Meter

Definition: The rhythmic structure or patterns of lines in a verse.

Example: Iambic pentameter (5 iambs, 10 syllables)

• That time | of year | thou mayst | in me | behold
• 
  
• trochaic tetrameter (4 trochees, 8 syllables)

• Tell me | not in | mournful | numbers

anapestic trimeter (3 anapests, 9 syllables)

• And the sound | of a voice | that is still

dactylic hexameter (6 dactyls, 17 syllables; a trochee replaces the last dactyl)

• This is the | forest pri | meval, the | murmuring | pine and the | hemlocks

Significance: The significance of meter is great because it allows you to read the poem in the correct beat and pattern. Meter gives the poem a nice rhythm. 

Rhyme

Definition: A poem or verse that has the same sound at the end of each line.

Example:
Take my nice, new shiny nickel
Sell me that juicy, garlic pickle!

In this poem, its obvious that nickel and pickle are the rhyming words.

Significane: Rhyme is just as important as rhythm. Rhyme makes it easier to memorize poems. Rhyme also makes poems more fun to read.

Rhythm

Definition: A repeated pattern of sound or motion. Sometimes each line will have the same syllables. 


Example: 
"When the dog bites,
When the bee stings,When I'm feeling sad."

Significance: The significance of rhythm is good because it tells us how to read the poem. Rhythm also tells us how fast we should read the poem. 

Onomatopoeia

Definition: Using words to describe sounds.

Example: Snap Crackle Pop!

Significance: The significance of onomatopoea is great because it enables you to hear what's happening.

Personification

Definition: Giving human traits, characteristics, and abilities to anything not human.

Example:

The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky.

Significance: The significance of personification is good because it can make inanimate objects more lively. Personification can make stories more interesting and funny. Personification also helps us relate more to the object that is being personified.

Imagery

Definition: Visually descriptive writing that uses one of the five senses.

Example:

The turquoise pool rose up to meet us,
its slide a silver afterthought down which
we plunged, screaming, into a mirage of bubbles.
We did not exist beyond the gaze of a boy.

Shaking water off our limbs, we lifted
up from ladder rungs across the fern-cool
lip of rim. Afternoon. Oiled and sated,
we sunbathed, rose and paraded the concrete,

danced to the low beat of "Duke of Earl".
Past cherry colas, hot-dogs, Dreamsicles,
we came to the counter where bees staggered
into root beer cups and drowned. We gobbled

cotton candy torches, sweet as furtive kisses,
shared on benches beneath summer shadows.
Cherry. Elm. Sycamore. We spread our chenille
blankets across grass, pressed radios to our ears,

mouthing the old words, then loosened
thin bikini straps and rubbed baby oil with iodine
across sunburned shoulders, tossing a glance
through the chain link at an improbable world.

In this poem, I can smell chlorine, cotton candy, and sunscreen. I also see girls having fun at the pool.

Signficance: The signficance of imagery is great because it allows you to clearly see, hear, smell, touch, and taste what's going on in the poem. Imagery helps you clearly picture and imagine the poem in your mind.

Simile

Definition: Comparing two differnt objects using "like" or "as"

Example:

As delicate as a flower

Signficance: The signifiance of similies are good because it lets you use creativity to compare diferent things. Using similes allows you to have a clearer understand of the comparison. Similes also make comparisons fun to write.

Repetition

Definition: Words, phrases, or lines that are repeated multiple times.

Example: In this poem, "Fallen cold and dead." is one of the repeative part.

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won;The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head;

It is some dream that on the deck,

You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!

But I, with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

Signficance: Repetition is important because it lets the poet prove his/her point.

Tone

Definition: The attitude or emotion of the words in the poem spoken by the speaker.

Example: In the poem O'Captain My Captain, the tone in the beginning is mournful and the tone in the end is triumphant.

Significance: The tone is very important because it allows to you feel the mood of the poem. The tone lets the speaker express their feelings.

Interpretation

Definition:  To understand the meaning and theme of the poem. To find the meaning using your own words.

Example: My interpretation of the poem If is that it's inspirational towards boys.

Signficance: The significance of interpetating a poem is helpful because it allows you to fully understand what the poem is about.

Metaphor (Extended Metaphor)

Definition: A metaphor is when you compare two different ideas without using "like" or "as." An extended metaphor is comparing groups of connected ideas.


Example: 
Metaphor: "Baby you light up my world like nobody else" ~ One Direction


Extended Metaphor: The fog comes in on little cat feet.
It sits looking over the harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then, moves on. - 'Fog' - Carl Sandburg


Significance: The significance of metaphors is good because it makes the poem more interesting and fun to read. 

Speaker

Definition: A speaker is the narrative voice that expresses his/her feelings in the poem. The speaker is who the point of view is in the poem. The speaker may not always be the poet.


Example: Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

Mother and Son by Langston Hughes

In this poem, the mother is the speaker and she's talking to her son.

Significance: The significance of a speaker is important because it allows you to feel the mood of the poem. Also, the speaker helps let you understand the purpose and meaning of the poem. 

Symbol

Definition: A symbol is an object or a person that represents something.

Example: For Christians, the cross stands for Jesus's sacrifice. It symbolizes the sins he washed away when he died on it.

Significance: Symbols are important because it lets any object turn into something really valuable.

Couplet

Definition: A stanza that contains a pair of lines that are usually rhyme and are the same length.

Example: Silly SallyWhen Silly Sally irons her clothes, they come out looking awful.
She did not read the label and her iron was meant to waffle.

Significance: Couplets are important because it makes the poem easier to read and understand. Without couplets, poems would look more like a novel would be less fun to read.

Stanza

Definition: A group of lines in a poem that contains different numbers of verses.

Example: Do not go gentle into that good night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Significance: Stanzas allow you to clearly understand the poem by separating different ideas and organizing the poem. Without stanzas, the poems would be harder to read.