Class Vocabulary
This reference page is for anyone interested in exploring the land of poetry but mainly targeted at my students to navigate at their leisure, during or after class.
General terms:
Lineation:
How lines are broken and arranged in a poem. This tells a poem from regular prose on the page. (ie. the length of a line… long lines vs short lines)
Example:
we
are
so
much
more
We're a newborn's first breath
and giggling high-school sweethearts
- Excerpt from We Poets
White Space:
Spaces where there are no words, but white space has purpose because the poetry is still going. It is intentional and one of its purposes is to create moment(s)of reflection.
Example:
The Wordsmith
wondrously
crocheting
her bones of poetry
into me
-SONKU 4 SONIA (For Sonia Sanchez)
Alliteration:
“The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning or adjacent or closely connected words” -New Oxford American Dictionary
Example:
Swallowing myself
In an endless
Tangle & tumble
Of touch and torque
-Excerpt from SPEAK!
Metaphor
Highlights a connection between two things. It is a direct comparison
Example:
We're a newborn's first breath
-Excerpt from We Poets
Compression
A poetic technique/device that comprises of the ability to make fewer words communicate with power
Example:
The words
lightning
held me fast
to the belly of compression
I burned
right there
in the
spark of
its brevity
-A Gift from Lucille (For Lucille Clifton)
Personification
A figure of speech which creates a connection between the human and the lifeless thing. This poetic device attributes feelings and a story to the inanimate object or idea…which facilitates the connection and personal investment.
Example:
As the last bit
of daylight slips
from the sun’s grip
The moon steps forth
extending fingertips
to
cut
and
paste
herself
into
the
night
sky.
Haiku:
A traditional Japanese poetic form using a 5-7-5 syllable structure.
Example:
Our hearts are a blaze
With the way evil breaks teeth
Scalps and scab’s kids’ knees
Children on a bus
Deserve providence and light
And pancakes at dawn
And so I lament
And ask the Holy Godhead
To destroy Strongholds.
-Excerpt from I HEAR YOUR MOANING, PHILLY
Ekphrastic:
A vivid description of a work of art, including a sculpture, a painting or a photo. It is Greek for “to describe fully.”
Example:
Every blade of grass sings to you…
mirrors the colors in your voice
Oceans clap their hands
in white foamy waves
Their smiles skimming the edges of great
reflected off the glimmer of the surface
You smile back
Mountains are the earth’s arms
eternally raised in praise
Waterfalls crash in jubilant excellence
at the creativity of your hands
Creation’s song
bounces off of and resonates between sky and sea
The sun rests in your magnificence
It’s light, reflecting yours
Flowers with their faces lifted to you
shimmering under heavens dew
as the trees stand at everlasting attention
in your presence.
Except from HILLS BOW FOREVER AT YOUR FEET
Acrostic:
A poem in which the first letter of each line spells out a word, name, or phrase when read vertically.
Example:
Jaz is a jovial being rising early as the sun’s first customer
Amiable and accomplished with enough exuberance for all
Zealously putting the day to bed, while zestfully looking towards the promise of another sunrise”
-Excerpt from JAZ
List:
A list poem, also known as a catalog poem, is a type of poetry that organizes a series of items, such as people, places, or ideas, into a structured list.
Example:
Example:
Prolific
Paramount
Palatable
Panoramic
Peculiar
Obscure
Offbeat
Observable
Ebullient
Earthy
Enigmatic
Edible
Thrifty
Tender
Transient
Teachable
Tactile
Tangible
and
Temperamental!
Rambunctious
Reliable
Radiant
and
Ravishing
Yearning
Yearning
Yearning.
- P.O.E.T.R.Y. (this is both a list poem and an Acrostic poem)