Poetic devices, Apuntes de Idioma Inglés

¡Descarga Poetic devices y más Apuntes en PDF de Idioma Inglés solo en Docsity! –1– Poetic Devices Poetry is the kind of thing poets write. — Robert Frost Man, if you gotta ask, you’ll never know. — Louis Armstrong A POET IS LIMITED in the materials he can use in creating his works: all he has are words to express his ideas and feelings. These words need to be precisely right on several levels at once: • they must sound right to the listener even as they delight his ear • they must have a meaning which might have been unanticipated, but seems to be the perfectly right one • they must be arranged in a relationship and placed on the page in ways that are at once easy to follow and assist the reader in understanding • they must probe the depths of human thought, emotion, and empathy, while appearing simple, self-contained, and unpretentious Fortunately, the English language contains a wide range of words from which to choose for almost every thought, and there are also numerous plans or methods of arrangement of these words, called poetic devices, which can assist the writer in developing cogent expressions pleasing to his readers. Even though most poetry today is read silently, it must still carry with it the feeling of being spoken aloud, and the reader should practice “hearing” it in order to catch all of the artfulness with which the poet has created his work. the SOUNDS of words Words or portions of words can be clustered or juxtaposed to achieve specific kinds of effects when we hear them. The sounds that result can strike us as clever and pleasing, even soothing. Others we dislike and strive to avoid. These various deliberate arrangements of words have been identified. Alliteration: Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines. A somewhat looser definition is that it is the use of the same consonant in any part of adjacent words. Example: fast and furious Example: Peter and Andrew patted the pony at Ascot In the second definition, both P and T in the example are reckoned as alliteration. It is noted that this is a very obvious device and needs to be handled with great restraint, except in specialty forms such as limerick, cinquain, and humorous verse. Assonance: Repeated vowel sounds in words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines. These should be in sounds that are accented, or stressed, rather than in vowel sounds that are unac- cented. Example: He’s a bruisin’ loser In the second example above, the short A sound in Andrew, patted, and Ascot would be assonant. Consonance: Repeated consonant sounds at the ending of words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines. These should be in sounds that are accented, or stressed, rather than in vowel –2– sounds that are unaccented. This produces a pleasing kind of near-rhyme. Example: boats into the past Example: cool soul Cacophony A discordant series of harsh, unpleasant sounds helps to convey disorder. This is often furthered by the combined effect of the meaning and the difficulty of pronunciation. Example: My stick fingers click with a snicker And, chuckling, they knuckle the keys; Light-footed, my steel feelers flicker And pluck from these keys melodies. —“Player Piano,” John Updike Euphony: A series of musically pleasant sounds, conveying a sense of harmony and beauty to the language. Example: Than Oars divide the Ocean, Too silver for a seam— Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon Leap, plashless as they swim. — “A Bird Came Down the Walk,” Emily Dickenson (last stanza) Onomatopoeia: Words that sound like their meanings. In Hear the steady tick of the old hall clock, the word tick sounds like the action of the clock, If assonance or alliteration can be onomatopoeic, as the sound ‘ck’ is repeated in tick and clock, so much the better. At least sounds should suit the tone – heavy sounds for weightiness, light for the delicate. Tick is a light word, but transpose the light T to its heavier counterpart, D; and transpose the light CK to its heavier counterpart G, and tick becomes the much more solid and down to earth dig. Example: boom, buzz, crackle, gurgle, hiss, pop, sizzle, snap, swoosh, whir, zip Repetition: The purposeful re-use of words and phrases for an effect. Sometimes, especially with longer phrases that contain a different key word each time, this is called parallelism. It has been a central part of poetry in many cultures. Many of the Psalms use this device as one of their unifying elements. Example: I was glad; so very, very glad. Example: Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward… … Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them Volley’d and thunder’d… Rhyme: This is the one device most commonly associated with poetry by the general public. Words that have different beginning sounds but whose endings sound alike, including the final vowel sound and everything following it, are said to rhyme. Example: time, slime, mime Double rhymes include the final two syllables. Example: revival, arrival, survival Triple rhymes include the final three syllables. Example: greenery, machinery, scenery A variation which has been used effectively is called slant rhyme, or half rhyme. If only the final consonant sounds of the words are the same, but the initial consonants and the vowel sounds are different, then the rhyme is called a slant rhyme or half rhyme. When this appears in the middle of lines rather than at the end, it is called consonance. Example: soul, oil, foul; taut, sat, knit Another variation which is occasionally used is called near rhyme. If the final vowel sounds are the –5– Paradox: A statement in which a seeming contradiction may reveal an unexpected truth. Example: The hurrier I go the behinder I get. Personification: Attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object, animal, or abstract idea. Example: The days crept by slowly, sorrowfully. Pun: Word play in which words with totally different meanings have similar or identical sounds. Example: Like a firefly in the rain, I’m de-lighted. Simile: A direct comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as.” Example: He’s as dumb as an ox. Example: Her eyes are like comets. Symbol: An ordinary object, event, animal, or person to which we have attached extraordinary meaning and significance – a flag to represent a country, a lion to represent courage, a wall to symbolize separation. Example: A small cross by the dangerous curve on the road reminded all of Johnny’s death. Synecdoche: Indicating a person, object, etc. by letting only a certain part represent the whole. Example: All hands on deck. Arranging the words Words follow each other in a sequence determined by the poet. In order to discuss the arrangements that result, certain terms have been applied to various aspects of that arrangement process. Although in some ways these sequences seem arbitrary and mechanical, in another sense they help to determine the nature of the poem. These various ways of organizing words have been identified. Point of View: The author’s point of view concentrates on the vantage point of the speaker, or “teller” of the story or poem. This may be considered the poem’s “voice” — the pervasive presence behind the overall work. This is also sometimes referred to as the persona. • 1st Person: the speaker is a character in the story or poem and tells it from his/her perspective (uses “I”). • 3rd Person limited: the speaker is not part of the story, but tells about the other charac- ters through the limited perceptions of one other person. • 3rd Person omniscient: the speaker is not part of the story, but is able to “know” and describe what all characters are thinking. Line: The line is fundamental to the perception of poetry, marking an important visual distinction from prose. Poetry is arranged into a series of units that do not necessarily correspond to sentences, but rather to a series of metrical feet. Generally, but not always, the line is printed as one single line on the page. If it occupies more than one line, its remainder is usually indented to indicate that it is a continu- ation. There is a natural tendency when reading poetry to pause at the end of a line, but the careful reader will follow the punctuation to find where natural pauses should occur. In traditional verse forms, the length of each line is determined by convention, but in modern poetry the poet has more latitude for choice. Verse: One single line of a poem arranged in a metrical pattern. Also, a piece of poetry or a particular form of poetry such as free verse, blank verse, etc., or the art or work of a poet. –6– The popular use of the word verse for a stanza or associated group of metrical lines is not in accor- dance with the best usage. A stanza is a group of verses. Stanza: A division of a poem created by arranging the lines into a unit, often repeated in the same pattern of meter and rhyme throughout the poem; a unit of poetic lines (a “paragraph” within the poem). The stanzas within a poem are separated by blank lines. Stanzas in modern poetry, such as free verse, often do not have lines that are all of the same length and meter, nor even the same number of lines in each stanza. Stanzas created by such irregular line group- ings are often dictated by meaning, as in paragraphs of prose. Stanza Forms: The names given to describe the number of lines in a stanzaic unit, such as: couplet (2), tercet (3), quatrain (4), quintet (5), sestet (6), septet (7), and octave (8). Some stanzas follow a set rhyme scheme and meter in addition to the number of lines and are given specific names to describe them, such as, ballad meter, ottava rima, rhyme royal, terza rima, and Spenserian stanza. Stanza forms are also a factor in the categorization of whole poems described as following a fixed form. Rhetorical Question: A question solely for effect, which does not require an answer. By the implication the answer is obvious, it is a means of achieving an emphasis stronger than a direct statement. Example: Could I but guess the reason for that look? Example: O, Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? Rhyme Scheme: The pattern established by the arrangement of rhymes in a stanza or poem, generally described by using letters of the alphabet to denote the recurrence of rhyming lines, such as the ababbcc of the Rhyme Royal stanza form. Capital letters in the alphabetic rhyme scheme are used for the repeating lines of a refrain; the letters x and y indicate unrhymed lines. In quatrains, the popular rhyme scheme of abab is called alternate rhyme or cross rhyme. The abba scheme is called envelope rhyme, and another one frequently used is xaxa (This last pattern, when working with students, is generally easier for them to understand when presented as abcb, as they associate matched letters with rhymed words). Enjambment: The continuation of the logical sense — and therefore the grammatical construction — beyond the end of a line of poetry. This is sometimes done with the title, which in effect becomes the first line of the poem. Form: The arrangement or method used to convey the content, such as free verse, ballad, haiku, etc. In other words, the “way-it-is-said.” A variably interpreted term, however, it sometimes applies to details within the composition of a text, but is probably used most often in reference to the structural charac- teristics of a work as it compares to (or differs from) established modes of conventionalized arrange- ments. • Open: poetic form free from regularity and consistency in elements such as rhyme, line length, and metrical form • Closed: poetic form subject to a fixed structure and pattern • Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter (much of the plays of Shakespeare are written in this form) • Free Verse: lines with no prescribed pattern or structure — the poet determines all the vari- ables as seems appropriate for each poem –7– • Couplet: a pair of lines, usually rhymed; this is the shortest stanza • Heroic Couplet: a pair of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter (traditional heroic epic form) • Quatrain: a four-line stanza, or a grouping of four lines of verse Fixed Form: A poem which follows a set pattern of meter, rhyme scheme, stanza form, and refrain (if there is one), is called a fixed form. Most poets feel a need for familiarity and practice with established forms as essential to learning the craft, but having explored the techniques and constraints of each, they go on to experiment and extend their imaginative creativity in new directions. A partial listing includes: • Ballad: a narrative poem written as a series of quatrains in which lines of iambic tetrameter alternate with iambic trimeter with an xaxa, xbxb rhyme scheme with frequent use of repetition and often including a refrain. The “story” of a ballad can be a wide range of subjects but frequently deals with folklore or popular legends. They are written in a straight-forward manner, seldom with detail, but always with graphic simplicity and force. Most ballads are suitable for singing: “Barbara Allen” is an example. Many of the oldest ballads were first written and performed by minstrels as court entertainment. Folk ballads are of unknown origin and are usually lacking in artistic finish. Because they are handed down by oral tradition, folk ballads are subject to variations and continual change. Other types of ballads include literary ballads, combining the natures of epic and lyric poetry, which are written by known authors, often in the style and form of the folk ballad, such as Keats’ ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci.” • Ballade: a French form, it consists of three seven or eight-line stanzas using no more than three recurrent rhymes, with an identical refrain after each stanza and a closing envoi repeating the rhymes of the last four lines of the stanza • Concrete Poetry: also known as pattern poetry or shaped verse, these are poems that are printed on the page so that they form a recognizable outline related to the subject, thus convey- ing or extending the meaning of the words. Pattern poetry retains its meaning when read aloud, whereas the essence of concrete poetry lies in its appearance on the page rather than in the words; it is intended to be perceived as a visual whole and often cannot be effective when read aloud. This form has had brief popularity at several periods in history. • Epigram: a pithy, sometimes satiric, couplet or quatrain comprising a single thought or event and often aphoristic with a witty or humorous turn of thought • Epitaph: a brief poem or statement in memory of someone who is deceased, used as, or suitable for, a tombstone inscription; now, often witty or humorous and written without intent of actual funerary use • Haiku: a Japanese form of poetry consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. The elusive flavor of the form, however, lies more in its touch and tone than in its syllabic structure. Deeply imbedded in Japanese culture and strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism, haiku are very brief descriptions of nature that convey some implicit insight or essence of a moment. Traditionally, they contain either a direct or oblique reference to a season • Limerick: a light or humorous form of five chiefly anapestic verses of which lines one, two and five are of three feet and lines three and four are of two feet, with a rhyme scheme of aabba. Named for a town in Ireland of that name, the limerick was popularized by Edward Lear in his Book of Nonsense published in 1846, and is generally considered the only fixed form of English origin. While the final line of Lear’s limericks usually was a repetition of the first line, modern limericks generally use the final line for clever witticisms and word play. Their content also frequently tends toward the ribald and off-color.