What poetic devices are used in my papa's waltz

Refer to the lecture notes and your textbook to identify and discuss the poetic devices the poets use in this week's reading selections. Click on the attached link to view the grading rubric for this assignment.
"Remember" by Joy Haro page 17
"Last Words" by Sylvia Plath page 30
"Harlem" by Langston Hughes page 23
"Richard Cory" by Edwin Robinson page 38
"My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke page 39

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/remember-0

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46548/harlem

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44982/richard-cory

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43330/my-papas-waltz

https://www.artvilla.com/last-words-poem-by-sylvia-plath/

Analyzing, Understanding, and Writing Poetry

Analyzing and Understanding: Poetic Devices

Poetry is a powerful way of expressing feelings and ideas. Poets use a variety of devices to convey these feelings and ideas. One of the greatest features of poetry is the possibility of alternative interpretations. Analysis does not take the beauty or power away from the poem. Instead, it helps the reader to better understand the poem and appreciate the poet's craft.

First, just read the poem. Always read according to the punctuation (if there is any), not the line breaks. What is your first impression of the poem? Does it tell a story or describe certain events? What images do the words bring to your mind?

If the poem is free verse, pay attention to the line breaks . Is the author using line breaks to develop an interesting double meaning or to create an effect? Example

Identify any poetic devices that are used in the poem. See the Poetic Devices section below to familiarize yourself with these techniques. See if any of the poetic devices help you determine the meaning of the poem or part of the poem.

Poetic Devices

The point of identifying poetic devices is to determine how they add to or what they tell you about the meaning of the poem. For example,a change in a pattern, like rhyme or meter,is a clue to the meaning of the poem.

ALITERATION

- the repeating of consonants at the beginning of words.

Example - Check out the second stanza of this poem or any tongue twister!

ALLUSION

- a reference to a mythological situation or character or to another piece of literature.

Example - In Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" (toward the very end) the speaker says "Notice Neptune, though, Taming a sea-horse...", refering to the sea god.

ARCHETYPE

- an image or symbol which is psychologically inherent to our imaginations. They recur in a civilization's mythology and thus are important to poetry. For example, rivers as symbols of time, floods as symbols of rebirth, Snakes as symbols of evil, Dragons as symbols of evil or luck, and the phoenix as a symbol of death and rebirth

ASSONANCE

- the repeating of a specific vowel sound or group of vowel sounds throughout a poem, but not the consonants following them.

Example - "Eldorado" Look for the "o" sound in particular. 'devices top

CONSONANCE

- the repeating of specific consonant sounds after different vowel sounds. (see assonance) Example - "The Silken Tent" by Robert Frost has many repeated "s" sounds ( "as in guys she gently sways at ease")

COUPLET

- a pair of lines whose end words rhyme

Example - "Eenie Meenie Miny Moe, Catch a tiger by his toe."

HYBERBOLE

- an exaggeration of the truth.

Example -" I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth

IMAGERY

- the use of description to create an image in the mind of the reader

Example - Dylan Thomas' "Fern Hill"

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LINE BREAKS

- where the poet chooses to end one line and begin another, especially used in free verse.

Example - "This is just to Say"

METAPHOR

- an association of two completely different objects as being the same thing. Distinguishes itself from simile by not using "like" or "as". Considered a powerful form of communication because it disregards logic. (ie. an object can not be something else and be itself at the same time.)

Example - "Blight" Edna St. Vincent Millay equates fostering hatred in her heart to planting a garden.

METER

- a device used to measure poetry. The unit used is the metric "foot". The number of feet determines the metre of the poem. Four feet per line is called tetrametre, five feet pentametre, six feet sextametre etc. A "foot" is determined by a series of stressed and unstressed syllables. Further Explanation

NEOLOGISM

- to make up a word or give a new meaning to an old word. Example -"Jabberwocky"

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ONOMATOPEIA

- the use of a word to indicate a sound. Examples are words like hiss, splash, bong, clack, splat, swish, etc.

PARADOX

- a statement which appears to contradict itself which may, in fact, be true.

Example: One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. (from "Death Be Not Proud" by John Donne)

Personification

- using the qualities of a person to describe an inanimate object

"Suicide's Note"

The calm, cool face of the river Asked me for a kiss.

-Langston Hughes

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RHYME

- the associating of two words in a poem through the way they sound. Rhyme usually occurs at the end of a line in a poem, but it is not restricted in that way necessarily.There are many kinds of rhyme:

True Rhyme - two words whose last syllables sound the same. Example - "Nothing Gold Can Stay"

Assonant Rhyme - the rhyming of vowels only. Rather popular in prose poetry since it is often hard to recognize. Also effective in internal rhyme. Example - He was at Naples writing letters home And, between his letters, reading paragraphs On the sublime. Vesuvius had groaned For a month. ( ... ) (from "Esthetique du Mal" by Wallace Stevens) ("home" and "groaned" rhyme assonantly)

Consonant Rhyme - the rhyming on consonants only. Often used as a deviation from "true" rhyme in a lyrical poem. Example- But Antichrist got down from the Barbary beast And doffed his plume in courteous prostration; Christ left his jennet's back in deprecation And raised him, his own hand about the waist. (from "Armageddon" by John Crowe Ransom) ("beast" and "waist" rhyme consonantly.)

Sight Rhyme - words that are spelled similarly, but do not rhyme. (sight rhymes are frequently also assonant or consonant rhymes) Example- I cut the tree, envious, Self concious of my height, And was crushed under the weight Of its branches. (from "Tree" by Ryan Deschamps)

Internal Rhyme - when a word in the middle of a line rhymes with the word at the end of the line Example

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SIMILE

- a comparison of two completely different objects using "like" or "as". Not generally considered as powerful as Metaphor since it does not defy logic. (see METAPHOR) Example (first line)

STANZA

- a set of lines in a poem, separated from other stanzas with an empty line This Example has seven stanzas.