Universality – Literature appeals to everyone, regardless of culture, race, gender, and time

1. Artistry – Literature has an aesthetic appeal and thus possesses a sense of beauty
2. Intellectual Value – Literature stimulates critical thinking that enriches mental processes of abstraction and reasoning, making
man realize the fundamental truths of life and its nature.
3. Suggestiveness – Literature unravels and conjures man’s emotional power to define symbolisms, nuances, implied meanings,
images, and messages, giving and evoking visions above and beyond the plane of ordinary life and experience.
4. Spiritual Value – Literature elevates the spirit and the soul and thus has the power to motivate and inspire, drawn from the
suggested morals or lessons of the different literary genres.
5. Permanence – Literature endures across time and draws out the time factor: timeliness (occurring at a particular time) and
timelessness (remaining invariable throughout time).
6. Style – Literature presents peculiar way/s on how man sees life as evidenced by the formation of his ideas, forms, structures,
and expressions which are marked by their memorable substance.

Fiction as a Literary Genre

A. What is fiction?
·   Fiction, literature created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on a true story or situation. Types
of literature in the fiction genre include the novel, short story, and novella. The word is from the Latin fictiō, “the act of making,
fashioning, or molding.”
B. Elements of Fiction
(Source: https://www.rcboe.org/cms/lib010/GA01903614/Centricity/Domain/4395/Elements%20of%20a%20Story.pdf.)

1. Plot refers to the series of events in a story or play and has a beginning, middle and end. It has five essential parts.
a. Exposition (Introduction) is usually found at the beginning of the story to provide necessary information like characters,
 background, and setting.
b. Rising Action is an event in a story that starts to complicate and is found between the introduction and climax.
1. Conflict refers to the struggle of two opposing forces. There are two types of
conflict:
o   Internal- Struggle within one's self.
• Character vs. Self - Struggles with own soul, physical limitations,
choices, etc.
o    External - Struggle with a force outside one's self.
• Character vs. Character - Struggles against other people.
• Character vs. Nature - Struggles against animals, weather,
environment, etc.
• Character vs. Society - Struggles against ideas, practices, or
customs of others

c. Climax is the highlight or the most interesting part of the story.  Climax is a three-fold phenomenon:
• Main character receives new information.
• Main character accepts this information (realizes it but does not necessarily  agree with it).
• Main character acts on this information (makes a choice that will determine whether or not objectively
met).
d.  Falling action – refers to events found between climax and denouement.  Resolution begins; events and complications start to
fall into place. These are the events between climax and denouement.
e.  Resolution (Conclusion) - Final outcome of events in the story

2.  Setting - Time and location that a story takes place. For some stories, the setting is very important; while for others, it is not.
When examining how setting contributes to a story, there are multiple aspects to consider:
a. Place - Geographical location; where is the action of the story taking place?
b. Time - Historical period, time of day, year, etc; when is the story taking place?
c. Weather conditions - Is it rainy, sunny, stormy, etc?
d. Social conditions - What is the daily life of the character's like? Does the story
contain local colour (writing that focuses on the speech, dress, mannerisms, customs, etc. of a particular place)?
e. Mood or atmosphere - What feeling is created at the beginning of the story? Cheerful or eerie?

3. Character - There are two meanings for "character": 1) a person in a fictional story; or 2) qualities of a person.
a.  People in a work of fiction can be a(n):
• Protagonist - Clear center of story; all major events are important to this
character.
• Antagonist  - Opposition or "enemy" of main character.

b.  Characteristics of a character can be revealed through:

 • his/her physical appearance
• what he/she says, thinks, feels, dreams and what he/she does or does
not do
• what others say about him/her and how others react to him/her

c. Characters can be ...

o Round - Fully developed personalities that are affected by the story's
events; they can learn, grow, or deteriorate by the end of the story.
Characters are most convincing when they resemble real people by being
consistent, motivated, and life-like.

• Flat - One-dimensional character

• Dynamic - Character who does go through change and "grows"
during a story
• Static - Character does not go through a change.

4. Point of View - The angle from which the story is told. There are several variations of POV:
a.  First Person - Story told by the protagonist or a character who interacts closely
with the protagonist or other characters; speaker uses the pronouns "I", "me",
 "we". Readers experiences the story through this person's eyes and only knows
what he/she knows and feels.
b. Second Person - Story told by a narrator who addresses the reader or some other
assumed "you"; speaker uses pronouns "you", "your", and "yours". Ex: You wake
up to discover that you have been robbed of all of your worldly possessions.

c. Third Person - Story told by a narrator who sees all of the action; speaker uses
the pronouns "he", "she","it", "they", "his", "hers", "its", and "theirs".
This person may be a character in the story. There are several types of third
Person POV:
• Limited - Probably the easiest :POV for a beginning writer to use, "limited"
POV funnels all action through the eyes of a single character; readers only
see what the narrator sees.
• Omniscient- God-like, the narrator knows and sees everything, and can
move from one character's mind to another. Authors can be omniscient
narrators by moving from character to character, event to event, and
introducing information at their discretion. There are two main types of
omniscient POV:
d. Innocent Eye/Naive Narrator – Story told through child's eyes; narrator's
 judgment is different from that of an adult.
e. Stream of Consciousness - Story told so readers solely experience a character's thoughts and reactions.
For more information about POV, the video below is a great help.
5. Theme - Central message, "moral of the story," and underlying meaning of a fictional piece; may be the author's thoughts on the
topic or view of human nature.
1) Story's title usually emphasizes what the author. is saying.
2) Various figures of speech (symbolism, allusion, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, or irony) may be utilized to highlight the theme. -,
3) Examples of common themes occurring in literature, on television, and in film are:
• Things are not always as they appear to be.
• Love is blind.
• Believe in yourself.
• People are afraid of change.
• Don't judge a book by its cover.
"If poetry is almost impossible to define, it is extremely easy to recognize in experience; even untutored children are rarely in doubt
about it when it appears:

                                             Little Jack Jingle,

                                             He used to live single,
                                             But when he got tired of this kind of life,
                                             He left off being single, and liv’d with his wife."
                                                                                                                  - Howard Nemerov

Poetry
by
Carousel Tagaylo

You are nothing

just incomprehensible words
with certain sound patterns
and music unfit for radio play
 You are just a wordplay
sometimes meaningless
sometimes far beyond the reach
of those who care less

Unpleasant
Unexplored
Unappreciated
Ignored
You are for those who hate

Yet to your true love

You are the expression of passion
 the silent deep  absorber
the keeper of secrets
the cry of the sad soul

In your refuge
the broken find peace
 far from distress
certainly distant from any mess

Confusing maybe
You were before
But starting this day
No More

This module is designed to discuss the meaning and elements of poetry and develop in the students the love for words and for
human emotions that come into play in a specific rhythmic pattern and melodious tone.

a. Definitions of Poetry?

 Poetry is the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts. 
 Poetry is a type of literature based on the interplay of words and rhythm. It often employs ryhme  (Links to an external site.)and meter (a
set of rules governing the number and arrangement of syllables in each line). In poetry, words are strung together to form sounds, images,
and ideas that might be too complex or abstract to describe directly
 Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or
instead of, its notional and semantic content. It consists largely of oral or literary works in which language is used in a manner that is felt by
its user and audience to differ from ordinary prose.

 
b. Important Things to Remember about Poetry
 The Greek verb ποιεω [poiéo (= I make or create)], gave rise to three words: ποιητης [poiet?s (= the one who creates)], ποιησις [poíesis
(= the act of creation)] and ποιημα [poíema (= the thing created)]. From these we get three English words: poet (the creator), poesy (the
creation) and poem (the created). A poet is therefore one who creates and poetry is what the poet creates. The underlying concept of the
poet as creator is not uncommon. For example, in Anglo-Saxon a poet is a scop (shaper or maker) and in Scots makar.
 )
 Poetry as an art form predates literacy. In preliterate societies, poetry was frequently employed as a means of recording oral history,
storytelling (epic poetry), genealogy, law and other forms of expression or knowledge that modern societies might expect to be handled in
prose.

Billy Collins' Introduction to Poetry

All Sections

44 unread replies.44 replies.

Introduction to Poetry
BY BILLY COLLINS (Links to an external site.)

I ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Elements of Poetry

Source: https://www.poetry4kids.com/lessons/how-to-write-a-concrete-poem/  (Links to an external site.)

 
What Makes a Poem a Poem?
1. Compression

 The art of conveying much or expressing ideas with few words.

 In poetry every word counts and must be both precise and emotionally alive.(Sage, 2009)
 Cutting out unnecessary and/or boring words and sentences. Every word and piece of punctuation adds to the sound or look of the poem. 
Articles such as a, an, and the are often expendable, unless they add to the look and sound of the poem. If a line says the same thing

without a word, LOSE IT. Use it or lose it. (https://slideplayer.com/slide/10480037/) (Links to an external site.)

Source https://pt.slideshare.net/ameliaspence/1-prose-vs-poetry/9 (Links to an external site.)

2.  Lines and Stanzas

Poetry is typically separated into discrete or separate lines on a page. These lines may be based on the number of metrical feet, or
may emphasize a rhyming pattern at the ends of lines. Lines may serve other functions, particularly where the poem is not written
in a formal metrical pattern. Lines can separate, compare or contrast thoughts expressed in different units, or can highlight a
change in tone.
Lines of poems are often organized into stanzas, or verses, which are denominated by the number of lines included. Thus a
collection of two lines is a couplet (or distich), three lines a triplet (or tercet), four lines a quatrain, and so on.
The number of lines, combined with the syllables, feet and rhyme scheme, serve to identify the form of the poem.

 1 line – Haiku form: Monoku

 2 lines – Couplet
 3 lines – Tercet / Triplet / Haiku
 4 lines – Quatrain
 5 lines – Cinquain / Tanka
 6 lines – Sestet / Sexain/ Stanza
 7 lines – Septet / Rondelet
 8 lines – Octave / Rondeau
 9 lines – Stanza Spenserian
 10 lines – Keatsian Ode
 11 lines – Roundel
 12 lines – Scottish Stanza
 13 lines – Terza
 14 lines – Sonnet / Stanza Onegin / Terza
 15 lines – Terza
 16 lines – Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Form
 17 lines – ___
 18 lines – McCarron Couplet
 19 lines – Villanelle
 20 lines – ___
 Other (Free Verse, Prose poetry, etc.)

Another type of poetry not written in verse or discrete lines is Prose poetry, which is written in prose instead of using verse, but
preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis and emotional effects.
In many forms of poetry, stanzas are interlocking, so that the rhyming scheme or other structural elements of one stanza
determine those of succeeding stanzas. Examples of such interlocking stanzas include, for example, the ghazal and the villanelle,
where a refrain (or, in the case of the villanelle, refrains) is established in the first stanza which then repeats in subsequent stanzas.
Source: https://sevencircumstances.com/poetry-and-lyrics/elements-of-poetry/elements-of-poetry-lines-and-stanzas/  (Links to an external site.) (Links to an
external site.)

3. Sound Devices

 Sound devices are literary elements used in prose (Links to an external site.) and poetry to stress certain sounds and create musical
effects. (https://literarydevices.net/sound-devices/ (Links to an external site.))
 They exemplify the difference between prose and poetry.

a.  Rhyme is the repetition of words with the same sound in a poem. The pattern of similarly pronounced words in a poem is thus known as a
rhyme scheme.     
The popular position of rhyming words is often at the end of lines, whereby the last word of a line rhymes with the last word of another line in
the poem.
Example:
The following is an excerpt from Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night."
                      Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
                      I have been one acquainted with the night.
Internal rhyme occurs when the rhyming words appear in the middle of a line.
Example

o I went to town to buy a gown. / I took the car and it wasn't far.

b. Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is a sound device that represents the exact sound of something in the poem. The poet forms a word to imitate the
sound made by the object in the poem.
It's a form of sound symbolism, whereby the letters represent a sound and might not be a recognizable word in the dictionary.
Some forms of onomatopoeia are obvious and universally understood, for example;

o splish splash
o ding dong
o tick tock
o achoo
o shh

Also, some words which denote the sound made can be used as onomatopoeia in poetry such as bark, hiss, clattering, sizzling,
clapping among others.
Nevertheless, onomatopoeic sounds may differ from one culture to another, even when the poem is in the same language.
In some cultures, the sound cows make is represented by moo. In my culture, mbooo (read with oh) is the known sound a cow
makes.
The strength of onomatopoeia is the poet has the freedom to represent the sound in any way. There's no right or wrong unless a
poet misrepresents or exaggerates sound for a dramatic effect.
Onomatopoeia is common in children's songs and poems.
Example:
The following is an excerpt from Spike Milligan's "On the Ning Nang Nong."
                                                      On the Ning Nang Nong
                                                      Where the cows go Bong!
                                                       and the monkeys all say BOO!
                                                      There's a Nong Nang Ning
                                                      Where the trees go Ping!
                                                      And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.
c. Meter

o Me (Links to an external site.)ter is a unit of rhythm in poetry, the pattern of the beats. It is also called a foot. Each foot has a certain
number of syllables in it, usually two or three syllables. The difference in types of meter is which syllables are accented and which are
not.Meter is an indicator of patterns of sound in a poem. The meter relies on the poet's word choice and the characteristics of syllables
in those words.
o Foot: In poetry, a "foot" refers to the rhythmic units that make up lines of meter (Links to an external site.).
 

Example:
The following is an excerpt from Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night." Each of these lines has 10 syllables that follow one
another in a regular pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables. This type of meter is known as iambic pentameter. Note that in
the excerpt below, I have highlighted the stressed syllables in bold letters.
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
Examples of Meter in Poetry
(taken from https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-meter-in-poetry.html  (Links to an external site.))
Iamb Meter (Unstressed ,  Stressed)
Iamb meter has the first syllable unaccented and the second accented. Here are examples:
a.  That time/ l  of / year l /thou mayst /l in/ me l /behold
b.  Shall I/compare/ thee to / a sum/mer's day? - Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18"
c.  Come live / with me/ and be/my love
      And we /will all /the plea /sures prove - Christopher Marlowe's "Come live with me and be my love"
 
Trochee Meter (Stressed, Unstressed)
Trochee meter has the first syllable accented and the second unaccented. Trochaic , an adjective (Links to an external site.) of
trochee is a metrical foot (Links to an external site.) composed of two syllables; stressed followed by an unstressed syllable. 
Here are examples:
a. Song of the Witches by William Shakespeare (Links to an external site.)

“Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches’ mummy; maw and gulf…”
b. The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Should you ask (Links to an external site.) me, whence these stories?

Whence these legends and traditions,
With the odors of the forest,
With the dew and damp of meadows,
With the curling smoke of wigwams,
With the rushing of great rivers,
With their frequent repetitions,
And their wild reverberations,
As of thunder in the mountains?”
Dactyl (Stressed, Unstressed, Unstressed)
Dactyl is a metrical foot (Links to an external site.), or a beat in a line, containing three syllables in which the first one is accented,
followed by second and third unaccented syllables (accented/unaccented/unaccented) in quantitative meter (Links to an external
site.), such as in the word “humanly.” In dactyl, we put stress on the first syllable, and do not stress second and third syllables, try to
say it loud: “HU-man-ly.” Dactyl originates from the Greek word dáktylos, which means “finger,” because it is like bones of human
fingers, beginning from a central long knuckle, which is followed by two short bones. (https://literarydevices.net/dactyl/ (Links to an
external site.))
Examples
a. Longfellow’s poem (Links to an external site.) Evangeline:
“Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean.”
b.The Charge of the Light Brigade (By Alfred Lord Tennyson)

“Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!’ he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.”
Anapest Meter (Unstressed, Unstressed, Stressed)
An anapest is a metrical foot that consists of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. Words such as “understand”
and “contradict” are examples of anapest, because both of them have three syllables where the accent is on the final syllable.
Some idioms in English are examples of anapestic meter, such as the following:

 Get a life
 In the blink of an eye
 By the skin of your teeth
 Get it out of your system
 Feeling under the weather
 Hit the nail on the head
 At the drop of a hat
 Costs an arm and a leg
 In the heat of the moment
 In the still of the night (song by Cole Porter)

Classification
(Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre_(poetry)#:~:text=Metrical%20systems,-The%20number%20of&text=The%20four%20major%20types%20are,syllabic%20verse%20and%20quantitative
%20verse.) (Links to an external site.)
Foot type Style Stress pattern Syllable count

Iamb Iambic Unstressed + Stressed Two

Trochee Trochaic Stressed + Unstressed Two

Spondee Spondaic Stressed + Stressed Two

Anapest or
Anapestic Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed Three
anapaest

Dactyl Dactylic Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed Three

Amphibrach Amphibrachic Unstressed + Stressed + Unstressed Three

Pyrrhic Pyrrhic Unstressed + Unstressed Two

 
If the line has only one foot, it is called a monometer (Links to an external site.); two feet, dimeter (Links to an external site.); three
is trimeter (Links to an external site.); four is tetrameter (Links to an external site.); five is pentameter (Links to an external site.); six
is hexameter (Links to an external site.), seven is heptameter (Links to an external site.) and eight is octameter (Links to an external
site.).
For example, if the feet are iambs, and if there are five feet to a line, then it is called an iambic pentameter (Links to an external
site.). If the feet are primarily dactyls and there are six to a line, then it is a dactylic hexameter (Links to an external site.).
Caesura
Sometimes a natural pause occurs in the middle of a line rather than at a line-break. This is a caesura (Links to an external
site.) (cut). A good example is from The Winter's Tale (Links to an external site.) by William Shakespeare (Links to an external
site.); the caesurae are indicated by '/':
It is for you we speak, / not for ourselves:
You are abused / and by some putter-on
That will be damn'd for't; / would I knew the villain,
I would land-damn him. / Be she honour-flaw'd,
I have three daughters; / the eldest is eleven
In Latin and Greek poetry, a caesura is a break within a foot caused by the end of a word.
Each line of traditional Germanic alliterative verse (Links to an external site.) is divided into two half-lines by a caesura. This
can be seen in Piers Plowman (Links to an external site.):
A fair feeld ful of folk / fond I ther bitwene—
Of alle manere of men / the meene and the riche,
Werchynge and wandrynge / as the world asketh.
Somme putten hem to the plough / pleiden ful selde,
In settynge and sowynge / swonken ful harde,
And wonnen that thise wastours / with glotonye destruyeth.

Enjambment
By contrast with caesura, enjambment is incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning runs over from one
poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation. Also from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale:
I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
Commonly are; the want of which vain dew
Perchance shall dry your pities; but I have
That honourable grief lodged here which burns
Worse than tears drown.

Metric variations
Poems with a well-defined overall metric pattern often have a few lines that violate that pattern. A common
variation is the inversion of a foot, which turns an iamb (Links to an external site.) ("da-DUM") into
a trochee (Links to an external site.) ("DUM-da"). A second variation is a headless verse, which lacks the first
syllable of the first foot. A third variation is catalexis (Links to an external site.), where the end of a line is
shortened by a foot, or two or part thereof – an example of this is at the end of each verse in Keats' 'La Belle
Dame sans Merci':
And on thy cheeks a fading rose (4 feet)
Fast withereth too (2 feet)

d. Euphony

 Euphony is a sound device consisting of several words that are pleasing to the ear. The sounds made by these
words are meant to be soothing rather than harsh or alarming. Rougher sounds can produce euphony's
opposite: cacophony, which produces a sharp and discordant effect, such as the sound of alarm bells or
sirens. Euphony, on the other hand, can be compared to a bird chirping, in the sense that these words create
sweet, almost musical sounds. Euphony is achieved in writing through the use of longer vowel sounds like 'oo'
in 'smooth,' as well as liquid or nasal consonant sounds like 'l,' 'm,' 'n' and 'w.' Both euphony and cacophony can
be found in most poetry and prose. (https://study.com/academy/lesson/euphony-in-literature-definition-examples.html#:~:text=Euphony
%20is%20a%20sound%20device%20consisting%20of%20several%20words%20that,of%20alarm%20bells%20or%20sirens.)  (Links to an external site.)
 An author can create euphony in many different ways, such as using pleasant vowel and consonants, or by
employing other literary devices, such as rhythm (Links to an external site.), rhyme (Links to an external
site.), consonance (Links to an external site.), and assonance (Links to an external site.) to create an overall
harmonious sound to a work of literature.(http://www.literarydevices.com/euphony/ (Links to an external site.))

Common Examples of Euphony

Due to the fact that euphony is meant to please the ear, many lullabies are examples of euphony in order
to lull a baby to sleep (even the word “lull” is an example of euphony). Here are some sample lyrics:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
In this case, the euphony comes from consonants such as l, r, w, n, and h, but also from the mellifluous
rhyme scheme of AABB and the regular trochaic rhythm.
Show me your motion
Tra la la la la
Come on show me your motion
Tra la la la la la
Show me your motion
Tra la la la la
She looks like a sugar in a plum
Plum plum
The syllables “tra” and “la” are repeated several times over in this song, which are inherently pleasing
sounds.
 an excerpt from William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud."

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
Note how the poet uses smooth words which mostly comprise smooth consonants like l and n, nasal
consonants like h, and a lot of vowel sounds. It gives these lines a harmonious and pleasant musicality
when said aloud.
In 'To Autumn' by John Keats, melodious or euphonious sounds can be heard when his words are read
aloud:
'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run'
e. Elision
Elision is the term for leaving out letters in a word in order to form a shorter word-often a word with fewer
syllables. Elision is often used in poetry and music in order to keep the rhythm. When the letters or
sounds are omitted, they are replaced with an apostrophe.
Contractions are a specific type of elision, which are formed when two words are put together and an
entire syllable is left out.
Elision is a poetical device that involves the omission of a syllable or a sound where it is actually in order
to have those sounds there. A poet may the first, internal or last syllable of a word.
Elision is like a contraction of words as used in everyday-language such as "I'm" instead of "I am."
But elision is not merely cutting off. Some elisions involve merging vowel sounds.
Poets use this device to maintain a regular meter and rhythm.
Example:
The following is an excerpt from William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud."

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
Instead of "over" which has two syllables, the poet merged the vowel sounds to form a syllable by using
"o'er."
f. Dissonance
When the rhythm of sound in a poem is inharmonious it creates dissonance. A poem is inharmonious
when it's hard to read and doesn't flow smoothly.
Dissonance is related to cacophony. However, the sound device of dissonance is a wider term that
includes disagreeing and the absence of harmony.
It is the deliberate use of sounds which are discordant or inharmonious with the surrounding.
Dissonance does not occur only when negative emotions or tones like rage and tension are expressed. It
can be musical and express joy even though the sounds used are not in harmony.
Dissonance as a poetic device can go beyond sound, whereby the attitude, theme, or imagery of the
poem is inharmonious.
Example:
The following is an excerpt from Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night." Although the rhythm of this
poem is harmonious due to the regular meter and assonance, the choice of words clashes as in "walked
out" "out walked."
Also, note how line 2 uses assonance harmoniously but in the next line, the vowel sounds are different
and instead comprises more consonant sounds.

I have walked out in rain—and back in rain. [line 2]

I have out walked the furthest city light. [line 3]
 
7. Consonance
Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds close to each other within a line in a poem.
The sounds are repetitive whether in the middle or at the end of words, not to be confused with
alliteration.
Words in poetry which at first glance may appear to rhyme but do not, usually apply consonance like
above/approve and amber/chamber.
Example:
The following is an excerpt from Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night." There is repetitive use of
consonant sound r, n, and th.

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night.
Pro Tip
Words in poetry which at first glance may appear to rhyme but do not, usually apply consonance.

8. Cacophony
Cacophony is a sound device that uses harsh sounds that evoke unpleasant feelings such as annoyance
and rage. It may occur unintentionally in poetry dealing with tough topics with a harsh tone.
This sound device can make a poem easy to remember because the harsh sounds make the poem
forceful. Cacophony is often used in dramatic poetry for emphasis.
It's the use of harsh instead of smooth sounds or words as in euphony. It is closely related to dissonance.
Consonant sounds like k, c, g, b, t create cacophony when they occur closely and used to present
negative situations.

Example:
The following is an excerpt from Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night." Note how the lines contain a
mixture of several harsh consonant sounds including b, c, k,t, and g.

But not to call me back or say good-bye;

And further still at an unearthly height,
 
What do you think is the difference between cacophony and dissonance?

g. Assonance
Assonance refers to the repetition of vowel sounds within a line in poetry which is easy to discern.
The sounds are repetitive whether at the beginning of words, in the middle or at the end, not to be
confused with rhyme.
Often. assonance appears when there are stressed syllables following each other.
This sound device places emphasis on the words and enhances memorization.

Examples:
a. Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
    I have been one acquainted with the night.
   (Frost,  "Acquainted with the Night.")
 
b.   Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
       Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore…
       (Poe, “The Raven”)

h. Alliteration
Alliteration is a sound device involving consonant sounds not to be confused with consonance.
In alliteration, the repeated consonant sounds appear at the initial letter of words and are discernible.
 Alliteration often occurs unintentionally but can be used intentionally for emphasis and sound effects.
Consonant clusters such as "ch" and "th" sounds are also accepted as alliteration.

Example:
The following is an excerpt from Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night."

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

Compression
 The art of conveying much or expressing ideas with few words.
 In poetry every word counts and must be both precise and emotionally alive.(Sage, 2009)
 Cutting out unnecessary and/or boring words and sentences. Every word and piece of punctuation adds to the sound or look of
the poem.  Articles such as a, an, and the are often expendable, unless they add to the look and sound of the poem. If a line
says the same thing without a word, LOSE IT. Use it or lose it.

9 lines – Stanza Spenserian
 10 lines – Keatsian Ode
 11 lines – Roundel
 12 lines – Scottish Stanza
 13 lines – Terza
 14 lines – Sonnet / Stanza Onegin / Terza
 15 lines – Terza
 16 lines – Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Form
 17 lines – ___
 18 lines – McCarron Couplet
 19 lines – Villanelle
 20 lines – ___
  Other (Free Verse, Prose poetry, etc.)

Another type of poetry not written in verse or discrete lines is Prose poetry, which is written in prose instead of using verse, but
preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis and emotional effects.
In many forms of poetry, stanzas are interlocking, so that the rhyming scheme or other structural elements of one stanza
determine those of succeeding stanzas. Examples of such interlocking stanzas include, for example, the ghazal and the villanelle,
where a refrain (or, in the case of the villanelle, refrains) is established in the first stanza which then repeats in subsequent stanzas.

Sound Devices and Patterns

 Sound devices are literary elements used in prose (Links to an external site.) and poetry to stress certain sounds and create musical
effects. (https://literarydevices.net/sound-devices/ (Links to an external site.))
 They exemplify the difference between prose and poetry.

a.  Rhyme is the repetition of words with the same sound in a poem. The pattern of similarly pronounced words in a poem is thus
known as a rhyme scheme.     
The popular position of rhyming words is often at the end of lines, whereby the last word of a line rhymes with the last word of
another line in the poem.
Example:
The following is an excerpt from Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night."
                      Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
                      I have been one acquainted with the night.
Internal rhyme occurs when the rhyming words appear in the middle of a line.
Example

o I went to town to buy a gown. / I took the car and it wasn't far.
b. Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is a sound device that represents the exact sound of something in the poem. The poet forms a word to imitate the
sound made by the object in the poem.
It's a form of sound symbolism, whereby the letters represent a sound and might not be a recognizable word in the dictionary.
Some forms of onomatopoeia are obvious and universally understood, for example;

o splish splash
o ding dong
o tick tock
o achoo
o shh

Also, some words which denote the sound made can be used as onomatopoeia in poetry such as bark, hiss, clattering, sizzling,
clapping among others.
Nevertheless, onomatopoeic sounds may differ from one culture to another, even when the poem is in the same language.
In some cultures, the sound cows make is represented by moo. In my culture, mbooo (read with oh) is the known sound a cow
makes.
The strength of onomatopoeia is the poet has the freedom to represent the sound in any way. There's no right or wrong unless a
poet misrepresents or exaggerates sound for a dramatic effect.
Onomatopoeia is common in children's songs and poems.
Example:
The following is an excerpt from Spike Milligan's "On the Ning Nang Nong."
                                                      On the Ning Nang Nong
                                                      Where the cows go Bong!
                                                       and the monkeys all say BOO!
                                                      There's a Nong Nang Ning
                                                      Where the trees go Ping!
                                                      And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.
c. Meter

o Me (Links to an external site.)ter is a unit of rhythm in poetry, the pattern of the beats. It is also called a foot. Each foot has a certain
number of syllables in it, usually two or three syllables. The difference in types of meter is which syllables are accented and which are
not.Meter is an indicator of patterns of sound in a poem. The meter relies on the poet's word choice and the characteristics of syllables
in those words.

o Foot: In poetry, a "foot" refers to the rhythmic units that make up lines of meter .
                Examples of Meter in Poetry
                 (taken from https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-meter-in-poetry.html  (Links to an external site.))
               *Iamb Meter (Unstressed ,  Stressed)
                 Iamb meter has the first syllable unaccented and the second accented. Here are                                      examples:
                a.  That time/ l  of / year l /thou mayst /l in/ me l /behold
                b.  Shall I/compare/ thee to / a sum/mer's day? - Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18"
                c.  Come live / with me/ and be/my love
                     And we /will all /the plea /sures prove - Christopher Marlowe's "Come live with me                             and be my love"
            * Trochee Meter (Stressed, Unstressed)
             Trochee meter has the first syllable accented and the second unaccented. Trochaic , an adjective (Links to an external
site.) of trochee is a metrical foot composed of two                          syllables; stressed followed by an unstressed syllable. 
              Here are examples:
              Song of the Witches by William Shakespeare (Links to an external site.)

        “Double, double toil and trouble;

        Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
        Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
        Witches’ mummy; maw and gulf…”

              The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

         “Should you ask (Links to an external site.) me, whence these stories?
         Whence these legends and traditions,
         With the odors of the forest,
         With the dew and damp of meadows,
         With the curling smoke of wigwams,
         With the rushing of great rivers,
         With their frequent repetitions,
         And their wild reverberations,
        As of thunder in the mountains?”
             Dactyl (Stressed, Unstressed, Unstressed)
             Dactyl is a metrical foot, or a beat in a line, containing three syllables in which the first one is accented, followed by second
and third unaccented syllables (accented/ unaccented/ unaccented) in quantitative meter , such as in the word “humanly.” In dactyl,
we put stress on the first syllable, and  do not stress second and third syllables, try to say it loud: “HU-man-ly.” Dactyl originates
from the Greek word dáktylos, which means “finger,” because it is like bones of                humam fingers, beginning from a central
long knuckle, which is followed by two short bones. (https://literarydevices.net/dactyl/ )
              Examples
             a. Longfellow’s poem  Evangeline:
              “Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean.”
                b.The Charge of the Light Brigade (By Alfred Lord Tennyson)

        “Half a league, half a league,

         Half a league onward,
          All in the valley of Death
         Rode the six hundred.
        ‘Forward, the Light Brigade!
         Charge for the guns!’ he said.
         Into the valley of Death
         Rode the six hundred.”

               Anapest Meter (Unstressed, Unstressed, Stressed)

              An anapest is a metrical foot that consists of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. Words such as
“understand” and “contradict” are examples of anapest,                because both of them have three syllables where the accent is
on the final syllable.
              Some idioms in English are examples of anapestic meter, such as the following:

   Get a life
 In the blink of an eye
 By the skin of your teeth
 Get it out of your system
 Feeling under the weather
 Hit the nail on the head
 At the drop of a hat
 Costs an arm and a leg
 In the heat of the moment
 In the still of the night (song by Cole Porter)

       
            Classification
(Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre_(poetry)#:~:text=Metrical%20systems,-The%20number%20of&text=The%20four
%20major%20types%20are,syllabic%20verse%20and%20quantitative%20verse.)
Foot type Style Stress pattern Syllable count

Iamb Iambic Unstressed + Stressed Two

Trochee Trochaic Stressed + Unstressed Two

Spondee Spondaic Stressed + Stressed Two

Anapest or
Anapestic Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed Three
anapaest

Dactyl Dactylic Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed Three

Amphibrach Amphibrachic Unstressed + Stressed + Unstressed Three

Pyrrhic Pyrrhic Unstressed + Unstressed Two

 
If the line has only one foot, it is called a monometer ; two feet, dimete; three is trimeter(; four is tetrameter ; five is pentameter; six
is hexameter , seven is heptameter  and eight is octameter .
For example, if the feet are iambs, and if there are five feet to a line, then it is called an iambic pentameter. If the feet are
primarily dactyls and there are six to a line, then it is a dactylic hexameter .
Caesura
Sometimes a natural pause occurs in the middle of a line rather than at a line-break. This is a caesura. (cut). A good example is
from The Winter's Tale  by William Shakespeare; the caesurae are indicated by '/':
It is for you we speak, / not for ourselves:
You are abused / and by some putter-on
That will be damn'd for't; / would I knew the villain,
I would land-damn him. / Be she honour-flaw'd,
I have three daughters; / the eldest is eleven

In Latin and Greek poetry, a caesura is a break within a foot caused by the end of a word.
Each line of traditional Germanic alliterative verse  is divided into two half-lines by a caesura. This can be seen in Piers
Plowman:
A fair feeld ful of folk / fond I ther bitwene—
Of alle manere of men / the meene and the riche,
Werchynge and wandrynge / as the world asketh.
Somme putten hem to the plough / pleiden ful selde,
In settynge and sowynge / swonken ful harde,
And wonnen that thise wastours / with glotonye destruyeth.

Enjambment
By contrast with caesura, enjambment is incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning runs over from one
poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation. Also from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale:
I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
Commonly are; the want of which vain dew
Perchance shall dry your pities; but I have
That honourable grief lodged here which burns
Worse than tears drown.

Metric variations
Poems with a well-defined overall metric pattern often have a few lines that violate that pattern. A common
variation is the inversion of a foot, which turns an iamb("da-DUM") into a trochee ("DUM-da"). A second
variation is a headless verse, which lacks the first syllable of the first foot.  A third variation is a catalexis ,
where the end of a line is shortened by a foot, or two or part thereof – an example of this is at the end of
each verse in Keats' 'La Belle Dame sans Merci':
And on thy cheeks a fading rose (4 feet)
Fast withereth too (2 feet)

d. Euphony

 Euphony is a sound device consisting of several words that are pleasing to the ear. The sounds made by these
words are meant to be soothing rather than harsh or alarming. Rougher sounds can produce euphony's
opposite: cacophony, which produces a sharp and discordant effect, such as the sound of alarm bells or
sirens. Euphony, on the other hand, can be compared to a bird chirping, in the sense that these words create
sweet, almost musical sounds. Euphony is achieved in writing through the use of longer vowel sounds like 'oo'
in 'smooth,' as well as liquid or nasal consonant sounds like 'l,' 'm,' 'n' and 'w.' Both euphony and cacophony can
be found in most poetry and prose. (https://study.com/academy/lesson/euphony-in-literature-definition-
examples.html#:~:text=Euphony%20is%20a%20sound%20device%20consisting%20of%20several%20words
%20that,of%20alarm%20bells%20or%20sirens.) (Links to an external site.)
 An author can create euphony in many different ways, such as using pleasant vowel and consonants, or by
employing other literary devices, such as rhythm , rhyme ,  consonance, and assonance to create an overall
harmonious sound to a work of literature.(http://www.literarydevices.com/euphony/)
Common Examples of Euphony
Due to the fact that euphony is meant to please the ear, many lullabies are examples of euphony in order
to lull a baby to sleep (even the word “lull” is an example of euphony). Here are some sample lyrics:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
In this case, the euphony comes from consonants such as l, r, w, n, and h, but also from the mellifluous
rhyme scheme of AABB and the regular trochaic rhythm.

Show me your motion

Tra la la la la
Come on show me your motion
Tra la la la la la
Show me your motion
Tra la la la la
She looks like a sugar in a plum
Plum plum
The syllables “tra” and “la” are repeated several times over in this song, which are inherently pleasing
sounds.
 an excerpt from William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud."

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
Note how the poet uses smooth words which mostly comprise smooth consonants like l and n, nasal
consonants like h, and a lot of vowel sounds. It gives these lines a harmonious and pleasant musicality
when said aloud.
In 'To Autumn' by John Keats, melodious or euphonious sounds can be heard when his words are read
aloud:
'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run'
e. Elision
Elision is the term for leaving out letters in a word in order to form a shorter word-often a word with fewer
syllables. Elision is often used in poetry and music in order to keep the rhythm. When the letters or
sounds are omitted, they are replaced with an apostrophe.
Contractions are a specific type of elision, which are formed when two words are put together and an
entire syllable is left out.
Elision is a poetical device that involves the omission of a syllable or a sound where it is actually in order
to have those sounds there. A poet may the first, internal or last syllable of a word.
Elision is like a contraction of words as used in everyday-language such as "I'm" instead of "I am."
But elision is not merely cutting off. Some elisions involve merging vowel sounds.
Poets use this device to maintain a regular meter and rhythm.
Example:
The following is an excerpt from William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud."

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
Instead of "over" which has two syllables, the poet merged the vowel sounds to form a syllable by using
"o'er."
f. Dissonance
When the rhythm of sound in a poem is inharmonious it creates dissonance. A poem is inharmonious
when it's hard to read and doesn't flow smoothly.
Dissonance is related to cacophony. However, the sound device of dissonance is a wider term that
includes disagreeing and the absence of harmony.
It is the deliberate use of sounds which are discordant or inharmonious with the surrounding.
Dissonance does not occur only when negative emotions or tones like rage and tension are expressed. It
can be musical and express joy even though the sounds used are not in harmony.
Dissonance as a poetic device can go beyond sound, whereby the attitude, theme, or imagery of the
poem is inharmonious.
Example:
The following is an excerpt from Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night." Although the rhythm of this
poem is harmonious due to the regular meter and assonance, the choice of words clashes as in "walked
out" "out walked."
Also, note how line 2 uses assonance harmoniously but in the next line, the vowel sounds are different
and instead comprises more consonant sounds.

I have walked out in rain—and back in rain. [line 2]

I have out walked the furthest city light. [line 3]
g. Consonance
Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds close to each other within a line in a poem.
The sounds are repetitive whether in the middle or at the end of words, not to be confused with
alliteration.
Words in poetry which at first glance may appear to rhyme but do not, usually apply consonance like
above/approve and amber/chamber.
Example:
The following is an excerpt from Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night." There is repetitive use of
consonant sound r, n, and th.

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night.
Pro Tip
Words in poetry which at first glance may appear to rhyme but do not, usually apply consonance.

h. Cacophony
Cacophony is a sound device that uses harsh sounds that evoke unpleasant feelings such as annoyance
and rage. It may occur unintentionally in poetry dealing with tough topics with a harsh tone.
This sound device can make a poem easy to remember because the harsh sounds make the poem
forceful. Cacophony is often used in dramatic poetry for emphasis.
It's the use of harsh instead of smooth sounds or words as in euphony. It is closely related to dissonance.
Consonant sounds like k, c, g, b, t create cacophony when they occur closely and used to present
negative situations.
Example:
The following is an excerpt from Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night." Note how the lines contain a
mixture of several harsh consonant sounds including b, c, k,t, and g.
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,

https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-cacophony-and-dissonance/  (Links to an external

site.)
i. Assonance
Assonance refers to the repetition of vowel sounds within a line in poetry which is easy to discern.
The sounds are repetitive whether at the beginning of words, in the middle or at the end, not to be
confused with rhyme.
Often. assonance appears when there are stressed syllables following each other.
 This sound device places emphasis on the words and enhances memorization.
Examples:
a. Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
    I have been one acquainted with the night.
   (Frost,  "Acquainted with the Night.")
 
b.   Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
       Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore…
       (Poe, “The Raven”)
j. Alliteration
Alliteration is a sound device involving consonant sounds not to be confused with consonance.
In alliteration, the repeated consonant sounds appear at the initial letter of words and are discernible.
Alliteration often occurs unintentionally but can be used intentionally for emphasis and sound effects.
Consonant clusters such as "ch" and "th" sounds are also accepted as alliteration.
Example:
The following is an excerpt from Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night."

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

Imagery
https://penlighten.com/imagery-examples (Links to an external site.)

Imagery  is one of the literary devices that engage the human senses; sight, hearing, taste, and touch. Imagery is as important
as metaphor and simile and can be written without using any figurative language  at all. It represents object , action, and idea which appeal our
senses. Sometimes it becomes more complex than just a picture. There are five main types of imagery, each related to one of the human senses:
(https://literarydevices.net/examples-of-imagery-in-poetry/ )

 Visual imagery (sight)

 Auditory imagery (hearing)
 Olfactory imagery (smell)
 Gustatory imagery (taste)

-  
https://www.tes.com/lessons/_1O58WDIqxc6iw/literary-term  (Links to an external site.)
Examples from https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-imagery-poems.html.
T.S. Eliot - Preludes
This is an excerpt from "Preludes," an imagery poem by T. S. Eliot. This is an excellent example of visual imagery (Links to an
external site.) and auditory imagery. You can almost see and hear the horse steaming and stamping and smell the steaks:

The winter evening settles down

With smell of steaks in passageways.

Six o'clock.

The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

And now a gusty shower wraps

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet

And newspapers from vacant lots;

The showers beat

On broken blinds and chimney-pots,

And at the corner of the street

A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.

And then the lighting of the lamps.

Alfred Tennyson - Summer Night
Alfred Tennyson was another poet who made great use of visual imagery. See if you can get a clear picture of the summer night he
describes in this poem "Summer Night:"

Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;

Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;

Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:

The firefly wakens: waken thou with me.

Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,

And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars,

And all thy heart lies open unto me.

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves

A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up, 

And slips into the bosom of the lake.

So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip

Into my bosom and be lost in me.

*Imagery means to use figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical
senses.

 It was dark and dim in the forest.

The words “dark” and “dim” are visual images.
 The children were screaming and shouting in the fields.
“Screaming” and “shouting” appeal to our sense of hearing, or auditory sense.
 He whiffed the aroma of brewed coffee.
“Whiff” and “aroma” evoke our sense of smell, or olfactory sense.
 The girl ran her hands on a soft satin fabric.
The idea of “soft” in this example appeals to our sense of touch, or tactile sense.
 The fresh and juicy orange is very cold and sweet.
“Juicy” and “sweet” – when associated with oranges – have an effect on our sense of taste, or gustatory sense.

Figurative Language
1-Simile–a comparison of two unlike things, using the words like or as.
Example: “I read the shoreline like an open volume.”
2-Metaphor–an implied comparison of two unlike things, not using the words like or as.
Example: “Ribbons of sea foam / wrap the emerald island.”
3-Personification–giving human traits to non-human or non-living things.
Example: “The unfurled sailboat glides on / urged by wind and will and brilliant bliss.”
4-Symbolism–a person, place, thing, or action that stands for something else.
Example: In “From Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, a set of stairs symbolizes life. 
5-Hyperbole–the use of exaggeration to express strong emotion or create a comical effect.
Example: “I‟m so hungry I could eat a hippo.”
6-Verbal Irony or Sarcasm–when you mean the opposite of what you say.
Example: “My darling brother is the sweetest boy on Earth,” she muttered sarcastically.
7-Situational Irony–when the outcome of a situation is the opposite of what is expected.
Example: After many years of trying, Mr. Smith won the lottery --and immediately died of a heart attack.
Pun–a humorous phrase that plays with the double meaning or the similar sounds of words.
Examples: “Tomorrow you shall find me a graveman,” said the duke on his deathbed.
The cookbook Lunch on the Runby Sam Witch is awesome.
9-Allusion-a reference to a familiar person, place, or event.
Example: The following two lines from the poem “My Muse” contain an allusion to Pandora‟s Box: hunched over from carrying
that old familiar Box
10-Idiom -a cultural expression that cannot be taken literally.
Examples: She is the apple of his eye.
He drives me up the wall.
Source: https://elsapla.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/poetry-elements-partial-list.pdf

11. Apostrophe- it is addressing absent persons and inanimate objects as if they were present or alive.
Examples: Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.
12.  Metonymy- the use of something that is closely associated/ related to it.
Common Examples of Metonymy
As noted above, “Hollywood” can act as a metonym for celebrity culture. There are many other place names that act metonymically
in the same way, such as “Wall Street” for the financial sector and “Washington” for the United States government. However, there
are many more words in common usage that are metonyms. Here are more examples of metonymy:

 The big house—Refers to prison

 The pen—Can refer to prison or to the act of writing
 Stuffed shirts—People in positions of authority, especially in a business setting (Links to an external site.)
 The crown—a royal person
 The Yankees/The Red Sox/The Cowboys, etc.—any team name is regularly used as a metonym for the players on the team. This is a less
obvious metonym because often the team name is a group of people (the Cowboys, for instance), yet of course the football players who
make up the Dallas Cowboys are not, in fact, cowboys.
 The New York Times/Morgan Stanley/Wells Fargo, etc.—any organization or company name is often used to stand in for the people who
work there, such as “The New York Times stated that…” or “Wells Fargo has
decided….”( http://www.literarydevices.com/metonymy/  (Links to an external site.))

13.  Synecdoche-occurs when the name of a part is used to refer to the whole.
Example:  “There are hungry mouths to feed.” The mouths stand in for the hungry people. 
 

Tap The Poetry in Your Daily Life

Source of image: https://farthertogo.com/12318-openness-experience/

 
We sometimes think that poets have extraordinary, magical experiences, that they live in a world very different from ours, and that
this world gives them so many things to write.
Poets are ordinary people who simply take time to digest, find beauty in their ordinary, real-life experiences, and transform them
into poems.
When it comes to writing poetry, the raw material of our lives and imagination can be a  great source of inspiration. We don't need
to go through death-defying experiences to be able to write a poem. We can always turn our ordinary life as an endless source of
something to talk about in our poems.  We just need to pay attention to many things that appear ordinary. They are replete in our
lives, waiting to be unearthed so we can better appreciate their mystery and beauty by finding meaning in them.

Nonfiction
 -refers to literature based in fact. It is the broadest category of literature. The Nonfiction Department has books and videos in
many categories including biography, business, cooking, health and fitness, pets, crafts, home decorating, languages, travel, home
improvement, religion, art and music, history, self-help, true crime, science and humor. 
-comprises of the written works based on real events. In this way, literature that is nonfiction can help us understand our world. 

Characteristics of Nonfiction

 Nonfiction writing must involve real people, places, and events.

 The stories told in nonfiction works must be true. If something in the story is made-up, then it falls under fiction.
 Nonfiction must also contain facts, which are information that can be proved to be true. With this in mind, a writer can select and organize
the facts in a number of ways in order to accomplish his purpose. Some facts can be omitted, and others can be shown in a specific light,
but overall, facts must be present in the written work.
 Most nonfiction works also have a similar author's purpose, which is the reason the author writes.
 Most nonfiction is written to express or to inform. If the author's purpose is to express, the concepts expressed are always based on true, real-life
situations. Because of this, one could argue all nonfiction serves to inform the reader, as well.

Two broad categories of Nonfiction

1.  Informative nonfiction

 written to provide factual information

 main purpose – to inform
 includes: science and history texts, encyclopedias, pamphlets, brochures, telephone books, maps, atlases, and most of the articles in
magazines and newspaper

2.  Literary nonfiction

 literary nonfiction is a type of prose (Links to an external site.) that employs the literary techniques usually associated with fiction
or poetry to report on persons, places, and events in the real world without altering facts.
The genre of literary nonfiction, also known as creative nonfiction, is broad enough to include travel writing, nature writing, science writing,
sports writing, biography, autobiography, memoir, interviews, and familiar and personal essays. 
  

It is written to be read and experienced in much the same way you experience fiction.

 It is different from fiction in that real people take the place of fictional characters, and the settings and plots are not imaginary
 It includes

a.  autobiography 

 the true story of a person’s life, told by that person.

 almost always told in first-person point of view
 usually book length because it covers a long period of the writer’s life.
 Short autobiographical writings include: journals, diaries, and memoirs.

A memoir is a TRUE story about PART of someone’s life and is

written and narrated by the person it’s about. It could be just
about their childhood, their adolescent (teenage) years, their
adult life, or their life in old age.
A personal narrative is a TRUE story about ONE EVENT in
someone’s life, like their first time experiencing something, facing a
fear, being successful at something challenging, or overcoming an
obstacle. Personal Narratives follow the story mountain diagram.
These are like your small moment stories.
b. Biographies 

 the true story of a person’s life told by someone else.

 the biographer interviews the subject if possible and also researches the subjects life
 contains many of the same elements as fiction (character, setting, plot, conflict).

c.  Essays 

 a short piece of nonfiction writing that deals with one subject, usually presents the author’s views
 often found in newspapers and magazines.
 The writer might share an opinion, try to entertain or persuade the reader, or simply describe an incident that has special significance.
 Informal essays, or personal essays, explain how the author feels about a subject.

Types of essays:
a. expository essay: explains something to the reader
b. narrative essay: tells a story
c. persuasive essay: attempts to convince readers to adopt a certain viewpoint
d. critical essay: evaluates something (i.e.movie review)
e. personal essay: usually informal, writers express their viewpoints
Literary Nonfiction
Why is this genre called literary nonfiction?
“Literary” means “qualities of literature”. That means that even though autobiographies, memoirs, and personal narratives are
TRUE like nonfiction texts, they have qualities like fiction, such as:

 Themes
 1st person Point of View
 Figurative Language
 A narrator/ protagonist
 Setting
 Author’s Purpose
 Narrator’s /character reactions to events
 Plot (personal narratives)
 Narrator experiences changes
 Reflection/ Lessons learned
 Time period is the past
 Text structure is chronological/ sequential

What is the author’s point of view?

 When an author writes to entertain, to persuade or to inform, he/she will have his/her point of view on the subject.
 Point of view is an author’s opinion.
 “Your abuelito is dead, Papa says early one morning in my room. Esta muerto, and then as if he just heard the news himself,
crumples like a coat and cries, my brave Papa cries. I have never seen my Papa cry and don’t know what to do.
 I know he will have to go away, that he will take a plane to Mexico, all the uncles and aunts will be there, and they will have a
black-and-white photo taken in front of the tomb with flowers shaped like spears in a white vase because this is how they send
the dead away in that country.
 My Papa, his thick hands and thick shoes, who wakes up tired in the dark, who combs his hair with water, drinks his coffee, and
is gone before we wake, today is sitting on my bed.
 Because I am the oldest, my father has told me first, and now it is my turn to tell the others. I will have to explain why we can’t
play. I will have to tell them to be quiet today.
 And I think if my own Papa died what would I do. I hold my Papa in my arms. I hold and hold and hold him.” Chapter titled,
“Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark”

* What literary qualities did Cisneros use in the excerpt, “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark””?

 What is the setting?

 What is the point of view?
 Did the author use figurative language?
 Did the narrator react to an event?
 How does the narrator feel?
 What is the theme?
 What is the text structure?

What does fictional adaptation mean?

Fictional adaptation means to take a TRUE story’s facts and use them to make fiction. For example, The Diary of Anne Frank is
TRUE and considered a MEMOIR. In class, we’re going to read a FICTIONAL ADAPTATION of that memoir because someone has
taken the TRUTH from Frank’s MEMOIR and turned it into a PLAY. As you know, a play is considered fiction.
Can speeches, which are considered nonfiction, have literary elements like fiction?
Absolutely. Speeches use literary elements all the time, particularly literary devices, such as figurative language and imagery.
Speeches use literary devices to help appeal to audiences. For example, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is FULL of
literary devices.
Example of a Speech with Literary Devices

 I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-
evident: that all men are created equal."
 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.
 I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat
of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
 I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but
by the content of their character.
 I have a dream today.
 ~Excerpt from “I Have a Dream” by MLK

 
 

Drama
(taken from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341119944_Drama_Introduction)

 Drama as a literary genre is realized in performance, which is why Robert Di Yanni (quoted in Dukore) describes it as “staged
art” (867). As a literary form, it is  designed  for  the theatre  because  characters  are  assigned  roles and  they  act  out  their 
roles  as  the  action  is  enacted  on  stage.  These characters  can  be  human  beings,  dead  or  spiritual  beings,  animals,  or
abstract  qualities.  Drama  is  an  adaptation,  recreation  and  reflection  of reality on stage. Generally, the word, dramatist is
used for any artist who is involved in any dramatic composition either in writing or in performance.
 It is difficult to separate drama from performance because during the stage performance of a  play,  drama  brings  life 
experiences  realistically  to  the audience. It is the most concrete of all genres of literature.
 In drama, the  characters/actors  talk  to  themselves  and  react  to  issues according  to  the impulse  of the moment. Drama is
therefore presented  in dialogue.
 It is also  the  most  active  of  other  genres  of  literature  because  of  the immediate impact it has on the audience. It is used
to inform, to educate to entertain and in some cases to mobilize the audience.
 Most people associate  funny  action  or  other  forms  of  entertainment  as drama. An  action  could  be  dramatic  yet  it  will 
not be  classified  as  drama. The dramatic is used for any situation or action which creates a sense of an abnormality  or  the 
unexpected. Sometimes we  use  it  to describe  an action that is demonstrated or exaggerated.
 Drama is an  imitation  of  life.  Drama  is  different  from  other  forms  of literature because  of its unique characteristics.  It is
read, but basically, it is composed to  be performed, so the  ultimate aim of dramatic  composition is for it to be presented on
 stage before an  audience. It uses actors to convey this message. This brings us to the issue of  mimesis or imitation. It is this
mimetic impulse of drama that makes it appeal to people. Drama thrives on action.

The term drama is used at the following three different levels:

 Performance: Drama is  used  for  plays  that  are  acted  on  stage  or  screen. These  plays  are  different  from  musical 
performances  because  they  must tell stories which are acted out by actors and actresses. You remember what we  said 
earlier  about  imitation  or  re-enactment  and  impersonation. These actors and actresses must be playing roles by imitating
other characters. It means,  therefore,  that  they  must  assume  other  people’s  personalities  by bearing  different  names, 
ages,  occupation,  nationalities,  etc.  Finally, they must  be  conscious  of  themselves  as  actors  by  trying  hard to  pretend
that they are the characters they are representing.
 Composition: Drama is used to describe a dramatic composition which employs language and pantomime  to  present  a 
story  or  series  of  events intended  to  be  performed.  Sometimes, especially  with  written compositions, they may not be
presented on stage but this does not stop it from  being  drama.  In as  much  as  a  play  is  enjoyed  more  when  it  is
performed, you can still read a play and be entertained by it.
 Branch of Literature: Drama is a term used for that branch of literature that covers dramatic  composition.  You  know  already 
that  drama  is  a literary  art.  The  basic  difference  between  drama  and  other  forms  of literature (prose and poetry) is that
drama is presented in dialogue from the beginning to the end. Any information by the playwright is given in stage- direction. We
have dialogue in prose and poetry but they are interjected in the course of the story.