Name: __________________________________________________ Block: _____________
Poetic Forms and Devices Practice/Notes/Study Guide
FORMS
There was an old woman made of odds and ends
Who stole from family, foes and friends;
There was an old woman from the East, not West
Who simply could not stop, regardless of trying her best.
What poetic form is this? _________________Quatrain_____________________________________
How do you know? ______________________4 lines that rhyme_______________________________
I parked the car in Harvard yard
Only to be stopped by an armored guard.
What poetic form is this? _____________couplet_________________________________________
How do you know? _2 lines that rhyme; end rhyme; similar in syllables on both lines.___________
I hear the ground pop
As the tree is growing roots
Starting its own life
What poetic form is this? ______________Haiku_____________________________________
How do you know? ___________5 – 7 – 5; 5 syllables on the first line, 7 syllables on the second, 5 syllables on
the third; about nature_______________________________________________________
An Olympian sprinter in haste
From out of her starting blocks raced.
She flew like a stone
From a catapult thrown:
Determined she'd not be disgraced.
What poetic form is this? _____limerick_________________________________________
How do you know? ___________________________5 lines funny___________________________
When John Henry was a little tiny baby John Henry
The captain said to John Henry,
Sitting on his mama's knee,
"I
believe
this mountain's sinking in."
He picked up a hammer and a little piece of steel
Saying, "Hammer's going to be the death of me, Lord, Lord, But John Henry said, "Captain, just you stand aside-It's nothing but my hammer catching wind, Lord, Lord,
Hammer's going to be the death of me."
It's nothing but my hammer catching wind."
John Henry was a man just six feet high,
John Henry said to his shaker,
Nearly two feet and a half across his breast.
"Shaker, boy, you better start to pray,
He'd hammer with a nine-pound hammer all day
'Cause if my TWELVE-pound hammer miss that little
And never get tired and want to rest, Lord, Lord,
piece of steel,
And never get tired and want to rest.
Tomorrow'll be your burying day, Lord, Lord,
Tomorrow'll be your burying day."
John Henry went up on the mountain
And he looked one eye straight up its side.
John Henry said to his captain,
The mountain was so tall and John Henry was so small,
"A man is nothing but a man,
He laid down his hammer and he cried, "Lord, Lord,"
But
before
I let your steam drill beat me down,
He laid down his hammer and he cried.
I'd die with a hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord,
I'd die with a hammer in my hand."
John Henry said to his captain,
"Captain, you go to town,
The man that invented the steam drill,
Bring me back a TWELVE-pound hammer, please,
He
figured he was mighty high and fine,
And I'll beat that steam drill down, Lord, Lord,
But John Henry sunk the steel down fourteen feet
I'll beat that steam drill down."
While the steam drill only made nine, Lord, Lord,
The steam drill only made nine.
What poetic form is this? __________Ballad___
How do you know?
_________the definition_____________________
________________________________________
John Henry hammered on the right-hand side.
Steam drill kept driving on the left.
John Henry beat that steam drill down.
But he hammered his poor heart to death, Lord, Lord,
He hammered his poor heart to death.
Well, they carried John Henry down the tunnel
And they laid his body in the sand.
Now every woman riding on a C and O train
Says, "There lies my steel-driving man, Lord, Lord,
There lies my steel-driving man."
The Bells
Hear the sledges with the bells Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
What poetic form is this?
____________free verse?_____________________
How do you know?
______no fixed rhyme scheme_______________
___________________________________________
-Edgar Allen Poe
Poetic DEVICES
Alliteration: repetition of the initial (first) sounds
Example: Penny poured some pink punch into a purple cup.
Meter: a fixed pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in lines of fixed length – think of
meter as trying its hardest to find rhythm, but you just can clap your hands to it.
Example:
Was-THIS the-FACE that-LAUNCH'D a-THOU sand-SHIPS
Onomatopoeia: the way the word sounds suggests its meaning
Examples: clank! ding, boom, crash! pop! (PLEASE notice they DON’T have to end with an
exclamation point)
Repetition: repeated use of sounds, words, phrases, or ideas. It doesn’t include common words
unless they are part of a phrase (I, he, she, it etc.)
Example: So many people only see what they want
They want these things so they can flaunt
The mysterious items they want so much
Yet never, the things they want, they touch
Rhythm: a recurring pattern of syllables that “go up and down”. Can you clap your hands and bob
your head to it naturally? That, is rhythm.
Examples: Look at the quatrain above, slowly clap out the syllables with the pattern below.
da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum
Listen to your favorite song! Clap along to the rhythm!
Rhyme: recurring similar word sounds at the end of words – inside lines or at the end of lines

Rhyme Scheme: the way a poem’s last word is used to set a fixed rhythm – we use letters
to show this. If somewhere along the way the letters no longer create a pattern, there is
not fixed rhyme scheme.

Example:
I waited all day for that silly goose (a)
My waiting was put to poor use (a)
I could hear the cackle of others (b)
And like a poor little thing I still sat (c)
all this time my bum had gone flat! (c)

External/End Rhyme: the words at the ends of two lines rhyme with each other. (They
aren’t always one after another – just follow the rhyme scheme – a’s go with a’s, b’s with
b’s etc.)
Using the poem above:
I waited all day for that silly goose (a)
My waiting was put to poor use (a)
I could hear the cackle of others (b)
And like a poor little thing I still sat (c)
all this time my bum had gone flat! (c)

Internal Rhyme: there are words inside of the lines of poetry that rhyme with one
another
Example:
A greedy and ambitious cow
she was so needy and would not bow
I looked at her beady eyes, ”Scram!”
Yet she stole my small and gristly ham
So beef is what we’re having now!
I rang them up while touring Timbuctoo
What type of rhyme is used? __end rhyme_____
Those bosom chums to whom you’re known as Who?
The Bells
Hear the sledges with the bells -a
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
Underline three examples of repetition.
Show the rhyme scheme by marking each line
with a letter.
What is one example of onomatopoeia?
________tinkle/jingling__________________
-Edgar Allen Poe
Now and Before
Now I buy, but before I bought.
Now I bring, but before I brought.
Now I see, but before I saw.
Do you want to hear some more?
You do? You do? Well, that’s just great!
Now I eat, but before I ate.
Even more? I knew you would.
Now I can, but before I could.
Now I feed, but before I fed.
Now I say, but before I said.
Now I sell, but before I sold.
Now I tell, but before I told.
Now I bite and yell, but before I bit.
Have you had enough? Do you want to
quit?
You don’t? You don’t? You’re quite a kid!
Now I do, but before I did.
I’ve had enough. How about you?
Now I draw, but before I drew.
I said enough! It’s time to close.
Now I choose, but before I chose.
Please let me go! Let me off the hook!
Now I take, but before I took.
Please let me go. I’m really done.
Now I win, but before I won.
I know! Here’s one doesn’t change a bit.
Now I hit, but before I hit!
We’re at the end. It’s time to say.
Good-bye, until another day.
What poetic form is Now and Before on the previous page MOST resemble?
_____________________ballad_________________________________________________
Find at least two poetic devices from Now and Before. What are they? How do you know?
___________________end rhyme; repetition, internal rhyme, rhythm__________________
There are lots of well-groomed bears
who have lots of fuzz and lots of hair.
What are two poetic devices you see? How do you know? _______end rhyme and
repetition__________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Some One
Someone came knocking
At my wee, small door;
Someone came knocking,
I'm sure - sure - sure;
I listened, I opened,
I looked to left and right,
But naught there was a-stirring
In the still dark night;
Only the busy beetle
Tap-tapping I fought in the wall,
Only from the forest
The screech-owl's call,
Only the cricket whistling
While the dewdrops fall,
So I know not who came knocking,
At all, at all, at all.
-
Walter de la Mare
What poetic form is this______Free Verse?__________
How do you know?
___no fixed rhyme scheme___
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art
more lovely and more temperate.
-
William Shakespeare
What poetic device is the above an example
of?
__________meter_________________
Remember Yesterday
by Hammerfall
Can you tell me why
It seems so hard to carry on
When you hear a voice
From long ago, so bittersweet
Even though I try, I cannot
Read between the lines
You know I tried
Oh, yes, I tried, what's wrong
What poetic form is this?
_____ballad______________________
How do you know?
___________________________________________________
_______definition___________________
___________________________________________________
Too late to turn back time
To look over my shoulder
Maybe one day I'll return again
Remember Yesterday and think about tomorrow
But you have to live today –
Oh lonely yesterday
Don't leave me with the sorrow
Cause I have to live today
What poetic device can you find in this poem?
________________________________________
Every morning I awake
To see the newborn day
To carry on the flame
Until the end of time
Too late to turn back time
To look over my shoulder
Maybe one day I'll return again
___refrain___________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
How many examples of that device did you find?
_________________________________________
Remember Yesterday and think about tomorrow
But you have to live today –
Oh lonely yesterday
Don't leave me with the sorrow
Cause I have to live today
Oh, oh, oh, don't step aside
And pretend about the future
Oh, oh, oh, never live a lie
Don't you know tomorrow never comes
Remember Yesterday and think about tomorrow
But you have to live today - Oh lonely yesterday
Don't leave me with the sorrow
Cause I have to live today…
_____________three_________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________