STUDENT NOTES BASED: Poetry Figurative Language and Sound Device

The phsyche

Includes conscious mind, personal unconscious, and collective unconscious.

Conscious

Thoughts and perceptions we are aware of.

Personal Unconscious:

Unique to each person, includes memories, feelings

Collective Unconscious:

Shared, universal layer with inherited archetypes.

Ego:

Center of consciousness and sense of self.

Persona:

The mask we show the world.

Shadow

Repressed or hidden aspects of self.

Anima/Animus:

Inner opposite-gender identity.

Self:

The full realization of the psyche (goal of individuation)

5 key analyzing poem tips

1. read a poem more than once 

2. Understand every word (use a dictionary)

3. Pay careful attention to what the poem is saying ; follow each line carefully 

4. Pay attention to rhythm/rhyming by reading out loud 

***5. never judge any single element of a poem expect in reference to the total intent of the poem 

Denotation

dictionary meaning

Connotation

suggestions beyond what it expresses through history, associations, circumstances

Why is connotation important for poetry?

It can enrich meaning & help us understand tone 

• Ex: Home suggests love, comfort, & family while House is more impersonal 

• Pay attention WHY a word was used. An acquaintance of night was chosen

Imagery

representation through language of sense (visual, auditory, smell, taste, and touch)

tips for using imagery in poetry analysis(3 tips)

1. Relate imagery to its uses in conveying emotion, suggesting ideas, and mentally evoking sense experiences

2. Ambiguity and double meaning contribute to the richness of poetry 

3.  pay attention to the contrast of abstract statements and concrete, imagery sentences 

Simile

Comparing two things using “like” or “as” or “seems”

Metaphor

indirect comparison when a term is substituted for the literal term (no “like” or “as”) 

Personification

giving human attributes to an animal, object, or concept *subtype of metaphor

Apostrophe

addressing someone absent, dead, or nonhuman as if that person/thing was present and could respond (includes inanimate objects like a piece of clay)

• Ex: Twinkle, twinkle little star; How I wonder what you are”

Synecdoche

The use of the part for the whole

• Ex: “Nice wheels!” — uses “wheels” to designate a whole car

Metonymy

Use of something closely related for the thing actually meant 

• Ex: “Hollywood” is often used to describe the American film industry 

• “The White House announced” refers to the President’s announcement 

Symbol

uses a concrete object, person, or idea to represent something more abstract or complex, adding depth and meaning beyond its literal sense. 

• Needs to be a physical object in the story (Gatsby’s green light is present in the story) 

Allusion

 indirect reference 

Allegory

narrative with a system of characters and events that has a second meaning 

• Has a singular meaning and most direct figurative language (Ex: The Crucible) 

Paradox

apparent contradiction that is somehow true (can be a situation (paradoxical situation) or statement (paradoxical statement) or dialogue (verbal paradox)

Paradoxical statement

contradiction stems from one of the words being used figuratively or w/ one or more denotation

*adds shock value + impossibility startles readers and underscores the absurdity said

paradoxical situation

a situation containing apparently but not actually incompatible elements.

• The celebration of a fifth birthday anniversary by a twenty-year-old man is a paradoxical but explainable if the man was born on February 29.

• The Christian doctrines that Christ was born of a virgin and is both God and man are for a Christian believer, paradoxes (that is, apparently impossible but true)

hyperbole/understatement

exaggeration 

Understatement

saying less than what is meant

Sarcasm

bitter or cutting speech → meant to hurt

Satire

 formal term indicating ridicule, use of irony/sarcasm to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices

**purpose of bringing reform or keeping people from falling into the same vice 

Irony

A device. By using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

***implies a discrepancy either between what’s said and what’s meant 

• Ex: "“Don't go overboard with the gratitude,” he rejoined with heavy irony"

verbal irony

A speaker says the opposite of what they mean (dialogue)

• Ex: Stepping outside into a torrential downpour and saying, "What lovely weather!".

Dramatic irony

Audience knows something the characters don’t

Situational irony

The opposite of what’s expected

• A fire station burning down

Total meaning

experience it communicates which can’t be communicated another way.

• It includes all those dimensions of experience by which a poem communicates — sensuous, emotional, imaginative, and intellectual — and it can be communicated in no other words than those of the poem itself.

Prose meaning

ingredient that can be separated out in the form of a prose paraphrase 

• Prose meaning can be based on ideas, but not really

Tone

The emotional coloring of a poem (tone) is all the elements in a poem, but pay attention to the adjectives chosen and connotations 

Alliteration

repetition of initial constant sounds (ex: tried and true or safe and sound”

Assonance

repetition of vowel sounds (ex: mad as a hatter ; time out of mind ; free and easy)

Consonance

repetition of final or initial consonant sounds (ex: “first and last ; short and sweet) 

Rhyme

repetition of accented vowel sound and any succeeding consonant sounds

Masculine rhyme

rhyme involved one syllable (deck and sex)

Feminine rhyme

rhyme involved w/ 2 or more syllables (turtle & fertile ; spiteful & delightful) 

Internal rhyme

one or more rhyming words are within the line 

End rhyme

when rhyming words are at the ends of lines *most likely used 

Approximate rhymes/slant rhymes

include words w/ any kinds of sound similarities (can vary a lot) *this includes alliteration, assonance , and consonance & their various line placement 

• Ex: “worm" and "swarm," OR  "film" and "kiln," 

• Fake rhyming

Refrain

repetition according to some fixed pattern (could be whole words, phrases, lines, or even groups of lines). Usually in song-like poetry

2 key notes about rhyme to remember:

• spelling is irrelevant in rhyme (cell & sin are alliterations and bear & pair rhyme ; through & rough don’t rhyme) 

• ALSO, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and masculine rhyme only involve stressed/accented syllables. —> Ex: “which” and “it’s” aren’t assonance because they are unstressed 

Rhyming doesn’t convey ______ but _______ meanings that are established. Understand the _____ and ______ meanings that are conveyed to make it clear what the rhyming is supporting and reinforcing.

meaning; reinforces; emotional and intellectual ;

Rhythm

any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound 

accented/stressed

some syllables are given more prominence to the others (ex: toDAY, toMORrow) 

Rhetorical stresse

 stresses that make intentions clear 

• Ex: “I don’t beLIEVE you” vs “I don’t believe YOU” means 2 different things **need to understand meaning before determining this 

End-stopped line

the end of the line corresponds with a natural speech pause 

Run-on-line

Sense of the line moves on without pause into the next line

Caesuras

a break between words within a metrical foot (semi-colons, periods, commas in the middle of a sentence)

• a speech pause occurring within a line

Enjambment

thought that follows through and then ends( sentence/phrase continues from one lien to the next without ending punctuation, creating seamless flow or momentum)

• Related to caesura

Free verse

poem with no rhyme or regular meter 

Schwa

the unstressed central vowel (as in a mom e nt a go), represented by the symbol /ə/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

• “E” in item 

Meter

rhythmic characteristics we can “tap our feet to” 

measurable repetition of accented and unaccented syllables in poetry

• Rhythm is the flow of the sound and meter is the patterns of sounds in a metrical verse

Prose poem

written as prose, without the line breaks associated with poetry

Foot

basic unit of meter(usually contains one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables)

Metrical Variation

call attention to some of the sounds that depart from the meter 

• departures from basic metrical pattern

Substitution

replacing the regular foot with another one 

Extrametrical syllables

unaccented syllables added at the beginnings or endings of the line 

• in iambic, occur at end of line

• in trochaic, occur at the beginning of line

Truncation

omission of unaccented syllables(at either end of a line)

Scansion

process of defining the metrical form of a poem 

4 Tips for scansion(determining meter of poem)

1. Good readers don’t determine scansion as they are reading, but in some cases do it after as meter severs meaning

2. Scansion is incapable of describing subtle rhythmic effects in poetry 

3. Divisions in feet have no meaning except to understand the meter

4. Perfect regularity of the meter is no criterion of merit 

grammatical/rhetorical pauses

natural halts indicated by punctuation like commas or periods

Onomatopoeia

use of words that sound like what they mean 

• Ex: hiss, snap, bang, jingles, rustle, or any animal noises. Detect by sounding them out

phonetic intensives

words where the sound of the word, to some degree, suggests or reinforces its meaning

• Ex: “fl” sound is often associated w/ moving light like flame, flare, flash. “gl” is used for unmoving light like glare, gleam, glint, glow 

euphony

harmonious sounds which are pleasing to the ear (typically “long vowel sound - ee)

cacophony

rough and harsh sounding (typically consonants, specifically b, d, g, k)

synesthesia

blends human senses → "loud dress" or “chilly gaze” 

• presentation of one sense experience in terms usually associated with another sensation

Dactyl (Dactylic)

Three syllables: 1 stressed, Next 2 unstressed

Anapest (Anapestic)

Three syllables: 2 unstressed, 1 stressed

Iambs (Iambic)

Two syllables: unstressed, stressed

Trochees (Trochaic)

Two syllables: stressed, unstressed  **opposite of Iambic

Spondee

a foot consisting of two long (or stressed) syllables.

Ex. “FOOT-BALL” Both foot and ball are stressed syllables

Monometer

One metrical foot per line.

Dimeter

Two metrical feet per line.

Trimeter

Three metrical feet per line

Tetrameter

Four metrical feet per line.

Pentameter

Five metrical feet per line.

Hexameter

Six metrical feet per line

Heptameter

Seven metrical feet per line

Octameter

Eight metrical feet per line

Italian sonnet form

• Octav 

• Sestet 

English sonnet form

• Quatrains 

• Couplet

What are the four general headings used by Perrine in Sound & Sense to describe how poets use sound to reinforce meaning?

1. Words whose sound, by a process of association, reinforces their meaning

   • This includes onomatopoeia (like buzz, hiss, clang), where the sound directly imitates the thing described.

2. Sound as a secondary meaning-carrier

   • Beyond literal onomatopoeia, poets may use combinations of consonants, vowels, or rhythms that suggest particular moods or sensations (e.g., smooth vowels for softness, harsh consonants for violence).

3. Rhythm and meter reinforcing meaning

   • The movement of the verse (fast, slow, heavy, light, regular, irregular) can mirror or emphasize the poem’s subject matter or emotion.

4. Sound patterning and formal devices

   • This includes rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and other sound patterns that help bind lines together, give emphasis, and underscore meaning.

form

The overall structure and pattern of a poem (how content and structure work together).

Continuous form

No stanza breaks; poem flows without formal divisions.

Structure

The internal arrangement of ideas and content (organization of thought).

Stanza

Group of lines set off in a poem.

• Three attributes: (1) same number of lines, (2) metrical pattern, (3) rhyme scheme.

Rhyme scheme

Pattern of end rhymes in a stanza, labeled with letters (ABAB, etc.).

Villanelle

19 lines; 5 tercets + closing quatrain; two refrains repeat alternately; rhyme scheme usually ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA.

Tercet

3-line stanza, often with rhyme.

Quatrain

4-line stanza, common in English poetry.

Sestet

6-line stanza, often the resolution in an Italian sonnet.

Octave

8-line stanza, often sets up the problem in an Italian sonnet.