Poetry Unit

ASSIGNMENTS:     (Click on links below to open PDF documents)

Two Sisters of Persephone Poem Assignment

Poem Assignment:  Analyzing for Imagery

Poem Assignment:  Analyzing for Metaphor, Simile, Personification

Poem Assignment:  Analyzing for Allegory and Conceit

Poem Assignment:  Analyzing for Tone

Cuttings Poem Assignment

NOTES

The Steps to Analyzing Poetry

1.  Follow the Punctuation.  It is generally better to read poetry in an everyday speaking tone, letting the accents fall where they seem natural.  End the line only when the punctuation indicates that it is correct to do so.  The punctuation marks in poetry tell us how the author wishes work to be read.  For example, a period or an exclamation mark can be thought of as a complete stop, while a comma, in contrast, would be a pause or half-stop.  Consider the following example:

Farewell, too little, and too lately known,

Whom I began to thin and call my own;

For sure our souls were near allied, and thine

Cast in the same poetic mole with mine.

                    (From "To the Memory of Mr. Oldham" by John Dryden)

When a line of verse has a pause at its end, as in "known," "own," and "mine," the line is called end-stopped.  Pauses within a line, as after the words "little" and "allied," are called caesuras, which means "little pause."  When there is no pause at the end of a line, as in line 3 of this example, one line flows into the nest.  The line is called a run-on line or an enjambment.  These effects are especially common in modern verse. 

Remember:  In general, follow the poet's clues about where to pause by following the punctuation.

2.  Note the Meter and "Scan" the Lines. 

Accentual Verse is poetry that, like speech, consists of accented (or stressed) syllables and unaccented syllables.  We use this system to indicate accents:

A breve ( ˘ ) over a syllable means that it is not accented (or not stressed). 

An ictus ( ˊ ) over a syllable means that it is to be accented (or stressed).

Syllabic Verse originated in French poetry, and it was verse in which the lines were measured out by counting the syllables.  In today's world, some modern poets still count out syllables, as in Dylan Thomas' "In my craft or sullen art":

In my craft or sullen art

Exercised in the still night

When only the moon rages

And the lovers lie abed....

Each line has seven syllables, even though the accents change in each line, both in their number and position.

Accentual/ Syllabic Verse is the kind of poetry most people would recognize immediately as "poetry."  If often rhymes, has a definite beat--called meter--and usually moves with a predictable regularity.  From the fourteenth century to the present, accentual/ syllabic verse has been the norm, following a strict system of rules.  In some instances, the sill of the poet has been equated with his or her ability to follow these "rules" and to manipulate the words within their confines.

The foot of English poetry was created by counting out the number of accents and syllables together.  A foot is composed of either two or three syllables, such that the nature of the foot is determined by the placement of the accent.  Every English sentence, whether classified as poetry or prose (non-poetry), is made up of these units.  The placement determines the rhythm of the line.  Feet establish the meter of a line.  One particular foot determines the poem's rhythm.  A slash is used to divide the feet in a line.  There are six basic types of metrical feet in English verse:

Common feet:

Less common feet:

An example of iamb metric feet in a line of poetry:

Ĭ táste/ ă líq/ uŏr név/ ĕr bréwed

Scanning Lines:  Poetic lines can be composed of several types of metric feet.  Whichever is the most prevalent in the line determines the type and name of the line.  For example, a line with six iambs and four trochees would be called an iambic line.

When you scan a line, you figure out the predominant foot in a line, and then you mark the accents and count the number of feet in order to determine the total length of the line.

For example, a line with four iambic feet is called iambic tetrameter.  The following chart explains the number of feet in the length of the line:

Iambic Pentameter:  This is the most common foot in English (probably because a line of more than ten syllables requires one to take a breath, which is a natural indicator for a new line of verse).

Sometimes, a poet shortens a line by compressing what would technically be more syllables.  This process is called elision.  For example, two vowels placed side-by-side may become one syllable.  Also, the letters h, w, and v are often considered as vowels.  Consider the following example:

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields

To wayward winter reckoning yield;

A honey tongue, a heart of gall,

Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

                            (from "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd," by Sir Walter Raleigh)

The above poem is written in iambic tetrameter, which means that it should have eight syllables per line.  The first two lines, however, count out to nine syllables apiece, while the second two come out to the expected eight.  We deal with the extra syllables in the first line by taking the word "flowers" and treating it differently.  The vowels o, w, and e come together to create what we call a diphthong, meaning that the two syllables may be counted or pronounced as one if the poet should so desire.  The same is done with the word "reckoning" in the second line, compressing into two syllables what might have been considered three with more formal pronunciation.  The same process can be seen in Milton's sonnet "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont," which has an iambic pentameter line with eleven syllables instead of the usual ten:

    ...and they

To heaven.  Their martyred blood and ashes sow

O'er all th'Italian fields, where still doth sway

The triple tyrant...

Elision occurs here with the words "To heaven" where the two syllable word "heaven" is treated as though it had only one syllable.  In the next line, "Over" is written "O'er," indicating elision by spelling.  In the same manner, "the Italian fields" is shortened to "th'Italian fields."  It is rare today to find words contracted as Milton did to show the elision, for the style is felt to be old-fashioned, but elision is nonetheless present in modern accentual-syllabic verse.  You will be able to find it when you read lines for their meter.

Masculine and Feminine Endings.  A poet has some leeway in how they end a line.  Sometimes, they end a line on an unaccented syllable, which is called a feminine ending.  Other times, they end the line on an accented syllables, which is called a masculine ending.  Consider the following example from Milton's Paradise Lost:

Thus they in mutual accusation spent

The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning;

The second line has an extra syllable because of its feminine ending, but as an unaccented syllable at the close of a line, the "ing" may be discounted.  Thus a line that counts out to eleven syllables may, at the poet's discretion, become technically a ten-syllable line thanks to the feminine ending.

Free Verse.   Free verse has no fixed metrical pattern:  it is free from counting, measuring, and meter.  Free verse replaced the expected pattern of a particular foot with a looser movement called rhythm.  Free verse shared a common basis with accentual and syllabic verse, but it must be devoid of all predominate measurements to be considered truly "free."  The placement of accents must follow no set patters; the syllables must bit be able to be measured with any regularity.  In the same manner, rhyme, if it is used at all, is irregular.  A poem may be considered free verse if you can find no accentual or syllabic pattern  It may, of course, have other regularities.  This type of verse can be found in the work of E.E. Cummings and Walt Whitman, among others.

There are some modern poets who consider free verse to be anything which no attempt has been made to make the lines of verse it a definite patters, even though they do, in fact, have patterns at intervals.  Often a page of poetry will look like free verse but, upon closer examination, will reveal itself to be syllabic or accentual.  The poems of T.S. Eliot and Dylan Thomas are of this type. 

A Concrete Poem is a poem in which the poet has created poems in which the shape, not the words, is what matters.  These are called concrete poems.  These poems leave it to the reader's eye to create a pleasing or important shape and meaning.

A Stanza is a grouping of lines of poetry into a block.  Usually there is a space followed by an equal grouping of lines.

Types of Stanzas:

3.  Note the kinds of Rhyme. 

Rhyme is important to what consider to be poetry.  It probably has its roots in an ancient time when poetry was committed to memory and recited or performed aurally.  Rhymed verse was easier to memorize.  There are many different kinds of rhyme.

Alliteration is the repetition of an initial sound in two or more words.  Also called internal rhyme, it is not technically considered a type of rhyme, but it some think of it that way because it adds to the musical quality of a poem.  Consider the following example:

About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green.

This phrase shows alliteration in the repetition of the h in "house" and "happy" and the gr in "grass" and "green."  In Macbeth's line:  "after life's fitful fever," true alliteration is found in the repeated f's of "fitful fever," and hidden alliteration in the f's of "after," "life's," and "fitful." 

Assonance occurs when the vowels in the word are the same, but the consonants are not.  Assonance is a variation of half-rhyme.  We see assonance in the words "seat" and "weak" and "tide" and "mine."

Consonance occurs when the consonants are the same but the vowels do not match, as in the words "luck" and "lick."

Euphony is the use of pleasant-sounding or harmonious combinations of words, while cacophony is harsh or discordant sound used to produce an inharmonious effect.

Eye-Rhyme occurs when words are spelled the same and look alike but have a different sound.  This can be seen in lines 3 and 4 of Sir Walter Raleigh's poem "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd":

These pretty pleasures might me move

To live with thee and be thy love

The words "move" and "love" are examples of eye-rhyme.  These rhymes are also called historical rhymes as the pronunciation has changed over the years.

Half-rhyme is also called slant rhyme, approximate rhyme, near rhyme, and off rhyme.  It occurs when there are changes within the vowel sounds of words intended to rhyme and only the final consonant sounds of the words are identical.  The stressed vowel sounds as well as the initial consonant sounds (if any) differ.  Here are some examples:

soul : oil        firth : forth        trolley : bully

The following lines from William Whiteheads "Je Ne Sais Quois" exemplify half-rhyme:

Tis not her face that love creates,

For there no grace revel;

Tis not her shape, for there the Fates

Had rather been uncivil.

"Revel" and "uncivil" in lines 2 and 4 illustrate half-rhyme because the vowel sound changes, but the "vl" sound remains the same.

Internal Rhyme occurs within the line instead of at the end.  "Each narrow cell in which we dwell" from Oscar Wilde's "The Ballad of Reading Gaol", is an example of internal rhyme because the words "cell" and "dwell" rhyme.

Masculine and Feminine rhymes are the equivalent of masculine and feminine line endings.  Rhymes that end on a stress, such as "van" and "span," are masculine, while those ending on an unstressed syllable, such as "falling" and "calling," are considered feminine. 

True or Perfect rhyme occurs when the first consonants change, but the following consonants or vowels stay the same.  This can also be referred to as exact rhyme.  Perfect rhyme involves identical sounds, not identical spellings.  For example, "fix" and "sticks," like "buffer" and "rougher," though spelled differently, are all perfect rhymes.  Anne Bradstreet's poem "Before the Birth of One of Her Children,"  written in 1678, illustrates true rhyme:

All things within this fading world hath end,

Adversity doth still our joys attend;

No ties so strong, no friends so dear and sweet,

But with death's parting blow is sure to meet.

To show end rhyme (rhyme that appears at the end of a line), words are labeled with letters.  In the lines quoted, "end" rhymes with "attend," both will be labeled a.  "Sweet" rhymes with "meet," so both will be labeled b.  This type of true rhyme creates what is called rhyme scheme.  Here, the rhyme scheme is aabb.

4.  Identify the Figurative Language (Similes, Metaphors, Personification, etc.). 

Figurative language is, to be simplistic, saying one thing in terms of another.  Basically, words can be used in poetry in such a way that something other than the literal dictionary meaning of the words is intended.  What is impossible or difficult to convey to a reader through the literal use of language may be highly possible through the use of figures of speech, also called tropes.  Figures of speech make language significant, moving, and fascinating.  "My love is a rose" is, when taken at face value, ridiculous.  But "rose" suggests many other possible interpretations--delicate beauty, something soft and rare, a costly item, even something short-lived--and so it can be implied in a figurative sense to mean "love" or "loved one."

If a reader comes across the phrase "Brutus growled," the reader is forced, if the poem has indicated that Brutus is human, to accept "growled" in a non-literal manner.  We understand that it is likely that the poet is suggesting that Brutus sounded like an animal, perhaps a lion or a bear, and indicates Brutus' irritation or unrest.  The author calls forth the suggestion of wild animals to describe Brutus most vividly and accurately.  This is far more effective than saying "Brutus spoke roughly," or "Brutus acted like a loud person."  By using a vivid figure of speech, the author calls the reader's imagination into play.

One way to read a poem is to can it once, then go back and note all the figures of speech.  Identify each one and decide what elements make up the comparison-- what is being compared to what.  Make some notes about why the poet would want readers to think about these specific comparisons.  Then, read the poem through once again.  Look at the figures of speech that you have noted and see how each relates to the meaning of the poem.  decide what the speaker's feelings are toward the subject and how many subjects of comparison there are.  Here are some questions you may wish to ask yourself:

• Is each subject compared to one thing, or is one subject compared to many?

• Is the comparison developed at length?  If so, to what purpose?

• What is the point that the poet is making through the comparison?

• If the subject is related to several things, how do the different images fit together?

• Are they unrelated, leaving it to the reader to create a pattern of meaning?

• Or does the poet suggest some sort of relationship or contrast between them?

• How does the pattern thus created form your sense of the poet's vision?

Finally, read the poem through once again to see that the conclusions you have reached make sense.  This may look like a very complex and time-consuming process, but it is an effective way for studying verse. 

Note:  A partial glossary of figures of speech appears at the end of these notes.

5.  Look for Symbols and Allegory.  

Poetry is highly condensed and abstract as a literary form.  Therefore, poets use symbols and allusions to convey meaning.  Similes and metaphors tend to make their points quickly, for they occupy little more than a line or two.  They can be linked to others of their kind to make further points, or they may stand alone, secure in their power.  Symbol and allegory, in contrast, tend to dominate the poems in which they are used.  Further, they tend to stand alone and are not piled upon one another as similes and metaphors often are.  One symbol or allegorical device is usually all that a poem can maintain.  Also, while similes and metaphors are used to make us take a closer look at a subject or to look at a subject in a new light, symbols and allegory, in contrast, force us to look beyond the literal meaning of the poem's statement or action.  Often, symbols are archetypal, or nearly universal in their use, so they can be interpreted fairly easy.  Other times, the symbols are very personal, and the symbolic significance of images and objects in these types of poems can be difficult to interpret.  When the latter is the case, you can draw together all the different parts of the poem to see if there are patterns or similarities between the words the poet has chosen to use.

In addition to metaphors, similes, symbols and allegory, poets also often make use of allusion to a place, work of art, or--as is common in poetry--mythology as a symbol that conveys a deeper level of meaning.  Consider the following:

Example:

"Sailing to Byzantium"

                                1.

That is no country for old men.  The young

In one another's arms, birds in the trees

--Those dying generations--at their song,

The salmon-falls, the mackerell-crowded seas,

Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long

Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.

Caught in that sensual music all neglect

Monuments of unageing intellect.

                                2.

An aged man is but a paltry thing.

A tattered coat upon a stick, unless

Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing

For every tatter in it mortal dress,

Nor is there singing school but studying

Monuments of its own magnificence;

And therefore I have sailed the seas and come

To the holy city of Byzantium.

                                3.

 O sages standing in God's holy fire

As in the gold mosaic of a wall,

Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,

And be the singing-masters of my soul.

Consume my heart away; sick with desire

And fastened to a dying animal

It knows not what it is; and gather me

Into the artifice of eternity.

                                4.

Once out of nature I shall never take

My bodily form from any natural thing,

But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make

Of hammered gold and gold enameling

To keep a drowsy emperor awake;

Or set upon a golden bough to sing

To lords and ladies of Byzantium

Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

                                        William Butler Yeats

Interpretation of "Sailing to Byzantium":

Title.  What was Byzantium?  Research tells us that it was an ancient Greek city that is today called Istanbul.  It was a seat of art, and it was therefore considered by Yeats to be a symbol of art and artifice.  Further research indicates that, as he got older, Yeats turned from the natural, sensual world of growth and constant change to the world of art--what he called structures of "unaging intellect.

First line and first stanza.  The above discussion fits with the opening line reference to "old men."  This is a clue that the poem might have biographical significance.  Additionally, the entire first stanza discusses the natural world of biological activity, the endless process of creatures being "begotten, born" and dying.  The speaker is an old man, he states, turning away from all this.

Second stanza.  The second stanza continues with the theme of the aging man, here made into a brilliant and often-quoted symbol of the "tattered coat upon a stick."  And so the aging man seeks the unchanging world of art hoping to find some sort of immortality, or at least a world that does not offer up endless reminders of encroaching mortality.

Third stanza.  The "gold mosaic" in the third stanza refers to mosaic figures on the walls of the Church of Hagia Sophia ("Holy Wisdom") in Byzantium.  The word "perne" refers to a bobbin, reel or spool.  "Gyre" is to whirl around in a spiral motion.  Yeats used this word as a verb, meaning "to spin."  He associates this spinning with the spinning of fate and life, and when he asks the saints to descend from the walls and enter the spinning, he wants them to help him enter their states of being ("... and gather me/ Into the artifice of eternity.")

Final stanza.  Once he is able to leave the natural world (the "gyre"), he says in the final stanza, he shall not again assume a natural shape.  Rather, he will assume the form of ancient art such as the Greek artists would produce.  This, then, is the poet's message about his feelings about life, art, and approaching old age.  In this poem, he is turning away from the natural world to embrace the timeless world of art.

Consider also the example of symbolism in William Blake's "The Tyger":

Tyger! Tyger!  burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, &what art,

Could twist the sinews of they heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand?  & what dread feet?

What the hammer?  what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil?  what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And water'd heaven with their tears,

did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger!  Tyger!  burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

In this poem, Blake wishes to focus our attention not on the topic of tigers but on the awesome qualities suggested by the tiger's beauty and godlike powers involved in its creation.  This poem may lead the reader to the question of the existence of evil as symbolized by the tiger's murderous nature. 

Allegory always tells of an action.  The events of the action should make literal sense, but they carry much more meaning in a non-literal interpretation.  Usually, that second

interpretation will have a spiritual or psychological level of meaning, for all allegories tend to use physical actions to describe the works of the mind.  Thus, allegory presents correspondence between some physical action (using some sort of encounter) and a second action (usually psychological or spiritual), with each step of the literal tale matching the allegorical one.  Symbolism, too, may involve the use of a tale, but it may also set forth a description of some unchanging being or object.  And it's far more likely to suggest several different interpretations than to insist on a single one.  The following poem, for instance, presents a symbolic tale of a king's fall from power:

"Ozymandias"

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveler from an antique land,

Who said--"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing besides remains.  Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away."

The whole tale of the king's loss of power is symbolic, but within the tale, the most striking symbol is the broken statue with its boastful inscription.  for many readers, the vision of the statue comes to mind when anyone says "Ozymandias."  The full story of the king tends to come as an afterthought.

And what of the symbolism here?  Does the king's loss of power symbolize fall of the proud, which would lend a moral interpretation to the poem?  Or is it rather the fall of tyranny, which would throw a political cast on the poem's theme?  Or is it simply the inescapable destruction of human lives and civilization by the unceasing motion of time?

All three levels of meaning can be read into the poem's symbol, and this contributes to the lasting power of the work.  Without a doubt, the tyrant, with his "sneer of cold command", seems unsavory enough for the reader to welcome his overthrow.  But the sculptor, with the "hand that mocked," is dead too, and even the work that was to endure is half destroyed.  The picture this sonnet paints is simple enough on the surface; the interpretation of the symbol gives it additional strength.

Consider also the following poem:

"The Lamb"

by William Blake

        Little Lamb, who made thee?

        Dost thou know who made thee?

Gave thee life & bid thee feed,

By the stream & o'er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing woolly bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice!

        Little Lamb who made thee?

        Dost thou know who made thee?

        Little Lamb I'll tell thee,

        Little lamb I'll tell thee!

He is called by thy name,

For he calls himself a Lamb:

He is meek & he is mild,

He became a little child;

I a child & thou a lamb,

We are called by his name.

        Little Lamb God bless thee.

        Little Lamb God bless thee.

Here, Blake is relying on the traditional association of Christ with the lamb, and thus the meaning is less difficult to discern than in other poems where the author may invent a private symbol and an interpretation as well.

6.  Look for Conceits and Allusions

Because they are so easy to recognize and usually easy to understand, similes and metaphors are the first kind of figurative language we notice when we are reading verse.  Symbols and allegories need a much closer reading but are rewarding because they offer richness and a deep resonance.  Conceits and allusions may be brief or run the entire length of the poem, but in either case, they tend to be the most difficult figures of speech to discern, often requiring some outside knowledge to make their meaning clear.

A conceit is a comparison between two unlike objects; some have even called it an "outrageous metaphor."  Conceits are usually developed at length, comparing and contrasting two different aspects of the two objects to make their meaning clear.  In love verse, conceits often derive from the Renaissance tradition that paints the woman as the walled village and the man as the conquering hero; he attacks and she defends or surrenders.  or she might be the warrior, harming him with sharp looks and sharp words, or she could be depicted as a goddess of love--the list goes on and on.  Some poets take these poetic conventions very seriously; others use them in fun, capitalizing on the shock that comes from turning an expected comparison upside down.

The unexpected was a crucial part of the poetic conceit for the Metaphyscial poets of the seventeenth century.  They used conceits in religious verse as well as love verse and succeeded in forging poetry of great complexity.  Any of the sciences--physics, astronomy, navigation--could yield a conceit that charted the soul's progress in relation to the physical universe.  Such metaphysical conceits can be very difficult to understand, but they can be very rewarding for the depth of vision they offer.

The following poem provides examples of the use of metaphysical conceits.  Note that there are two main groups of imagery in this poem.  The first concerns maps and voyages; the second is the image of Christ as a second Adam.  Also note that the two images are interwoven by the idea of the soul's journey to salvation as an annihilation of time and space and by the physical image of the sick man, flat on his back in bed and suffering with fever.

"Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness"

by John Donne       

Since I am coming to that holy room

        Where, with they choir of saints for evermore,

I shall be made thy music; as I come

        I tune the instrument here at the door,

        And what I must do then, think now before.

Whilst my physicians by their love are grown

        Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie

Flat on this bed, that by them may be shown

        That this is my southwest discovery

        Per fretum febris, by these straits to die,

I joy, that in these straits, I see my West;

        For, though their currents yield return to none,

What shall my West hurt me?  As West and East

        in all flat maps (and I am one) are one,

        so death doth touch the resurrection.

Is the Pacific Sea my home?  Or are

        The Easter riches?  Is Jerusalem?

Anyan, and Magellan, and Gibraltar,

        All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them,

        Whether where Japhet dwelt, or Cham, or Shem.

We think that Paradise and Calvary,

        Christ's Cross, and Adam's tree, stood in one place;

Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me;

        As the first Adam's sweat surrounds my face,

        May the last Adam's blood my soul embrace.

So, in his purple wrapped, receive me, Lord;

        By these his thorns give me his other crown;

And, as others' souls I preached they word,

        Be this my text, my sermon to mine own:

        Therefore that he may raise the Lord throws down.

Conceits demand that we bring some outside knowledge to our understanding of the poem under study.  For example, we must be able to grasp the distortions of space involved in making a flat map represent a round world if we are to fully grasp Donne's hymn.  In the same way, an allusion demands that we bring outside knowledge to our reading.  An allusion is a reference to a previous work of literature or to some well-known poem or event.  If we do not understand the reference, we many misunderstand the poem.

7.  Look for Imagery

In these notes, the different figures of speech are isolated to discuss each one individually and to provide examples, but in actual practice, the various poetic devices are almost always found in combination with one another.  Just as form and meaning serve to reinforce each other, so a poem's figures of speech work together to echo the poem's pattern of meaning and imagery.  When you first begin to read a poem, you may focus on one striking aspect of it, but once you have studied the poem in depth, its entire pattern should come together, and the various figures of speech will combine.

An image  is a word or phrase that appeals to the senses--sight, smell, taste, touch, or sound--in such a way as to suggest objects or their characteristics.  Images serve to create pictures in the reader's mind and aid in conveying the poem's theme.

Renaissance poems tended to begin with a position and then build on it, showing little movement within the verse.  Metaphysical poems showed more movement; they often followed a speaker's mind through the ramifications of an idea or situation.  Modern poetry may create scenes, moods, and speakers with even greater movement and further use of sound and imagery.  Walt Whitman, for example, relied on a pattern of imagery rather than on more conventional rhymes and meters to structure his verse. 

8.  Look for the Poet's Tone.

Tone is the writer's or speaker's attitude toward the poem's subject or audience. Tone brings emotional power to a poem and is a vital part of its meaning. In spoken language, tone is conveyed through the speaker's inflections, and it may vary in many ways. Possible tones, for example, include ecstatic, incredulous, despairing, bleak, and resigned. A correct interpretation of a poem's tone is vital to a correct interpretation of its meaning. It is more difficult to discern tone in writing than in speech since inflection cannot be determined in text. To understand tone in verse, we must analyze all the poetic elements that we have discussed previously: imagery, simile, metaphor, irony, understatement, rhythm, sentence structure, denotation, connotation, and so forth. Tone is a combination of all the elements.

Types of Poems and Poetic Movements

Types of Poems

The traditional or popular ballad is a story told in song form that has been passed by word of mouth from singer to singer, generation to generation. Unlike formal written verse, ballads have undergone significant change. They were common in the fifteenth century, and one, "Judas," is known to have passed down from the thirteenth century. The oral nature of a ballad is shown in the effective transitions in the narrative, for weak verse tends to get taken out and forgotten. This results in a highly effective series of pictures in words.

The tradition of the ballad runs through English and American verse. The anonymous ballads of the fifteenth century have their counterparts in the ballads of the twentieth century, in songs of social protest and stories of ordinary people. Traditional ballads were produced in America throughout the nineteenth century, commonly by sailors, loggers, and plantation workers—relatively isolated and uneducated people. In rural areas, such ballads are still flourishing today.

When professional poets write stanzas of this type, such as Auden's "I Walked Out One Evening," they are called literary ballads. Probably the most famous literar^y ballads are Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and John Keats's "La Belle Dame sans Merci."

The ballad stanza rhymes abcb. Ballads often contain refrains, musical repetitions of words and phrases. Some critics believe that ballads were originally two-line rhyming songs, thus explaining why there are only two rhymes in a four-line stanza. Because early ballads were nonliterary, half-rhymes and slant rhymes are often used. The common stanza is a quatrain of alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. Ballads sometimes employ incremental repetition, the repetition of some previous line or lines, but with a slight variation to advance the narrative, as in these lines from "Sir Patrick Spens":

The king sits in Dumferling town,

    Drinking the blood-red wine:

"0 where will I get a good sailor,

    To sail this ship of mine?"

Although the singers of ballads were usually common people, the subjects were often noble, and the usual theme was tragic love.

A broadside ballad was a poem of any sort printed on a large sheet—thus the "broadside"—and sold by street singers in the sixteenth century. Not until the eighteenth century was the word "ballad" limited to traditional narrative song.

Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. It was introduced into English poetry in the middle of the sixteenth century. By the end of the century it had become the standard medium of English drama. An example by Shakespeare is: "Time hash, my Lord, a wallet at his back,/Wherein he puts alms for oblivion."

Burlesque is not a type of verse, but any imitation of people or literary type that, by distortion, aims to amuse. Its tone is neither savage nor shrill, and it tends to ridicule faults, not serious vices. Thus it is not to be confused with satire, for burlesque makes fun of a minor fault with the aim of arousing amusement rather than contempt or indignation. Also, it need not make us devalue the original. For example, Eliot's "The Hollow Men" is parodied in Myra Buttle's "Sweeniad." The original reads:

Between the conception

And the creation

Between the emotion

And the response

Falls the Shadow

The burlesque reads:

Between the mustification

And the deception

Between the multiplication

And the division

Falls the Tower of London.

Didactic literature intends to instruct or teach. It is sometimes used in contrast to pure poetry, which is said to be free from instruction and moral content and intends merely to delight and entertain. The term need not be pejorative, though many use it in this manner. A good case can be made that almost all of the world's finest poetry is didactic in some way. Satire, for example, makes fun of certain modes of behavior, and Milton wrote his epic Paradise Lost to "justify the ways of God to men." The problem, then, is one of degree, as true didactic literature deals mainly with instruction. This does not make it any less "poetic." These lines by John Gay, explaining how to clean worms, are an example of didactic literature:

Cherish them from filth, to give them tempting gloss, Cherish the sully'd reptile race with moss; Amid the verdant bed they twine, they toil, And from their bodies wipe the native soil.

Doggerel is verse made comic because irregular metrics are made regular by stressing normally unstressed syllables, as in Samuel Butler's lines:

More peevish, cross, and splenetic Than dog distract or monkey sick;

If the subject matter is mock heroic (see previous definition), and the lines are iambic tetrameter couplets (as in the example quoted above), the poem is also referred to as hudibrastic, after Butler's Hudibras.

The speaker in a dramatic monologue is usually a fictional character or an historical figure caught in a critical moment. The speaker's words are established by the situation and are usually directed at a silent audience. These speakers usually reveal aspects of their personality of which they are unaware. To some extent, every poem is a dramatic monologue, as the individual speaker is saying something to someone, even if only to himself, but in a true dramatic monologue, the above conventions are observed. Fine examples of this mode include Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," in which a duke who has murdered his last duchess reveals his cruelty to an emissary from his latest possible bride (see pages 89-91 for the complete poem). Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," in which the speaker's timid self addresses his aggressively amorous self, is another example.

An elegy is a poem that deals solemnly with death. In Greek and Latin verse, an elegy is a poem with alternate lines of dactylic hexameter and dactylic pentameter. Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is an example in point. If an elegy is a short funeral lament, it may be called a dirge, which in ancient times was a funeral song. Threnody and monody are terms also used for funeral songs, although the monody is often more complex and is recited by an individual mourner. The elegy is often a pastoral, in which shepherds mourn the death of a fellow shepherd. They use the conventions of this type of verse, including invocation to the muses, processions of mourners, and lists of flowers. Many modern poets have used this form to great advantage, most notably Walt Whitman's elegy on Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd."

Emblematic poems take the shape of the subject of the poem. An emblematic poem on a swan, for example, would be in the shape of a swan. George Herbert's "Easter Wings" is an example of an emblematic poem; it is in the shape of two wings.

An epic is a long and serious narrative poem about a hero and his heroic companions. An epic is often set in a past that is pictured as greater than the present. The hero often possesses superhuman and/or divine traits. In Homer's Iliad, for example, the hero, Achilles, is the son of a goddess; in Milton's Paradise Lost, the characters are God the Father, Christ, angels, and Adam and Eve.

The action is usually rather easy to understand, such as Achilles's anger in the Iliad and the fall of humanity in Paradise Lost, but its dramatic power is increased by figurative language and allusions that often give the story cosmic importance. The style is elevated to reflect the greatness of the events, and certain traditional procedures are employed. For example, the poet usually calls to the muses for help, asking them what initiated the action (the epic question), and often begins the tale in the middle of the action (in medics res). At this point, the hero tends to be at his lowest fortunes; he only later recounts the earlier part of the tale. Gods often participate in the tale, helping the heroes. There may be a trip to Hades. The epic simile, also called the Homeric simile, is an extended comparison in which a subject is compared to something that is presented at such length or detail that the subject itself is momentarily lost in the description. For example, in Paradise Lost, Satan walking in Eden is compared to a vulture:

Here walked the fiend, at large in spacious field.

As when a vulture on Imaus bred,

Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar hounds,

Dislodging from a region scarce of prey

To gorge the flesh of lambs or yearling kids

On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs

Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams,

But in his way lights on the barren plains

Of Sericana, where Chineses drive

With sails and wind their canny wagons light;

So, on this windy sea of land, the fiend

Walked up and down alone, bent on his prey:

There are two types of epics: the primary epic (sometimes called the primitive epic or folk epic), a stately narrative about the noble class recited to the noble class; and the secondary epic (also called the literary epic or artificial epic), a stately narrative about great events designed fora literary person to read from a book. Primary epics include Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and the anonymous Old English epic Beowulf. Secondary epics include Virgil's Aeneid and Milton's Paradise Lost.

The poet of the primary epic speaks as the voice of the community, whereas the poet of the secondary epic may show more individuality. Homer, for example, is not introspective; Milton sometimes is. Homer's poems and Beowulf share discussion of aspects of an "heroic age" (virtue is identified with strength, celebrated by the poets). Because the poets in these heroic societies sang memorized poems, their chants contain a great many stock epithets and repeated lines. When such repetitions occur at particular positions in lines they are called formulas, and they serve to help the poet compose his material and remember it. An example of formulaic poetry is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha." Modern epics include Hart Crane's The Bridge, William Carlos Williams's Paterson, and Ezra Pound's Cantos. The first two are examples of American epics; the last, a case for western civilization.

Originally meaning "an inscription," the epigram became for the Greeks a short poem, usually a solemn one. But the Romans used the term to mean a short witty poem with a sting at the end. Here is an example by John Wilmont:

We have a pretty witty King,

Whose word no man relies on,

Who never said a foolish thing,

Nor did a wise one.

The term epigram has come to mean any cleverly expressed thought in verse or prose.

An epitaph is a burial inscription, usually serious but sometimes humorous. John Gay's own epitaph serves as an example: "Life is a jest, and all things show it;/I thought it so once, but now I know it."

This is a lyric poem in honor of a bride, a bridegroom, or both. It is usually ceremonial and happy, not simply in praise of marriage but of a particular marriage. Edmund Spenser's "Epithalamion" is the greatest example in English. It begins, like its models in Greek and Roman literature, with an invocation and follows Catullus in calling on young people to attend the bride, in praising the bride, and in welcoming the night. Spenser added deep Christian feeling and realistic descriptions of landscape.

Frequently confused with an elegy, a eulogy is a poem in praise of a person or thing.

Free verse is composed of rhythmical lines varying in length, following no strict metrical patterns, usually unrhymed. Often, the pattern is based on repetition and follows grammatical structure. Although free verse may appear unrestrained, it does follow the rules outlined above. An example from Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself' illustrates the form of free verse:

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good as belongs to you.

Haiku is an Oriental verse form composed of seventeen syllables in three lines. Such forms were greatly admired models for the Imagist poets, an early twentieth-century movement that attempted to shed excess words to create poems of clear, concise details.

An idyll is a short, picturesque poem, usually about shepherds but sometimes in the form of an epic, also called an epillion. It represents an episode from the heroic past, stressing the pictoral rather than the heroic. The most famous English example is Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" with its detailed descriptions of several aspects of the Arthurian legends.

Light verse is considered playful poetry since it often combines lightheartedness or whimsy with mild satire. These qualities can be seen, for example, in Sir John Suckling's poem "Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover?" which concludes, "If of herself she will not love,/Nothing can make her;/The devil take her." The definition of light verse changed in the late nineteenth century, however, to include less polished pieces such as nursery songs with funny rhymes and distorted pronunciations.

A limerick is a form of light verse, a jingling poem of three long and two short lines. The long lines (first, second, and fifth) rhyme with each other and the short lines (third and forth) rhyme with each other. The rhyming words at the end of lines can sometimes be misspelled to produce a humorous effect. The following limerick from an early sixteenth-century songbook is an example:

Once a Frenchman who'd promptly said "oui"

To some ladies who'd asked him if houi

           Cared to drink, threw a fit

           Upon finding that it

Was a tipple no stronger than toui.

Lyrics are poems with a regular rhyme scheme and a limited length, as in the fourteen-line sonnet. Robert Burns's famous drinking song that has become the New Year's Eve staple, "Auld Lang Syne," Robert Frost's short poems, and George Herbert's religious meditations are all examples of this form. If the emotion in the poem is hate or contempt and its expression is witty, the poem is usually called a satire. If it is very brief, it is called an epigram. A complaint is a lyric poem expressing dissatisfaction, usually to an unresponsive lover. Geoffrey Chaucer's humorous "Complaint to His Purse," for example, begins, "To you, my purse, and to noon other wight,/Complayne I, for ye be my lady dere!" Fora brief period in the 1800s, nature as well as love became a major subject for lyrics, and poets such as William Wordsworth expressed their thoughts of clouds and daffodils more frequently than those on love.

Macronic verse is poetry containing words resembling a foreign language or a mixture of languages. The following lyrics from the World War I song "A Mademoiselle from Armentieres" demonstrates macronic verse:

Mademoiselle got the Croix de guerre,

For washing soldiers' underwear,

Hinky-dinky, parlez-vous.

This is also known as high burlesque, the reverse of travesty, for it treats minor themes in a high, lofty style. Despite its name, it does not mock the epic but rather mocks low activities by treating them in the elevated style of the epic. The humor results from the differences between the low subject and the lofty treatment it is accorded. In the theater, a burlesque may be a play that humorously criticizes another play by making fun of aspects of it in a grotesque manner, as in John Gay's "Beggar's Opera," which makes fun of serious operas. The term is also used, especially in America, for a sort of variety show that stresses crude humor and sex.

Narrative Verse:  See Epic.

Nonsense Verse:   See Light Verse.

These are poems that commemorate major occasions, such as battles, anniversaries, coronations, or any other event worthy of poetic treatment.

This poetic form was usually sung in honor of gods or heroes, but it is now usually a very long lyric poem characterized by elevated feelings. The Pindaric ode, named

for the Greek poet Pindar (c. 522-443 B.C.), has two structurally identical stanzas, the strophe and antistrophe (Greek for "turn" and "countertum"). These are followed by a stanza with a different structure, the epode (Greek for "stand"). The line length and rhyming patterns are determined by each individual poet. In the original Pindaric ode, the chorus danced a pattern while singing during the strophe, retraced the same pattern while singing during the antistrophe, and sang without dancing during the epode. The odes were characterized by great passion. Notable Pindaric odes in English are Gray's "The Progress of Poesy"and Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality."

Horatian odes, named after the Latin poet Horace (65-8 B.C.), are composed of matched regular stanzas of four lines that usually celebrate love, patriotism, or simple Roman morality. Notable English Horatian odes include Andrew Marvell's "Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return to Ireland" and William Collins's "Ode to Evening." Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is probably the best-known Horatian ode.

Although an ode is a serious poem expressing the speaker's passion, it may be passionate about almost anything. Especially during the nineteenth century, the ode tended to become less public and more personal and introspective. Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" or Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale" are examples of this introspection. The irregular ode, such as Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality," has stanzas of various length, irregular rhyme schemes, and elaborate rhythms.

Sonnet

To the Elizabethans, the sonnet and the lyric were often considered one and the same, but to the modern reader, the term sonnet has come to mean a poem of fourteen lines (sometimes twelve or sixteen, but this is rare), written in iambic pentameter. There are two main kinds of sonnets: the Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet and the English (or Shakespearean) sonnet.

    •     The Italian sonnet The Italian sonnet has two divisions: the first eight lines are called the octave, rhyming abba abba. This section sets forth the theme of the        

           poem, traditionally love and romance, and elaborates on it. The second section, called the sestet, rhymes cde cde and reflects on -the theme and comes to a    

           conclusion that ties everything together. Sidney's sonnets in English are Petrarchan, while Spenser's are linked rhymes with a variation. Milton, Wordsworth, and

           Keats have also written notable sonnets in the Italian form.

    •     The English sonnet The English sonnet, in contrast, is arranged in three quatrains and a couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. In the English sonnet, themes and

           recapitulations are developed in the same way as in the Italian sonnet, but seven different rhymes are used instead of four or five.

In many sonnets, there is a marked correspondence between the rhyme scheme and the development of the main idea. Thus, the Italian sonnet gives the generalization in the octave and specific examples in the sestet. The English sonnet may give three examples, one in each quatrain, and draw a conclusion in the couplet.

A sonnet sequence is a group of sonnets linked by a common theme, such as love betrayed, love renewed, love itself, and so on. Some notable sonnet sequences include those by Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese", George Meredith's "Modern Love", W.H. Auden's "The Quest", and Dylan Thomas's "Altarwise by Owllight".

The Miltonic sonnet kept the Italian rhyme scheme, but changed the way the octet and sestet are constructed. Here, the sonnet no longer breaks at the octet but flows over and enjambs from line to line into the sestet. This type of sonnet appears to be more unified, beginning at one point and moving toward its inevitable conclusion. Milton also changed the theme of the typical sonnet. He moved into larger intellectual and religious concerns, a development begun by Donne.

Also known as low burlesque, travesty takes a high theme and treats it in trivial terms, as in the Greek "Battle of the Frogs and Mice," which travesties Homer.

A villanelle is a poetic form that not only rhymes but also repeats lines in a predetermined manner, both as a refrain and as an important part of the poem itself. Five stanzas of three lines each are followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the first stanza are repeated in a prescribed alternating order as the last lines of the remaining tercets, becoming the last two lines of the final quatrain. Dylan Thomas's -Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is an example of a modem villanelle.

Poetic Movements and Trends

In the early nineteenth century, a devotion to beauty developed among certain literary circles in France. Beauty was thought to be good and desirable not because it reflected the mind of God, but because in a materialistic and chaotic world, it remained good in and of itself. This movement rejected the notion that the value of literature was related to morality—a sense of right and wrong—or some sort of usefulness. Instead, it put forth the idea that art was independent of moral or didactic (instructive) ends. This was in defiance of much of the traditional thought on the subject of art's place and purpose. The slogan was "art for art's sake" (l'art pour l'art in French), and many of the writers involved actively attacked the idea that art should serve any purpose in the traditional sense. In the late 1900s in England, the movement was represented by Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater. The term fin de siecle ("end of the century"), which earlier stood for progress, came to imply decadence—great refinement of style but a marked tendency toward abnormal or freakish content. When used as a proper noun, Decadence refers to the aesthetic movement.

At their peak between 1912 and 1914, these poets sought to use common language, to regard all the world as possible subject matter, and to present in vivid and sharp detail a concentrated visual image. "There should be no ideas but things," said poet William Carlos Williams. Imagists usually wrote free verse. The most frequently cited example of their aims is evinced in this verse by Ezra Pound, one of the leaders of the Imagist movement:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

The title, "In a Station in the Metro," informs the reader that the poem is about a metro, a European subway, but the poem presents its meaning without directly telling the reader what conclusions to draw. To many readers, the poem suggests that the colorful faces of people in the subway are like flower petals against dark branches. The poet selects his images and arranges them; the reader must see the relationships to experience the picture the poem presents.

Imagist poets avoided the traditional accentual-syllabic rhythms and depended instead on the poem's image or picture to create a memorable effect. Poems with obvious spelled-out messages were avoided at all costs. Oriental models, most especially the seventeen-syllable three-line haiku, were much admired. Poems of all kinds contained imagery, carefully described objects of the world, but this movement went further than describing what was seen to create a theory of verse around the idea of the picture.

The most important Metaphysical poets include John Donne (1572-1631) and his seventeenth-century followers, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert, Abraham Cowley, Richard Crashaw, and Henry Vaughan. These poets reacted against the traditions and rules of Elizabethan love poetry to create a more witty and ironic verse. Modern critics have also concluded that the verse was more passionately intense and psychologically probing than that of the Elizabethan poets. Instead of penning smooth lines comparing a woman's beauty to something traditional such as a rose, these poets wrote colloquial and often metrically irregular lines, filled with difficult and more searching comparisons. A comparison of this nature is called a conceit, which came to refer to a striking parallel of two highly unlikely objects, such as the sun partly hidden by a cloud to a lover's head reclining on a pillow. Certain Petrarchan conceits were often used in Elizabethan poetry during this time. They included a lover as a ship tossed by a storm, shaken by his tears, frozen by the coldness of his love. The Metaphysical conceit is closely allied, although it may be more original than the Petrarchan conceit. New, rather than traditional, and drawn from areas not usually considered "poetic" (commerce and science, for example), metaphysical conceits usually strike the reader with an effect quite different from the Petrarchan conceit.

Any writing concerning itself with shepherds maybe called pastoral. Often set in Arcadia, a mountainous area in Greece known for its simple shepherds who live uncomplicated and contented lives, a pastoral can also be called a bucolic, an idyll, or an eclogue. An idyll is sometimes a miniature epic, while an eclogue is usually a dialogue between two shepherds.

Rural life is usually shown to be superior to tainted city life. Christian poets sometimes added their traditions to the Greek-Roman conventions and painted the shepherd as a holy man, as Christ the Shepherd. The georgic is a poem dealing with rural life which, unlike the pastoral, shows a life of labor rather than a happy existence of singing and dancing throughout the day.

Figures of Speech/ Figurative Language

Allegory occurs when one idea or object is represented in the shape of another.  In some medieval morality plays and some poems, abstract ideas, such as virtues and vices, appear as people.  In this way the reader can understand a moral or a lesson more easily.  In Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," death appears as the allegorical figure of a coachman, kindly stopping to pick up the speaker after her death on the road to eternity.  Here is the first stanza of the poem:

Because I could not stop for Death--

He kindly stopped for me--

The carriage held just but Ourselves--

And Immortality.

Ambiguity allows multiple meanings to coexist in a word or a metaphor.  It does not mean that the word or term is unclear; rather, it means that the perceptive reader can see more than one possible interpretation at the same time.  Puns, for example, offer ambiguity, as these lines from Sir Thomas Wyatt's "They Flee from Me" show:  "But since that I so kindely (sic) am served/ I fain would know what she has deserved."  The word "kindely" means both "served by a group" and "courteously."

Apostrophe is closely related to personification.  Here, a thing is addressed directly, as though it were a person listening to the conversation.  For example, we have William Wordsworth's "Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour," although Milton had previously died.  Apostrophe and personification go hand in hand in John Donne's "Busy old fool, unruly Sun," and Wyatt's "My lute, awake."  Milton's apostrophe has only a hint of laurels as listening things in "Yet once more, O ye laurels."

A Conceit is a metaphor that goes beyond the original vehicle to other tenors and vehicles.  In "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning," by John Donne, the souls of the two lovers become the same as the two legs of a draftsman's compass:

If they be two, they are two so

    A stiff twin compasses are two;

They soul, the fixed foot, makes no show

    To move, but doth, if th'other do.

And though it in the center sit,

    Yet when the other far doth roam,

It leans and hearkens after it,

    And grows erect, as that comes home.

Connotation is the generally accepted meaning(s) of a word, in contrast to denotation, which is the dictionary meaning of a word.  Connotation adds additional richness to the meaning of a word, and by extension, to the meaning of a poem.  In the line, "She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake," the word "rake' has a clear denotation--a gardening tool designed to pick up clippings from a lawn or a garden that a sickle might have cut down.  In the context of the poem, however, the word "rake" has the connotation of a debauched man.  The denotation and connotation work together to give the poem greater depth and further the author's theme.

Contrast shows the difference between two objects.  In this sense it is the opposite of comparison, which shows similarities.  In the following example by William Shakespeare, we see his mistress contrasted to various accepted symbols of adoration:

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then  her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

Dead Metaphor is a metaphor that has lost its figurative value through overuse.  "Eye of a needle" and "foot of a hill" are examples.

Dramatic Irony (also Sophoclean Irony, or Tragic Irony) refers to conditions or affairs that are the tragic reverse of what the participants have expected.  Thus, irony occurs when Eve eats the forbidden fruit because she is faced with great sorrow when she had expected great joy.  The title character from Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth expects great happiness to follow his killing King Duncan; instead, he finds that by his deed he forfeits all that makes life worth living.  King Oedipus accuses the blind prophet of corruption, but by the end of the play he learns, as the audience has realized all along, that he is himself corrupt, that he has been blind to what is real, and that the blind prophet's visions were indeed correct.  As in verbal irony, dramatic irony is marked by contrast, but here it is not between what the speaker says and means, but between what the speaker says and means and the real state of affairs.

Extended Metaphor results when a metaphor becomes elaborate or complex.  It has length and the ideas are more fully illustrated.

Hyperbole or Overstatement is exaggeration for a specific literary effect.  Shakespeare's Sonnet 97 contains an example:

How like a winter hath my absence been

From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!

What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! 

What old December's bareness everywhere!

We realize that Shakespeare did not literally freeze with cold when he was parted from his loved one.  We also realize that the day did not turn dark nor June turn to December; rather, he is saying this to illustrate the depth of his despair at their separation.  The same process can be seen at work in this phrase from a poem by Richard Lovelace:  "When I lie tangled in her hair/ And fetter'd to her eye...."  Obviously, he is not captured in her hair not chained t her eye; what he is suggesting, however, is that he is a prisoner to her beauty and finds himself unable to escape its spell.

Implicit or Submerged Metaphor occurs when both terms of the metaphor are not present ("My winged heart" instead of "My heat is a bird").

Invocation is an address to a god or muse whose aid is sought.  This is commonly found at the beginning of an epic, as in Milton's "Sing, Heavenly Muse" at the opening of Paradise Lost.

Irony states one thing in one tone of voice when, in fact, the opposite meaning is intended.  Witt Auden's "The Unknown Citizen," for example, ends ironically by making a statement that the reader knows is false.  As a matter of fact, the entire poem is ironic in that it condemns the State by using the State's own terms of praise:

Was he free?  Was he happy?  The question is absurd;

Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

Irony of Fate (or Cosmic Irony) describes the view that God, Fate, or some supernatural being is amused to manipulate human beings as a puppeteer would manipulate puppets.  For example, it would be an irony of fate that a prisoner receives his pardon right after his execution.

Litotes is a special form of understatement.  It affirms something by negating the opposite.  For example, "He's no fool" means that he is very shrewd.

Metaphor is a comparison without the words like or as.  Once established, this relationship between unlike objects alters our perception of both.  In the most basic metaphor, such as "My love is a rose," "rose" and "love" are equated.  They are not alike, but they interact with each other, so the abstract word "love" becomes concrete.  Now it is not a vague internal emotion but an object that could be picked and caressed.  We can make the comparison even more specific by describing the rose in more detail--color, variety, and so forth.  The subject of the comparison--in this case, love--is called the tenor, and the figure that completes the metaphor--the rose--is the vehicle.  These terms were coined by critic I.A. Richards.  In the following metaphor by Donne, the poet's doctors become the mapmakers of the heavens, while the poet's body becomes the map in which the ultimate destiny of his soul can be divined:

Whilst my physicians by their love are grown

    Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie

Flat on this bed...

Metonymy is the substitution of one item for another item that is suggests or to which it is closely related.  For example, if a letter is said to be in Milton's own "hand," it means that the letter is in Milton's own handwriting.  As another example, Sir Phillip Sidney wrote in "Astrophil and Stella":  "What, may it be that even in heavenly place/ That busy archer his sharp arrows tries?"  "That busy archer" is a reference to Cupid, the god of love frequently depicted as a cherubic little boy with a quiver of arrows.  Here he is at his usual occupation--shooting arrows into the hearts of unsuspecting men and women.  Thus the poet, by relating an archer to love, described love without specifically using the word.

Mixed Metaphor combines two metaphors, often with absurd results.  For example, "Let's iron out the bottlenecks," is silly, for it is an obviously impossibility.

Onomatopoeia occurs when the sound of a word echoes or suggests the meaning of the word.  "Hiss" and "buzz" are examples.  There is a tendency for readers to see onomatopoeia in far too many instances, in words such as "thunder" and "horror."  Many words that are thought to echo the sounds they suggest merely contain sounds that seem to have a resemblance to the things they suggest.  Tennyson's lines from "Come Down, O Maid" are often cited to show true onomatopoeia:

The moan of doves in immemorial elms

And murmuring the sound of birds and bees among old trees.

This suggests the sound of birds and bees among old trees.

Oxymoron is the combination of contradictory or incongruous terms.  "Living death," mute cry," and Milton's description as a place with "no light, but rather darkness visible" are all examples of this process.  The two words that are brought together to form a description of this kind ought to cancel each other out by the nature of their contradictions; instead, they increase the sense of each word.  Thus, "sweat pain" aptly describes certain experiences of love.

Pathetic Fallacy is a specific kind of personification in which inanimate objects are given human emotions.  John Ruskin originated the term in Modern Painters (1856).  Ruskin uses the example of "the (ocean's) cruel crawling foam" to discuss the pathetic fallacy:  The ocean is not cruel, happy to inflict pain on others, as a person may be, although it may well seem cruel to those who have suffered because of it.  Ruskin obviously disapproved of such misstatement and allowed it only in verse where the poet was so moved by passion that he could not be expected to speak with great accuracy.  But in all truly great great poetry, Ruskin held, the speaker is able to contain the excess emotion to express him- or herself accurately.  The term is used today without this negative implication.

Personification is the attribution of human characteristics and/or feelings to non-human organisms, inanimate objects, or abstract ideas.  "Death, Be Not Proud" by Donne addresses Death as if it were a person capable of hearing as well as possessing emotions such as pride.  Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white" and Shakespeare's reference to "Time's cruel hand" are both examples of this process at work.

Simile is a comparison between unlike objects introduced by a connective word such as like, as, or than or a verb such as seems.  The following are some examples of similes:

My heart is like a singing bird (C. Rossetti)

I am weaker than a woman's tear (Shakespeare)

Seems he a dove?  His feathers are but borrowed. (Shakespeare)

Symbolism occurs when a concrete object stands for an abstract concept.  The ocean, for example, may be said to symbolize "eternity," and the phrase "river to the sea" could stand for "life flowing to afterlife."  In most instances, the symbol does not directly reveal what it stands for; the meaning must be discovered through a close reading of the poem and an understanding of the conventional literary and cultural symbols.  For example, we realize that the "stars and stripes" stand for the American flag.  We know this because we are told that it is so, for the flag in no way looks like the United States.  Without cultural agreement, many of the symbols we commonly accept would be meaningless.

Synechdoche substitutes a part of something for the whole or uses the whole in place of one of the parts. "Ten sails" would thus stand for ten ships.  In the stanza below by the nineteenth-century American poet Emily Dickinson, "morning" and "noon," parts of the day, are used to refer to the whole day.  In the same manner, "rafters of satin" refers to a coffin by describing its lining rather than the entire object:

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers--

Untouched by Morning

And untouched by Noon--

Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection--

Rafters of satin,

And Roof of Stone.

Synesthesia takes one of the five senses and creates a picture or image of sensation as perceived by another.  For example, "the golden cry of the trumpet" combines "golden," a visual perception of color, with "cry," an aspect of the sense of hearing.  In the same manner, Emily Dickinson speaks of a fly's "blue, uncertain stumbling buzz."

Transferred Epithet is a word or phrase shifted from the noun it would usually describe to one to which it has no logical connection, as in Thomas Gray's "drowsy tinklings," where "drowsy" literally describes the sheep who wear the bells, but here is figuratively applied to the bells.  In current usage, the distinction among metonymy, synechdoche, and transferred epithet is so slight that the term metonymy is often used to cover them all.

Understatement is the opposite of exaggeration; it is a statement that says less than it indirectly suggests, as in Jonathan Swift's "Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worst."  Auden's ironic poem "The Unknown Citizen" has a great many examples of understatement that combine to show how numbers cannot evaluate the ultimate unhappiness of a person's life.

Verbal Irony involves a contrast between what is stated and what is more or less wryly suggested.  The statement is somehow negated by its suggestions.  Thus, Alexander Pope attacks the proud man by ironically encouraging his pride:

Go, wiser thou!  and, in thy scale of sense,

Weigh thy opinion against Providence....

Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,

Rejudge his justice, be the God of God!

What is stated ironically need not always be the direct reverse of what is suggested; irony may, for instance, state less than what is suggested, as in the following understatement:  "Men have died from time to time."