All poems have a speaker.
The speaker is the voice talking in the poem.
All poems have an author.
The author is the person who wrote the poem.
The author is not always the speaker of the poem.
Examples:
I love teaching students how to write
I do it all day to my delight! (Mrs. Pachucki = Author, Mrs. Pachucki = speaker)
It has been a hard, lonely 80 years
The wrinkles on my face are the scars of all my tears. (Mrs. Pachucki = Author, Mrs.
Pachucki ≠ speaker)
Lyric Poem
 are short (a few pages or less)
 about strong emotions or thoughts
 do not tell a story
Free Verse
 has no rules
 plays with spellings, spacing, word arrangements
Haiku
 usually about nature
 3 lines
 5-7-5 syllable pattern
the leaf blows away (5)
I watch it go down the street (7)
never seen again (5)
Sonnet = like haiku, sonnet has rules.



sonnet has 14 lines
2 forms of sonnets: Shakespearean, Petrarchan
sonnets are also often about love
Catalog poem =
 presents a list (of images)
Narrative
 Tells a story in verse form
 Like a short story, has plot, characters, etc.
Ballads
 Songlike poems that tell stories; deal with adventure and romance
Concrete poems
 Poems that are shaped to look like their subjects
 The lines are arranged to create a picture on the page
Limericks
 Funny, rhyming 5-line poems
 Follows an aabba rhyme scheme* (lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyme with each other, and lines 3
and 4 rhyme with each other)
Rhyming couplet
 2 lines of poetry that rhyme
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
Imagery

a writer’s use of words or phrases that appeal to our 5 senses through sensory details

Sensory details = words that describe experiences we have through our 5 senses (sight,
hearing, feeling/touching, smell, taste)

A writer uses sensory details to cause us to imagine what something tastes like, smells
like, etc.

Imagery = when a writer causes us to imagine what something looks, feels, tastes like,
etc.
Examples:
the old, big, haunted blue house = sight
a pineapple upside down cake, and my house flooded with the sweet smell of
brown sugar caramelizing atop crisp, juicy pineapple slices
Imagery is the tool the author uses to put images, sounds, tastes, etc. in our minds.
Sensory details are the words (elements) the author uses to make us imagine those
experiences we have through our senses.
You need sensory details to create imagery.
Figures of speech:

figurative language = expressions that put aside literal meanings in favor
of imaginative connections.
We give meanings to words outside of what those words normally mean.
Simile: one thing is compared to another using the words “like” or “as.” The things being
compared are usually different from each other.
I’m as hungry as a horse!
You are as pretty as the sun!
The clouds are like floating pillows.
Metaphor:
also a comparison between two unlike things
metaphors compare two things by stating that one thing is another (or “are,” if plural)
Ex: Juliet is the sun.
We are the voice of the generation.
The horses are chariots of field.
The children’s laughter is a blossoming flower.
Personification:

when human qualities are given to non-human things
Ex: The horse laughed and said “Wilber!”
The pages of the book stared up at me.
The wind screamed down the hill.
The moon shone down from the sky. (shining is not a human quality; it’s something the moon
naturally does)
The car engine choked along as I revved it.
Sound Devices:

Onomatopoeia: a word that sounds like what it means
Ex: buzz, roar, ring, beep, crash, crunch
Alliteration:

repetition of consonant sounds (no-vowels)
The choo choo train chugged along.
The women were weaving wool sweaters.
The westward wind was loud.
The sweet smell of smiles sang to me.
Look for words that begin with the same letter.
Then, say it aloud. Do you hear the same sounds?
Assonance:

also the repetition of sounds, but, specifically, vowel sounds.
Ex: I feel the peel at the bottom of my heel.
The clown goes around the town.
Rhyme:


the repetition of sounds that are close together in a poem.
words with sounds that are exact echoes of one another are called exact
rhymes.
Example:
I rode my bicycle
and licked an icicle.
Example:
I love you!
Oh yes, it’s true!
When rhyming sounds occur at the end of a line of poetry, it is called an end rhyme.
I like the color blue
It is pure and true!
I love the look of the moon
In the month of June.
Rely on your ears more than your eyes to detect rhyme.
Internal rhyme:

occurs when the rhyming words are in the middle of lines of poetry
Ex: The long whale’s nails tore a hole in the boat.

Internal rhyme can be when two lines of poetry rhyme in the middle (see
example on page 618 of textbook; the words “snow” and “go” rhyme,
and they are both in the middle of the lines of poetry)
Approximate rhyme:

when two words sound similar enough to be considered a rhyme, but
they are not exact echoes of one another:
ex: moon and morn
blade and blood
junior and senior
Rhyme scheme: a pattern of end rhymes.


When determining rhyme scheme, we only look at the last word of each
line of poetry.
Assign a new letter to each new sound you hear at the end of a line of
poetry. Sounds that have already occurred receive the letter previously
assigned.
Examples:
They put me in the oven to bake.
Me a deprived and miserable cake.
Feeling the heat I started to bubble.
Watching the others I knew I was in trouble!
The people along the sand
A
A
A
B
B
All turn and look one way.
B
They turn their back on the land.
A
They look at the sea all day.
B
As long as it takes to pass
C
A ship keeps raising its hull;
D
The wetter ground like glass
C
Reflects a standing gull.
D