Poetry Terminology

Poetry Terminology Presented by: Mrs. Tenney

TERMS • Alliteration • Assonance • Hyperbole • Imagery • Irony • Metaphor • Personification • Onomatopoeia • Oxymoron • Repetition • Rhyme • Simile RESOURCES MORE INFO

Meet the Presenter • Mrs. Tenney • 6th year at KAHS • Enjoys reading and writing poetry!

RESOURCES • Academy of American Poets Website • http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/17105 • Multimedia Resources • http://magnussonllc.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/pimp-my-presentation-alliterations/ • Microsoft Office Clipart Galley

ALLITERATION • Repetition of the same, initial consonant sounds • EXAMPLES: Soft Sighing of the Sea

ASSONANCE • The repetition of the vowel sounds followed by different consonants in two or more stressed syllables. • EXAMPLE: As high as a kite in a bright sky

HYPERBOLE • A bold, deliberate overstatement not intended to be taken seriously. The purpose is to emphasize the truth of the statement. • EXAMPLES: He weighs a ton, I could eat a horse

IMAGERY • Usually these words or phrases create a picture in the reader’s mind. Some imagery appeals to the other four senses (hearing, touch, taste, smell). • EXAMPLES: • Sight – smoke mysteriously puffed our from his ears • Sound – he could hear a faint but distant thump • Touch – the burlap wall covering scraped his skin • Taste – a salty tear ran down his cheek • Smell – the scent of cinnamon floated into his nostrils

IRONY • The general name given to the literary techniques that involve differences between appearance and reality, expectations and result, or meaning and intention. • EXAMPLE: • It was ironic that the police station was robbed. • It was ironic that the Olympic swimmer drowned in the bathtub. • It was ironic that the soldier survived the war and then was shot on his own front porch after returning home safely.

METAPHOR • A figure of speech in which one thing is spoken as though it were something else, a direct comparison of two unlike things. • EXAMPLE: It is raining cats and dogs

PERSONIFICATION • Figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics • EXAMPLE: The wind spoke her name

ONOMATOPOEIA • The use of words that imitate sounds. • Buzz, Thud, Hiss, Woof, Quack

OXYMORON • The junction of words which, at first view, seem to be contradictory, but surprisingly this contradictions expresses a truth or dramatic effect. • EXAMPLES: Pretty ugly, Icy hot

REPETITION • The use, more than once, of any element of language – a sound, a word, a phrase, a clause, or a sentence. • EXAMPLE: By Edgar Allan Poe By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells Of the bells Of the bells, bells, bells, bells

RHYME • Word endings that sounds alike • Internal Rhyme – rhyme within a line • EXAMPLES: Time, Slime, Mime • Internal Rhyme – Scornfully scaly snake which held his very fate

SIMILE • A comparison using like or as. • EXAMPLES: As brave as a lion, As dumb as an ox

MORE INFORMTAION If you’d like to learn more about poetry terms, please refer to Mrs. Tenney’s Moodle page. The website is: http://ecougar.kasd.org/

Poetry Terminology