Understanding Figurative Language and Poetic Devices in Literature, Study notes of Poetry

Download Understanding Figurative Language and Poetic Devices in Literature and more Study notes Poetry in PDF only on Docsity! Identify and explain the use of figurative language in literary works to convey mood, images, and meaning including metaphor, personification, and simile. Identify and explain the use of sound devices in literary works to convey mood, images, and meaning, including alliteration, onomatopoeia, and rhyme. Analyze poetry and evaluate poetic styles (e.g. rhymed, free verse, and patterned cinquain, diamante) While not all poems rhyme, some follow a certain rhyming scheme, adding to the rhythm of the poem. The last word of each line is what we look at when discussing a rhyming scheme. Letters are used to denote the rhyming scheme. Each time the rhyme changes, another letter is introduced. For example, if the following words were the ending of lines in a poem, the rhyming scheme would be ABAB. ...sat ...cap ....mat ....lap The One The one who brought me down to earth, And held me everyday. The one who gracefully gave me birth, And said, I love you in every way. Crimson Rose A sign of beauty A symbol of grace Its pride runs strong At a very fast pace. It's wild like a wolf It's gentle like the breeze And it has a burning honour It's not eager to please. Symbolism in Poetry Love - heart Poison – skull and crossbones Spring – new life Storm - trouble What does the cloud symbolize? What do the sun breaks symbolize? Symbolism in Poetry • Freedom • Difficult experience • Disappointment • Telling a lie • New opportunity • Making a new friend • Politician • Anger • Hope • Friendship • The nation • Victory • Education Connotation The associations called up by a word that goes beyond its dictionary meaning into the feeling that is associated with the word. Poets, especially, tend to use words rich in connotation. Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" includes intensely connotative language, as in these lines: "Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright / Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.“ Denotation The dictionary meaning of a word. Writers typically play off a word's denotative meaning against its connotations, or suggested and implied associational implications. In the following lines from Peter Meinke's "Advice to My Son" the references to flowers and fruit, bread and wine denote specific things, but also suggest something beyond the literal, dictionary meanings of the words: To be specific, between the peony and rose Plant squash and spinach, turnips and tomatoes; Beauty is nectar and nectar, in a desert, saves-- ... and always serve bread with your wine. But, son, always serve wine. Blank verse A line of poetry or prose is unrhymed. Robert Frost's meditative poems such as "Birches" include many lines of blank verse. Here are the opening blank verse lines of "Birches": When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them. Epic A long narrative poem that records the adventures of a hero. Epics typically chronicle the origins of a civilization and embody its central values. Examples from western literature include Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, and Milton's Paradise Lost. Imagery -refers to the pattern of related details in a work. The pattern of related comparative aspects of language, particularly of images, in a literary work. Ode A long, stately poem in stanzas of varied length, meter, and form. Usually a serious poem on an exalted subject, but sometimes a more lighthearted work, such as Neruda's "Ode to My Socks." Sadness The sun is ever full and bright, The pale moon waneth night by night. Why should this be? My heart that once was full of light Is but a dying moon to-night. But when I dream of thee apart, I would the dawn might lift my heart, O sun, to thee. Tone The implied attitude of a writer toward the subject and characters of a work, as, for example, Flannery O'Connor's ironic tone in her "Good Country People." A poem's tone is the attitude that its style implies. Brian Patten's 'A Blade of Grass' has a tone of sad acceptance toward the loss of childlike wonder that could have accepted the blade of grass, for example; 'The Happy Grass', by Brendan Kennelly, has instead a hopeful tone toward the prospect of peace that the grass represents, tempered by an awareness that there will be graves on which the grass will grow. Tone can shift through a poem: 'A Barred Owl', by Richard Wilbur, has a first stanza with a comforting, domestic tone, and a second that insists this kind of comfort plays a vicious world false. The shift in tone is part of what is enjoyable about the poem. http://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/barred-owl http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view_print.php?book=29669 Slant Rhyme The basis of rap is rhyme, and an emcee is just a painter creating a picture with rhyming words, a poet with flow. It might sound obvious, but one of the best ways you can excel as an emcee is by picking better rhyming words. It’s all like Rakim says on “I Know You Got Soul”: "I start to think and then I sink Into the paper like I was ink, When I’m writing I’m trapped in between the line, I escape when I finish the rhyme." Reread that. That right there is the dopest, most beautiful summary of what it is to be a rapper. You go into your own mind and sink into the paper. You’re using words, but they trap you like bars in a jail cell unless you conquer them with rhyme. Haiku... e write about everyday things. e Many themes include nature, feelings, or experiences. e Usually they use simple words and grammar. e The most common form for Haiku is three short lines. e The first line usually contains five (5) syllables, the second line seven (7) syllables, and the third line contains five (5) syllables. Green and speckled legs, Hop on logs and lily pads Splash in cool water. In a pouch I grow, On a southern continent -- Strange creatures I know Spring is in the Air by Kaitlyn Guenther Spring is in the air Flowers are blooming sky high Children are laughing Free Verse Free verse does not have a set pattern of rhyme or rhythm. There are no rules about line length in free verse. When free verse is read aloud the reader can hear the rhythm of the words that the poet has used in his/her poem. Think of it as spoken music. The poet chooses the length of each line and the length of the poem according to the message, or feeling he/she wishes to communicate to his/her reader. A limerick is a five-line poem written with one couplet and one triplet. If a couplet is a two-line rhymed poem, then a triplet would be a three-line rhymed poem. The rhyme pattern is a a b b a with lines 1, 2 and 5 containing 3 beats and rhyming, and lines 3 and 4 having two beats and rhyming. Some people say that the limerick was invented by soldiers returning from France to the Irish town of Limerick in the 1700's. Limericks are meant to be funny. They often contain hyperbole, onomatopoeia, idioms, puns, and other figurative devices. The last line of a good limerick contains the PUNCH LINE or "heart of the joke." As you work with limericks, remember to have pun, I mean FUN! Say the following limericks out loud and clap to the rhythm. A flea and a fly in a flue Were caught, so what could they do? Said the fly, "Let us flee." "Let us fly," said the flea. So they flew through a flaw in the flue. -Anonymous Here is a very famous limerick. Notice both the rhyme and rhythm patterns. There was an old man from Peru, (A) da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (3 DUMS) who dreamed he was eating his shoe. (A) da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (3 DUMS) He awoke in the night (B) da DUM da da DUM (2 DUMS) with a terrible fright, (B) da da DUM da da DUM (2 DUMS) and found out that it was quite true. (A) da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (3 DUMS) A Clumsy Young Fellow Named Tim There once was a fellow named Tim whose dad never taught him to swim. He fell off a dock and sunk like a rock. And that was the end of him. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?