A Glossary of Poetic (Literary) Terms

This document comes from a handout from English 110.  I tried to reproduce it as faithfully as I could.  It was littered with underlines, which just don't work on the internet. It's older than you are.

Form

The form of a poem is its visual look. It consists of stanzas (the poetic equivalent of paragraphs), lines, and shapes (sometimes, the shape of a poem will resemble the shape of the object or action it describes).

Structure

the division of a poem in to parts which constitute beginning, middle and end.

Types

poems have assumed a number of identifiable types over time.  The most common types include the sonnet, the lyric, the narrative, the elegy, the dramatic dialogue, and the dramatic monologue.

Image

in any literary text, an object that can be experienced or perceived by one of the five senses -- taste, touch, smell, sound and especially sight.

ex. The sailboats drifted on the calm seas, hardly touched by the faint spring breezes. (sailboats, seas, and spring are visual images, the breezes here represent an image of touch)

Symbol

in any text, and in everyday life, the word, person, place or object that represents more then itself.

e.x The $ is a symbol of money; the rose is a symbol of love; the flag is the symbol of a nation.

Sound Devices

patterns of deliberate repetitions in a text are usually evidence of the writer's use of sound effects.  These effects are often intended to emphasize meaning or feeling, and most often they play a large part in establishing the tone of the speaker (i.e., the speaker's attitude towards the subject matter or the audience).  Readers can expect to find the following sorts of sound effects in texts: 

rhyme (identical sounds at the ends of lines)

rhythm (repetitions of numbers of beats in adjacent lines

alliteration (repetition of consonant sounds in lines

assonance (repetition of vowel sounds in lines)

euphony (combinations of pleasant sounds in a group of lines)

cacophony (repetition of harsh and unpleasant sounds in a group of lines)

onomatopoeia (the use of a word that sounds just like the sound it represents)

Metaphor

an unusual and subtle comparison of unlikely objects

e.x. She was a volcano waiting to explode. (volcano is a metaphor for this woman)

Simile

an unusual and direct comparison containing the words "like", "as", or "as if"

ex. She looks like a volcano waiting to explode. (volcano is a simile for this woman)

Personification 

the poet's attribution of human qualities to a non-human creature or inanimate object

ex. Time crept in the shadows like a thief in the night. (the poet makes time seem to be a person up to no good)

Paradox

the writer's presentation of a statement which seems illogical and contradictory at first, but which proves true in the context of the entire text

ex. She was cruel in her kindness: she helped her brother, but she refused to tell him that she was proud of him.

Oxymoron

the appearance of two absolutely opposite words side by side as if they belong together

ex. loving hate; freezing heat; silent sound; burning cold.

Irony

the gap between what is said and what is actually meant

ex. In Shakespeare's play Othello, Othello expresses his love for his wife Desdemona even as he is strangling her. (there is irony in his words)

How to Read Poetry

Reading poetry isn't hard.  Run through this process before you try your way. I've been using it since first year.

1. Read the poem.

2. Read the poem, again.

3. Grab a sheet of paper and a pencil.  Read the poem and write down all the words you can't define.

4. Look up the definitions of those words and write them down.

5. Read the poem, when you come across those words, read the definitions.

6. Take a break.

7. Welcome back, now read the poem OUT LOUD. Yes, out loud.  From here on down, you need to read OUT LOUD.

8. Is there a theme you can identify?  Write down a word or two.  If you can't right now, that's OK.  Look at this note on discovering theme.

9. Read the title.

10. Now, is there a theme you can identify?  Write down a word or two.  If you can't right now, that's OK.  Look at this note on discovering theme.

11. Who is the speaker / persona / voice?

12. Can you identify the tone? Need some tone words to help you out?  Jot down the tone words that fit.

13. Can you identify an image, or images?  Write them down.

14. Can you identify any sensory imagery?  Write them down.

15. Identify any similes or metaphors.  Write them down.

16. Look at the structure of the poem.  Is it divided into sections?  Compare the sections.

17. Read out loud. Tap your pencil. Feel the rhythm.  See the Youtube videos below.

18. Word choices.  Why does the poet choose their words?  Do certain words stick out? I don't mean words that stick out because you didn't understand them.  See step 4.

19. Rhyme. Can you hear it happen? Where does it happen? At the end of a line? In the middle of a line?

Writing About Poetry

Poetry is the calculus of the heart.  It seemingly is the combination of the most primitive (rhyme and rhythm, the sing-song nature) and complex (technical list of literary devices).  When you are asked to write about poetry, focus on your 'reading' and write your response, not that of others.  Unless you are asked specifically to do research, avoid secondary and tertiary sources.  Even a simple "I just want to read about my poet's life" will quickly turn into reading analysis.  The mistake of assuming that your 'reading' is not as good as someone else's causes plagiarism.  Let's take a quick minute to review Did I Plagiarize?

Purdue's OWL (Online Writing Lab) has a great article entitled Writing About Poetry.  It addresses why you are asked to write about poetry, a focus on thesis, what your scope is, and style.

The other passage that sticks with me comes from Ian Lancashire (Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Toronto) in his ENG 201Y L5201: READING POETRY course he writes, "Responses take off from your observations about words, topical or literary allusions, or figures of speech, or from your analysis of the poem's dramatic situation, or from your thoughts on lectures, etc. Observations, analysis, and thoughts, however, are only part of a response. Each response should be personal, highlighting what is important to you as a reader. Responses need not say everything there is to say about a poem. They need not repeat or agree with lectures. They must be reasoned and well-written, and they also must show what happens in the mind of one reader, you, during an encounter with the poem. Three quite different responses to the same poem can achieve an identical high grade. Feel free to disagree with what I say."

The following was adapted from Poetry Response Paper, hosted at Ms. Ali Classroom,. "A Response Paper gives the reader an opportunity to interact with and respond to a poem on different levels. The writer can respond to a poem on a personal level, a societal level, or analytically.  A response paper can, offer an interpretation of the poem's overall meaning, analyze the poetic techniques used and how they affect the meaning of the poem, evaluate the poem’s effectiveness on you as reader (How did it make you feel? What did it make you think of?), identify the theme and speak about how it is developed in the poem.  It is important to remember that the Response Paper responds to the poem in some way, it does not summarize or paraphrase the poem unnecessarily or to take up needed space"

ART WARS

About - What is this poem about?

Repeated Words - How does the use of repeated words affect the poem’s meaning?

Tone - What is the tone of the poem? How do you know?

Words - What effect do the words have on the meaning?

Alliteration - What examples of alliteration ( Or any other poetic device you see ) are there? What’s the effect? 

Rhythm & Rhyme - How are rhythm and  rhyme used? What’s the effect?

Structure - How does the structure of the poem affect the meaning?

In Class Poetry Response 

Write an original response to a poem using both How to Read Poetry and Writing About Poetry.  This is an in class assignment.  Your poem will be provided in class on the day of the assessment.  This is a demand write, no personal electronic devices.

Steps

1. Read the poem provided on the day of the assessment using the How to Read Poetry guide.  You can try ART WARS or 5 Ways to Analyze Poems if you want.

2. Individually, prepare your 200 - 250 (direct quotes excluded) word response to the poem.  Use the notes from the Poetry Workshop.  Focus on what you want to explore.  Reread Writing About Poetry. Do not use secondary or tertiary sources.

3. Double space your reply.  Write neatly and legibly. 

4. This is a demand write, no personal electronic devices.

5. What to bring: pen, pencil and a highlighter. Bring your Tone Word List and a copy of How to Read Poetry.  If you want ART WARS or 5 Ways to Analyze Poems, please bring them as well. A hard copy of The Poetry Workshop,  A Glossary of Poetic (Literary) Terms, Poetic Devices and Mini Analysis are also permissible.

6. Dictionaries and paper will be provided.  

In Class Poetry Response Rubric

3 Ways to Look at Rhythm

How to Scan a Poem

Annie Finch's article was adapted from her own text.  The article is located here.  

On Prosody: Tips for Scanning Poetry

Dr. Donna Campbell's (Professor and Director of Graduate Studies Department of English WSU) notes on prosody are simple and effective:

1. Read the poem aloud. As you read, listen for a natural emphasis in the rhythm of the line. The syllables you emphasize will be those that you'll mark with a / (indicating a stressed syllable).

2. As you read the poem aloud, try tapping your foot or pounding your hand on a desk when you hear the accented syllables. This will help you to hear the rhythm.

If you can't hear the rhythm, try reading the words into a tape recorder and listening to them. You can also try reading the lines to someone and asking that person to mark the stressed syllables, or, conversely, ask someone to read the poem and mark the lines as you listen to them.

3. Read more than one line. Sometimes the first line of a poem may have spondees or other types of feet that will throw off your reading. Remember, you are looking for the predominant metrical pattern of the piece.

4. Mark the stressed syllables first, and then go back and mark the unstressed syllables. The mark for these is a breve, which looks like a sideways parenthesis mark or shallow "u."

5. If you are not sure which syllables should be stressed, look for two- and three-syllable words in a line and pronounce them as you would normally pronounce them. These will help you to determine the stressed syllables in a line. For example, you'd say aBOVE, not Above, MURmuring, not murMURing or murmurING.

6. Try typing out the lines and breaking the words into syllables so that you can see them individually instead of as part of a word.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day

The cur few tolls the knell of part ing day

This will make the process of finding the stressed syllables easier.

7. Once you have marked the lines for stressed and unstressed syllables, divide the lines according to the kinds of feet. (Use a larger / slash mark or circle the feet.):

unstressed STRESSED = iambic (sounds like da-DUM: aBOVE, beLOW)

Example: The CURfew TOLLS the KNELL of PARTing DAY

STRESSED unstressed = trochaic (sounds like DA-dum: CAREless CHILDren)

unstressed unstressed STRESSED = anapestic (galloping meter; sounds like da-da-DUM: by reQUEST )

STRESSED unstressed unstressed = dactylic (DA-dum-dum: MUR-mur-ing A-li-en; JU-li-et CAP-u-let )

8. Count up the number of feet.

Monometer = one foot

Dimeter = two feet

Trimeter = three feet

Tetrameter = four feet

Pentameter = five feet

Hexameter = six feet

Heptameter or the septenary = seven feet

Octameter = eight feet

9. Put the type of foot (iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic) together with the number of feet, and you've identified the meter.