Thematic Unit: Determination - The Power of Poetry

Introduction

A word art illustration made up of words key to poetry. Poetry serves one of the three major types of literary genres, or categories. Most powers use highly concise, musical, and emotionally charged language making use of figurative language, imagery, and special devices, such as rhyme. Poetry portrays the music of literature. Each type of poem has the ability to create a feeling inside each person. A Valentine's Day power might create a warm feeling of love, while a haiku might make the reader see nature differently. Every poem tells a story, but poets may hide the story between the lines. In order to determine the story that a poem tells, the readers must take apart the poem and discover the mystery that lies beneath the surface.

Essential Questions

What is poetry?
What are some different types of poetry?
How do I identify literary devices in a poem?
How do I recognize the themes in poetry?

Key Terms

Personification: When a writer gives human characteristics to nonhuman objects.
Simile: A comparison that uses like or as.
Metaphor: Stating outright that one thing is another thing.
Hyperbole: When extreme exaggeration appears in speech or writing.
Allusion: A casual reference in literature to a person, place, event, or another passage of literature.
Symbol: A word, place, character, or object that has a deeper meaning or represents another word, place, character, or object.
Onomatopoeia: The use of sounds that are similar to the noise they represent.
Paradox: The use of terms that contradict themselves but seem to make sense on a deeper level.
Imagery: Language that appeals to one or all of the five senses and creates pictures in the reader’s head.
Alliteration: The repetition of initial consonant sounds. Used to draw attention to certain words or ideas, to imitate sounds, and create musical effects.
Cinquain: A short poem consisting of five, usually unrhymed lines containing, respectively, two, four, six, eight, and two syllables.
Haiku: The traditional Japanese haiku consists of three lines where the first line contains five syllables, the second line contains seven, and the last line five.
Ballad: A ballad is a narrative poem consisting of four-line stanzas where the story is told through dialogue and action, the language is simple or "folksy," the theme is often tragic (though comic ballads do exist), and the ballad contains a refrain repeated several times.
Refrain: A repeated line or number of lines in a poem or song, typically at the end of each verse.
Rhyme: When a line, syllable, or word has or ends with a sound that corresponds to one another.
Rhyme scheme: The pattern of rhyme. The traditional way to mark these patterns of rhyme is to assign a letter of the alphabet to each rhyming sound at the end of each line.
Rhythm: The varying speed, loudness, pitch, elevation, intensity, and expressiveness of speech, especially poetry.
Stanza: A group of lines forming in a poem, also known as a verse.
Theme: The main idea of a literary work.
Tone: The author’s voice in a work of literature.
Poetry: One of the three major types of genres. Most poems use highly concise, musical, and emotionally charged language with the use of figurative language, imagery, and special devices, such as rhyme.

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