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Language of Poetry

This document defines and explains key terms and concepts related to the language and structure of poetry. It discusses common figures of speech like metaphor, simile, and personification. It also outlines poetic structures such as rhyme, rhythm, stanzas, and sonnet forms. The document compares the Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet structures.

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326 views7 pages

Language of Poetry

This document defines and explains key terms and concepts related to the language and structure of poetry. It discusses common figures of speech like metaphor, simile, and personification. It also outlines poetic structures such as rhyme, rhythm, stanzas, and sonnet forms. The document compares the Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet structures.

Uploaded by

Aleyna
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Language of poetry

Key Terms

 Figures of Speech: the list below are the most common ones.
 Imagery: plays a crucial role in poetry; you can picture in your head the literal
images created by the words of the poem.
 Metaphor: rather than using Word such as like to compare things, a metaphor says
that one thing is actually another. E.g. Her smile is sunshine.
 Extended Metaphor: may run throughout the poem or paragraph of prose.
 Simile: one thing compared to another by using the words like or as . E.g. Her
smile is as bright as sunshine.
 Personification: when something inanimate is given human or animal
characteristics. E.g. Lightning danced across the sky.
 Hyperbole: the use of exaggeration for a deliberate effect. E.g. The pen is mightier than a
sword.
 Litotes: e.g. she is not unkind, ,it wasn’t a terrible trip.
 Antithesis or contrast: juxtaposition e.g. light and darkness, wisdom and foolishness,
youth and experience.
 Climax: the most extreme part of the story.
 Paradox: two contradictory ideas placed together which make sense. E.g. Less is more,
the beginning of the end.
 Repetition: anaphora , e.g. İstanbul’u dinliyorum/ parallelism: repetition of similar
structures, phrases or clauses.
 Irony: involves a discrepancy between what is said by the author and what is actually
meant, sarcasm refers to speech rather than writing; like a character speaking in a play.
 Neologism: one difference between most prose and poetry is that poets sometimes
create new words (neologisms) to draw attention to the meaning they are
conveying. It is creation of new words.
smoke fog : smog; spoon fork : spork
 Diction: is used for the writer’s choice of vocabulary.
 Syntax : is the arrangement of words into sentences.
Poetic structures

 Rhyme: the use of similar sounds for words or endings of words. E.g. Hills and daffodils.
 Rhythm: a regular pattern of long and short sounds, words or lines in poetry.
 Stanza: a group of lines in within a poem.
 Verse: a single line of poetry, or the poem itself.
 Sonnet: a poem of 14 lines, each having ten syllables.
 Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close together. E.g. Laughing
lions laugh..
 Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds in words that are placed close together. E.g. Hear the
mellow wedding bells, by Edgar ALLAN POE.
 Quatrain: a group of four lines.
 Onomatopoeia: a Word which sounds like the thing it describes. E.g. Sizzle, splat
 Volta: is a change of idea or mood in a sonnet, usually at line 8 or 12.
Key differences between the Petrarchan and Shakespearean Sonnet

 Petrarchan Sonnet Shakespearean Sonnet


 14 lines 14 lines
 Octave + sestet quatrain (x3) + couplet
 Volta between 8&6 volta usually after midline
 Abba abab
 Abba cdcd
 Cdcdcd/ cdecde efef
gg
 Analyze William Wordsworth’s poem Upon Westminster Bridge in terms of its
form, structure and language. Think about how these might link to the meaning of
the poem.
 Never forget that the poet’s choice of form, structure, and language shapes
meaning.

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