10th Poetry

Musical Devices – makes poetry sound a certain way

(equivalent to harmony and melody for music to create effects)

Alliteration – repetition of the first sound of several words, as in silent swinging or roaring rise

Onomatopoeia – the use of words to imitate actual sounds, as in bang, tap, swish

Assonance – repetition of similar vowel sounds, as in deep, beneath, dreamless

Consonance – repetition of rhythms; a pattern of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables, as in "pitter patter" or in "allmammals named Sam are clammy".

Repetition and rhyme- repeated words and words that have the same sound

When regular rhythm is broken, the poet wants to draw attention to spot or line.

“In Flanders Field”

Background – American military cemetery and memorial in Belgium. The 368 American men who are buried there died in World War I, fighting to liberate Belgium from German occupation. In the middle of the cemetery is a chapel, on whose walls are inscribed the names of 43 Americans missing in action – soldiers whose remains were either never identified or never recovered.

Theme: This poem, in its stark simplicity, calls on the living to acknowledge our bond with the dead – and our debt to those who gave their lives. The dead, the speakers of the poem, call upon us to take up the fight for a better world.

Imagery – the descriptive language that recreates sensory experiences

Sensory Language – words the poets use to create images or form a mental image