POETRY
Name: ______
Literary Terms Review and Notes – Poetry
Alliteration
Used for poetic effect, a repetition of the initial sounds of several words in a group. The following line from Robert Frost's poem "Acquainted with the Night," provides us with an example of alliteration,": I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet." The repetition of the s sound creates a sense of quiet, reinforcing the meaning of the line.
Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds in a literary work, especially in a poem. Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells" contains numerous examples. Consider these from stanza 2:
Hear the mellow wedding bells-
and
From the molten-golden notes,
The repetition of the short e and long o sounds denotes a heavier, more serious bell than the bell encountered in the first stanza where the assonance included the i sound in examples such as tinkle, sprinkle, and twinkle.
Metaphor
A figure of speech wherein a comparison is made between two unlike quantities without the use of the words "like" or "as." Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," has this to say about the moral condition of his parishioners:
There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the
dreadful storm and big with thunder;
The comparison here is between God's anger and a storm. Note that there is no use of "like" or "as" as would be the case in a simile
Onomatopoeia
A literary device wherein the sound of a word echoes the sound it represents. The words "splash." "knock," and "roar" are examples. The following lines end Dylan Thomas' "Fern Hill:"
Out of the whinnying green stable
On to the fields of praise.
The word "whinnying" is onomatopoetic. "Whinny" is the sound usually selected to represent that made by a horse.
Personification
A figure of speech in which something nonhuman is given human characteristics. Consider the following lines from Carl Sandburg's "Chicago:"
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the big shoulders:
Carl Sandburg’s description of Chicago includes shoulders. Cities do not have shoulders, people do. Sandburg personifies the city by ascribing to it something human, shoulders. "Justice is blind." is another example.
Repetition
A literary device in which the author or poet repeats a particular word or phrase, either throughout the text or in one particular section, for emphasis. Consider these lines from Samuel Coleridge’s narrative poem “Rime of the Ancient Mariner:”
I looked upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;
I looked upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.
Coleridge description of the difficulty his character has difficulty looking away from the scene before him is emphasized by repetition. He repeats “I looked upon the rotten…,” making it clear both how hard it was for the character to avoid looking at the awful scene, and how he sees both the ocean and the ship as “rotting.”
Simile
A figure of speech which takes the form of a comparison between two unlike quantities for which a basis for comparison can be found, and which uses the words "like" or "as" in the comparison, as in this line from Ezra Pound's "Fan-Piece, for Her Imperial Lord:"clear as frost on the grass-bade,In this line, a fan of white silk is being compared to frost on a blade of grass. Not the use of the word "as."
Now, identify these. (Note – some contain more than one kind of figurative language):
______Neil Young sings, "Love is a rose."
______"Oreo: Milk’s favorite cookie."
(slogan on a package of Oreo cookies)
________"Between the lower east side tenements
the sky is a snotty handkerchief."
(Marge Piercy, "The Butt of Winter")
______"A moist young moon hung above the mist of a neighboring
meadow."
(Vladimir Nabokov, Conclusive Evidence)
______"Chug, chug, chug. Puff, puff, puff. Ding-dong, ding-dong. The little train rumbled over the tracks (Arnold Munk, The Little Engine That Could)
______I lie down by the side of my bride"/"Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese"/"Hear the lark and harden to the barking of the dark fox gone to ground" (Pink Floyd)
______"The small waves were the same, chucking the rowboat
under the chin as we fished at anchor."
(E.B. White, "Once More to the Lake," 1941)
______"She dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals with meat."
(James Joyce, "The Boarding House")
______"You'll never put a better bit of butter on your knife."
(advertising slogan for Country Life butter)
______"Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is." (slogan of Alka Seltzer, U.S.)
______"Those images that yet/Fresh images beget,/That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea." (“Byzantium” by W.B. Yeats)
______"Unseen, in the background, Fate was quietly slipping
the lead into the boxing gloves."
(P.G. Wodehouse, Very Good, Jeeves, 1930)
______When he lifted me up in his arms I felt I had left all my troubles on the
floor beneath me like gigantic concrete shoes."
(Anne Tyler, Earthly Possessions)
______"The road isn't built that can make it breathe hard!"
(slogan for Chevrolet automobiles)
______"In the over-mastering loneliness of that moment, his whole life seemed
to him nothing but vanity." ( "Night Rider" by Robert Penn Warren)
______"Good men are gruff and grumpy, cranky, crabbed, and cross."
(Clement Freud)
______The wind stood up and gave a shout.
He whistled on his fingers and
Kicked the withered leaves about
And thumped the branches with his hand
And said he'd kill and kill and kill,
And so he will! And so he will!
(James Stephens, "The Wind")
______"The efficient Baxter bicycled broodingly to Market Blandings for
tobacco." (P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh)
______“The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees…”
(‘Come Down, O Maid’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson)
______Never stop caring about the little things in life
Never stop dreaming or give into strife
Never stop wondering, are we on our own
(‘Never Stop Being You’ by Terrie Bruschette)
The Road Not Taken
The Road Not Taken
The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost 1874–1963 Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
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.Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
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.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
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.
Please listen to “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie2Mspukx14 and answer the following questions:
a. What does his personal reading do to the overall mood in the poem?
b. What do you think this poem is about?
c. Identify the rhyme scheme of the poem.
d. Identify at least two metaphors in this poem.
Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Please listen to “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou read her poem on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HiE4lt_DUY and answer the questions that follow.
a. What rhyme scheme does Ms. Angelou use in this poem?
b. What effect does Ms. Angelou incorporate throughout her poem, and most noticeably at the end?
c. What does the use of this effect do to the meaning and tone of the poem?
d. In the poem, to whom is the narrator speaking?
Read the poem, “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer and answer the questions that follow.
Casey at the BatBy Ernest Lawrence Thayer
August 14, 1863 - August 21, 1940
The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play,
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.
5 / A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to the hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, "If only Casey could but get a whack at that--
We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat."
But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,
10 / And the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a cake;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,
For there seemed but little chance of Casey getting to the bat.
But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Blake, the much despisèd, tore the cover off the ball;
15 / And when the dust had lifted, and men saw what had occurred,
There was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third.
Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It pounded on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
20 / For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.
There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile lit Casey's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat.
25 / Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt;
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance flashed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip.
And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
30 / And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped--
"That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one!" the umpire said.
From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore;
35 / "Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone on the stand;
And it's likely they'd have killed him had not Casey raised his hand.
With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the dun sphere flew;
40 / But Casey still ignored it and the umpire said, "Strike two!"
"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered "Fraud!"
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again.
45 / The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate,
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate;
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.
Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,
50 / The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Mudville--mighty Casey has struck out.
/ (1) What can we infer about the setting of this poem in this stanza?
Who are the characters mentioned in the stanza of this narrativepoem?
What is the problem? Whatare the clues?
(2) Who is the poet describingin this stanza? How are they feeling? What are they wishing for?
(3) Vocabulary You Should Know:
lulu- baseball slang for incompetent player; cake- someone who isconceded, arrogant, yet not strong.
How do the fans feel about Flynn and Jimmy Blake? What is the evidence that helped you to infer those feelings?
How would you describe the mood in the stands?
(4)What did Flynn do in this stanza?
What did Blakedo?
(5) How did the action in this event change the feelings of the fans?(Listen to the next stanzafor clues.) What is the evidence thatsupport your conclusion from thisstanza? What event were the fansanticipating?
(6) What was Casey’s attitude as he stepped up to bat? What is the evidence in thisstanza that supports your thinking? How do you think the fans were feeling?
(7) How do you visualize the fans during this stanza? What are the poet’s wordchoices that draw this picture in yourmind? Can tongues applaud?
What technique did the poetchoose to use? Why? How do you visualize Casey? What are the poet’s wordchoices that draw this picture in yourmind?
(8) How did the poet describethe baseball? Why do you think Caseydidn’t swing at the first ball even though it was in the strikezone?
(9) What is the comparison thepoet is making in this stanza? What technique is this? Why would a writer chose touse this technique? Howdid the fans react to the action of the field?
(10) Why do you think Casey still did not swing the bat?
(11) How do the fans feel about the umpire in this stanza?How do youknow? How do the fans still feelabout Casey? How do you know?
(12) What do you think is the height of the action? (Remember even though this is a poem, it is a narrative poem. It is written with story elements and theevents have rising action leading up to the resolution of thestory.) What language choices didthe author make that helps you as the reader visualize the action in this stanza?
(13) What picture is the poet“painting” in the first three lines of this stanza? Why do you think the poet choose to compare this “painted scene” to Mudville in thisstanza?
Did the fans get the endingto the story that they wanted?
Multiple Choice