Poetry devices (a major sampling):
homoeoteleuton
Similar sound endings to words, phrases, or sentences. "Near Rhyme."
"That’s why, darling, it’s incredible
That someone so unforgettable
Thinks I’m unforgettable too."
("Unforgettable," sung by Nat King Cole)
"Loose lips sink ships."
(public service ad during World War II)
Incredibly, wonderfully, sensually delightful. Full of love, the sky above, can't get enough, of these. What is this thing of which I speak that fills my heart with ease? I'll tell you now. It's from the cow...this lovely creamy cheese. (OReilly)
"Crispety, crunchety, peanut-buttery Butterfinger."
(advertising slogan for Butterfinger candy bar)
It is defined as "when several utterances (i.e., words) end in a similar fashion." The word, therefore, is larger than rhyme, but similar to it.
repetition of sound: alliteration repetition of a beginning consonant sound; assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds; consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds
Langston Hughes
Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Cha Cha Cha Changes with cheese, please, give it a squeeze...
So, so, very slimy, not sweet, sensually complete
A lust a trust I must repeat
I'm not complete, I can't go a week
without it to eat, my treat
need I repeat?
choice, cheddar, actual cheese.
ORiRi
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/david+bowie/changes_20036790.html
lyrics to Changes David Bowie
Parts by Tedd Arnold.
"I just don't know what's going on
Or why it has to be.
But every day it's something worse.
What's happening to me?
I think it was three days ago
I first became aware--
That in my comb were caught a couple
Pieces of my hair.
I stared at them, amazed, and more
Than just a bit appalled
To think that I was only five
And starting to go bald!"
allusion:
a casual reference to someone or something in history or literature that creates a mental picture. An allusion is like a hyperlink. Embedded in the poem is a link to another entire literary work, with all its meaning and insight. Here are more literary allusions: http://www.worsleyschool.net/socialarts/allusion/page
illusion: something unreal that one thinks is real (don't confuse)
"Siren Song"
by Margaret Atwood
This is the one song everyone
would like to learn:
the song
that is irresistible:
the song that forces men to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skulls
the song nobody knows
because anyone who has heard it
is dead, and the others can't remember
Shall I tell you the secret
and if I do, will you get me
out of this bird suit?
I don't enjoy it here
squatting on this island
looking picturesque and mythical
with these two feathery maniacs,
I don't enjoy singing
this trio, fatal and valuable.
I will tell the secret to you ,to you, only to you.
Come closer. This song
is a cry for help: Help me!
Only you, only you can,
you are unique
At last. Alas
it is a boring song
but it works every time.
analogy or extended metaphor:
Both are comparisons. An analogy is more of an argument; in an analogy one is arguing that two things are the same, like comparing the Iraq War to the Vietnam War. An extended metaphor is a bit less argumentative, it just shows how things are related. The two terms are often casually used interchangeably.
FOG
Carl Sandburg
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
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.
caesura:
the pausing or stopping within a line of poetry caused by needed punctuation.
The punctuation within the lines (in this case, all commas) are the caesura, not the punctuation at the ends of the lines.
Miss Spider's Wedding by David Kirk
"They talked of all their dreams and hopes,
Of art and nature, love and fate.
They peered through toy kaleidoscopes
And murmured thoughts I shan't relate.
Then Holley held Miss Spider's hand...
I'll say no more, you understand.
For private moments between spiders
Should not be witnessed by outsiders."
I'M NOBODY! WHO ARE YOU?
Emily Dickenson
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell!
They'd advertise -- you know!
How dreary to be somebody!
How public like a frog
To tell one's name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
enjambement:
the continuation of thought from one line of poetry to the next without punctuation needed at the end of the previous line(s).
Trees I think that I shall never see |
hyperbole:
extreme exaggeration for effect.
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metaphor:
the comparison of two unlike things by saying one is the other.
The Soul Selects Her Own Society
Emily Dickenson
The Soul selects her own Society —
Then — shuts the Door —
To her divine Majority —
Present no more —
Unmoved — she notes the Chariots — pausing —
At her low Gate —
Unmoved — an Emperor be kneeling
Upon her Mat —
I've known her — from an ample nation —
Choose One —
Then — close the Valves of her attention —
Like Stone —
THE BLUES
By Sierra Ceballos, age 8.
When you fall off a cliff and you get hit by a buffalo,
that's the blues.
When your chicken gets hit by a car and you're not that smart,
that's the blues.
When you fall in your chair and you lose all your hair and you lose your underwear,
that's the blues.
When you hit your head and your mom sends you to bed,
that's the blues.
metonymy:
onomatopoeia
oxymoron:
personification:
the giving of human traits to non-human things incapable of having those traits.
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symbol:
Other terms (not included in project or test):
elegy: a poem of lament (extreme sorrow, such as caused by death)
free verse: a poem without either a rhyme or a rhythm scheme, although rhyme may be used, just without a pattern.
blank verse: un-rhymed lines of iambic pentameter (ten syllables with all even numbered syllables accented)
imagery: the use of words to create a mental picture
mood: the emotional effect of a poem or a story
Understanding and using these devices and terms can help improve and strengthen poetry. Imagery is essential for vivid poetry, and devices help develop imagery.
The speaker: The speaker provides structure and uniformity to a poem. In this case the speakers point of view is first person point of view:
AZTEC MASK
I WANTED a man's face looking into the jaws and throat
of life
With something proud on his face, so proud no smash
of the jaws,
No gulp of the throat leaves the face in the end
With anything else than the old proud look:
Even to the finish, dumped in the dust,
Lost among the used-up cinders,
This face, men would say, is a flash,
Is laid on bones taken from the ribs of the earth,
Ready for the hammers of changing, changing years,
Ready for the sleeping, sleeping years of silence.
Ready for the dust and fire and wind.
I wanted this face and I saw it today in an Aztec mask.
A cry out of storm and dark, a red yell and a purple prayer,
A beaten shape of ashes
waiting the sunrise or night,
something or nothing,
proud-mouthed,
proud-eyed gambler.
Structure: The structure of the poems, changes its meaning.
Hiding in the Mask
By Ellen Bauer
(Dear reader:
This is a poem for two voices.
It is meant to be read with one voice reading the left side,
the other voice reading the right.
Whenever two sentences or words are on the same horizontal level,
they are meant to be read at the same time.
When there is a blank on one side, that reader is quiet while the
other side reads, until there are words again.)
The masks we wear
Hiding
Ritual flames
Eyes, in masks
Are the only part
That lives.
Masks of
Death
Life
Rain
Summer
Joy
Fear
Weeping
Beneath the mask.
Hiding
Of the worshipped
Bringing out
Our hidden one.
Some wear them
From shame.
Some wear them
During joy,
Celebration.
But our masks,
Bringing up
Ancient
Are ours.
The masks we wear.The masks we wear
What?
Reflecting in our eyes.
Eyes, in masks
Of our faces
That lives.
Life
Death
Summer
Rain
Fear
Joy
Hiding tears.
Weeping
Love,
Of the worshipped
Being.
Bringing out
Our soul.
From shame.
An ancient vow.
During joy,
A wedding
Deep with mystery,
Ancient
Rituals,
Are ours.
The masks we wear.
