Meter

Definition:
Meter- meter is a way of measuring the line or lines of poems by using the rhythm of the words. They are also the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. 


Example:
Shall I compare thee to a summer day
[shall-I]-[com-PARE]-[thee-TO]-[a-SUM]-[mer's-DAY]

-Shakespeare 

Significance:

The significance of meter is to add importance and stress to the syllables to "highlight" the important terms.

Rhyme

Definition:
Rhyme- rhymes or rhyming words end with a sound or noise that corresponds to each other. They may have have the same amount of syllables or the same suffixes. 


Example:
The little boy is walking. 
The little girl is talking.
The young boy is fishing.
The little snake is hissing.


Significance:
The significance of rhymes help the word flow. Rhyming also helps the poem become more lively. 

Rhythm

Definition:
Rhythm-rhythm is a repeating pattern of sound, beat, or movement. 


Example:
Play the music low 
And say to the music of love
Yea, sway to the music of love
-Plain White T's


Significance:
Rhythm appears a lot in songs to hook the person into the song.
Rhythm helps give the song a beat and get the "listener" dancing. 

Onomatopoeia

Definition:
Onomatopoeia- They are a figure of speech that uses words as a substitute for real life noises or sounds.

Example: 

BOOM!

SMACK!

CRACK!

BZZZ!

Significance:

The significance of onomatopoeia is to easily describe sounds or noises in the words without having to describe the sounds or noises explicitly. The words substituted for the noises or sounds sound nearly the same when said out loud. Onomatopeias bring life into the words and imagery.

Personification

Definition:
Personification- a figurative language that gives inanimate or nonhuman objects or creature a humanistic feeling or emotion .

Example:

The tree stares down at the little boy.

The desk is feeling lazy today.

The computer is feeling sick.

The cat is feeling sad today.

The rock is too weak to move.

Significance:

The significance of personification is a figure of speech that helps emphasize and make the poem more lively. At the same time, personification helps give detail to the inanimate object or creature.

Imagery

Definition:
Imagery- a figuratice language used to help the reader visual the words with their own five senses. Imagery is used to help bring the words to life. 

Example:

Crystalized trees etched upon the sky
Gently painted with pastel colors
A hue of pink, a touch of blue
Surrounded by the softest purple
The winter sky at evening time
Reflects confidence in the dawn
The return of light, return of warmth
Spring but a whisper just behind
- Mary O. Fumento

Significance:

The significance of imagery is to help the reader to visulize the poem and make it as realistic as possible. Imagery does not have to be an image. The imagery in the words could also appeal to either of the five senses.

Simile

Definition:
Simile-A figure of spseech to relate two unrelated objects, actions, etc by using "like" or "as."

Example:
He is as fast as lightning.
He is as lazy as a chair.
The wall is like a blank piece of paper.

The backpack is as big as a building.

Significance:

The significance of a simile is to help the reader understand the meaning of the words and to help them visualize the words by relating the object or actions to something more familiar to the reader. The example above helps explain the subject of the sentence by relating it to something else.

Repetition

Definition:
Repetition- Repeating a word or phrase in a poem.

Example:

Alabanza. Praise the cook with the shaven head
and a tattoo on his shoulder that said Oye,
a blue-eyed Puerto Rican with people from Fajardo,
the harbor of pirates centuries ago.
Praise the lighthouse in Fajardo, candle
glimmering white to worship the dark saint of the sea.
Alabanza. Praise the cook's yellow Pirates cap
worn in the name of Roberto Clemente, his plane
that flamed into the ocean loaded with cans for Nicaragua,
for all the mouths chewing the ash of earthquakes.
Alabanza. Praise the kitchen radio, dial clicked
even before the dial on the oven, so that music and Spanish
rose before bread. Praise the bread. Alabanza.
-Martin Espada

Significance:

The significance of repetition is to repeat a phrase of words to continually bring up the main idea of the poem.

Tone

Definition:
Tone-the type of noise or sound that gives evidence of what emotions are being read on the poem.


Example:

Anger is fire
It burns the soul
Anger is deep sea
Drowns one to death

-Dr.Rajendra Tela,Nirantar

The tone of this poem gives a hint that gives you that mean, evil feeling.

Significance:

The tone of the poem makes the words more than just words. They add emotions to the poem to make it seem more realistic.

Interpretation

Definition:
Interpretation-An explanation of a creative work such as a poem.


Example:

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me
as good belongs to you.

- Walt Whitman

This poem is about enjoying life and its benefits.

Significance:

Interpreting poems are important because poems have more meaning if you find the main idea of the poem by interpreting it.

Metaphors and Extended Metaphors

Definition:
Metaphor: A figure of speech that does not use "like" of "as" to compare 2 unrelated actions or nouns to emphasize something.


Extended Metaphor- A metaphor that continues into more than one sentence.


Example:
A piece of paper is a cube.
It is boring and blank.
It's always white and always square.
A piece of paper is always there


-Bill Brooks, Dylan Roelke, Scott Robertson, and Mike Schmidt


Significance:
The significance of metaphors and extended metaphors are to emphasize the meaning of something and/or to relate something to another thing unrelated. For example, the example above is an example of an extended meaphor.

Speaker

Definition:
Speaker- The point of view of the poem. The one who is saying the poem.The point of view of the poem could be all knowing or even be the person in the poem. 


Example:

She is the quiet one
with the brown hair, blue eyes.
A dreamer
caught somewhere between
a woman and a child,
living a life united  
by stirrups and manes.
Wanting to do
everything, with never enough
time for it all,
she rails against the
frustration of being only human.
-Nikki


Significance:
The significance of the speaker of a poem is to show who's point of view the poem is talking about. For example, the point of view to the poem above is 3rd person or all knowing. They know everything. 

Symbols

Definition:

Symbol-A symbol is somthing that represents something else in an indirect way. They could represent anything.

Example:

The winter apples have been picked, the garden turned.
Rain and wind have picked the maple leaves and gone.
The last of them now bank the house or have been burned.
None are left upon the trees or on the lawn.
-Robert Francis

Significance:

The importance of symbols are to help explain things in poems easier. For example, the poem above could symbolize the life of a person.

Couplet

Definition:

Couplet- two lines of a verse that rhymes.


Example:

I found a starfish in the bay

When i was fishing everyday

Starfish, Starfish in the ocean

Moving along in slow motion

Many arms and color bright

Sea stars are a special sight

- Anonymous

Significance:

The significance of a couplet is to explain an idea. Couplets are important in a poem is to emphasize the the meaning and make the poem easier to understand.

Stanza

Definition:
Stanza- A stanza is a group of words in a poem that is arranged in a "paragraph" form that is related to one idea of the poem. Stanzas are also created to separate one or more ideas in a poem.

Example:

“Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
- Francis Scott Key




Significance:Stanzas are important in poems to separate blocks of writing in poems to emphasize the importance of an idea in a stanza. They also help separate different meanings in the poem.