Miss Wild/Grade 5 LA November 14/15, 2011 Poetry, Poetic Devices, and Figurative Language What is poetry? • Webster’s Dictionary Definition: Writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm • Can involve o Song (lyrics) o Rhyme o Shorter text (it’s not a novel) o Rhythm or sound pattern/ beat Poetic Devices • Simile: -­ Compares two things that are usually unrelated -­ Involves connecting words (like, as) -­ Examples: o The computer is like a clever robot (compares computer with robot) o The garbage is like a scary monster (compares garbage with a monster) o His hand is as cold as ice (compares hand with ice) o Airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars (compares airplanes with shooting stars) • Metaphor: -­ Comparison where a subject is treated like it is something else (very direct) -­ Does not use connecting words -­ Examples: o The computer is a clever robot o The garbage is a scary monster o His hand is ice o Airplanes are shooting stars • Hyperbole and exaggeration -­‐ An extreme exaggeration to prove a point -­‐ Not literal (can’t actually happen) -­‐ Examples: o Hyperbole: My homework took forever o Exaggeration: My homework took hours (even if it was only half an hour) o Hyperbole: My cat weighs a ton o Hyperbole: A t-­‐rex weighs as much as the Earth! o Hyperbole: I’m so hungry I could eat an elephant Miss Wild/Grade 5 LA •
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November 14/15, 2011 Onomatopoeia (on-­‐oh-­‐mat-­‐o-­‐pee-­‐a) or (on-­‐oh-­‐mat-­‐o-­‐pay-­‐a) -­ Words that represent sounds -­ Examples: o “Bang!” o “Boom!” o “Splash!” o “Squish!” o “Knock!” o “Ring!” “Ring!” went the telephone -­ Non example: o He knocked on the door Alliteration -­‐ Repetition (repeating) of consonant (non-­‐vowel) sounds at the beginning of a word (or non-­‐vowel sounds happening over and over at the beginning of a word) -­‐ Can be tongue twisters -­‐ Examples: o Sally Sells Seashells by the seashore (“sssss” sound) o Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers (“puh” sound) o Betty Baked a Batch of Buns but they Burned (“buh” sound) -­ Non-­‐ example o Albert always asks about Alaska (that’s an example of Assonance) Imagery -­ Words or sentences that create mental pictures (things you can picture when you close your eyes) -­ Examples: o There was a dark, black house on a large, steep hill with an icy, harsh wind (can picture a dark house on a big hill perhaps with blowing trees) o Airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars (can picture airplanes flying in the sky far away) o The dog is as big as a house (can picture a huge dog) The Lorax by Dr. Suess
http://dr-seusspoems.blogspot.com/2010/04/dr-seuss-lorax.html At the far end of town, where the Grickle-grass grows (alliteration)
and the wind smells slow-and-sour when it blows
and no birds ever sing excepting old crows...
is the Street of the Lifted Lorax.
And deep in the Grickle-grass, some people say,
if you look deep enough you can still see, today,
where the Lorax once stood, just as long as it could
Miss Wild/Grade 5 LA before somebody lifted the Lorax away.
What WAS the Lorax? And why was it there?
And why was it lifted and taken somewhere
from the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows?
The old Once-ler still lives here.
Ask him. HE knows.
You wont see the Once-ler. Dont knock at his door.
He stays in his Lerkim on top of his store.
He lurks in his Lerkim, cold under the roof,
where he makes his own clothes
out of miff-muffered moof. (alliteration)
And on special dank midnights in August,
he peeks out of the shutters
and sometimes he speaks
and tells how the Lorax was lifted away.
He'll tell you, perhaps...
if you're willing to pay.
On the end of a rope he lets down a tin pail
and you have to toss in fifteen cents and a nail
and the shell of a great-great-great
grandfather snail.
He pulls up the pail,
makes a most careful count
to see if you've paid him the proper amount.
Then he hides what you pay him
away in his Snuvv,
his secret strange hole in his gruvvulous glove.
Then he grunts, "I will call you by Whisper-ma-Phone,
for the secrets I tell are for your ears alone."
"SLUPP!" (onomatopoeia)
Down slupps the Whisper-ma-Phone to your ear
and the Once-ler's whispers are not very clear,
since they have to come down
through a snergelly hose,
and he sounds as if he had
smallish bees up his nose. (simile)
November 14/15, 2011 Miss Wild/Grade 5 LA "Now I'll tell you," he says,
with his teeth sounding gray,
"how the Lorax got lifted and taken away...
It all started back...
such a long, long time back... November 14/15, 2011