LITERARY ELEMENTS IN POETRY

I can identify features of poetry such as meter, rhyme scheme, punctuation, line length, and word position and explain how they are used to convey meaning in poetic works.

Agenda

Bell Ringer Flashback: Making inferences Guided practice on literary elements in poetry

(Meter, Rhyme, Graphic Elements) Application: Analyze literary elements in

poetry Exit Slip

Quality Core Standard A.3.d – Identify and interpret works in various poetic forms and explain how meaning is conveyed through features of poetry.

Quality Core Standard A.5.a – Use organization or structure of text to aid in comprehension.

Quality Core Standard B.6.a – Recognize that correct punctuation choices create effects.

Bell Ringer: (A) 3/8 & (B) 3/9On the note card given to you, please

write YOUR NAME and the following:

1. What is the one question you created for the Socratic Circle seminar?

2. Make one prediction about events that will occur later in the novel and explain why you think this.

Bell Ringer: (A) 3/8 & (B) 3/9

Subject-Verb agreement: Making your verb tense agree with your subject (whether singular or plural).

Choose correct verb form: Choose correct placement for the verb or subject in the sentence, as well as the correct agreement (avoiding double negatives, etc.)

Correct the following problems with subject-verb agreement in lyrics from “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down,” by P. Diddy (formerly known as Puff Daddy)

1) Just want me one bad chick.2) Can’t nobody take my pride. Can’t nobody hold me down.3) We ain’t stuck with rules.4) I be out in Jersey.5) I know the thugs be wanting to slug.

"Can't Nobody Hold Me Down"

Corrections

Literary elements (poetic devices)

ONOMATOPOEIA

Words that imitate the sound they are naming

BUZZ OR sounds that imitate another sound

ALLITERATION

Consonant sounds repeated at the beginnings of words

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

CONSONANCE

Similar to alliteration EXCEPT . . .

The repeated consonant sounds can be anywhere in the words

“silken, sad, uncertain, rustling . . “

ASSONANCE

Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line or lines of poetry.

(Often creates near rhyme.)

LakeFate Base Fade (All share the long “a” sound.)

ASSONANCE cont.

Examples of ASSONANCE:“Slow the low gradual moan came in the

snowing.”- John Masefield

“Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep.”- William Shakespeare

REFRAIN

A sound, word, phrase or line repeated regularly in a poem.

“Quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore.’”

SIMILE

A comparison of two things using “like, as than,” or “resembles.”

“She is as beautiful as a sunrise.”

METAPHOR

A direct comparison of two unlike things

“All the world’s a stage, and we are merely players.”

- William Shakespeare

EXTENDED METAPHOR

A metaphor that goes several lines or possible the entire length of a work.

IMPLIED METAPHOR

The comparison is hinted at but not clearly stated.

“The poison sacs of the town began to manufacture venom, and the town swelled and puffed with the pressure of it.”

- from The Pearl- by John Steinbeck

Hyperbole

Exaggeration often used for emphasis.

Litotes

Understatement - basically the opposite of hyperbole. Often it is ironic.

Ex. Calling a slow moving person “Speedy”

Idiom

An expression where the literal meaning of the words is not the meaning of the expression. It means something other than what it actually says.

Ex. It’s raining cats and dogs.

PERSONIFICATION

An animal given human-like qualities or an object given life-like qualities.

from “Ninki”by Shirley Jackson

“Ninki was by this time irritated beyond belief by the general air of incompetence exhibited in the kitchen, and she went into the living room and got Shax, who is extraordinarily lazy and never catches his own chipmunks, but who is, at least, a cat, and preferable, Ninki saw clearly, to a man with a gun.

SYMBOLISM

When a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself also represents, or stands for, something else.

= Innocence

= America

= Peace

Allusion

Allusion comes from the verb “allude” which means “to refer to”

An allusion is a reference to something famous.

A tunnel walled and overlaid

With dazzling crystal: we had read

Of rare Aladdin’s wondrous cave,

And to our own his name we gave.

From “Snowbound”

John Greenleaf Whittier

IMAGERY

Language that appeals to the senses. Most images are visual, but they can

also appeal to the senses of sound, touch, taste, or smell.

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather . . .

from “Those Winter Sundays”

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines two words with opposite meanings. Even the word oxymoron is an oxymoron:

oxy is Greek for “sharp” and moron is Greek for “dull”. Jumbo shrimp, act naturally, calm storm, cold

sweat, good grief

HISTORICAL CONTEXT NOTES:

THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE AND CIVIL RIGHTS

MOVEMENT

“THE HARLEM DANCER”by: Claude McKay (1890-

1948)APPLAUDING youths laughed with young prostitutes

And watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway;

Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes

Blown by black players upon a picnic day.

She sang and danced on gracefully and calm,

The light gauze hanging loose about her form;

To me she seemed a proudly-swaying palm

Grown lovelier for passing through a storm.

Upon her swarthy neck black, shiny curls

Profusely fell; and, tossing coins in praise,

The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls,

Devoured her with their eager, passionate gaze;

But, looking at her falsely-smiling face

I knew her self was not in that strange place.

Flashback: Can you identify the use of THREE literary elements in this poem?

What is the theme of the poem?

“THE HARLEM DANCER”by: Claude McKay (1890-

1948)APPLAUDING youths laughed with young prostitutes

And watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway;

Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes

Blown by black players upon a picnic day.

She sang and danced on gracefully and calm,

The light gauze hanging loose about her form;

To me she seemed a proudly-swaying palm

Grown lovelier for passing through a storm.

Upon her swarthy neck black, shiny curls

Profusely fell; and, tossing coins in praise,

The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls,

Devoured her with their eager, passionate gaze;

But, looking at her falsely-smiling face

I knew her self was not in that strange place.

Flashback: Can you identify the use of THREE literary elements in this poem?

What is the theme of the poem?

Harlem Renaissance and Civil Rights Movement

Think/Pair/Share

What do you think of when you hear the following:

Harlem Renaissance Civil Rights MovementWhat major events are associated with

these time periods?

Harlem Renaissance

Began in the 1920s in the almost exclusively African-American area of Harlem in New York City

For the first time, African-American culture became a focus for the nation

The Harlem area became a central location for African-American literature, music, dance, and the performing arts

Segregation and The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement was a political, legal, and social struggle to gain full citizenship rights for African Americans.

During the movement, individuals and civil rights organizations challenged segregation and discrimination with a variety of activities, including protest marches, boycotts, and refusal to abide by segregation laws.

Flashback: Making Inferences

To make an inference means to arrive at your own conclusion from facts; to read between the lines.

View the following photo and write down three inferences about what you are seeing.

Flashback: Making Inferences

Flashback: Making Inferences

This photo is from a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Jackson, Mississippi, May 28, 1963.

A sit-in is a type of protest in which a group occupies the seats or the floor of an establishment. It is a form of nonviolent resistance.

What other cultures have had to struggle for civil rights?

Flashback: Making Inferences

Now, read Dudley Randall’s poem “The Ballad of Birmingham” and listen to the musical recorded version.

Write down three inferences about what the poem and song are describing.

Tennessee State University, “The Ballad of Birmingham”

Focus

“The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan on September 15, 1963, killing four African American girls. The tragedy incited local riots and national outrage and was a central moment leading to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

— Encyclopedia of Alabama

Focus

Now that you know what “The Ballad of Birmingham” is about, take another look at it.

What do you notice about how the poem is structured?

What do you notice about how it sounds?

How do the sound and structure of this poem emphasize the struggle for civil rights?

Literary elements in poetry

Poets use various literary elements to convey meaning, such as: Meter Rhyme

End rhyme Internal rhyme

Rhyme scheme Graphic elements

Punctuation Line length Word position

Meter

Meter is a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.

As you read a piece of poetry, listen for the stressed and unstressed syllables.

/ = stressed syllable

˘ = unstressed syllable

Meter

When we read A Midsummer Night’s Dream, do you remember why the lovers sounded different from Bottom and the actors?

The lovers spoke in poetry and the actors spoke in prose.

Do you remember what we called that type of poetry?

Iambic pentameter

The reason the prose and poetry in MSND sound different is meter. Shakespeare used it to emphasize class (wealthy vs. poor). Today we’ll look at how other poets use it.

Meter

Listen for the meter in this song. Note how the rapper emphasizes certain syllables. This is where you would put a / mark. The syllables that are not emphasized would get a ˘.

De La Soul, “Me, Myself, and I”

Meter

A poet chooses to use meter to emphasize certain words and to emphasize meaning.

Now that you’ve identified meter in a song, let’s find it in a poem.

Read “Incident” by Countee Cullen. In pairs, mark the stressed ( / ) and unstressed ( ˘ ) syllables.

As you do this, consider what “meaning” or point Cullen is trying to emphasize.

Partner Application: Meter

Meter

How does Cullen’suse of meter help convey being the victim of prejudice?

Rhyme

Rhyme is the repetition of vowel sounds and all the following sounds in words that are close together.

For example: fun and sun. Not only is the u sound identical in both words,

they also both end in n. Another example: mystery and history.

Although they aren’t spelled the same, both words contain the same vowel sound, and all the sounds following the vowel are the same.

Rhyme

Usually, rhymes create a particular pattern in a poem, called a rhyme scheme.

We mark rhyme schemes in poems using letters A, B, C, and so on. For example…

Rhyme

”Dreams” by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams A (because it’s the first sound)

For if dreams die B (because it’s a new sound)

Life is a broken-winged bird C (because “bird” doesn’t rhyme with the two previous words)

That cannot fly. B (because “fly” rhymes with “die”)

Hold fast to dreams A For when dreams go BLife is a barren field CFrozen with snow. B (so the rhyme scheme

is ABCB)

Rhyme

Just as meter is used for emphasis, so is rhyme.

Sometimes the rhyme scheme will not always follow a predictable pattern (like it does in a sonnet). This is usually to emphasize a point.

Next, read “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and mark the rhyme scheme. Note that rhyme scheme isn’t always consistent

throughout the whole poem. Consider what point Dunbar is making with his

inconsistent rhyme scheme.

Paul Laurence Dunbar“We Wear the Mask”

We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while             We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise,             We wear the mask!

We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while             We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise,             We wear the mask!

What word stands out from the rhyme scheme? Why do you think Dunbar chose to do this?

AABBA

AABC

AABBAC

Rhyme

So far, we’ve only talked about end rhymes, which are rhymes that occur at the ends of lines.

Internal rhymes are rhymes that occur within a line.

Rhyme

Listen to this song and read along with the lyrics. Write down one example of an end rhyme and one example of an internal rhyme.

Notorious B.I.G., “Juicy”

Write down one example of internal rhyme and one example of an end rhyme…

It was all a dream I used to read Word Up magazine Salt 'n' Pepa and Heavy D up in the limousine Hangin' pictures on my wall Every Saturday Rap Attack, Mr. Magic, Marley Marl I let my tape rock 'til my tape popped---------------------------------------------------------------------Way back, when I had the red and black lumberjack With the hat to match Remember Rappin' Duke, duh-ha, duh-haYou never thought that hip hop would take it this far Now I'm in the limelight 'cause I rhyme tight Time to get paid, blow up like the World Trade Born sinner, the opposite of a winner Remember when I used to eat sardines for dinner Peace to Ron G, Brucey B, Kid Capri Funkmaster Flex, Lovebug Starsky I'm blowin' up like you thought I would Call the crib, same number, same hood It's all good

Internal Rhyme

Internal rhyme helps you remember the message and it also helps puts emphasis on what the poet wants you to know.

Look at your internal rhyme example.

How does this emphasis contribute to the meaning of the poem?

Free Verse

So far, we have only talked about poetry that rhymes and has predictable rhythm. Not all poems are like this. Free verse is a form of poetry that uses no regular meter or rhyme scheme and sounds more like everyday speech.

Free verse relies on graphic elements such as word placement, punctuation, and line length to convey meaning.

What are Graphic Elements in Poetry? What do you notice about punctuation in

a poem?Dashes? Lack of punctuation? Repeated periods?

Exclamation marks? Commas? Capital letters?

What do you notice about line length in a poem?

Short lines? Long lines? Combination? Why?

What do you notice about word placement in a poem?

Words create visual effect? One word per line?

Graphic Elements

Read the poem “Women” by Alice Walker. As you read, pay attention to word placement, punctuation, and line length.

How does Walker use graphic elements to convey meaning?

They were women thenMy mama’s generationHusky of voice—Stout ofStepWith fists as well asHandsHow they battered downDoorsAnd ironedStarched whiteShirtsHow they ledArmiesHeadragged GeneralsAcross minedFieldsBooby-trappedKitchensTo discover booksDesksA place for usHow they knew what we Must knowWithout knowing a page Of itThemselves.

Graphic Elements in Poetry

Pick one element (punctuation, line length, word choice) and describe how it helps convey meaning in this poem.

Concrete Poems

Graphic elements can be manipulated to create concrete poems.

In concrete poems, the words are arranged to create a picture that relates to the content of the poem.

What picture does this concrete poem create?

PoetryIs like

Flames,Which are

Swift and elusiveDodging realization

Sparks, like words on thePaper, leap and dance in theFlickering firelight. The fiery

Tongues, formless and shiftingShapes, tease the

imagination.Yet for those who see,Through their mind’s

Eye, they burnUp the page.

Application

Now, choose two poems from the following cultures who have fought for civil rights (African-American, Hispanic, and Native American).

As you read, answer the questions for each poem.

“We Real Cool” read by Gwendolyn Brooks

(audio for “We Real Cool” above)

Exit Slip

In a paragraph, explain how meter, rhyme, and/or graphic elements affect the meaning of a poem. Give specific examples.