Parts of a Poem

Figurative Language

Personification Oxymoron Hyperbole Simile Metaphor Extended Metaphor

                                                   

      

Personification

Personification is giving human qualities to animals or objects

• Example:a smiling moon, a jovial sun

                                                   

      

Oxymoron

Oxymoron is putting two contradictory words together

Ex:hot ice, cold fire, wise fool, sad joy, military intelligence, eloquent silence

                                                   

      

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is exaggeration or overstatement

Example:I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.He's as big as a house.

                                                   

      

Simile

Simile is the comparison of two unlike things using like or as

Example:He eats like a pig. Vines like golden prisons.

                                                   

      

Metaphor

Metaphor comparison of two unlike things using the verb "to be“.

Example:He is a pig. Thou art sunshine

Extended Metaphor

An extended metaphor is one where there is a single main subject to which additional subjects and metaphors are applied.

Example:He is the pointing gun, we are the bullets of his

desire.All the world's a stage and men and women

merely players

                                                   

      

Sound Devices/ Rhetorical Devices

Repetition Assonance Alliteration Consonance Onomatopoeia

Repetition Repetition of a sound, syllable, word,

phrase, line, stanza, or metrical pattern is a basic unifying device in all poetry.

Rain The rain is falling all around

It falls on field and tree, It rains on the umbrellas here,And on the ships at sea.

Assonance

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds but not consonant sounds as in consonance

Example:fleet feet sweep by sleeping geeks

Consonance

Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds, but not vowels, as in assonance

Example:lady lounges lazily , dark deep dread crept in

Alliteration

The repetition of sound at the beginning of words

Example:

Sally sells seashells by the seashore

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it represents. also imitative harmony

Example:

splash, gush, kerplunk

Prose- ordinary speech or writing;

Poetry- everything else