What Brings a Poem to Life?

What brings a poem to life?

Words to know:

Sound devices are resources used by poets to convey and reinforce the meaning or experience of poetry through skillful use of sounds.The most common (or commonly used) sound devices are:

• alliteration
• assonance
• consonance
• onomatopoeia
• rhyme (exact, slant, and internal)
• rhythm
• meter
• repetition
• refrain

Imagery is to use figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses.

Read the following for an example of the imagery of light and darkness from “Romeo and Juliet:”

“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright/it seems she hangs upon the cheek of night/like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear.”

To the Autumn

by John Keats

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden croft,

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

“To the Autumn” is rich with auditory imagery. The animal sounds appeal to our sense of hearing.

Figurative language is whenever you describe something by comparing it with or to something else. The following are the most common types of figurative language:

• simile
• metaphor
• personification
• hyperbole
• idioms
• cliches

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Good poets try to use a concentrated blend of sounds and imagery to create a sense of emotion or feeling. Think of sound devices like a poet’s toolbox. There are many different tools in the poet’s toolbox, and they each have a particular purpose.

Read the following poem and write what you think of it. Write what you notice about it.

Pete at the Zoo

by Gwendolyn Brooks

I wonder if the elephant

Is lonely in his stall

When all the boys and girls are gone

And there’s no shout at all,

And there’s no one to stamp before,

No one to note his might.

Does he hunch up, as I do,

Against the dark of night?

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Rhyme is the repetition of accented sounds. Meter is more or less regular patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables. Rhythm is a musical quality created by the alternation of accented and unaccented syllables. The rhyme and meter in the following poem help to create a singsong sound.

People

by Charlotte Zolotow

Some people talk and talk

and never say a thing.

Some people look at you

and birds begin to sing.

Some people laugh and laugh

and yet you want to cry.

Some people touch your hand

and music fills the sky.

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close together. A refrain is a word or line that is repeated in a poem to create a particular effect. The refrain in the following lines suggests the steady downpour. The alliteration mimics the rain’s soothing sounds.

April Rain Song

by Langston Hughes

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.

The rain makes running pools in the gutter.

The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night.

And I love the rain.

What kinds of sounds do you associate with fireworks? In this poem, meter and alliteration help you hear some of these sounds. Read the poem aloud to get the full effect.

Fireworks

by Valerie Worth

First

a far thud

then the rocket

climbs the air,

a dull red flare,

to hang, a moment,

invisible, before

its shut black shell cracks

and claps against the ears,

breaks and billows into bloom

spilling down clear green specks, gold spears,

silent sliding silver waterfalls and stars.

1. Does this poem sound like conversation or is it written in meter?
2. Write down any examples of alliteration that you find in the poem.
3. Write down any examples of onomatopoeia that you find in the poem.

Figurative language is the use of imaginative comparisons to help you see the world in new ways. Figurative language is not true. Four common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole. Review these figures of speech. What is the comparison? How do figures of speech help you see a part of the world in a new way?

Images use sensory language to appeal to your senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Most images are visual. Figures of speech often create images, as they do in following. What do you see or hear in each figure of speech?

Poem

by A.R. Ammons

In a high wind the

leaves don’t

fall but fly

straight out of the tree like birds.

New Sounds

by Lilian Moore

New sounds to

walk on

today,

dry

leaves

talking

in hoarse

whispers

under bare trees

December Leaves

by Kay Starbird

The fallen leaves are cornflakes

That fill the lawn’s wide dish

“Mooses” by Ted Hughes

He turns and drags half the lake after him.

Assignment: Define the following words:

Rhyme

Rhythm

Repetition

Alliteration

*Research examples of each.

Objectives for this lesson:

Understand the basics of poetry (speaker and form)

Distinguish between traditional and free verse poems.

Identify sound devices in poetry.

Identify imagery and figurative language in poetry.

When you hear the word poetry, do you think of flowery words and singsong rhymes? Do you think of your favorite song?

Poetry is a type of literature in which words are chosen and arranged in specific ways to create an effect. Poems come in many different types, styles, and forms. Some poems tell stories while others express emotions or paint pictures in words.

Just as a story has a narrator, a poem has a speaker--the voice that talks to the reader. It’s important to remember that the poet and the speaker are not necessarily the same person.

Who is the speaker in the following poem?

The teacher’s face falls.

Wrong answer.

A slow burn creeps,

turning pink and red,

crawling up my neck,

fanning out over my cheeks.

I look down and pretend

to study the name

carved into my desk.

The form of a poem refers to the way a poem is laid out on the page. Unlike prose, in which sentences follow one another in paragraphs, poetry is divided into lines and stanzas. Stanzas are groups of lines. The place where a line ends is called a line break.