Poetry Study Guide

Poetry--says more in less space

Poetic Licence--you can break the rules as long as you have a good reason

Sound Devices--the use of a sound or musical quality to achieve a certain effect

1.  Alliteration--repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of words somewhat close together

2.  Assonance--repetition of vowel sounds in the middle of words somewhat close together

3.  Onomatopoeia--words that sound like the sounds they are describing

4.  Rhyme--words that have the same end sound

• End--end of the line
• Internal--within the line
• True--exact
• Approximate--pretty close

5.  Refrain--a word, phrase, or line repeated in a poem for a reason (not just accidentally)

Figurative Language--the opposite of literal, using one thing to describe another

1.  Simile--comparing two things using like or as

2.  Metaphor--comparing two things directly without using like or as

3.  Personification--giving human characteristics to a non-human thing

4.  Hyperbole--exaggeration for effect

5.  Symbol--something that stands for itself and something more too

Line Breaks--how you decide to divide up your poem; IMPORTANT!

Stanza--a paragraph in a poem

• Couplet--a two line stanza
• Triplet--a three line stanza
• Quatrain--a four line stanza
• Can you figure out what stanzas with more lines would be called?