- Slides: 12
POETIC DEVICES Form and Stylistic Elements
FORM (POETIC STRUCTURE) v A particular organization of parts that makes a whole Examples • the way words are arranged in a line • lines are arranged in a stanza • units of sound are organized to achieve rhythm and rhyme
TWO CATEGORIES OF FORMS v. Traditional-follows certain fixed rules Examples-sonnet, ballad, epic, ode etc. v. Organic (or irregular form) does not follow any specific strict rules Examples-free verse
STYLISTIC ELEMENTS v Quatrains, or four-line stanzas, that echo the simple rhythms of church hymns Example- Hope is a Thing with Feathers” by Emily Dickenson "Hope" is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all
STYLISTIC ELEMENTS v Slant Rhymes, or words that do not exactly rhyme Example- “The Soul Selects her own Society” by Emily Dickinson The Soul Selects her own Society Then shuts the Door On her divine majority Obtrude no more
STYLISTIC ELEMENTS v. Inventive punctuation and sentence structure • Dashes- used to break up the rhythm and highlight important words; adds emphasis • Irregular capitalization Example Emily Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died”
STYLISTIC ELEMENTS v Inverted syntax--reversing the normal word order of a sentence Example Whose woods these are I think I know. -Robert Frost
INVERTED SYNTAX “Smart I am!”
MORE POETIC DEVICES v Cataloging- frequent lists of people, things, and attributes Example "Song of Myself. " Walt Whitman The pure contralto sings in the organ loft, The carpenter dresses his plank, the tongue of his foreplane whistles its wild ascending lisp, The married and unmarried children ride home to their Thanksgiving dinner, The pilot seizes the king-pin, he heaves down with a strong arm, The mate stands braced in the whale-boat, lance and harpoon are ready, The duck-shooter walks by silent and cautious stretches,
MORE POETIC DEVICES v Repetition-repeated words or phrases at the beginning of two or more lines v Example v Beat! Drums!- blow! Bugles! Blow!
MORE POETIC DEVICES v Parallelism-related ideas phrased in similar ways Example: “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. ” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST Figurative Language!!!!!!