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Understanding the meaning of poetry
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| Prose is when all the lines except the last go on to the end.
Poetry is when some of them fall short of it. |
| Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) |
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Structure |
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| Form: |
Ballad, Concrete, Elegy, Epic,
Free Verse, Haiku, Lyric, Ode, Sonnet, Villanelle,
Slam |
| Stanza pattern: |
Couplets, Triplets, Quatrains, etc. |
| Rhyme Schemes: | ABAB; ABA, ABA; AA; etc. |
| Rhythm: |
The "flow" of the poem. Does the poem have a regular "beat?"
| Iambic: |
unstressed; stressed |
| Trochaic: |
stressed; unstressed |
| Anapestic: |
stressed; unstressed; unstressed
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| | Line length: |
| monometer | dimeter | trimeter | | tetrameter | quatrameter | pentameter |
| | Enjambment: | When the idea or grammar does not stop naturally
at the end of the line but flows into the next line
without a pause. | | Catalectic: | To stop short. | | Caesura: | A special kind of pause, usually in the middle of a line.
I don't care too much for money,
Money can't buy me love.
SOUND CLIP
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Figures of speech |
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| Connotation: | An idea associated with a word or phrase. | | Denotation: | The explicit meaning of a word | | Hyperbole: | Exaggeration used for effect.
"tons of money", "a million thanks,"
Origin of the word. | | Imagery: | What do you see in the poem?
Whirl up sea --
whirl your pointed pines
(the image of a forest of pine trees
swaying back and forth like the
cresting waves of a stormy sea.) |
| Irony: |
One thing is said, but the opposite meaning is intended. |
| Metaphor: |
A comparison without "like" or "as".
Where were the greenhouses going,
Lunging into the lashing
Wind driving water
So far down the river
All the faucets stopped?
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| Metonymy: |
A person or thing is not named directly, but by
some associated thing.
The prisoner addressed the bench.
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| Motifs: | Ideas, or elements that recur throughout the poem. | | Oxymoron: | Words with opposite meanings.
| tight slacks | Old New York | bitter-sweet | | sweet sorrow | good grief | sanitary landfill |
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| Paradox: | A statement, which at first, seems contradictory or absurd. | | Personification: | Human qualities are attributed to an animal, object, or idea.
I am silver and exact.
I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful-- |
| Pun: | Words with a double meaning.
A bear walks into a bar and says:
"How about a gin and
......................
.......................................... tonic?
The bartender asks:
"What's with the big pause?"
The bear replies:
"Just born with them, I guess."
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| Repetition: |
A word or phrase is used more than once for emphasis.
See the flags; snow-white tent,
See the bear and elephant,
See the monkey jump the rope,
Listen to the Kallyope, Kallyope, Kallyope!
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| Simile: | A comparison using "like" or "as".
her lower lip
was like an orange
mint. and
i was a crying
little boy
in the candy store.
| | Synechdoche: | A part represents the whole. A fleet of a hundred sail.
| | Symbolism: | Something that stands for something else. (Myths & Legends)
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Sound devices |
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| Alliteration: | Two or more words in close succession beginning
with the same letter or sound.
I caught this morning morning's minion, kingdom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon,
in his riding
| | Assonance: | Repetition of vowel sounds:
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain;
Thou gavest me thine, not to give back again.
| | Consonance: | Repetition of consonant sounds:
You crash over the trees,
You crack the live branch:
the branch is white,
the green crushed,
each leaf is rent like split wood.
"bra" and "cr" mimic the sound of
branches cracking."sh" and "ch"
imitate the sound of wind and rain.
| | Onomatopoeia: | The word imitates the sound associated with an object
or action.
crack, splash, squeak, creak,
ding dong of the bells,
pitter patter of raindrops, buzzer,
the gong, murmuring, etc.
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Interpreting meaning |
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| PLAIN SENSE | using just the words and punctuation. | | FEELING | awe, tenderness, anger, amusement, etc. | | TONE | Attitude towards the reader: confidential,
appealing, etc. | | INTENTION | What is the poet trying to say? | | SUBJECT | love, death, family, nature, the city, the country, age,
youth, war, civilization, pestilence | | THEME | better to have loved and lost... respect your elders...
absence makes the heart grow fonder... the rolling stone gathers
no moss... etc... | | MORAL | Is some kind of a lesson being
taught? |
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