he was strolling sadly along the outer boulevard one bright January morning, his hands in his trousers pockets and his stomach empty, M. Morissot, watchmaker by trader but local militiaman whom he recognized as a friend. It was M. Sauvage, a riverside acquaintance.
What is the most likely setting of this passage?
a. rural communityb. war torn cityc. political gatheringd. joyful reunion
Answer: B. War Torn City
Which words provide the best clues about the time and place?
a. sparrows, sewersb. trousers, watchmakersc. Paris, militiamend. boulevard, riverside
ANSWER: C. Paris, militiamen
Read Sentence 1.Paris was blockaded, starved, in its death
agony. This sentence establishes what mood?a. somberb. humorousc. enragedd. whimsical
ANSWER: A. Somber
The writer’s tone is best described as
a. distantb. lightheartedc. angryd. serious
Answer: D. serious
Sound Devices
Repetition Rhyme Scheme Free Verse Internal Rhyme Slant Rhyme
Repetition
Definition: repeating a word or phrase to add rhythm or stress an idea
Example: “Play up! Play up! and play the game!”
PRACTICE
When Alex's mother asked him if he had checked his homework, Alex replied, "Yes, I checked it over and over and over and over again.”
Which word is being repeated? OVER
PRACTICE
Poe uses repetition in the following lines from "The Bells"? What is being repeated?
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle In the icy air of night! While the stars that oversprinkle All the heavens, seem to twinkle With a crystaline delight;
TINKLE
Rhyme Scheme
Definition: refers to the patterns of rhyming lines
A letter of the alphabet is assigned to each line.
Thus, the first line would be assigned an a.
If the end of the second line rhymes with the end of the first, it also gets an a.
If not, it gets a b, and so on.
Rhyme Scheme Example
Happy the man who, safe on shore,
Now trims, at home, his evening fire;
Unmove’d, he hears the tempests roar;
That or the tufted groves expire
A
AB
B
Happy the man whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air,In his own ground.
A
AB
B
On the Grasshopper and Cricketby John KeatsThe poetry of earth is never dead:When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, And hide in calling tree, a voice will runFrom hedge to hedge about the new-mown
mead;That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the leadIn summer luxury,—he has never doneWith his delights; for when tried out with funHe rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:On a lone winter evening, when the frostHas wrought a silence, from the stove
there shrillsThe Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing
ever,And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, The Grasshopper’s among some grassy
hills.
Internal Rhyme
Definition: words that rhyme within the same line
Example: “There sat a fat cat.”
The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
Slant Rhyme
Definition: when vowel sounds rhyme, but the words do not
It is often called half rhyme because it does not produce exactly matching sounds
EXAMPLE: heart/scarf
“Lines written in Dejection”by William Butler Yeats:
When have I last looked on The round green eyes and the long
wavering bodiesOf the dark leopards of the moon?All the wild witches, those most noble
ladies,..
“Hope is the Thing with Feathers”by Emily Dickenson
Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the
words, And never stops at all.
Free Verse
Definition: poetry that does not use rhyme patterns of meter
This means the poem’s rhyme varies from line to line.
The poet makes his/her OWN rules about rhythm, rhyme, sound, feel, look of a poem.
I Dream’d in a Dreamby Walt Whitman
I DREAM'D in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of thewhole of the rest of the earth,I dream'd that was the new city of Friends,Nothing was greater there than the quality of
robust love,it led the rest,It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of
that city,And in all their looks and words.