Rhythm

Definition: constant repetition of a beat

Example:

1 and 2 and 3 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 1...


Significance: It makes it more enjoyable. It flows into each other so it becomes not a poem anymore but a song. It sings to you.

Rhyme

Definition: use of a recurring common sound


Example:

Boa Constrictor by Shel Silverstein

Oh, I'm being eaten
By a boa constrictor,
A boa constrictor,
A boa constrictor,
I'm being eaten by a boa constrictor,
And I don't like it--one bit.
Well, what do you know?
It's nibblin' my toe.
Oh, gee,
It's up to my knee.
Oh my,
It's up to my thigh.
Oh, fiddle,
It's up to my middle.
Oh, heck,
It's up to my neck.
Oh, dread,
It's upmmmmmmmmmmffffffffff . . .


Significance: Rhyming makes the poem more enjoyable to read. It also makes the writer really think about his words to convey his message and makes it more enjoyable for the thought and effort put into it.

Onomatopoeia

Definition: words for sounds

Example:

"Boom," said the gun.

Significance: Onomatopoeia helps you hear the action going on. It helps it feel more realistic.

Personification

Definition: to give human traits and actions to a non-human thing or idea

Example:

The trees were begging for water.

Significance: Personification can create a type of imagery only made by this. Personification can help create symbols representing ideas and things in writing.

Imagery

Definition: words that connect to the five senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell.

Visual- sight
Auditory- sound
Gustatory- taste
Tactile- touch
Olfactory-smell

Example:

Excerpt from "Preludes" by T.S. Eliot

The winter evening settles down

With smell of steaks in passageways.

Six o'clock.

The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

And now a gusty shower wraps

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet

And newspapers from vacant lots;

The showers beat

On broken blinds and chimney-pots,

And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.

Significance: Imagery draws the reader into the story and plot. It paints pictures in your mind. Imagery makes writing more realistic for the reader and also more enjoyable.

Simile

Definition: a comparison between two unlike ideas or things using the words "like" or "as"

Example: 

"busy as a bee"

Berkley by Laurie Lawlor

Black as midnight,
Bad as the devil
With eyes like pieces of dark chocolate,
He thinks he’s king of the world,
My dog Berkley.
He’s very much like a pig
With his pudgy stomach and all.
Like a leech, he’s always attached
To his next meal.

Even though he’s as bad as the devil,
Berkley is my best fellow.

Significance: Similies create new connections between two objects you would have overlooked. It creates visual imagery.

Repetition

Definition: continuous use of a word, phrase, or line in a poem


Example:

It's Raining by Elaine Magliaro

It’s raining…

Raining all around. 

It’s raining puddles 

On the ground. 

It’s raining 

On my booted feet. 

It’s raining 

Rivers in the street. 

It’s raining cats. 

It’s raining dogs. 

It’s raining ponds 

For polliwogs. 

It’s raining 

Drop by drop by drop…

A billion trillion— 

It won’t stop! 

It’s raining buckets 

From the sky. 

Don’t think the earth 

Will EVER dry.

Significance: Repetition of words can change the feel of the poem. By at first repeating a word constantly you lower the amount of energy and importance of those lines because you leave the reader with expectations, but if you then stop repeating the word you add a new found importance to the line. Repetition also creates a sort of beat. A rhythm to how it's read.

Tone

Definition: mood, attitude the speaker takes on in a poem

Example:

Anger Fills My Heart and Soul by Jacob Hill

Anger fills my heart and soul
Anger takes a mighty toll
Anger lessens but can never leave
Anger you hope to never receive,
Anger stays forever within
Anger acts with the might of all sin
Anger is deadly to all around
Anger gets mad at the thought of sound
Anger is the thoughts in my head
Anger that’s mine all should dread
Anger for me is different from you
Anger you see tells me what to do
Anger will sit and whisper in my ear
Anger he sits and tells me all that you fear,

Anger…
He is here
He’s here to stay
Anger is the hole
In which we lay
Anger is
And Anger will
Always be with us

He is in me, and he is in you
He can make you do
What he wants you to
Anger will make you
Make you cry
Anger can make you
Want to die
Anger can make you
Go insane
Anger….. ... A blood filled rain
No more anger
No more…..
Walk to the bright light
Shinning through that door…
Not knowing what’s in store
But even then
Anger lives on
But you… nevermore

This poem is obviously about anger, but the tone is different. It creates a mood of hatred toward anger in the beginning. Then it creates a mood of craving. Like you crave the anger that fuels your body. You want it to engulf your mind and body. Then it creates an attitude of fear. It creates a feeling that anger will consume you and soon you'll be no more.

Significance: Mood allows you to connect with these poems. To really feel what the speaker feels and what the writer wanted you to understand and feel. It creates a whole new depth created only by mood.

Interpretation

Definition: a personal understanding of a concept, or work of writing

Example:

O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.


O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills; 10
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; 20
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

My interpretation is that Abraham Lincoln, the captain, had died. This happens after the fearful trip, the American Civil War, has ended. During the 2nd stanza it say, "Here Captain! dear father!" He refers to him as father. Which would make the vice president the mother or the secretary of war our uncle. I believe that what he meant was that a strong national government was like our family; it cares for us and protects us. This idea also relates to the fact that the American Civil War was in fact not about slaves or equal rights, but instead states' rights. I would say that a strong national government would help us more than the state governments.

Significance: By interpreting it allows you to fully understand it and put it into a way that makes it easier for you to understand. Taking time out to interpret is key to understanding the poem, and an effective tool when reading it.

Metaphor and Extended Metaphor

Definition of Metaphor: a comparison between two non-related things or ideas without the use of the words "like" or "as"

Definition of Extended Metaphor: a comparison between two non-related group of things or ideas, then creating other metaphors and comparisons based on the first comparison

Example of Metaphor:

He was born with a heart of ice.

Example of Extended Metaphor:

Hope is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers 

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words, 

And never stops at all,  

And sweetest in the gale is heard; 

And sore must be the storm 

That could abash the little bird 

That kept so many warm.  

I've heard it in the chillest land 

And on the strangest sea; 

Yet, never, in extremity, 

It asked a crumb of me.  

Significance: Metaphors and extended metaphors create imagery in the writing. It also allows you to think of the object or idea in a whole new way.

Speaker

Definition: the narrator of the poem

Example:

A Girl by Ezra Pound


The tree has entered my hands,
The sap has ascended my arms,
The tree has grown in my breast-
Downward,
The branches grow out of me, like arms.

Tree you are,
Moss you are.
You are violets with wind above them.
A child―so high―you are,
And all this is folly to the world.

The poem was written in response to Greek mythology of Apollo and Daphne's love. The speaker in the poem is Daphne when she changes herself into a tree.

Significance: By having a speaker it allows for a different story told by a different point of view. It creates a more in depth type of story to the poem. It also allows you to create a picture and description that can really allow the reader to connect to.

Symbol

Definition: object or action that represents another object, action, idea, or emotion

Example:

The Disused Graveyard by Robert Frost

The living come with grassy tread
To read the gravestones on the hill;
The graveyard draws the living still,
But never anymore the dead.
The verses in it say and say:
"The ones who living come today
To read the stones and go away
Tomorrow dead will come to stay."
So sure of death the marbles rhyme,
Yet can't help marking all the time
How no one dead will seem to come.
What is it men are shrinking from?
It would be easy to be clever
And tell the stones: Men hate to die
And have stopped dying now forever.
I think they would believe the lie.

The dead symbolizes the forgotten. As long as the memory of the person remains in the mind of a person they are considered alive. Men have stopped dying because their memories have been kept and preserved, and death can only collect the souls of the dead. Those whose memory has been lost from the mind of the living, tossed away.

Significance: Symbols create the extra depth in a poem making readers more enveloped in the ideas and concepts.

Couplet

Defintion: a pair of lines used in poetry; sometimes rhyming

Example:

Martin Luther King (Clerihew verse-form) by Ben Gieske

Martin Luther King was not a king.
He did not have horses, a crown, or anything.
He preached a lot and had a dream
Of everybody eating ice cream.

Significance: Couplets provide a humorous aspect to the poem. It creates a way that allows the reader to easily understand and enjoy the poem.

Stanza

Definition: group of lines in a poem

Example:

A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow --
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand --
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep -- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Significance: Stanzas allow poets to organize their thoughts. It allows them to introduce new ideas, feelings, or situations. These also allow the reader to more easily understand the poem.