THE LANGUAGE OF POETRY

THE LANGUAGE OF POETRY

Poetry is an ancient art which was born as an oral form and was accompanied by music. Today poetry is a written form of art which appeals to the reader's senses imagination through printed poems. In order to increase the reader's attention, poems make an intense, vivid and evocative use of language as far as sound and meaning are concerned. When we focuse on sound, we talk about "Sound Patterns" (Rhyme, rhyme scheme, perfect rhyme, consonance, assonance, onomatopeia, alliteration and rhythm). Sound patterns can serve different functions: they give unity to the poems by building lines together, help the memorization of poem, give a musical effect and make the poem pleasant to listen to. If we concentrate on the meaning of words we talk about "ures of Speech" or "urative Language"(Denotation, connotation, simile, metaphor, repetition, personification and symbol). urative language can serve several function: give the poem vivid and evocative qualities, increase the reader's emotional impact, aid the appeal to the reader's senses and imagination, compress the intensity of a lot of meanings into few words and create surprise in the reader's expectations.

SOUND PATTERNS

RHYTME: The regular repetition of consonant and/or vowel sounds in the last word of two

Consecutive or alternate lines in one stanza.

RHYTME SCHEME: The alternation of different rhyming sounds in different lines which is

Conventionally identified by the letters of the alphabet.

PERFECT RHYME: The repetition of the same consonant and vowel sounds in the final

syllable of two consecutive or alternate lines.

CONSONANCE: The repetition of the same consonant sounds in the final syllable of two

Consecutive or alternate lines.

ASSONANCE: The same as the consonance but with a vowel sound repetition.

ALLITERATION: The repetition of the same consonant sounds in one or more lines and at the

Beginning of single words.

ONOMATOPEIA: The imitation or suggestion of a particular meaning through the use of

Particular sound effects based on the acoustic value of words: "When the

Windows rattle with the Nature's tittle-tattle" ( "Nature's tittle tattle": the

Vivid manifestation of a natural element, the rain, is suggested and reinforced

By the sound of the world "rattle", "tittle", and "tattle"-Rattle=Produced of

Quick and little noises7Tittle-tattle=gossip). Onomatopeias are used to bring

Sound and meaning together in order to make the poem more evocative and

Vivid.

RHYTHM: Alteration of stressed and unstressed syllables("Feet")in the lines and stanzas, giving

A Poem it's sense of movement and musical quality7unstress/stress rhythm=iambic

Mater, which is the most common pattern in English poetry).

IAMBIC PENTAMETER: Five feet, ten syllables, unstress7stress pattern.

STANZA: Group of lines separated from the next by a space.

COUPLET:A two-line stanza.

QUATRAIN:A four-line stanza.

SONNET: A poetic composition made up of fourteen lines divided in three quatrains and a

couplet with a iambic pentameter form of rhythm. The three quatrains can develope

a single thought or idea from three points of view, while the couplet usually provides a

resolution for the previous discussion of the main theme.

URATIVE LANGUAGE

DENOTATION: The formal meaning of a world leading the reader to think only about the

Information the world supplies: "House"=The place where civilized people live.

CONNOTATION: The associations and suggestion which a particular word induces in the

Reader's mind and imagination: "House"=Protection/Familiar environment/

Environment/Self-confidence and harmony.

SIMILE: An explicit ison used to join two unlike things in order to introduce surprise in

The reader. It is introduced by typical word such as "like", 2as", "as if" or "resemble":

"Lucy is as fair as a star".

METAPHOR: An implied ison which creates a total identification between the two things

Being ed: "Lucy is a violet by a mossy stone". Metaphors can be analysed

In terms of tenor, vehicle and ground. The tenor is the subject of the metaphor

(Lucy);the vehicle is the element of the ison(the violet); the ground is the

semantic area where the tenor and vehicle meet, that is to say the ground they have

in common (Fragility).

PERSONIFICATION: A ure of speech giving human qualities to objects, animals, elements

Of nature, in order to make them become alive. The rain for example, in

The poem "Yellow Book", is made more visible and concrete by being

Personified in terms of a person who likes gossiping(Tittle-tattle).

SIMBOL: A particular and concrete item, object, place or person which represents a vivid and

Evocative idea or a feeling.