Poetry

Definitions, Classes, Terms, and

“Casey at the Bat”
Definition
 Special kind of writing in which language,
pictures, and sounds combine, creating a
special emotional effect
 Written in units called “stanzas”
 More musical than prose writings (the effect of
the language used)
 Subject matter is wide in range
 Poems can be about ANYTHING
Classes of Poetry
 Narrative – tells a story
 Has a plot and characters, BUT only focus one
part of the story
 The selection and arrangement of these events
make the poem unique.
 Has been popular for centuries beginning with
the English ballads
 Lyrical – expresses personal thoughts,
feelings, and/or emotions
 Short and musical
“Casey at the Bat”
 First Stanza – sets the scene of the poem.
 Fifth Stanza – lines 17 – 19 use
exaggerated language
 The crowd’s cheering and its impact on the
surrounding countryside
 Creates suspense and adds tone to the poem
 Tone is the attitude or feeling of the poem
“Casey at the Bat” (cont.)
 Fifth Stanza – lines 18-19 contains
parallelism to describe the sound and
resonance of the crowd’s cheering; also
builds suspense as Casey approaches the
plate.
 Parallelism – the repeating of phrases or
sentences so that the repeated parts are alike in
structure or meaning.
 Can you identify the parallelism?
“Casey at the Bat” (cont.)
 Stanzas 6-8 – Casey’s pride is expressed through visual
images and tone of voice.
 Stanza 9 – contains the use of simile to add an exaggerated
description of the scene (line 34).
 Simile – a figure of speech that directly compares two
seemingly unlike things using a comparison word such as “like”
or “as”
 Stanza 10 – lines 37-38 contain irony
 Irony – contrasts b/t reality and what seems to be real
 Casey is described as if he is a saint soothing angry hordes of
people, which contrasts the previous descriptions of the larger than
life, prideful hero.
“Casey at the Bat” (cont.)
 Stanza 10 – lines 37-38 contain irony
 Irony – contrasts b/t reality and what seems to be real
 Casey is described as if he is a saint soothing angry hordes
of people, which contrasts the previous descriptions of the
larger than life, prideful hero.
 Stanzas 14-15 – lines 49-52 use elevated,
philosophical language to heighten the drama of
the situation
 The author’s change to the present tense in these stanzas
increases the immediacy of the poem’s climax.
 Climax – the point of highest interest and greatest emotional
involvement in a narrative.
LYRIC POETRY
Lyric Poetry
 Poetry in which the speaker reveals
personal thoughts and feelings.

 Comes from the Greek word lyrikos, a short

poem sung to the music of the lyre, a small
harp-like instrument.
“I Wandered Lonely
as a Cloud”
 Wordsworth describes his memory’s ability to
change his “vacant” or “pensive” mood to
pleasure (ll. 20-24).
 This is considered the main idea of the poem.
 He feels the seemingly trivial moment brought him great
and unexpected “wealth” (l. 18).

What are some examples of personification in this poem?

 IMAGERY
&
FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE
“Dreams”
 What are the two metaphors linked together
in this poem that describe dreams?

 What do these metaphors imply about the

necessity of dreams?

 What warning does Hughes issue in his poem

about dreams?
“The Seven Ages of Man”
 Speaker – Jaques (a character from
Shakespeare’s As You Like It)

 The poem is an example of an extended

metaphor. What is the metaphor being
extended throughout this poem?
“The Seven Ages of Man”
 Stages of man in the poem
 (1) Infancy – “mewling and puking”
 (2) Child – “whining school boy”
 (3) Youth of a Lover – “sighing like furnace”
 (4) Later Youth of a Soldier – “bearded like the
pard”
 (5) Maturity and Middle Age of a Judge – “in fair
round belly”
“The Seven Ages of Man”
 Stages (cont.)
 (6) Old Age – “spectacles on nose”
 (7) Senility – “second childishness

 In As You Like It Jaques is a cynic, a man who

doubts the goodness and kindness of human
beings. Explain how your reaction to the poem
changes once you know Jaques’ personality.
The Total Effect
 The title addresses the poet’s main concern.
 The speaker is the person or thing that acts as
the voice in the poem.
 The choice of words should fit the speaker.
 The sound of the poem – its use of rhyme,
rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration,
assonance, and parallelism – should suit its
mood.
The Total Effect (cont)
 Imagery and figures of speech, such as
personification, simile, and metaphor, should
allow the poem to appeal directly to your senses
and to your own experience.
 Remember that narrative poems tell stories and
lyric poems express an emotion.
“maggie and milly
and molly and may”
 Maggie, Milly, Molly, and May go to the beach.
Each discovers a special part of herself in what
she sees on the shore.
 Maggie – troubled; sea comforts her
 Milly – friendly, poetic
 Molly – timid, not inquisitive
 May – alone in a small world

 What literary devices are used by Cummings?

“The Bells”
by Edgar Allan Poe
 First Stanza

 What type of bells are being described?

 What effect of Poe’s use of alliteration and

assonance have on you as the reader?
“The Bells”
by Edgar Allan Poe
 Second Stanza

 Type of bells?

 Effect of alliteration and assonance?

 Notice the presence of parallelism and

personification?
“The Bells”
by Edgar Allan Poe
 Third Stanza

 Type of bells?

 Alliteration/Assonance?

 Onomatopoeia?
“The Bells”
by Edgar Allan Poe
 Fourth Stanza

 Type of bells?

 Personification?
“The Bells”
by Edgar Allan Poe
 Structure of the poem

 Although each stanza begins and ends similarly,

each stanza’s middle section is progressively
larger and more developed.

 This allows Poe to show how horror gradually

grows out of joy. Cheery, isn’t it?
Speaker and Word
Choice
In Poetry
 Definitions
 Speaker – the voice of the poem OR the
role that the poet plays in the poem

 Word Choice – the selection of words in a

piece of literature to convey meaning,
suggest attitude, and create images
 “Knoxville, Tennessee”
 Themes – the seasons and childhood
 Speaker – The reference to “daddy” tells the
reader that the speaker is more than likely a child.

 Tone – The use of the word “you” and the lack of

punctuation give the poem an informal tone.
 The use of parallelism also gives the poem an informal
tone.
 Can you see the parallelism?
 “Child on Top of a Greenhouse”
 Theme – individualism and youth vs. age
 Speaker – the use of the word “my,”
combined with the use of sophisticated
words, establishes the speaker as an adult
looking back on childhood.
 Word choice – vivid participles (flashing, rushing,
plunging, tossing) denote a delight in the senses
for the crowd watching.
 How does the child on the roof feel?
 “The Base Stealer”
 Theme – taking risks
 Speaker – At first, the speaker is unidentified, but
the reader later learns that the speaker is an
observer when the third person pronoun “he” is
used (line 7).
 Word Choice – The poet interjects into his
descriptions of the base stealer the informal,
“under the breath” urgings of the excited fan:
“come on, come on,” “crowd him, crowd him,” and
“Delicate, delicate, delicate – now!” (ll. 5, 9, 10).
 “The Base Stealer” (cont.)
 The poet uses similes in lines
 2 – “like a tightrope walker,”
 4 – “bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ball,”
 5 – “. . . or a kid skipping rope,” and
 8 – “hovers like an ecstatic bird”
 Theme revisited – Francis suggests the exhilaration of taking
risks by the use of the word “ecstatic” and by the exclamatory
“now!” at the climax of the poem.
 The base stealer’s urgency suggests the necessity of taking
risks.
 As a reader, how does Robert Francis make you feel about this
small event?
Narrative Poetry
“The Charge of the Light Brigade”
and
“Lord Randal”
“The Charge of the Light Brigade
 Theme: Courage and Honor, a soldier’s
duty on the battlefield
 Throughout the poem, the author uses
repetition to show the rhythm of the
marching, well as to emphasize the lesser
numbers of the Light Brigade.
 Repetition – the repeating of sounds, letters,
words, or lines, which helps give the poetry its
meaning, form, and sound.
 “Rode the six hundred”
“The Charge of the Light Brigade”
(cont.)
 Stanza 2 – ll. 13-15 refers to the soldier’s duty,
which is to follow orders without talking back or
questioning and carrying them out even if the
result is death.
 Stanza 3 – in ll. 24-25 Tennyson makes use of
metaphors
 He uses fiercely dramatic metaphors to describe the
challenges the British soldiers face in the battle with the
Russians.
 Metaphor – A figure of speech that makes a comparison b/t
two seemingly unlike things
“The Charge of the Light Brigade”
(cont.)
 Main idea in stanzas 3-6 portray the
brigade’s courage against overwhelming
odds through the graphic images of being
surrounded by cannons.
 Constant loss of soldiers coupled with being
completely cut off from escape shows how strong
the Light Brigade’s courage was
“Lord Randal”
 Theme – trust and betrayal
 Ballad – a short, musical narrative poem
 Each stanza opens with the mother asking
a question.
 This suggests that the son is answering his
mother reluctantly. Why?
 What literary effect is being used in the
questioning?
“Lord Randal” (cont.)
 Main idea – In Stanza 4, the mother’s
question suggests that Lord Randal did not
realize he had been poisoned until he saw
his dogs die.
 He put blind faith in this true-love.
 Stanza 5 – In typical ballad form, the love
story reaches a tragic end through
dialogue, repetition, simplicity of detail, and
a limited number of characters.
 IMAGERY
&
FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE
Literary Terms
 Literal language – the ordinary language of
everyday

 Figurative language – use of devices such

as figures of speech (similes, metaphors,
hyperbole, etc.)
“Dreams”
 What are the two metaphors linked together
in this poem that describe dreams?

 What do these metaphors imply about the

necessity of dreams?

 What warning does Hughes issue in his poem

about dreams?
“The Seven Ages of Man”
 Speaker – Jaques (a character from
Shakespeare’s As You Like It)

 The poem is an example of an extended

metaphor. What is the metaphor being
extended throughout this poem?
“The Seven Ages of Man”
 Stages of man in the poem
 (1) Infancy – “mewling and puking”
 (2) Child – “whining school boy”
 (3) Youth of a Lover – “sighing like furnace”
 (4) Later Youth of a Soldier – “bearded like the
pard”
 (5) Maturity and Middle Age of a Judge – “in fair
round belly”
“The Seven Ages of Man”
 Stages (cont.)
 (6) Old Age – “spectacles on nose”
 (7) Senility – “second childishness

 In As You Like It Jaques is a cynic, a man who

doubts the goodness and kindness of human
beings. Explain how your reaction to the poem
changes once you know Jaques’ personality.
LYRIC POETRY
Lyric Poetry
 Poetry in which the speaker reveals
personal thoughts and feelings.

 Comes from the Greek word lyrikos, a short

poem sung to the music of the lyre, a small
harp-like instrument.
“The Courage That
My Mother Had”
 Main Idea - Loss leads the speaker to turn to her
inheritance as a consolation, yet she yearns for a
less tangible inheritance.

 What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?

 Point out some literary devices used by the author
in this poem.
The Total
Effect
Literary Terms
 Literal language – the ordinary language of
everyday

 Figurative language – use of devices such

as figures of speech (similes, metaphors,
hyperbole, etc.)
The Total Effect
 The title addresses the poet’s main concern.
 The speaker is the person or thing that acts as
the voice in the poem.
 The choice of words should fit the speaker.
 The sound of the poem – its use of rhyme,
rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration,
assonance, and parallelism – should suit its
mood.
The Total Effect (cont)
 Imagery and figures of speech, such as
personification, simile, and metaphor, should
allow the poem to appeal directly to your senses
and to your own experience.
 Remember that narrative poems tell stories and
lyric poems express an emotion.
“maggie and milly
and molly and may”
 Maggie, Milly, Molly, and May go to the beach.
Each discovers a special part of herself in what
she sees on the shore.
 Maggie – troubled; sea comforts her
 Milly – friendly, poetic
 Molly – timid, not inquisitive
 May – alone in a small world

 What literary devices are used by Cummings?

“Lost”
 Loneliness is the strongest theme.
 The poem’s strong visual images allow Sandburg to
compare a fogbound ship to a lost child (ll. 1-9)
 There are some examples of assonance and
alliteration in this poem. Identify some of these
and discuss their effect on the poem.