Unit 3: Lyric Poetry

1. Lyric poetry:
a. shows the feelings and thoughts of the speaker (same as
narrator, but in poems)
b. is musical and resembles a song (all songs and raps are lyric
poetry)
c. Types include Ballads, Limericks, Haiku, Sonnets, Free Verse,
etc.
2. Ballad: is like a song, tells a story, and has a refrain
3. Limerick: is humorous, has 5 lines, rhyme scheme is AABBA
4. Haiku: has 3 lines, has 17 syllables (5-7-5), is always about nature,
and does not have to rhyme
5. Sonnet: has 14 lines and expresses thoughts, feelings, and
emotions
6. Free Verse: has no rules, does not have to rhyme, is like talking
7. Blank Verse: unrhymed, usually with five beats for each line
8. dramatic poetry: a poem in which a character gives a soliloquy
(speech) with lots of feeling or emotion
9. figurative language: figures of speech
a. things that are written or said, but are not meant to be taken
literally
b. using figures of speech makes our writing sound better
10. simile: comparing two unlike objects using “like” or “as.” Ex: “Run
like the wind”
11. metaphor : comparing two unlike objects without using “like” or “as”
or simply saying that one is the other. Ex: “He is a grumpy bear
when the alarm clock goes off.”
12. extended metaphor: metaphor that is talked about in more than one
way, or that compares two objects in more than one way. It can be
several lines or a paragraph in length.
13. allusion: when writing says something about something from
another writing, from history, or from real life. Ex: “My brother is as
strong as Hercules.”
14. personification: talking about an object or animal as if it were human
or giving human characteristics to something non-human. Ex: “The
wind whistled through the trees.”
15. hyperbole: great exaggeration used to show meaning. Ex: “She
was angry enough to spit tacks.”
16. imagery: using words and language that appeal to the senses,
describing how something looks, sounds, tastes, feels, or smells
17. rhythm: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in writing,
it gives poetry a musical quality
18. meter: the pattern of stresses, or beats, in poetry
19. alliteration: repeating of consonant sounds at the beginning of
words. Ex: “Big bricklayers built Barney’s bungalow.”
20. assonance: repeating similar vowel sounds in words that are close
together. Ex: “home alone”
21. onomatopoeia: using words that imitate sound Ex: buzz, crash,
hiss, hum, splat