POETRY

PREPARED BY:
Arlene L. Estrada

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Poetry
Looks very different from prose on a printed page. It is
made up of lines and ending unevenly on the right hand margin
while prose works are made up of sentences put together in
paragraph form.
The meaning imparts seem to be more complex and more
difficult to grasp.
Much of the message is implied in it’s author’s carefully
chosen words and image.
Expression of human sentiment.
The utterance might have motivation or provocation.
Like fictiona nd drama– it has a story to tell.
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Elements of Poetry
1. Rhyme – the regular recurrence of similar
sounds usually at the end of the lines.
2. Rhythm – like the beat of music, recurrence of
pattern of sound. The result of systematically
stressing or accenting words and syllables.
3. Meter – the measure with which we count the
beat of rhythm. From the Greek word metron
meaning to measure . Dimeter, trimeter,
tetrameter, pentameter indicate the number of
measures or feet per line. The rise and falling
ryhthm, unstressed and stressed syllables 3
Elements of Poetry
4. Repetition is the repeated use of sound, word, phrase,
sentence, rhythmical pattern or grammatical pattern.
Forms of repetition include:
a. Alliteration – initial consonant sounds
b. consonance – internal consonant words.
c. assonance – vowel sounds
d. parallelism - grammatical pattern
5. Onomatopoeia – refers to words that sounds like what they
mean. Ex. Bang! To the sound of the Gun.

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Figures of Speech
1. Simile – Latin word which means similar. A
stated comparison between two things that are
really very different but share some common
element. (Like, as, as if, than, similar to)
2. Methaphor – Greek verb methaphere which
means to carry over. A suggested or implied
comparison between two unlike things without
the use of like, as if etc.
3. Personification – gives human qualities or
attributes to an object, an animal or idea. 5
Figures of Speech
4. Metonymy – from the Greek prefix meta which
means change plus the root anoma, name plus the
noun suffix – y. Consists of substitution of the
literal noun for another which it suggests because
it is somehow associated with.
5. Hyperbole – from the Greek prefix hyper, which
means beyond plus the root ballein to throw .
Deliberate overstatement or exxageration – not to
deceive, but to emphasize a statement – often for
humorous effect. 6
Figures of Speech
6. Irony is a statement of one idea, the opposite of
which is meant.

7. Oxymoron is the combining of contraries

(opposites) to portray a particular image or to
produce a striking effect.

8. Apostrophe is a direct address to inaminate

object, a dead person (as if present), or an idea.
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