Mr. Hazeltine
Writing Lab
Elements of Prose Poetry
Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning
of words. Example:
"Fetched fresh, as I suppose, off some sweet wood."
(Gerard Manley Hopkins)
End Rhyme: for poems with rhymes that occur at the end of a sentence, this
is called end rhyme.
Example:
“I went to school full of joy,
Eager to meet each girl and boy.”
Internal Rhyme: with a poem that has a rhyme inside of the sentence, it is
called an internal rhyme.
Example:
“I was sad because my dad
Made me eat every beet.”
The poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe makes copious use of the
internal rhyme.
Metaphor: a metaphorical statement is a comparison of two unlike things.
The comparison is implied or suggested.
Examples:
These are the dog days of summer. (William Shakespeare)
What do the sightless windows see, I wonder, when the sun throws
passersby against them? (William Gass).
Personification: is attributing human characteristics to nonhuman things.
Examples:
The houses, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one
another with brown imperturbable faces. (James Joyce)
Pearl Button swung on the little gate in front of the House of Boxes. It
was the early afternoon of a sunshiny day with little winds playing
hide-and-seek in it. (Katherine Mansfield)
Rhyme: the matching of final vowel or consonant sounds in two or more
words.
Example: The following stanza employs alternate rhyme, with the third line
rhyming with the first and the fourth with the second:
“Whenever Richard Cory went down town, We people on the
pavement looked at him; He was a gentleman from sole to crown
Clean favored and imperially slim.”
(Edwin Arlington Robinson)
Rhythm: the recurrence of accent or stress in lines of verse.
Example: In the following lines, the accented words and syllables are
underlined:
“I said to my baby, Baby take it slow.... Lulu said to Leonard I want a
diamond ring.” (Langston Hughes)
Simile: is a metaphorical statement comparing two unlike things using LIKE
or AS. The comparison is explicit or obvious.
Examples:
My love is like a red red rose. (Lord Byron)
Clouds like great gray brains. (Denis Johnson)
Repetition: the repetition of the same word or words throughout the poem
to emphasize significance.
Example:
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the King's horses and all the King's men, Couldn't put Humpty
together again.”