Name: _____________________________ Year and Section: _________ Date: _________ Poetic Elements

SENSE, SOUND AND STRUCTURE OF POETRY

PART 1: DICTION. Words may have positive, negative or neutral meanings depending on how we use
them. In each item is a trio of words. Identify the nuances in meaning by writing them under each correct heading. An
example is done for you.
Underline the
word that best
fits the
sentence.

exotic Foreign Strange 1. “The sooner we move out

of this (home, dump),”
Chat Talk Babble said Jack, “the happier I’ll
be.”
Feast Dinner Slop
2. You’re lucky to have
Fragrance Smell Stench Wilma on your committee.
She has lots of (original,
Venerable Old Decrepit crazy) ideas.
3. It was a beautiful spring
Tune Sound Noise day, and the (stench,
scent) of apple blossoms
Pet Animal Beast
filled the whole yard.
4. “I think Fay is an excellent
president,” said the
principal. “She really
knows how to (manage,
meddle).”
5. Will you please turn your
stereo off? I can’t
PART 2: IMAGERY. Identify the imagery suggested in each excerpt. concentrate with all that
Write on the blank whether it is visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory or tactile. (music, noise).

1. __VISUAL_
On a withered branch 4. _AUDITORY__ as the boom of a palm on a
A crow has settled – Then I hear a wailing piano kettle drum;
Autumn nightfall. Solo speaking of complex ways -Kate Clanchy, Poem for a Man with No
-Basho In tear-furrowed concerto; Sense of Smell
Of far-away lands and new horizons
2. _GUSTATORY_ With coaxing diminuendo, 7. _TACTILE_
When you came, you were like counterpoint, And my blood ripples turns torrent,
red wine and honey, Crescendo. Topples the years and at once I’m
And the taste of you burnt my -Piano and Drums, Gabriel Okara In my mother’s lap a suckling;
mouth with its sweetness. (Nigeria) Fashioned with the naked warmth
Now you are like morning bread, Of hurrying feet
Smooth and pleasant. 5. _VISUAL_ -Piano and Drums, Gabriel Okara
I hardly taste you at all for I know your “But Madam you should see the rest of (Nigeria)
savour, me.
But I am completely nourished. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet 8. VISUAL__
-Amy Lowell, A Decade Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused Africa I have kept you memory
– Africa you are inside
3. _AUDITORY_ Foolishly Madam – by sitting down, Like a splinter in the wound!
Pedestrians…they hurry by whistle, has turned -Jacques Roumain, Africa
Else cowed by the power of relentless My bottom raven black – one moment
wheels… Madam! 9. _GUSTATORY_
The World is lost in the Babel or urban Madam,” I pleaded, “wouldn’t you Cast down your eyes, lift up your souls
sounds, voices. rather see for yourself?” Dig spoons into the great sauce bowls.
-Plaza Miranda 1960, Federico Espino, Jr. -Wole Soyinka, Telephone Conversation East roast and fried and boiled and
(Philippines) (Africa) grilled,
Eat jams and jellies, warm and chilled,
Some literary experts say 6. _OLFACTORY__ Eat quails and cooked golden to the
that POEMS are poems That beneath the spray of minute,
my expensive scent Eat nut-fed lamb with raisins in it.
because of imagery. Without
my armpits sound a bass note strong -The Arabian Nights
it, we only get mere
VERSES. Do you agree?
PART 3: RHYME SCHEME. Identify the rhyme scheme used in this poem. On the blanks after each line,
write the letter corresponding to the scheme suggested.
Rizal had a limited allowance of P50 a month when
he was studying in Madrid. This was further
reduced to P35 a month when their family farm in
Laguna had bad harvests.
Read more at
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/341828/new
s/pinoyabroad/10-little-known-facts-about-dr-jose-
rizal-s-life-in-spain
PAT 4: SYMBOLISM.
Like a Molave (An Excerpt)
Rafael Zulueta da Costa
“Not yet, Rizal, not yet. Sleep not in peace: there
are a thousand waters to be spanned; there are
a thousand mountains to be crossed; there are a
thousand crosses to be borne.
Our shoulders are not strong; our sinews are
grown flaccid with dependence, smug with
ease under another’s wing.”
Rest not in peace;
The Last Poem of Rizal (An Excerpt)
Farewell, my adored Land, region of the sun caressed,
_A_
Pearl of the Orient Sea, our Eden lost, _B_
With gladness I give you my Life, sad and repressed;
_A_
And were it more brilliant, more fresh and at its best,
_A_
I would still give it to you for your welfare at most. _B_
Let the moon with soft, gentle light me descry, _C_
Let the dawn send forth its fleeting, brilliant light, _D_
In murmurs grave allow the wind to sigh, _C_
And should a bird descend on my cross and alight, _D_
Let the bird intone a song of peace o'er my site. _C_
Farewell, parents, brothers, beloved by me, _E_
Friends of my childhood, in the home distressed; _F_
Give thanks that now I rest from the wearisome day;
_G_
Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, who brightened
my way; _G_
Farewell, to all I love. To die is to rest. _F_
Read and understand the given poem. Identify the symbols
in the poem and write their meanings.
__a thousand waters to be spanned; There are thousand
mountains to be crossed; Our shoulders are not strong; our
sinews are grown flaccid with dependence, smug with ease
under another’s wing. Means that __means there are lot of
cannot rest yet because we are still very dependent on others
and we need to become independent. And he will have a lot
battles to win.