Poetic Elements English 10 Ms. Pierce

1. Poetic Elements English 10 Ms. Pierce

2. Allusion • A reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or some other branch of culture. • Example: Achilles' Heel or Mass Exodus

3. Irony • Something that is unexpected or the opposite of what is expected. • Example: You arrive at a friend’s surprise party, only to find out that it is your surprise party.

4. Catalog • A list of things, people, or events.

5. Paradox • A statement that appears self-contradictory but reveals a kind of truth. • Allows writers to express the complexity of life by showing how opposing ideas can be both contradictory and true. • “I taste a liquor never brewed.”

6. Consonance • The repetition of the same or similar final consonant sounds on accented syllables or in important words. • Some poets use consonance in place of rhyme. • Examples: ticktockand singsong

7. Free Verse • Poetry that does not conform to regular meter or rhyme scheme. • Reproduces the natural rhythms of spoken language. • Uses traditional elements of imagery, figures of speech, repetition, internal rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia.

8. Assonance • The repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds, especially in words close together. • Example: The tide rises, the tide falls, The Twilight darkens, the curlew calls

9. Hyperbole • A figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration, or overstatement, for effect. • Example: Whitman – “I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”

10. Metaphor • Figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of specific words of comparison as like, as, then, or resembles. • Example: A rose is a musical instrument, playing nature’s song.

11. Slant Rhyme • A rhyming sound that is not exact. • Example: The Soul selects her own Society Then – shuts the door- To her divine Majority- Present no more-

12. Alliteration • The repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together. • Used to create musical effects and to establish mood. • Example:Puppies play, pounding and prancing.

13. Onomatopoeia • The use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning. • Examples: Buzz, hiss, squish, tap, pow! bang! weeee!

14. Cadence • The natural, rhythmic rise and fall of a language as it is normally spoken. • The musical sound of words that rises and falls as the poet sings the song.

15. Personification • Giving human qualities to something that is not human. • An object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes. • Example: frost as a heedless killer and a flower as a playful child.

16. Oxymoron • A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. • Examples: Sweet sorrow, deafening silence, and living death

17. Apostrophe • The act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present. • For instance, John Donne commands, “Oh, Death, be not proud.”

18. Simile • A figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between two unlike things, using a word such as like, as, than, or resemble. • Example: O, my luve is like a red, red rose That's newly sprung in June: O, my luve is like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune

19. Pun • A play on words based on the multiple meanings of a single word or on words that sound alike but mean different things. • Example: A singer claiming she was locked out of an audition because she couldn’t find the right key.

20. Antithesis • Using opposite phrases in close conjunction. • Examples:"I burn and I freeze," or "Her character is white as sunlight, black as midnight.“