3. What makes a piece of POETRY
written work, a poem?
4. • Peculiar use of language!
• One big metaphor!
• It is not written or spoken like everyday language.
•It has certain idiosyncrasies/quirks that enable it to
deliver a message in an out-of-the-ordinary way.
What makes a piece of POETRY
written work, a poem?
5. “Poetry deals with people’s deepest feelings and
emotions, but, instead of letting them run wild, it
attempts to make them manageable through
carefully controlled language.” (Osborn, 1995)
What makes a piece of POETRY
written work, a poem?
6. Onomatopoeia
A device in which the sound of a word imitates the sound of the object to
which it refers
There Are So Many Tictoc (an excerpt)
there are so many tictoc
clocks everywhere telling people
what toctic time it is for
tictic instance five toc minutes toc
past six tic
SOUND
-e.e. cummings
7. The Loch Ness Monster's Song
Sssnnnwhuffffll?
Hnwhuffl hhnnwfl hnfl hfl?
Gdroblboblhobngbl gbl gl g g g g glbgl.
Drublhaflablhaflubhafgabhaflhafl fl fl -
gm grawwwww grf grawf awfgm graw gm.
Hovoplodok - doplodovok - plovodokot - doplodokosh?
Splgraw fok fok splgrafhatchgabrlgabrl fok splfok!
Zgra kra gka fok!
Grof grawff gahf?
Gombl mbl bl -
blm plm,
blm plm,
blm plm,
blp
SOUND
-Edwin Morgan
8. Alliteration
repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of two words
Summum Bonum (an excerpt)
Robert Browning
All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee:
All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem:
In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea:
Breath and bloom, shade and shine, wonder, wealth, and--how far
above them--
SOUND
9. Assonance
repetition of the same vowel sounds
Vowel Movements (an excerpt)
by Daryl Hine
Take a statement, the same as yesterday’s dictation:
Lately pain has been there waiting when I awake.
Creative despair and failure have made their patient.
Anyway, I’m afraid I have nothing to say.
SOUND
10. Simile
A figure of speech in which two things, alike in some way, are
imaginatively compared
Like a Star
Just like a star across my sky,
Just like an angel off the page,
You have appeared to my life,
Feel like I'll never be the same,
Just like a song in my heart,
Just like oil on my hands,
FIGURES OF
SPEECH
-Corinne Bailey Rae
11. The Black Angel (excerpt)
Where are the people as beautiful as poems,
As calm as mirrors,
With their oceanic longings –
The idler whom reflection loved,
The woman with the iridescent brow?
For I would bring them flowers…
They are the past of what was always future.
They speak in tongues,
Silently, about nothing.
They are like old streetcars buried at sea,
In the wrong element, with no place to go…
I will not meet her eye…
FIGURES OF
- Henri Coulette SPEECH
12. Metaphor
A figure of speech that imaginatively identifies one thing with another
The Road Not Taken (excerpt)
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
FIGURES OF
SPEECH
-Robert Frost
13. Metaphor
A figure of speech that imaginatively identifies one thing with another
Variation on the Word Sleep
I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that
unnoticed
& that necessary.
FIGURES OF
-Margaret Atwood SPEECH
14. Personification
A figure of speech in which something is given human form,
character or traits
Permanently (an excerpt)
One day the Nouns were clustered in the street.
An Adjective walked by, with her dark beauty.
The Nouns were struck, moved, changed.
The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence.
-Kenneth Koch
FIGURES OF
SPEECH
15. Imagery
the mental impression or visualized likeness summoned up by a word,
phrase or sentence
January
The fox drags its wounded belly
Over the snow, the crimson seeds
Of blood burst with a mild explosion,
Soft as excrement, bold as roses.
Over the snow that feels no pity,
Whose white hands can give no healing,
The fox drags its wounded belly. IMAGERY
- R.S. Thomas
16. The Day Flies Off Without Me
The planes bound for all points everywhere
etch lines on my office window. From the top floor
London recedes in all directions, and beyond:
the world with its teeming hearts.
I am still, you move, I am a point of reference on a map;
I am at zero meridian as you consume the longitudes.
The pact we made to read our farewells exactly
at two in the afternoon with you in the air
holds me like a heavy winter coat.
IMAGERY
Your unopened letter is in my pocket, beating.
18. Diction
The style of speaking and writing as reflected in the choice and use of
words
C
At night I dream sweet dreams of you,
In daytime you’re my dream come true.
-Ann O’Malley
Dreams
Here we all are, by day; by night we are hurled
By dreams, each into a several world DICTION
-Robert Herrick
19. Mood
the climate of feeling in a poem that is received by the reader
Funeral Blues (excerpts)
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good. MOOD
-W.H. Auden
20. Tone
An author’s attitude or point of view toward his or her subject
Funeral Blues (excerpts)
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good. TONE
-W.H. Auden
21. Forms of Love (an excerpt)
I love you more than I've ever loved anyone, except for this one
guy.
I love you when you're not getting drunk and stupid.
I love how you get me.
I love your pain, it's so competitive.
I love how emotionally unavailable you are.
I love you like I'm a strange backyard and you're running from
the
cops, looking for a place to stash your gun.
I love your hair.
I love you but I'm just not that into you.
I love you secretly. TONE
- Kim Addonizio
22. Syntax
- The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses and sentences
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
- e.e. cummings
SYNTAX
23. .05
If i had a nickel If i had a nickel for
For all the women who’ve All the women who’ve loved
Rejected me in my life Me in my life i would be
I would be the head of the The World Bank’s assistant
World Bank with a flunkie Janitor and wouldn’t need
To hold my derby as i To wear a derby
Prepared to fly chartered All i’d think about would
Jet to sign a check Be going home
Giving India a new lease SYNTAX
On life -Ishmael Reed
24. Form
-the physical structure of the poem, such as the length of the
lines. It is normally reserved for the type of poem where these
features have been shaped into a pattern, especially a familiar
pattern.
FORM
25. l(a l(a leaf falls)oneliness
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
FORM
-e.e.cummings
27. S Speaker .
Who is the speaker of the poem? (persona)
O Occasion. Consider the context, setting, circumstances that surround
the poem. If it’s not explicitly stated, you may infer from what is
written. What prompted the author to write this piece?
A Addressee.
Who is the poem being addressed to?
P Purpose. What is the speaker’s purpose for writing the poem? What
is the message of the poem?
S Subject and main idea of the poem
What is being talked about? How do you know that this is the subject of the
piece?
Tone What is the attitude of the author toward what he or she has
written?
